Roy Frymire

My parents taught me about God from my earliest childhood. When I was just a toddler, my father and two older brothers were clearing some land and burning sagebrush. A bobcat came across the field, ran into one of the bonfires, and came out fighting mad! The boys ran, but the cat was faster. It knocked down one of my brothers, clawing and biting him. My father heard the boys screaming and ran to them. Before he could get out his knife, the cat jumped on him too, sinking its claws into his leg and biting him.

The cat was rabid, and my father became very ill. Although he knew the way of salvation, he was not saved at the time. He was in the hospital for three months, and when he came home, he thought about how near death he had been. It was not long before my father gave his heart to God. My mother was already a Christian, and together they were careful to teach all of us how to be born again.

When I was fifteen years old, we came from Klamath Falls, Oregon, to Portland for a camp meeting. I met a number of fellows my age. Most of them were Christians. This impelled me to think about my own spiritual condition. God dealt faithfully with my soul. One night the preacher asked, “Who is on the Lord’s side?” I wanted to be, so I went forward to the altar of prayer. As I prayed, forsaking my sins and asking forgiveness, I promised to serve the Lord the rest of my life if He would write my name in the Book of Life and give me victory over sin. God answered my prayer and witnessed to my soul that I was saved. What a wonderful joy filled my heart that night!

The next night the Lord sanctified me, removing the inherited sinful nature from my life. On the last Sunday morning of camp meeting that year, God poured out the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit upon my life. That Gift has meant more to me than I can ever explain. His Presence abides in my life and has given a greater boldness to tell what the Lord has done for me.

In 1935, I graduated from high school, and hoped to get a job and buy a few of the luxuries of life that were unavailable to a child brought up in a large family during those years. However, my dad encouraged me to attend the camp meeting in Portland one more summer. He said by the next year I might be working and not able to get a vacation at that time.

That camp meeting holds a key place in my life. God’s Word found new meaning in my heart and had an effect that I had not experienced before. One day, Florence Crawford, the founder of the Apostolic Faith Church, gave a teaching about King David wanting to make an offering to God to stay the plague that had come upon the Children of Israel. David went to buy the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. Araunah wanted to give the land and also his animals to David, but David replied that he would buy them because he would not offer something to God that “cost me nothing.” She challenged us, “If you really want God’s best, give Him something that costs you something.”

His Presence abides in my life and has given a greater boldness to tell what the Lord has done for me.

That day, I went forward and prayed, “Lord, what can I give You that costs me something?” Almost immediately, the Lord answered. Although it was not an audible voice, I knew it was God who spoke to my heart, “What about giving Me your life in fulltime service?”

At the moment, I could not give Him an answer. I thought about my hopes for a job and the things that I wanted to buy. Those opportunities would not happen, I was sure, if I gave my full time to the Lord. However, in a few days, I knew there was no alternative: either I would give my life completely and experience the fullness of God’s love, or I would withhold my best from Him and live with a hope of a much lesser reward. I promised to serve God in any capacity He so desired. Have I regretted that choice? Never!

After I told the church’s ministers of my consecration, they advised me to return home and continue with my life. They said they would let me know if and when I could be used fulltime in the Lord’s work. Six years later, Pearl Harbor was attacked and the United States was in a war. Before long, I was in the military service.

God kept His hand over me during my military tour, as was illustrated by my experience under the airplane. After returning home, there was an opening for me to give my full time to church work in Portland. Soon afterward, I was started as a student minister—a calling I had felt for some time. After a couple of years, I was sent to help on the ministerial staff of the Medford, Oregon church. There, I met a young lady named Lois Dubs who caught my eye! She also was fully committed to serving God, and we were married on February 26, 1951.

Before many months had gone by, we received a telephone call that my parents had been killed in an automobile accident. This was a real shock, for we had seen them recently. They were completing a tour through Oregon and California, having visited all but one of their children. When grief comes, what a comfort it is to know that your loved ones are with God.

In 1952, I was asked to be a pastor. Through the years, Lois and I and our two sons had the privilege of living in several places. We spent some years in Eureka on the northern California coast. Then we lived at the northern coast of Washington in Port Angeles, with the Olympic Mountains in the background and the Straits of Juan de Fuca in the foreground. We were transferred to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where the summers are sometimes hot and humid, and our first winter had eighty-five inches of snow! Eventually we moved to Tacoma, Washington. In all these places, we knew God was with us and helped as we did our best to live for Him.

After serving in the pastorate at Tacoma for twelve years, we retired, but remained busy in Gospel work. In September of 2001, Lois was diagnosed with cancer. That news came as a real shock, and we made plans to move to Portland. However, before we moved, God chose to transfer Lois to Heaven. Although I miss her in every way, I am extremely grateful that she did not have to suffer for months with the cancer.

Now I have the privilege to work in the headquarters office of the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland. To me, this is one of the greatest opportunities that has ever been granted me. Above all else, I still have the lively hope of hearing the Trumpet call when Jesus returns to earth to rapture His Church. If God calls me to Heaven by the way of the grave, that is alright too. My one great desire is to be with God through all eternity.

Looking back, I know that God has given me many benefits. The Psalmist said, “Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits.” It was over seventy years ago that God saved me; that is more than 25,550 days. If there had been only one benefit per day, think how many blessings it would be! However, the Lord said “benefits,” plural. Truly I could not begin to tell of all the benefits God has given me through the years. He has been incredibly good to me.

Roy Frymire was on the ministerial staff of the Apostolic Faith Church in Portland, Oregon. He was truly a statesman of this organization, having served faithfully in many ministerial roles for numbers of years. He received his call to come higher September 15, 2008, at the age of 91.