By Bobby Davis
Jim Wojcik was raised in a Catholic home, attended Catholic school, and served as an altar boy in his local parish in Baltimore, Maryland. But although he attended church on Sundays, that was basically it, he says. “My parents were not religious by any stretch, so although I continued going after I finished Catholic school, I never really got involved.
“My father worked as a machinist for Bethlehem Steel, the largest steel mill in the world at the time, and my mother died when I was just seven years old. In a few years, he remarried, but our home life was difficult, and my parents and I were not close. When my father came home from work we would eat, but there was never any conversation over the dinner table. Afterwards he would go to the bar, get drunk, and come back to listen to my lessons. If I didn’t know the material word for word, he would beat me very badly—to the point that sometimes I couldn’t attend school.
“My stepmother performed her duties as a mother, but was very impersonal, too. I was never allowed to use the phone or touch the television or radio, so shortly after high school, I left home and never visited my parents again.”
Good and Bad Times
As a young man, Jim began working for the steel mill as a clerk. He took night courses, and soon was moved to the accounting department where he worked in accounts payable, and later was promoted to supervisor.
“During my early years I was pretty wild, trying to make up for what I thought I’d missed growing up,” Jim admits. “My friends and I liked boating, and drinking was acceptable, but religion was no longer a part of my life.
“Then my company started to go downhill, and they decided to centralized everything. They let almost everyone go, but retained me in management as a cost accountant.
“In 2003 they filed bankruptcy and began selling off all their assets, and when they finally went out of business, I lost everything—company pension, healthcare and life insurances; it was all gone.”
Back to Church
Jim’s wife Yolanda was born to a Catholic family in the Philippines, but had left home to attend school in Manila, where she lived with an Adventist family until she graduated from college. In 1968 she was baptized, largely due to the love she received from that family, and also because of what she’d learned from the Bible. In 1978, she moved to the U.S., and later met Jim through mutual friends.
When they married in 1989, she continued attending church, and Jim went with her. “I enjoyed church, and learned much from the sermons,” he says. “We had many Adventist friends, and there were so many churches nearby that we basically hopscotched from one to another and never became members anywhere.”
Illness
Then, in 2002, a prostate biopsy caused Jim to become very ill with sepsis (a whole-body inflammation caused by an infection). Even worse, the biopsy revealed cancer, and Jim underwent radical prostate surgery. Then, in 2009, his doctor discovered colon cancer and Jim endured more surgery and was scheduled for chemotherapy.
After inserting a PICC line (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) into a large vein, Jim took his first round of chemo, but was hospitalized a month later when his PICC line developed blood clots. They began infusing his chemo directly into his veins, but when that didn’t work well, they switched him to pills.
“I was very sick the whole time with nausea, and I lost a lot of weight,” Jim recalls. “I dropped from 143 to 117 pounds, and by January 2010, I couldn’t take it anymore. I told my oncologist I was done with chemo, and he tried to talk me into decreasing the amount or making other changes; but I’d made up my mind. His last words to me were, ‘If you quit now, you’ll be dead,’ and I walked out of his office feeling very little hope.
Jim changed his diet and stopped taking all medicines, including vitamins, and has not seen an oncologist since. “That was a very personal decision,” he says, “but I told my wife I’d decided to place my life in the Lord’s hands, since nothing else had worked. I praise God for giving me a loving and wonderful wife, who took care of me and helped me get through that most difficult time!”
Watching 3ABN
While Jim struggled through chemo, his wife placed a lounge chair in the living room so he could watch TV, but still get up quickly when the nausea was too much. “3ABN was on cable, so I began watching,” he says. “I really enjoyed Pastors Doug Batchelor, Kenneth Cox, and Dwight Nelson. I just couldn’t get enough!
“My wife gave me a book on the fundamental beliefs of the church, and I began reading my Bible. Meanwhile, I was so sick that I wondered if I’d make it.
“One day I asked my wife if she would prefer to continue living in Maryland or in Florida, where its warmer, if something should happen to me.
“Yolanda has always been an outdoors person, and we’d grown much of our fruits and vegetables in our backyard. She had a big flower garden, too, and I’d often seen her out there in a poncho, working in the rain. So of course, she picked Florida, and we began to look online.
“We found a house in a small development in New Port Richey, and then realized it was right across from a house we’d toured four years earlier! We made a bid, put our faith in the Lord, and bought it electronically; but it was two months before I could travel, so we saw it for the first time as we did a walk-through before the settlement. That’s when we discovered it was much nicer than what it looked like online!
“During this time, I felt an increasing desire to find a Seventh-day Adventist church to call home and to be baptized,” Jim continues. “So when we moved to New Port Richey, we began attending the local Seventh-day Adventist church. The pastor came to visit and we talked for quite a while as I explained that I’d attended Adventist churches for 20 years, and watched 3ABN for some time. When he returned the next day, he asked me if I wanted to be baptized, and I replied, ‘When can we do it?’ I was baptized the very next Sabbath, July 23, 2011!”
Jim was relieved. “I told the Lord who took care of me that I’d done what He asked me to do. To be baptized was the fulfillment of my commitment to Him, and I felt great joy that I was able to do it. My wife was rebaptized with me, making the occasion even more memorable.”
The Miracle Continues
After joining the church, Jim and Yolanda became very involved in service to their church and their community. “We’ve slowed down a bit, recently,” Jim says, “but the real miracle is that I was healthy enough to do anything at all! From the time I quit chemotherapy, I’ve been getting better; and since we moved to Florida, I’ve gotten progressively healthier and stronger. I don’t know what my medical condition is, but I know I feel so much better.
“I basically attribute this to 3ABN, because when I started to watch, it became the catalyst God used to change everything in my life—where we lived, my health, and even my religious outlook.
“Yolanda never pressured me to become an Adventist because she felt it should be my choice. She knew I was getting more knowledgeable in the faith, but it was my decision to be baptized.”
Pastor Glenn Aguirre is ecstatic. “Jim and Yolanda are faithful workers, and I love and appreciate them!” he beams. “They have served as Community Service leaders and Fellowship Luncheon Committee leaders. Jim currently serves on our church finance committee and as an associate treasurer, and Yolanda serves as a children’s Sabbath School teacher.
“They are also very hospitable, and love to invite church family members over to their beautiful home. In addition, they are a big brother and big sister for many in the church who don’t have family in the area. They’re such a blessing to the rest of their church family, and they’re also a blessing to me, personally, because they love my three children very much.
“I’m so happy to see what God has done in their lives—and I look forward to what He will continue to do in their lives!”
Visit the New Port Richey Seventh-day Adventist Church
