Adventist Stories

“I was not raised as a Seventh-day Adventist. My parents were Baptist. My dad was a deacon, and my mother was a deaconess in the Baptist church.
What happened was, my grandmother passed away, and while going through her things, my mother found a book called Bible Readings for the Home. She read something about the Sabbath, and it caught her attention because she had never heard that the Sabbath was Saturday. So, she started researching. She went to the library and confirmed that the seventh day was Saturday, then went to her pastor and asked, ‘What day is the Sabbath?’ He said, ‘Saturday.’ And she said, ‘Well, why are we in church on Sunday then?’ The typical response was that we worship on Sunday in honor of the resurrection, but my mother wasn’t satisfied with that.
At the time, I was a drummer in a nine-piece rock group, and my organ player was Jewish. I didn’t know it then, but my mother went and asked him, ‘What day is the Sabbath?’ and he said, ‘Saturday.’ After all that investigation, she found a Seventh-day Adventist Church. That’s how it all started. I was about 24.
I went many years without following my mom’s example. I was a rock musician, working part-time at IBM, going to college, playing baseball – I was just full of life. Then, as I was graduating, I went to buy a car, and a gentleman told me I should get into the car business. Long story short, I did. I went through the ranks and eventually owned my own Mercedes-Benz dealership in Ashland, Kentucky. My mother, meanwhile, was deeply involved in the church, but I didn’t pay it much attention. I just continued with my career.
Then I started thinking about how I was being blessed, and I realized I didn’t do it on my own. The Lord was blessing me through the prayers of my parents. So, I started studying the Bible more seriously, and I realized that if I was going to serve God, I couldn’t say one thing and live another way.
I had been attending a Seventh-day Adventist church with my mother from time to time. One day, a preacher named Joseph Lewis gave a powerful sermon, and at the end I gave my life to Jesus. Right then, I knew I had to change things. I told my general manager I could no longer say I was serving God while being disobedient to His will. I said we were going to close on Saturday and open Sunday, and he said, ‘Mr. Fryson, this is the Bible Belt. People might frown on that.’ So, I said, ‘Alright, then we’ll close both days.’
When we announced the new schedule to the staff, I felt it was important for me to explain to them why I was making this change. I told them, ‘From this day forward, I will no longer be disobedient to the Word of God. I cannot say I love Him and continue profaning His seventh-day Sabbath.’ I didn’t care about the risks. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? I had over 100 employees, and in that meeting, I broke down in front of them and cried like a baby. My general sales manager said, ‘Mr. Fryson, you did the right thing. We’re behind you.’
When I came down from that meeting, the showroom was full, and people were lined up outside. That day, we had the best sales day we’d ever had. People were asking what was happening, and I said, ‘That’s what happens when you honor God.’ We closed both Saturday and Sunday for from then on without any problems, and everyone knew why. It was a witness, especially since Saturday is the busiest day in the car business.
Someone once asked if I ever considered just not working on Sabbath but keeping the business open. I said no. That’s only halfway obedience. The Fourth Commandment says not only you, but your servants and everyone within your gates should not work. So, if I stayed home but had employees working, I’d still be breaking the Sabbath. You can’t halfway serve God. You’re either all in or all out.
I sold my dealership in 2011, but people still come up to me and ask about it. During those years, I had six lay pastors from different denominations working for me, and they respected what I did. I didn’t even have to advertise for employees. People wanted to work there and have two days off. The biggest lesson is that you have to practice what you profess. I could not call myself a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and ignore the Sabbath. I would lose my credibility to witness. The whole community knew what I was doing, and it caused many people, even pastors, to study more.”
- Sim Fryson, from the Ashland Church, Ky.

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Our daughter was 8 months old when we found out we were expecting our son, Ward. Our little family of three was about to change forever.

At 26 weeks into the pregnancy, we found out something wasn’t quite right. Our anatomy scan showed problems. The doctors first thought he had clubbed feet, so we had more tests done after a long weekend.

It wasn’t clubbed feet. The doctors said it could be one of two things: a 1 in 50,000 chance that he had a fatal condition and wouldn’t make it to birth, or a 1 in a million condition where he simply hadn’t developed both of his fibula bones.

We did more tests and waited. We celebrated our daughter’s first birthday, Christmas, and New Year’s before we learned that we were having a 1 in a million little boy. Those few weeks were incredibly hard.

