Faith Temple, Taylors, SC

  Article by Steve Crain   When I was about three years old, someone gave me a used piggybank. That old pottery piece was about 14 inches long, 10 inches high, and colored light gray. The plug in the pig’s belly had been lost, so Mama used a thick sock to stuff the opening. A slot on the pig’s back encouraged thrift. If someone gave me a penny, nickel, or dime, I’d run to the piggybank and “ker-chink” the money into that slot.  Mama tired of me shaking that bank to hear the jiggle-jangle. I was about five when Mom had me open a savings account at Greer Bank. We emptied the pig. I felt important as Dad took me to the bank. I had collected over $17 and felt rich.  Children learn early the power of money. Later, I thought about these words of Jesus: “You cannot serve both God and mammon [money]” (Matthew 6:24).  I also later learned about tithing to the Lord. Someone defined “tithing” as “a debt which everyone owes to the Lord as rent for using the things that the ...

Mrs. Elizabeth Williams is pictured.   Funeral services for Mrs. Elizabeth Williams, a Faith Temple member, were held at 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon at Faith Temple. Burial followed in Mountain View Memorial Park.   A small crowd gathered during the 2-3 o’clock greeting time. Some church members attending the service recalled that Mrs. Elizabeth sat, not long ago, on the second pew in the middle-section of the sanctuary on Sunday mornings. Mr. Larry Witham, her grandson, faithfully escorted Mrs. Elizabeth to church.   Pastor Raymond D. Burrows asked attendees to stand as Mrs. Elizabeth’s family entered and the service began.   Mr. Timothy Burrows sang “Go Rest High on that Mountain,” written by Vince Gill. Tim’s powerful voice intoned these lyrics: “Oh, how we cried the day you left us. We gathered ’round your grave to grieve. Wish I could see the angels faces when they hear your sweet voice sing. Go rest high on that mountain … your work on earth is ...

                                                       Mr. Don Lollis is pictured.   Mr. Don Lollis serves as a Sunday school teacher and as secretary-treasurer at Faith Temple Church in Taylors, SC. He leads the Golden Age Club and oversees cemetery administration.  Don, the only boy and third child of his parents, Mr. Babb Lollis and Mrs. Nora Estelle Holder Lollis, grew up in Ware Shoals, SC. Of Don’s three sisters, one died at age five; the only living sister, Ms. Varnell Whitten, resides with her husband in Belton, SC.  Don’s dad and mother worked at the former Riegal Textile Corporation in Ware Shoals. Someone said that without Riegal, “the only thing running in Ware Shoals would be the Saluda...

     In the United States, Memorial Day (the last Monday in May) honors those who died while serving in the military. Veterans Day (Nov. 11) honors all American veterans — living and dead — who served during wartime or peacetime.  Veterans Day occurs on November 11 in the U.S. in honor of the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918 that signaled the end of World War I, known as Armistice Day. “Armistice” means “truce.” President Eisenhower officially changed the name from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. In Nov. 2003, Ms. Esther Rosella Wood Thompson’s funeral was held. She was the mother of late Pastor James H. Thompson, founding pastor of Faith Temple. Ms. Thompson, born in 1902, died at age 101. Pastor Thompson’s father, the late Lawrence Thompson, served as a WWI U.S. soldier in France. Pastor Thompson recalled his mother’s description of Nov. 11, 1918, the day the Armistice was signed. “My mother and her family were in the...

Pastor Raymond D. Burrows (pictured above), of Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, lived, as a child, on a poor 39-acre farm, 12 miles from Kingstree (Williamsburg County), SC.   He was the third of Theodore and Gertrude Burrows’ children, who, listed in birth order, include Brenda Allen, Judy Morris, Raymond, Richard, and Murray.    The 2010 census lists Williamsburg’s population as 34,423. In the 2000 census Williamsburg was 66.26 percent Black, 32.74 White, and less than one percent “other.” In ninth grade, Pastor Burrows and his brothers were three of six white students in a Black school of 200-300. Pastor’s family attended Kingstree First Assembly of God (AG), the church his mother attended for 60 years. Pastor began service station work at age 16. After high school, at 18, he worked at Union Carbide (Florence, SC). His father committed suicide in 1975 when Pastor was 19.  Pastor met Miss Victoria Fitch when he was 17; she was 14. She, next to old...

  Ms. Mae Robertson Folk gathered on a sunny day for a graveside service at a Wood Mortuary tent erected in the Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, cemetery. The body of Ms. Mae Bell Foster Robertson, 94, widow of Mr. M. B. Robertson, rested in a coffin beneath the tent at 2:00 p.m. on Tues., Sept. 22, 2020.   A Pickens County native and daughter of the late Albert Foster (1879-1960) and the late Phoebe Hollingsworth Foster (1889-1974), Ms. Mae was a homemaker and longtime member of Faith Temple, born on May 14, 1926, and died on Sept. 19, 2020.   “Good afternoon, dear ones,” said the Rev. Raymond D. Burrows, Faith Temple’s pastor. Recently, sitting by Ms. Mae’s bedside, he said, “Sister Mae, do you recognize me?”   “You look familiar,” she said, though she had heard him preach for years.   Pastor Burrows read Psalm 23 and prayed.   Attendees listened to a recording of Ms. Mae singing on WGGS-TV 16. The song, “We Shall Behold The King,” inc...

Ms. Nellie Nash is pictured.    The late Evangelist Oral Roberts published in 1961 a small “Abundant Life Prayer Diary,” and the late Ms. Nellie Mae Hargett Nash wrote prayer requests in a copy of that diary.  Ms. Nellie was grandmother to Mr. Millard Robertson (a member of Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC) and his brothers and sisters.   Ms. Nellie (Aug. 24, 1902—Feb. 9, 1986) was the mother of the late Barbara Delane Hargett Robertson, better known as “Dillie.” Dillie was Nellie’s only child and married Mr. Anclee Robertson. They attended Faith Temple Church for many years. (Mr. Anclee passed on June 12, 1995 and Ms. Dillie on June 13, 2016.)  Nellie lived part of her older years in a mobile home located behind Dillie and Anclee’s home in the O’Neal area of Greenville County, SC.  Evangelist Roberts wrote in the prayer diary:  “After you write your request in the diary each week, write me a letter and tell me your requests. I will pray...

                                                   Pastor Dan L. Smith is pictured.    The Rev. Daniel Leon Smith (June 19, 1933 - July 14, 2020), age 87, founder of Harmony Fellowship (in 1982) in Greer, SC, went to be with the Lord after a brief battle with cancer.    To accommodate the crowd, his funeral was held at 11:00 a.m. on Thurs., July 16, at Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC.    A native of Greer and pastor at Harmony Fellowship for 37 years, Smith attended Holmes Bible College and served in the U.S. Army National Guard.    The late Pastor James H. Thompson’s first wedding was for Dan Smith and Betty Burrell. Pastor Thompson performed the ceremony in his parents’ living room, sa...