Pastor's Blog

“The greatest love you can have for your friends (family) is to give your life for them.” (John 15:13 GNT)

A celebration of life service for Michael Curtis “Soy” Taylor, 42, will be held at 12:00 p.m., Thursday, October 12, 2023 at Friendship Baptist Church 12581 Saeger Road Grand Bay, Alabama with Pastor Jack Bailey, Pastor Joe David Bailey, Evangelist Michael Mason and Pastor Teddy Turrentine officiating. Burial will follow at 3:30 p.m. in the Davis Clark Family Cemetery in Richton, Mississippi. Visitation will be held Thursday, October 12, 2023 from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 p.m. also at the church. Serving a pallbearers will be Eddie Albritton, Morris Bryant, Ross Genzink, Noah Hogan, BJ Parson, Christopher Taylor, Josh Turrentine, and TJ Vice. Musicians will be Jeanette Bates, Brad Hutto, Rex Looney, Cindy Stanford and Al Stokes.

Soy was born on Tuesday, August 18, 1981, in Texas and passed from this life on Monday, October 2, 2023, in Guatemala.

Soy was preceded in death by his grandparents, Robert & Mary Taylor and Fortunato & Marie Cortel along with his grandfather-in-law, Charles E Turrentine.

He is survived by his wife of sixteen years, Deidra; his three daughters, Lizzi (11), Sydney (10), and Audrey (9) (his daughters are the apple of his eye!); parents, Curtis and Myrna Taylor; siblings, Christopher (Rebecca) Taylor and Natalie (Kevin) Ripski; parents-in-law, Teddy and Lisa Turrentine; sisters-in-law, Daphne (Brad) Hutto, Dana Turrentine, Gina Turrentine, and Hien Tran; grandparents-in-law, Charles and Ann Clark and Carolyn Turrentine; many other relatives and a host of friends.

Soy was a proud veteran of the United States Navy having served from August 1999 until August 2003.

Soy accepted Jesus as his personal Savior at the age of 23 and faithfully served Jesus from that point forward. Early on in his walk with Jesus, he felt the call from God to reach the nations with the Gospel of Jesus. In August of 2006, Soy met his future wife, Deidra, who also felt the same call to reach the nations. Soy and Deidra were united in marriage on August 11, 2007, determined to fulfill God’s call on their life. The next 10 years were spent in Grand Bay, Alabama ministering through their local church, working, praying, visiting foreign countries and seeking God’s will for their lives on the mission field. On June 14, 2017, they answered God’s call to the international mission field by moving with their three daughters, Lizzi, Sydney and Audrey, to serve Jesus in El Tejar, Guatemala.

Since moving to Guatemala, Soy’s involvement has included working in a feeding/tutoring ministry which served impoverished children. In February of 2020 a new school, Colegio JET, was opened to help educate those children in the original feeding center plus many more. At the time of Soy’s passing, 204 students in kindergarten through the tenth grade attended Colegio JET. Soy initially served as the technology director for the school setting up and overseeing the computer lab while also teaching the students about technology. The greatest impact Soy had at Colegio JET was to be a father figure to many young people especially the young men. Many of them referred to him as their father.

Soy worked alongside Guatemala Relief and Compassion Effort (GRACE Ministries) handling all their technology including the website, online giving, et cetera. Soy was most passionate about locating families in the remote areas of Guatemala who were in need of a house that the mission teams would build.

Soy was a member and very involved in Friendship Baptist Church (preschool church director, soccer ministry, Sunday School teacher, technology, et cetera) while living in Grand Bay and then Iglesia JET (sports ministry, student ministry, technology, et cetera) while living in El Tejar.

Soy’s tent making (Acts 18:2-3) was to work online on the technology side for Diamond Pro Manufacturing in Hartselle, Alabama.

Soy was a faithful husband, father, missionary, and friend to a multitude of people in the USA and Guatemala. He was loved by all who knew him. Team members who traveled to Guatemala to work alongside Soy and Deidra may have forgotten Deidra, but no one forgot Soy! He was a fun loving, life of the party, selfie taking, costume wearing, dominoes playing, card playing man.

In lieu of flowers, the family kindly requests that donations be made in Soy’s name to Shining Light Abroad Ministries P.O. Box 513 Grand Bay, Alabama 36541.

“I seek not a long life, but a full one, like you Lord Jesus.” (Missionary Jim Elliot)

Once again, overwhelmed!  Blown away!  Mind boggling!  All of these words describe my feelings this morning but perhaps the word that best describes how I feel is “humbled!”  As I pulled up on our church campus last night a great sense of being humbled overwhelmed me as I saw what had been done on the outside and then that sense increased even more as I walked inside the auditorium and saw what had been done, was being done and the folks (number) who were present.  Wow!  Amazing!  Just the attitude that was prevalent among those who were there – teens to senior adults!  My thoughts were, “Soy is deeply loved!”  Love equals action!  Oh, how they love Soy!  Oh, how they love Jesus!

Folks are already (or will be) driving and/or flying from other parts of Alabama, Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi to attend tomorrow’s service.  Again, humbling!  Oh, how they love Soy!

Deidra and Daphne did well in meeting with the funeral director, Ladd Pulliam, yesterday morning.  Perhaps the smoothest meeting of that type that I have ever witnessed and that was not my first rodeo.  My hat is off to Ladd for his professionalism.  Jones and Son Funeral Home in Richton, MS is handling the arrangements.

Two visitations are planned for today/tonight.  The first is from 10:00 – 11:00AM and the second from 6:30 – 7:30PM.  Once again, these visitations are designed primarily for the members of the Friendship family in order to lessen the wait time during tomorrow’s visitation.  It may be that others who cannot attend tomorrow will need to visit tonight.

I do hope and pray that many members of the Friendship family will attend the service at noon tomorrow.  I am in hopes that we will have an overflow crowd showing Soy & Deidra’s daughters some of the impact their father had on others.

My words are simple, “thank you Jesus” and “thank you family and friends!”  May the Father be glorified, Jesus be exalted, and the Holy Spirit be followed!