Faith Temple Adds Room to Fleming Hall in 2023

  Pastor Raymond D. Burrows (left) and Mr. Fred Duck, 85-year-old mason, are pictured at Faith Temple Church, 5058 Sandy Flat Rd., Taylors, SC 29687, as work begins on Fleming Hall, the church's fellowship building.

   Mr. Fred Duck began laying blocks in Feb. 2023 to construct an addition to Fleming Hall, the Faith Temple (FT) fellowship building. FT’s board and pastor approved the project. 

“Brother Duck was repairing a brick structure at Mr. Bedell Willis’ mother’s home,” Pastor Raymond D. Burrows says. “And in thinking about doing a personal project, I stopped to see if he was interested in helping with my project. He agreed, and, over the past few months, he and I developed a solid friendship and respect for each other. In his words, he ‘loves doing the work’ and even agreed to work for the church at a reduced labor cost.”

Mr. Duck, 85, an Army veteran, spoke at FT’s Brotherhood on Sat., Dec. 3. He and his wife, Mrs. Sylvine Duck, (married for 62 years) are members of Mountain Grove Missionary Baptist Church in Travelers Rest, SC. 

“The Fleming Hall addition’s outside dimensions are 18x12 feet, with an A-frame roof, comparable to the main building, but not as tall,” Pastor says. “The addition is for storage, to remove clutter from the present storage room and create more space for church-owned supplies. By adding this room, we can keep items such as child highchairs out-of-view when not being used. The people who serve will enjoy having an orderly arrangement for supplies and not have to always ‘look’ for things such as plates, napkins, forks, spoons, etc.

Pastor says “fellowship meals” are vital to the overall spiritual health of the church family. “Meals provide opportunities for people to develop relationships and enjoy good fellowship,” he says.

Fleming Hall, built some time after 1965, has long been used more as a community building than as a mere FT fellowship hall. 

“I enjoy the fact that it is used for ministry in so many ways and is a blessing to the community and even to people outside the community,” Pastor says. “It is a valuable building. For example, Living Branch does not have, at times, adequate fellowship facilities. So, they use Fleming Hall. The same applies to Destination Church of God. The fellowship hall has been used for gatherings of this church family, for ministries like Golden Agers in past decades, weddings, family reunions, Bible studies, and a host of other reasons. It is a ministry location, and I am glad this church family can extend the blessing of that building to the benefit and enjoyment of many people. Brother Thompson advocated the building be named after Mr. Charles Fleming, the husband of Mrs. Grace Fleming. He died around 1970 or so and apparently was a great help to this fellowship.” 

In 2013, after years of use, Fleming Hall needed updating and/or remodeling.  

“It had old fold-out windows that offered no insulation value. That meant the building was almost impossible to heat,” Pastor says. “When the Golden Agers met on Tuesdays during winter, the heat had to run all night just to make the room tolerable. In Jan. 2013, the work began, and the men of this fellowship did most of the work. The block walls were covered with two-by-fours, insulation added, and then a layer of sheetrock. The old ceiling panels were replaced with new sheetrock. New heating and cooling units were added, along with new ductwork. New kitchen cabinets were installed and the commercial stove was reworked at no charge to the church by Mr. Kenneth Sammons. Mr. Scott Campbell’s company supplied and installed kitchen countertops, at no charge. The late Mr. Mick Simpson hung molding in the ceilings and did the plumbing work on the kitchen sink. Most all the church men helped with the work, including Mr. Jack Tate, Mr. Mick Lutz, Mr. Michael Campbell, Mr. John Miller, Mr. Roy Chasteen, Mr. Don Lollis, Mr. Millard Robertson, Mr. Carroll Peterson, Mr. David Taylor, Mr. Don Womack, and probably others who do not now come to mind. The project extended from Jan. through April 2013 with a cost of about $40,000.00, about one-half of what it would have cost to hire a contractor to oversee the work.”