You Can Go Home Again

As an English major in college as well as a resident of North Carolina, I am very familiar with the works of Thomas Wolfe.  Although I’m partial to William Faulkner, one of my favorite books is Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again.  The person in this day’s story proves that wrong.  She is “the better half” of the Lenkeit couple as Bob, the subject of September 15’s post, would assert in an instant.  She learned her “Christian ways” and uses them to this day at Hayes Barton Baptist Church.

Joyce grew up five blocks from Hayes Barton Baptist Church on Glenwood Avenue.    “I have such strong memories of Hayes Barton Baptist Church,” says Joyce.  “I was raised by Christian parents [J.A. and Ruby Stephenson] in a Christian home.  I joined the church when I was twelve years old.  I was baptized by Dr. Kincheloe.” 

Joyce’s youth reflected her Baptist upbringing:  attending Ridgecrest and Camp Caswell , working one summer at the Baptist State Convention in Asheville, and seeing Dr. Billy Graham at Memorial Auditorium.  “My social life was at the church.  There were all kinds of activities; from hayrides to Valentine’s Day dinners.  Two of my best friends from those days are lifelong friends who I met here.”

There are, as Joyce puts it, “a lot, a lot of memories.”  So, not surprisingly, as we learned from Bob, when he and Joyce moved back to Raleigh in 1994, they joined Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  “It was automatic to come back to my church,” she says with enthusiasm.  “It was wonderful to come back to be in a church that I up in.”

Joyce had not been a stranger to Hayes Barton Baptist Church through the years as travels back to visit family put her in the “visitor” column on Sundays.   On those visits, she would go with her mother to take food to needy families, something she hadn’t been exposed to when she was a youth in the church.   When she and Bob returned to care for Joyce’s mother, she could gauge its growth through the years.  “I have seen it grow, and it’s still growing,” says Joyce.  “And that’s a good thing.”

Joyce is carrying on her mother’s interest in caring for the needy with her involvement in the Benevolence Committee.  Whether cans of chicken or money for food bags, she makes the case for the increasing needs in our local area.    She is an advocate of the first order for these folks.

Because she lived in many places in her life and attended many churches, Joyce brings a perspective back to Hayes Barton Baptist Church that is different than if she would have lived her whole life in the church.  “I loved the various churches I attended,” says Joyce.  “But there is nothing like Hayes Barton Baptist Church.  The rituals are what make it Hayes Barton:  the order of service; saying the Lord’s Prayer; reading the Bible Scripture; the singing of the choir; the serving of communion; baptism…all of these are important.”

Joyce sees the hope of Hayes Barton Baptist Church in its abilities and opportunities to reach out to help people.   This interest in helping others must be in her nature as she has been a member of the Philanthropic Educational Organization (“PEO” as she calls it) for 37 years.  And she’s not finished helping others as she now begins a new way of reaching out to help others as a recently commissioned Stephen Minister.  “I felt called to do it,” she shares.

In reflecting about her life Joyce says, “I never thought I’d ever come back to Raleigh to live.  But to come home was wonderful.   To have a church home to come back to was great. Hayes Barton Baptist Church helped teach me Christian ways and allows me to use Christian ways.  I’m glad we came home to Hayes Barton.”

While coming home to Hayes Barton was a “no brainer” for Joyce, she did share that in driving to church for the interview, she almost made the turn toward her childhood home five blocks toward Raleigh on Glenwood.  “I guess I was thinking about home because we were going to talk,” she laughs.

So, there you have it.  Bob’s “better half” and proof that “You can go home again.”  That’s Joyce.  She sees the home that is Hayes Barton Baptist Church through “a lot, a lot” of memories, rituals, and benevolence.  She learned her “Christian ways” here, and she is using them here.  We are sure glad she came home.