Another Special Life in Christ: William "Buddy" Farris
These testimony lives are not stories of "role models". Jesus is the role model! These are lives wonderfully touched & changed by Jesus!
Buddy was pronounced dead in 21 November of 1979, yet nearly 20 years later, on November 12, 1998 he competed for the World Championships of the Law Enforcement Olympics. You can get a tape of his testimony through Gospel Sunrise Inc., Dayton, Va. (540-879-9430). My wife and I were loaned a tape by our now brother-in-law, Kenny Speer, and listened to it on 13 April 2002. Buddy was born in about 1955 and is Chief of Police in Dayton, Va. from 1996-2004 (the present). This is his "Shadow of Death" story:
On Thanksgiving Eve, 1979, Buddy Farris, a Virginia state trooper, was pulling radar duty on Interstate 95 15 miles north of Richmond. To pass the time (and not really wanting to chase speeders) he read his Bible, this particular night stopping on Romans 8:28 as a car sped by at 82 mph at 10 p.m. Farris pursued the vehicle and pulled it over on the breakdown lane. As Farris walked up to the stopped car, a drunk driver hit him at 65 mph. The hood ornament of the car pierced through Farris' lower back, thrusting him into the back of the parked car. He flipped over the car and landed halfway on the interstate and the breakdown lane. Two trucks traveling one behind the other at more than 60 mph on the right lane of the interstate were approaching the site of the accident.
Noticing that there was something in the road, the first driver turned into the left-hand lane abruptly, leaving the second driver with no time to react to what was ahead of him. The second driver could not stop on time or turn suddenly without flipping the truck, so he threw his hands into the air almost as if out of submission to the circumstance. The wheel turned as if by its own capacity and straightened itself after passing Farris. Witnesses said there was no possible way that the truck could turn at the 45-degree angle that it did without flipping itself.
Ambulances arrived at the scene and paramedics tried in vein to revive Farris' battered body. Farris was pronounced dead at 10:23 p.m. He was taken to the morgue, and, as workers rolled him down the hall, Farris lifted the blanket off himself. After what was surely a good shock to the workers (one said, "You-you-you're supposed to be dead!!"), he was taken to the hospital.
Doctors treated Farris for various injuries, but he overheard them tell his wife that he would never walk again and that he would suffer brain damage. Almost as miraculously as he lived, neither occurred.
Farris is completely recovered. Further, in 1987, he competed in Florida for the Law Enforcement Olympics. His dream was to finish in the top three so that he might qualify for the World Championships. During the decathlon portion of the event, Farris was engaged in the rope climb. He lost his grip on the way down from the climb and fell to the ground, tearing two tendons in his foot. Farris finished the events in the decathlon for the day under severe pain and actually won first place, but doctors examined him and told him that he would not be able to walk for a month and would have to keep a cast on his leg. With the 100-, 200- and 400-meter races yet to come, Farris' dream was shattered.
Farris questioned the God he served so faithfully: "Why did this happen? Why did I work so hard to come up short?"
The next day as he was packing for his trip back to Virginia, Farris came across letters written by his four children that were wrapped around his son's Swiss Army Knife. The letters were filled with encouraging Bible verses that gave Farris all the motivation he needed to use the knife and cut off the cast.
Farris went to the track stadium and, using crutches to reach the starting line, announced that he was going to run. He said that he was thinking about how much Jesus Christ had suffered for his sake. The gun sounded and the race began. Farris' first step in the 100-meter race resulted in an excruciating pain that shot up through his nerves, but he completed the race and won third place. After that it was time for the 400-meter, and Farris had to get a bigger shoe for his swollen foot. He finished second in the race and finished second once again in the 200-meter race.
It was seemingly unexplainable. He won first place, yet barely had the energy to stand in front of the crowd of 35,000 people. While speaking to the crowd Farris explained that what he did he had done for God's glory and with His help, for surely, Farris said, he could not do it on his own strength. Something incredible had happened! Supernatural? Who's to say? However, another great thing did happen on that same day: eighty athletes hearing Farris' testimony prayed with him to become Christians.
Farris says God allows trials to come into people's lives so that He might be glorified and that others or oneself might grow closer to him. The night of his near-death experience in 1979, Farris chased the speeding car after he had just read Romans 8:28. It reads like this: "We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
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