Bill Taylor has prayed on live television before, but last week’s broadcast landed differently.
As a possible tornado bore down on the Texas Hill Country, the San Antonio meteorologist paused his forecast and told viewers, “The Spirit of God came over me and said, ‘Pray.'” He did, then went right back to coverage — and the moment, first reported by Faithwire, spread quickly online.
Taylor, chief meteorologist for KENS 5, San Antonio’s CBS affiliate, said the moment came almost exactly one year after flooding that killed more than 139 people in the Hill Country, including nearly 30 — mostly children — at Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp along the Guadalupe River. Last week’s storm again threatened catastrophic flooding in the region, a fear no one there takes lightly anymore.
“I just started. … Then I went just right back into that live coverage, and praise God that He delivered, as He always does,” Taylor said. “He’s faithful, and we were protected from what maybe could have been a lot worse.”
This time, the death toll landed at two. State crews rescued more than 270 people, while local officials in Uvalde and Zavala counties pulled out another 300-plus, and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said roughly 125 people were moved into shelters around Uvalde. Nearly 600 homes and 100 businesses across Kerr, Kendall and Comal counties were damaged or destroyed, and Operation Blessing, the relief arm of the Christian Broadcasting Network, is now on the ground in Kerr County helping with recovery.
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Taylor’s on-air prayers go back six or seven years, to a broadcast he still remembers clearly. “I do remember in the hallway the next day, my boss was walking and [we] crossed paths and he said, ‘Great job last night; I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback,'” he recalled. “And I said, ‘Thank you. Thank you very much.’ And that was it.”
A New Jersey native raised Catholic, Taylor said his faith didn’t fully take hold until about a decade ago, after he married his wife and the couple settled into First Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. “That was when the light was really shining and the flame was lit,” he said. “Jay Wolf, the pastor there, really just taught me so much more about the Bible. And I just got this insatiable appetite to learn more and to grow in faith.”
Taylor described what happened next as a “radical transformation” — handing God control of his whole life instead of “a couple rooms.” “Jesus took my heart and just said, ‘Let’s go,'” he said. “And I finally gave Him every room of the house, gave Him full control of my life. And I have not regretted it.”
He leans on an acronym, H.O.P.E. — “Holding Onto Promises Everlasting” — to get through the darker stories his job requires him to cover, pointing to John 16:33 as a touchstone: “Take heart, I have overcome the world.”
“There will be deep valleys,” Taylor said. “And when we really lean in, our abiding time has to be solid. We have to begin the day first seeking His Kingdom, first seeking His righteousness, first seeking Him, putting the armor on, because the enemy is up and ready to rob, kill, and destroy every single day.”
Seven years removed from his first hesitant prayer on live TV, Taylor no longer thinks twice about it. He’s also encouraged by what he’s seeing in the pews, noting that younger Americans are increasingly showing up to church. “The church is rising like never before,” he said. “Youth movements are so vibrant. There are teenagers and young adults on fire for Jesus right now.”
“Everywhere I am, I know Who I represent, and I’m bold about it,” Taylor said.
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