Even though we weren’t out of the woods yet, we prayed for this special boy, knowing he would need both legs amputated below the knee. We found ourselves hoping we’d go through an 8-hour surgery to help him—and that’s exactly what happened. Ward was born at 36 weeks because of my high blood pressure, but he was perfect!

He was a perfect baby, but a very tired one. At 15 months old, he still didn’t understand sleep, and we thought we were tired before all of this!

We knew the decision was coming, but it wasn’t just our lives we were making this choice for. We had to think of our whole family, especially Ward.

At 9 months old, we made a life-changing decision for him. He didn’t know what was happening, and honestly, neither did we. But with the help of amazing doctors, we knew it was the right thing to do for our family.

On December 28th, 2021, we amputated Ward’s legs. That day changed all of our lives, but it changed us together as a family.

Our lives aren’t normal, but we get by. We do lots of physical therapy, and it's not a Monday if I’m not yelling, "Where are your legs?" (It’s me; it’s always me!)

We celebrate every small victory and cry about things we can’t change, but we’re here, and we’re making it.

Now, Ward is 2.5 years old and thriving! He has a long road ahead, but seeing how much he’s already accomplished reminds me every day how strong he is. We’ll keep taking life one step at a time.

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The Curse That Saved a Family
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I was raised in a family that professed to be Christian, but religion meant little to me, and I stopped attending church.
I was raised in a family that professed to be Christian, but religion meant little to me, and I stopped attending church. I married, and we had several children. I found my happiness in my family and my work as a teacher.

Then one day my eldest daughter became very ill with a form of malaria that wouldn’t respond to normal treatment. We took her to the hospital, but she didn’t improve. Finally the doctor told us that he thought someone had put a curse on her. He suggested that we take her to a fe**sh priest. A curse can make a person ill or even cause death. If there was a curse on my daughter, she would not get better until the curse was removed.

I told my wife, but she didn’t want to go to a fe**sh priest, asking instead to go to an African Christian church that specialized in healings and visions. This church claimed that it could determine if a curse had been put on a person. I took my daughter to this church, and the practitioner said that he saw in vision that my daughter was indeed under a curse. He told me what to do to remove it. I followed his instructions, and he performed the ceremony. Soon after we arrived home my daughter began to feel better.

During this time one of my sons and I were also feeling sick. I needed to see a doctor, but didn’t have money to pay him. I wondered if this church could help me feel better.

I told my supervisor about my problem, and he offered to pray for me. He gave me a Bible and showed me the verse that says God takes care of the sparrows, and we are much more important than they (Matthew 10:29-31). I had never read the Bible, even when we attended church, but this verse impressed me, and I decided to memorize it.

My supervisor offered to ask his pastor to come to my house and pray for me. I agreed, and in time we began to study the Bible together. I went to his church, but the loud music bothered me—I couldn’t find God in a bunch of noise. But I wanted to know more about God, so I continued studying the Bible.

I visited another church. I liked it better, and began attending. I developed a thirst to understand the Bible more deeply. Often the pastor and I studied until late into the night. I had many questions. While I was studying I discovered in Exodus 20 the Sabbath commandment.

I asked the pastor about this, but he didn’t seem to know what to say. Finally he suggested we study this question with the whole church. So on Sunday afternoon members of the church gathered, and we discussed the Sabbath together. I read the verses I had found, and shared other verses referring to the Sabbath. Although most of the members could not read or write, they followed the discussion closely. Sometimes our discussion became quite heated. We didn’t resolve the question that day, but agreed to continue studying.

One day when I was turning the dial of my shortwave radio, I discovered Adventist World Radio. I decided to write them for answers to my Sabbath questions. I received several brochures on the Sabbath and some lessons from the Voice of Prophecy Bible course. I filled out the lessons immediately and sent them back.

My Voice of Prophecy Bible teacher answered my Sabbath questions and wrote careful answers to my questions on educating children, health, and other spiritual subjects. As I studied the Bible lessons, I shared what I was learning with the church members. Then I wrote and asked for someone to come to study with us. A layman came to our village to help us.

Some members of the Protestant church I was attending joined me to form a Bible study group. Although others opposed us, we continued studying. We began meeting on Sabbath morning under the trees!

At first my wife, who had joined the Protestant church, was fearful that my actions would destroy the church. But she eventually saw that the Sabbath commandment was still valid, and she joined our little Bible study group. We considered ourselves Adventists, even though no one in our group had formally joined the Adventist Church. Some members of our group who had motorbikes rode the 30 miles (50 kilometers) to worship in the nearest Adventist church. They recorded the church service and shared it with the members who could not come.

