Honoring a Great General of the Christian Faith: Terry Law
On August 31, 2020, the Christian world lost one of its greatest generals. His name was Terry Law and it would take many books to tell his story. In fact, over his 77 years of life, he wrote nine bestselling books, including The Power of Praise and Worship and The Truth About Angels. His own riveting life story is told in James Gilbert’s book Storm Chaser: The Terry Law Story, available as print or a Kindle download.
Terry was a summa cum laude graduate of Oral Roberts University. In 1969, before graduating, he and a friend, Larry Dalton, started a music group called Living Sound. The young band toured South Africa at the end of that year—winning over 7,000 people to Christ.
A few years later God opened the door to Europe when the Youth Communist Party of Poland invited them to do huge concerts all over the country, mistakenly thinking they were an American rock band. Massive crowds showed up and a huge door for the gospel did too.
A leader of the Catholic church in Poland opened all of their churches for concerts and outreach and, in 1980, Terry, Living Sound and Don Moen were invited to do a concert in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. Terry met John Paul II who further opened doors for Living Sound to minister all over Europe.
In 1982, Terry tragically lost his wife in a car accident. This incident threw him into a deep depression, which was only broken when God told Terry to praise Him. It took hours and a deep effort for words of praise to begin to come from his lips but the more he praised, the more the chains of depression fell off him. This experience inspired one of Terry’s greatest books called The Triumph of Praise.
Terry always had a huge heart for nations which were hostile to the gospel. Like with Living Sound, God continually opened unusual doors into the most difficult to reach places on earth. Terry began to print a booklet called “The Story of Jesus.” After the fall of the Soviet Union, CBN’s Superbook program in Russia ran a short ad for a free copy of that booklet. The Moscow post office called them to come and retrieve a million pieces of mail, each piece requesting a copy. In the end, Terry’s ministry distributed more than 10 million copies across Russia.
Terry then translated “The Story of Jesus” into the North Korean dialect and inserted copies into bags of grain. In this way he got over 100,000 copies into North Korea. They also printed the booklet onto large helium balloons and floated them into the country over the border. Over his lifetime, Terry printed 27 million copies of that booklet in 52 languages for distribution into some of the most difficult to reach nations on earth.
Around the early 1990s, God began speaking to Terry about ministering to the most urgent practical needs of people in nations hostile to the gospel. Terry started World Compassion and for the rest of his life, he carried provisions like food, water, shoes, clothes, heaters and education into these nations in one hand and the gospel in the other. In Afghanistan, he started a school where more than 8,000 students, most of whom were women and children, were educated. At that time, women had been unable to attend schools for the previous 30 years.
In 2003, after the 9/11 attacks, Terry turned his focus to Muslim nations. He made friends with a top Iraqi general, Georges Sada. After Terry’s death, General Sada made the following statement, speaking on behalf of the Iraqi people: “I was always very proud of Terry and never hesitated to introduce him to the president, prime ministers of Iraq and Kurdistan and he became one of their best friends. Terry strongly challenged the prime minister of Iraq to include complete religious freedom in the constitutions of Iraq and Kurdistan and it was done.”
In 2014, when ISIS moved in and captured the city of Mosul, Terry and World Compassion arrived a week later with desperately needed food and supplies. In another outreach to kids in northern Iraq among the Kurds, Terry arranged for the distribution of 95,000 pairs of quality sneakers to the kids whose shoes were melting in the desert heat. Of course, each kid got a copy of “The Story of Jesus” in their language. From Northern Iraq, Terry arranged to smuggle 100,000 Bibles into the massively growing church in Iran.
Joel Vesanen worked alongside Terry through thick and thin for 50 years. He described Terry as “a generous man, compassionate, wanting to reach out to the unreached, those who were hurting, not only with the Scripture but with practical aid in any way possible.”
Pastor Ray Bevan from the U.K. said, “Terry Law was a legend. He was fearless, faithful to his calling but, more than anything else, he was a friend.”
Finally, Pastor Bob Yandian, who pastored Grace Fellowship in Tulsa, Oklahoma for 33 years, said, “Terry was just a regular guy. He loved his wife Barbara, he loved Jesus and he loved muscle cars. He didn’t just buy a BMW5, he bought a BMWX5 with a racing engine in it. He crammed a lot of lives into one life.”
Terry is survived by his wife, Barbara Law, seven children and 10 grandchildren. His son, Jason Law, is now the president of World Compassion. Terry’s legacy lives on, not only through his amazing ministry, but through the millions of lives he touched. {eoa}
Dr. Berin Gilfillan is founder of the International School of Ministry, which offers video Bible training for pastors, youth and community development media in 70 languages. He is also founder and president of Good Shepherd Ministries, a television producer and an author.
