When I was 14 years old my mother arranged for me to attend a religious prep school away from home. She had been to one and insisted that all eight children attend one as well. At the boarding school, the other boys came from Chicago, Oklahoma City, and other big cities. I was from a small country town. When we met, they decided, “Here is a boy who needs to learn about the fun things of life.” Within six months I was smoking, drinking, and chasing girls.
A year later my dad went broke. We raised potatoes in Alabama, Texas, and Idaho. The prices dropped, and he had no choice but to sell all his equipment. All the money was gone and I was sure it was my fault because I was living in “sin;” I decided that if I would just follow all the rules of my religion, it would fix the problem. However, the more I tried to be good, the worse I got. I deduced, “I might just as well have a good time because I am going to hell anyway!”
When I finished high school, even though I had good jobs, I did not really like them, mostly because I did not enjoy working for other people. So I went to a Chiropractic College.
Why Chiropractic College? When I was four, I had fallen out of a moving car and the injury had paralyzed me. I would scream if anyone even touched me. My parents took me to a Chiropractor. He treated me a couple of times and then said, “Get off the table.” I complained that I could not because it hurt too much. He forced me and, to my amazement, I did not hurt at all. At that time I told my Dad I was going to be a doctor like that doctor.
I completed my Chiropractic degree and received my license, but that did not fill the void in my life. I figured it was time to get married. I still carried that “monkey on my back” only now it got worse. We had three lovely children, but nothing got better.
In my upbringing, divorce was about the worst thing that could happen; it would condemn me to hell. We separated and she went back to South Carolina, where her family lived. I thought that if she and the children were not in the same city, we could get along with less strife, but the separation made matters worse. I decided that if I could not help myself, there was not much hope of my helping other people, so I quit my practice and went back to selling shoes.
Selling shoes was very mechanical. It was like being dead and yet still alive. In my search for answers, I became involved in Eastern religions. I read every book I could find on the topic, wanting to find spiritual power. By then I believed in reincarnation, transcendental meditation, and evolution. When my parents came from Houston for my sister’s wedding, they kept bugging me to come back to the Panhandle of Texas. This continued during a trip we took together.
When I left home to attend Chiropractic College we had parties to celebrate the great success I was going to make of myself. Now, to go home defeated, with my tail between my legs, seemed just too demeaning. Then I remembered a Bible story about Gideon who had laid out a fleece. I knew there was a God, so I told God, “If you want me to go back to my hometown, I would not have a place to live or a new job like I have here.”
When we returned to Houston, I noticed a note on my car window, which said, “Dear Terry, we’ve moved to Wisconsin.” I no longer had a place to live and, as it turned out, I did not get the new job I had been counting on.
In one of the books I’d read, it recommended that if you did not have anything else to meditate on, you should use the “Our Father”. In doing this, I found myself crying out to God in desperation. To my surprise, I felt a tangible love come over me.
I moved back home to the Panhandle of Texas in 1970. The first person to call me at home was a school buddy. He had become a “born-again Christian” and kept asking me to go to church with him. One day I agreed to go with him just so he would stop bugging me.
This was the first time I had ever been in a church where people looked like they were enjoying themselves. They seemed so happy and at peace. I thought to myself, “Oh, God, if I could just have some of that.” I began to copy their style of worship, thinking that if I did that maybe, just maybe, I would feel better.
When I raised my hand very slightly, that “monkey” went off my back. I now believe that my life was changed right then. The moment I entered into the worship of Jesus something changed in me; it was that sign of surrender. I don’t know what it was; I just know the “monkey” was off my back for the first time in 16 years. At the end of the meeting they asked people forward for prayer. When I got to the front, the minister asked why I had come and I answered, “I don’t know. You invited us forward for prayer, so here I am.”
I kept my friend up till three in the morning going through the Bible, talking about what it meant to be “born again” or “saved”, and saying the “sinner’s prayer”. Two weeks later I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Then I met a sign painter named Morris Means. We became friends, and for the next two years, he discipled me on the importance of prayer. I was under a lot of stress because I could not seem to make enough money, and my wife was now divorcing me and threatening that I would never see my children again. Though I felt a lot better now that I was “born again”, I still had a lot of problems. Every time I would go to Morris with my problems, he would ask if I’d prayed about them. I would tell him I had and he would always answer, “Well go pray some more.”