Sadly, before our group could complete our studies and be baptized, I was transferred to Ouidah [WE-dah], the voodoo capital of Benin and Togo. I wondered why God would put me in this sinful city where there was no Adventist church at a time when I was just learning about Him. I could no longer ride my motorbike to church, so my family had our worship service at home. But I was lonely, especially when some of my new neighbors began harassing us because we worshipped on Sabbath.

I cherished the times when the Adventist pastor could visit us. I would save all my Bible questions for him to answer when he came. One day the pastor told me that some of the members of my former Bible study group were going to be baptized in the Adventist church 30 miles from my former village. My wife and I decided we wanted to be baptized with them.

After my baptism I couldn’t keep what I had learned to myself. I shared the Bible truths with my coworkers and neighbors.

Please pray with me that I can share Christ’s light in Ouidah, the devil’s city.

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Happy Sabbath, Facebook Friends! What a blessed, special time the Lord has given us at the end of each week to spend with Him!
In our Q & A today we will be addressing the questions of polygamy and baptism, whether or not children are guilty for the sins of their parents, and forgiveness and salvation. May you be blessed!

Q: Why does the Seventh-day Adventist Church refuse to baptize someone who has more than one wife, although he married his subsequent wives before hearing the Adventist message? Once they heard the truth, they were convicted and wanted to be baptized. Jesus says that “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:16). — Chol, from South Sudan

A: Chol, polygamy is a challenging situation that needs to be handled in a sensitive, biblical way. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has carefully and prayerfully considered this question and has developed a balanced, compassionate approach to dealing with such situations as you have described.

Quoting from the Church’s Working Policy (C 70) on Polygamy:

“It is clearly God’s plan that man should live in a state of monogamy, that a man should have only one living wife. Any contravention of this plan results in confusion and the lowering of the moral standards that should govern human society, and especially the Church. The practice of polygamy on the part of many non-Christian peoples for whom we are laboring is in itself a challenge to Christian principles, and constitutes a ground of compromise if permitted in the Christian church.”

The policy goes on to state that “A man found living in a state of polygamy when the gospel reaches him shall upon conversion be required to change his status by putting away all his wives save one before he shall be considered eligible for baptism and church membership.”

It further states that “Men thus putting away their wives shall be expected to make proper provision for their future support, and that of their children, as far as it is within their power to do so.”

In some places, where tribal customs subject a wife who has been put away, and her children, to lifelong disgrace, “the church is to cooperate with the former husband in making such provision for these wives and children as will provide their their care and protect them from disgrace and undue suffering.”

Further, wives who have been “put away” by a polygamous husband have the right to marry again, into a monogamous relationship.

Q: I am a life-long Adventist who has a graduate degree from an Adventist university. My father was a well-known Adventist pastor, but sadly broke up our family and married another woman about four years ago. I was deeply grieved by this. I’d like to work for the Church, but I’ve heard that my father’s actions affect my possibilities of denominational employment, and that I must bear the guilt of what my father did. Does my father’s sin automatically roll onto me? — Steve, from Bangladesh

A: Steve, I am very sorry to hear of the heartache that you and your family, and your church family, have experienced as a result of your father’s adulterous actions. Let me assure you that you are in no way responsible, nor must you carry any guilt for what he has done.

The Bible tells us very clearly that “. . . The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself” (Ezk. 18:20, NKJV).

If you believe that the Lord is leading you in the direction of denominational employment, I would encourage you to pray, and then move forward in contacting the appropriate church entity, expressing your desire to serve, and going through their regular application process.

May the Lord bless and encourage you as you seek to serve Him in whatever way He may lead.

Q: I would like to ask if God can forgive and forget a sinner? I need to become a new person, but I find myself committing what I don't want to do. I am a great sinner. How can I be saved? — Jolvin, from Tanzania

A: Jolvin, God loves you deeply, He longs to save you, and He gives you many precious promises of this in His Word. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

He can and will freely forgive everyone who comes to Him asking for forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

There is no sin so terrible that He cannot forgive. “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world” (1 John 2:1, 2).

And there is no sin so strong from which He cannot provide escape. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13). See also Jude 24.

And while God promises to “cast our sins into the depths of the sea,” (Mic 7:19), He will never, ever forget us. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me” (Isa 49:15, 16).

I encourage you to read and re-read these and other powerful promises found in the Bible and claim them as your own.

How are you dear friends? I will be holding prayers tonight. Let me know if you have a special request in the comments below.