(After his stay in the hospital, Roy) went through about 3 months of rehab and went home, just to find that my girl friend would just do her laundry and leave.
I still remember looking out the window thinking… I have no job, no money, in a wheelchair and a nine year old depending on me.
Then my ex-wife took me to court to prove me an unfit parent. I was desperate…. Something told me to get out the phone book and write to every church in the yellow pages. I sent letters to 28 local churches. No one responded. Two weeks passed and I got a knock at the door. A Christian from the Northeast Church of Christ came to visit and see how I was doing. I had not written them because they had already given me food. I didn’t want to bother them or have them thinking I was a ‘moocher’.
They helped me get back on my feet. I was surprised when one of their elders came by and wanted to study the Bible with me. It was a few weeks later, on April 19, 1999, I was immersed into Jesus.
Before all this, I didn’t even know what a Bible looked like, but as a new Christian I couldn’t put it down. I went to every Bible study I could to learn and grow spiritually. I found friends I hadn’t seen in years coming to help. One was involved in energy healing with vitamins and herbs. Within two years, I threw all my medications in the garbage and things started moving. I started eating right, breathing right, drinking right, giving my body what it needs and not what it craved.
It’s been over 16 years now and I have not taken a drug or a medication and have never been sick. They can’t find the brain tumor and the MS is 80 percent healed. I know what it feels like to hurt and suffer and what extreme humiliation feels like. I praise God for his wonderful grace and healing.
Today I spoke with Roy and he told me he has no regrets over his past. God is working in his life, and now he ministers to many in Nursing Homes. He is a preacher and motivational speaker, sharing how God has worked in his life… helping others not lose hope.
Roy found in Jesus what Paul found, “…we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces endurance and endurance character, and character, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).
Don’t be glad when suffering comes. Don’t look on suffering as just a part of this wicked world. Don’t wish life would soon be over or those who prosper would come to harm. Don’t move to another town to avoid it. Just understand that when suffering comes, it can be the greatest hidden blessing of life… a turning point to something better. To understand it: be patient (James 1:2-4) – Trust the God who loves you (Romans 5:8-9).
If you want to have Roy Wolfe come and speak, you can contact him at 586-335-0150.
Tag Archives: Testimony
The Roy Wolfe Story (Part One)
Telling stories and telling a story are often two different things… I take this oppotunity as a great privilege to pass on to you this true story about a man who has gone through much and is now a marvelous servant for Jesus. His name is Roy Wolfe… We begin…
I (Roy) was 5 years of age, living in a small town in Northern Michigan. My mom was young with 4 kids when she and my dad were divorced. After a couple of years, my mom was reported by the school authorities for being unfit because we were always filthy. We had to eat food out the garbage and were being beaten.
We were given to our father (who had remarried) and living in Michigan. He was in the Air Force and was shipped to Viet Nam. Our step mom beat us and locked us in the closet or outside. She had an affair while he was in Viet Nam. Later she took us back to my mom in Oscoda and said, “Here, you can have your kid’s back.”
Feeling unwanted, I had no religion, so I went to church with grandma or an aunt or uncle, just to get out of the house. I joined one church after another for the same reason.
During my teenage years, I was physically and verbally abused. When I was 18, I worked at a store just south of Oscoda and worked my way up to a produce manager.
The first woman that ‘blew in my ear’, I married and with not really knowing what true love was, I put up with anything. One night my wife and some of my friends went to a concert and my best friend slept with my wife. We had been married 9 months and were divorced. I was drinking a lot, and had become a ‘work-a-holic’… working two and sometimes three jobs, just so I didn’t have to deal with the pain.
I met a woman working at Arby’s who was coming to work ‘beat up’, so I took her in and we lived together until she was divorced. We got married and moved to the Detroit area, where we had a daughter. We both worked at the same place, but later I found out my wife was unfaithful. She told me, “I don’t need you” and filed for a divorce, but after four years, I won custody of our daughter and raised her myself.
On my 40th birthday, I went on all ‘all-night’ bowling and drinking spree with a girl friend who was an alcoholic. Since I thought I was physically fit, I figured I could handle it. One day my leg started getting stiff and I began limping. I thought I had just pulled a muscle. I fell out of bed that night and couldn’t stand up so I went to the hospital and they found a brain tumor and Multiple Sclerosis. Barely making it through surgery, I woke up totally paralyzed and was told that “You will never walk again.”
Roy’s story is not finished… hard times were not over… Perhaps you are going through hard times as well, and are tempted to ‘give up’. I hope Roy’s story will encourage you to look to God.
Yes, God really does love you, and as Paul said, “God demonstrates his own love for us in that while we still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).