David Coster Remembers Faith Temple

  Pictured is a 1962 home-group meeting of The Faith Crusaders Evangelistic Association led by Jerry Robertson, then a Faith Temple (FT) Church member who became Dr. Jerry Robertson. Pictured (front row) are Lillian Crain, Phoebe Foster, and David Coster; (back row, from left) Nell Fowler, Rob Butler, Jerry Robertson, Eva Bishop, Callie Hightower, and Pauline Crain. Meetings for this group were usually held at the home of Mr. Clois and Mrs. Pauline Crain, Jerry's grandparents. David walked to the meetings, held not far from his grandparents' house. 

  I recently found David Coster, age 70, on Facebook. He’s a 30-year SC Highway Patrol veteran living in Greenwood, SC, with wife, Jan. David attended Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, as a child living with his grandparents at the Fews Bridge and Groce Meadow roads intersection. His grandfather, a stroke victim, was attended by David’s grandmother. 

“I had different rides to church,” David says. “Grady Atkins, who had a Cadillac, let me sit next to the door. Eva and Connie Bishop had a ’59 Ford. When I rode with the Ray Hill family, there was Don, Jerry, and Margie. It was their car, so I’d just sit where I could.” At age 11 in 1963, he attended a revival held at Faith Temple by the Rev. Jim and Tammy Bakker.

David wrote about Pastor James Thompson:  

“When the offering plate came by, I only had a dime, most times, to put in. I was not a big tither, but my pastor came by my grandmother’s house many times and talked to my grandfather. I would sneak and listen to see if Grandpa would say yes because Pastor Thompson would never leave until he asked this question: He would say, ‘Mr. Coster, would you like to accept the LORD Jesus as your LORD and Savior?’ 

“Many times I would hear my grandfather say, ‘Not today.’ Pastor Thompson would say, “OK. Can I pray before I leave?’ Grandpa would say, ‘Yes.’ Pastor Thompson never came expecting anything in return, for we didn’t have anything to give, but we wanted to. Even so, he never stopped coming, and finally, one day, I heard my grandfather, after Pastor Thompson asked his usual question, say, ‘Yes.’ I cried from my hiding place. With Memorial Day coming up, I just want to remember Pastor James Thompson, for he was a WARRIOR FOR THE LORD!”

David wrote about Pastor Thompson’s “beautiful wife”:

“Mrs. Joanne Thompson was my Bible school teacher, which was a treat in itself! She had us taking a Clorox plastic, 1/2 gallon, and we were making a Pig Planter out of it with spool thread rolls for the feet and pipe cleaners for his tail. We cut the back part off to make the planter, and cut the ears out of that part. She had the patience of Job while helping us kids make our pig planters. She showed me what a Christian was supposed to be. The Love of my young life was Wonder Woman but since she was only on TV, Mrs. Thompson was my real Wonder Woman.”

David played sports at Blue Ridge High and had an offer to play football for Clemson’s Coach Frank Howard, but he went into the Army. 

Later in life, David surrendered to Christ.

“I was doing whatever I wanted, when I wanted, and my wife was taking my kids to church while I stayed in the bed because I worked late,” David says. “But she would leave Jimmy Swaggart on wide open! He was as bad as Oliver B. Greene that my grandmother listened to. I was working on the side at a place called "Dillon's" and worked the door to try to keep really bad people out, to cut down on fights! I was standing, watching the dance floor, and I guess an angel of GOD said to me, ‘I want you to take a good look and tell me if the people dancing are really happy … This is not your place! Your place is at home with your wife and children.’ 

“I walked out,” he says, “got in my truck, and drove home. I said, ‘LORD, I know Sunday is Easter, and I’ll go to church with my wife and kids if you’ll just keep me until then. I think the thing that broke me was when I heard my little girl was at church, crying her eyes out, and when they finally got her calm enough to tell them what was wrong, she said, ‘I do not want my daddy to go to Hell!’ I kept my promise to GOD and went to church with my family.

At church, the altar call came. 

“I jumped to my feet,” David says. “My eyes were so full of tears that I could not see, and I stepped on everyone’s feet in getting to that altar, and I think everyone in the church gave me a hug, even the ones I stepped on their feet!”

  ... After reading the above article, David wrote on 2022 05 27:  

  “Made me cry! I am sure thankful that even tho I had no Father that I knew and my mother had to live in town with my Aunt so she could ride the trolley to work, The LORD surrounded me with GODLY women and men who accepted me as one of them tho I was only a child ! I have a picture of me at GUM Springs [church] surrounded by some of those same people and have so many good memories that I cherish in my old age! I remember Jimmy Thompson always would shake my little hand with his big hand and say, ‘Now, David, you look out for grandpa and grandma,’ and I would say, ‘OK!’ I think he was the only man whoever shook my hand!" — David