Joyce and Perry Yoder at Faith Temple

Joyce and Perry Yoder

A charter member of Faith Temple—she was there at the church’s beginning—Mrs. Joyce Yoder, 78, was born on Jan. 23, 1948, to Mr. Belton and Mrs. Grace Rainey. They attended Gum Springs Pentecostal Holiness Church, Taylors, SC. Her father was a “chemical mixer” at Union Bleachery and worked at plumbing, digging wells, etc.   

“Dad dug the first well at Faith Temple (FT),” Joyce says. “He got Mr. William Moody to paint the baptistry in the first auditorium.” Mr. Rainey died at age 65.   

  

Joyce’s mother, youngest of 14 children, was a sister to Mrs. Lorraine Hardin, wife of Mr. Monroe Hardin, a FT deacon. The Hardins owned “Hardin’s Five and Dime” in Sans Souci. Lorraine sang with Mrs. Lena Hannon and Mrs. Mable Robertson. Grace attended Holmes Bible College, worked at Stone Manufacturing, taught school, retired from Steel Heddle, worked eight years as a public admin judge, and helped get a section of State Park Road named “Rev. James H. Thompson Road.” She died at age 75.

  

Joyce and her parents transitioned with Pastor James H. Thompson from Gum Springs PHC “to a storefront building [Dec. 16, 1956] to Blue Ridge High School to FT [Dec. 15, 1957],” Joyce says. “I accepted the Lord when I was 13.”

  

Joyce was 16 when her parents adopted 2-year-old David. Mrs. Joanne Thompson brought David, her cousin’s son, to the Raineys. 

  

Joyce worked at Kash & Karry (three years), “Ship N Shore,” a pizza shop, baby-sitting, and house-cleaning (later in life). Joyce finished Wade Hampton High and later married Jimmy Roye, a soldier five years older than she. In Alameda, CA, Robby, their son (born Jan. 16, 1969) was four months old when his dad returned from Vietnam. The family spent two tours in Germany where Jimmy drank and “thought I was a punching bag,” Joyce says. When they returned to the states, Joyce’s parents brought Joyce and Robby from CA to SC. The Royes divorced in 1975.

  

Joyce had met Perry Yoder at Fort Hood, Killeen, TX. Perry, from Goshen, IN, was divorced in 1974 and has a daughter, Sonja, living in IN. Born Mennonite, Perry accepted the Lord when he was a child, he says. The couple was wed by Joyce’s mother on Aug. 15, 1976, at Paris Mt. State Park when Perry was on a 15-day leave from Germany. Two months later, Joyce and Robby lived with him in Germany. “When Robby was seven, I started a troop of Cub Scouts. We had 13, but in two years, we had 50 boys,” Joyce says. A German high school graduate, Robby died at age 55 on Feb. 20, 2024, after a 9-year sickness where he lived with the Yoders. Joyce’s brother, David Rainey, died and was cremated in 2026.

  

Perry, who joined Faith Temple in 1978, spent almost 21 years in the Army, working in “ammunition.” He served in OK, AL, Korea, Germany (twice), VA, TX, Desert Storm (four months), and NC, and retired in Dec. 1991. (The couple attended FT since that time.) Perry then worked 10 years at Pilcher-Hamilton Corp. (polyester film), CDS Ensembles, and Berry Plastics. The Yoders have helped with the Living Branch Food Bank. “I love the Lord, and don’t have any complaints,” Perry says.

  

Joyce, who has a beagle named “Max,” says she went to church in TX with George Patton, Jr., talked three times with Mrs. Lady Bird Johnson, and once sat two tables away from President Jimmy Carter. She says she’s bored in Marietta where they rent a house. “There’s just so much knitting, crocheting, and drawing you can do,” she says. Joyce attributes her weight-loss to missing Robby. “I still find myself wanting to check on him in his room,” she says. “I love Faith Temple, and thank God for saving us all.”