Off I would go to pray, and when I came back to him, he would always answer the same, “Go pray some more.” Soon I discovered that when I spent time with God, my problems would go away. One day Morris said he was going out to a cottage he owned to spend some time in prayer and I asked if I could go along. He agreed.
I stayed there for twenty-six days. When I came back, nothing had changed that I could feel. I was still broke, though happy. At this point I wanted to go into full time ministry, but the friend who had led me to the Lord, phoned and said he had a friend, a Chiropractor, who needed help. A couple owned the practice. The husband had been killed in an accident and the wife was sick. She was looking for someone to take over her practice. The third time he called, I agreed to check it out.
Once again I put a fleece before the Lord. I said, ”God, if you want me to be a Chiropractor, I want a rug on the floor, a trained receptionist, an X-ray machine and all the equipment. I do not want to borrow any money.” At that time I couldn’t have borrowed any money if I’d wanted to. When I saw the office, it was better equipped than I had even asked for. I thought I would never get it unless I borrowed a bunch of money.
To my surprise, all she wanted was for me to pick up a small rental fee. Before I left I was already adjusting patients. In a couple of years, I was able to buy another office that was twice as big. I became very prosperous and well known in my profession.
Then I attended a meeting of the FGBMFI (Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International). Within a few months, I was asked to be president of the Chapter. By the end of the year 300 people were coming the chapter meetings. Then I began to pray for the territory 150 miles in radius around my town. In the next seven years, we started 13 Chapters and held four successful conventions.
I was about 40 years old at the time and so many wonderful things were happening. Everyone would come and tell me what a great job I was doing. The compliments went to my head and I began thinking that I was really pretty good. Now when my friend kept telling me, “Terry, go pray some more,” I told him to leave me alone, that I was too busy. Pride had entered in. One day God told me to resign from all my problems. I knew what it was like without God in my life, so I obeyed.
I turned my business over to my brother and asked the Lord to send me some place where true revival was to take place. He brought San Antonio to mind and I moved to South Texas in 1979. Without Jesus this would have been a very difficult time, but it was a positive time of learning with God’s help. One day I was in my office when someone wanted to talk to me. It was my ex-wife who, to my surprise, offered to send me photos of our children, whom I had not seen in ten years.
Later she invited me to see them. It was very special; the children and I made an immediate connection. They were 12, 13, and 14 years old at the time. When my eldest son, Ted, was fifteen, he came to live with me. A year and a half later his brother, David, came to live with us. Since that time my children have given me five grandchildren. Dr. David Peters is a Chiropractor and works with me in our two mall locations. My daughter, Debra, has a Masters degree in Civil Engineering, and lives in South Carolina, and my other son, Ted, lives in Houston, and is in business for himself.
There came a time when I began to pray for a wife. I asked God to choose one for me this time. One day several of us from singles group went to visit a young lady who’d been to our church once. It was an awkward afternoon for me. After a long time of being quiet, I started to talk to her about God. I asked her, “Do you know Jesus?” She answered that she knew all about the person and life of Jesus. But when I asked her if she had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, she said she didn’t, so I asked if she would like to have one. When she said,“Yes,” I led her in the “sinners prayer”.
I then asked her if she would like to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. I explained that it was when God gives us power to live the Christian life. She said yes, so I prayed for her and she immediately spoke in “tongues”. Four months later in April 1985, Gerri and I married. Since that time God has prospered our Chiropractic business. She takes care of all the finances and paper work.
The greatest thing that has happened to me in the last few years is a project to get people to pray. One day in prayer the Lord showed me that I could exhort people to pray - something that is dear to the Lord's heart and not mentioned enough in the body of Christ. If just one person in every country picks up this message and begins exhorting others to pray, it will create an atmosphere of revival around the world.
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