Joyce Town, 91

Joyce (Lewis) Town, 91 years old, went to be with Jesus on April 10, 2025.

Joyce was born in Ronan on March 22, 1934, and grew up on a farm with her two sisters where she learned the value of hard work and living frugally. She attended school in Ronan for 12 years and then Canadian Bible College for three.

She married Harvey Town, her high school sweetheart, in 1955, after graduation.

She and Harvey began a 44-year ministry with the Christian and Missionary Alliance soon after marriage, beginning by taking a small church in Barrhead, Alberta, Canada for two years. They then went to Japan as missionaries for 12 years where they planted two churches and were dorm parents to about 10 children of other missionaries as well as raising their own four (at that time).

They returned to the U.S. in 1969 with four children and had one more born two weeks after landing. For one year, Harvey traveled as a missionary speaker while Joyce managed a newborn and four older children.

They decided not to return to Japan and instead took an Alliance church in Great Falls, where they saw many blessings of the Lord over the seven-and-a-half years there.

They then moved to Edmonton, Alberta, where Harvey pastored for four-and-a-half years at Beulah Alliance. After this, they moved to Calgary where they lived for nine years as Harvey was the Western Canada District Superintendent. 

They ended their C&MA ministry serving as District Superintendent in the Rocky Mountain District and living in Billings for nine years, leading and helping pastors and their wives.  This made for many long road trips visiting all the C&MA churches in North and South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana.

Joyce loved her role as a missionary and pastor’s wife, her ministry with the Alliance women, working in the nursery in several churches, and loving all the families they had into their home for meals and overnight stays. Hospitality and encouraging others were evident whether by phone calls, letters, cards or invitations to their home. 

She faithfully remembered the birthdays and anniversaries of all 76 people in her immediate family as well as many friends. Everyone around her knew her to be a loving, caring woman of God, known for her joyfulness and sharing Jesus’s love with all. She was truly a Proverbs 31 woman.

She was preceded in death by her sweetheart of 67 years, her parents, niece Kim Denton, granddaughter Mary Town, and numerous cousins.

Survivors include her sisters, Betty Corum and Lynette Denton, five children, 26 grandchildren, and 33 great-grandchildren.

Joyce will be missed very much by those who knew and loved her. Memorials can be sent to the Great Commission Fund of the C&MA through Terrace Lake Community Church in Ronan.

Her Celebration of Life service waa on April 19, 2025, at Terrace Lake Community Church at 11 a.m.