HER VISION: Taquoya Porter

Please introduce yourself:
My name is Taquoya Porter. I am a wife, mother and minister of Jesus Christ. As a minister I serve as a evangelist, youth pastor and I coordinate overseas missions

What makes you a visionary?
If I am to be considered a visionary, it would be because I follow the one who is all-seeing. Truthfully, no more than a mailman can take credit for the contents of the envelope it delivers, can I take credit for anything the Lord has allowed me to see or do. I am grateful He has allowed me to do things I had never seen done before in starting the PRESS Movement six years ago and more recently leading missions to the Dominican Republic- hosting a crusade, distributing food and water, and more. He has given ideas to serve the youth of this generation and effectively established the youth group I oversee. He has put in me a compassion for youth and missions work that drives me to want to help meet their needs and share the gospel.
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Share the 3 key steps that helped you bring your vision to life:
As God brings about his vision or his purpose for my life, my #1 goal is to be a conduit for him and not mess it up! 
It is my prayer to hear God so clearly that when I speak,  I simply repeat after Him. It is my goal to be the best disciple and imitator of Christ that I can be. 

I have learned a few key principles which I seek daily to apply to my life:

• What has been key to me is learning to trust God! I do not have to know what He is doing to trust the integrity of his character to do what is in my best interest. He loves me and even when I can't see what He is doing or where He is or how He will make things work, love makes me trust He knows the way that I take (Job 23:10) and there is an anticipated, expected end that He has in mind for me (Jer. 29:11). Often trying to "help" God work in my life causes things to fall apart. He does not need my assistance, He wants my obedience and trust. 
• I had to learn what God is saying and the best place to start learning that is the through his written word. The word of God is alive and when I learned to read it as more than words on a page or more than a historical text, I found it to be a handbook for life. Trusting God requires knowing God and knowing God requires learning of Him. How better to get to know someone than to evaluate their reputation? Listen to them talk? And spend time with them? By learning the Word of God, I get to know his reputation through the testimonies written of Him. I can hear him speak because this is HIS word and it tells me what He says of countless situations. I can spend time with Him because He is his word (John 1:1). The word of God is unlike any other word there has ever been or will ever be. 
• One final principal of fulfilling the vision God has for my life has to be learning the discipline of obedience. I truly have to discipline and train myself to obey what God is saying. I remember my family once took a trip to Gatlinburg and we decided to go through a mirror maze. Before going through, I read all of the rules to the kids. My child who was 8 at the time, now says, he let the rules go in one ear and out the other. The primary rule that I repeated over and over: No Running! No matter how much I emphasized the rule, it was completely dismissed about three minutes into the maze because my 8 year old had now mastered the maze (in his mind) and was confident he knew the way out. He took off running towards the exit! We tried to warn him, but his mad dash came to a screeching halt when he hit a mirror and almost knocked himself unconscious. My husband being the great father he is, carried my son the rest of the way out of the maze. Nearly nine years later, we still laugh at my son for this! How often do we think we know how to do something and ignore the instruction of the Lord pleading: Wait! Slow Down! Don't Go that Way! We have to learn to obey Jesus. Like a good father, He will get you out battered and bruised, but He prefers we get to the end as unscathed as possible. 

What is next for you in 2020?
2020 is truly an unpredictable year. I am actively working with our youth ministries. Prayerfully, I hope to begin planning to return to the Dominican in 2021 for another Crusade. I also have plans to begin working in Puerto Rico in a missionary capacity. I have some ministry speaking engagements, youth services to conduct and at least one PRESS Conference in Baltimore, MD.

How can readers connect with you online?
Email: taquoya@hotmail.com
Facebook: Taquoya Porter
Website: http://Press2pray.com