Bible Study Letters Online Tracts
Bible Study Letters Online Tracts
Personal Testimony of Bob Krajcik
[ Bottom of Page ] [ Words to the hymn, I Was A Wandering Sheep ]
Reaching forth...
Subject: Testimony of Bob Krajcik
Here are a few things to share with you. I enlisted in the Marine Corps before graduating from High School. Away I went to Marine Corps Boot Camp, and graduated, thanks to the excellent leadership there. I did became a Marine. That title is not given away freely. I'm proud to have served.
Moving on, I went to Okinawa, Japan March, 1966 for about one year. In December 1966, my uncle stopped in Okinawa to see me. He had been in Vietnam for an extended tour. He had more stripes on his sleeve than I could count, and retired later from the Air Force. I had no idea he was in Vietnam, and never would have expected to see him in Okinawa visiting me. I had reported to my work that morning, and was told report to Headquarters on the double. Getting to Top's Office, on the way in there were two SNCO, one the Top, and the other in an Air Force uniform. What had I done? Well, I was sure surprised. My uncle and I spent the day together, and he told me a little about Vietnam.
My tour on Okinawa ended, and I went back to Ohio to my home town. There I found a friend home on leave that had enlisted in the Marines with me. He had spent his first tour in Vietnam, while I was on Okinawa. We together drove a car back to Camp Pendleton, California, from Ohio. He filled me with all sorts of stories about Vietnam. If you have never seen the look in a mans eyes that has been through it and can't get it out of his mind, be sure, I would not recommend it to you.
My time in Camp Pendleton was free of trouble. Orders came to Battalion, one set of orders, for my MOS to Vietnam. I jumped at it but was told I could not have them, as I already had been overseas. I tenaciously persisted, and finally signed a waver and away I went. While in Staging Battalion waiting for transportation, it was Christmas time, 1967. There was policy that civilians would open their doors on the holiday and transportation was provided to their house for some of the Marines at Pendleton. That was a pleasant Christmas. But my life was to take a turn in Vietnam that has had impact on me daily, and continues to be an influence to this day.
My time in Vietnam went by, and I was going home again to my surprise. I wasn't a picture of a happy person. The Vietnam war has had a lasting impact on me. Just before leaving one of the platoon warned me, if it were not for the fact they knew that I just didn't know better than to be as I was, they would have dealt with me. That's toned down for the gentle readers. December 31, 1967, I arrived at Dong Ha, Vietnam, and January 1, 1969, I left Vietnam and went back to Camp Pendleton, California. In a few months I was discharged honorably from the Marines.
My life was tumultuous as a civilian. In 1971 I considered going back to the Marines. They told me they would take me back as an E5 with all time in grade intact. After one year in the reserves I would have been active and it was sure a good offer they made. But my life was not together. I turned it all down.
When I was a young child, about 1956, I received a Bible from a church. Back then I read it a lot. The Psalms were precious to me back then. Snapping back from that memory, to an angry man, I took a knife one day, and cut that book to make a hiding place among the pages. When I did I was so impressed with the thought, that I heard when a young lad, Cut that book open, and the blood will flow out. I stopped cutting the book. I was very shaken.
Some years passed and my life was not the same. I tried as I could to reform my life. What a futile effort. I did some things that could be called good, and some that I worked with commented they could not have kept up with my ventures. But be sure I was empty of peace inside and filled with very much turmoil. I was stressed out, no peace.
In 1978 a little Baptist church in town came to the door knocking one day, and wanted my son to ride the church bus. Took me about one-second to have my mind made up he was going. There was such an empty place in me and very much turmoil. I heard the Something was changing when I heard the word of God preached, a result of some that invited my son to ride a church bus.
I knew the Holy Bible was truly God's Word before, but it was closed to me. God does all things in His time. I followed that church bus and went to church myself. The bus picked him up, and I got in the car and went to the church. I heard the Word presented there and the Lord had my attention. The Word of faith broke through to me and the joy of salvation was the prize for me. I was saved January 1979. The Lord saved me. Christ Himself saved me. My son and I were both saved at that church. There was still conflict in my life, but I had hope for the life to come.
Moving ahead to 1994, December of that year a group of doctors told me to forget about ever working again, after my having a very rough time for the years after an accident in 1989. You know I had a lot of conflict in my life, unresolved stress, and problems persisted after I was saved, but I had real hope after I was saved, especially for the life to come.
Also December 24, 1994, Mother called family together and announced she was just told she had cancer. December 25, I woke early and wrote a short tract that was passed out by me that day in church. January 28.1995 she was taken from us. She was an example of faith and strength through it all. While she was on her bed, more unconscious than awake, I was asked to read Psalms 23. Be sure I was reading with much weakness. Yet when it came to the verses, "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." She spoke out with boldness and recited that.
I tell you I look for the return of the Lord. I resolve to present more of the Word of God in the days ahead than I have before, so some better get the seat belts on. I am aware how popular that is for some. For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) Believers, those of the faith of the elect, are begotten by the foolishness of preaching (Titus 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1;21). Deal with it. Make what you will of me, be sure I am set to live for Him that died for me.
Reaching forth…
Bible Study Letters
Bob Krajcik
A.K.A. Polycarp_1947
A.K.A. MuskieGetter
A.K.A. CatfishGetter
A.K.A. Getter
A.K.A. Baptist Pilgrim
I Was A Wandering Sheep
Words: Words: Horatius Bonar, 1843.
Music: Lebanon, John Zundel, 1855
I was a wandering sheep,
I did not love the fold;
I did not love my Shepherd’s voice,
I would not be controlled.
I was a wayward child,
I did not love my home;
I did not love my Father’s voice,
I loved afar to roam.
The Shepherd sought His sheep,
The Father sought His child;
They followed me o’er vale and hill,
O’er deserts waste and wild;
They found me nigh to death,
Famished and faint and lone;
They bound me with the bands of love,
They saved the wand’ring one.
Jesus my Shepherd is:
’Twas He that loved my soul;
’Twas He that washed me in His blood,
’Twas He that made me whole.
’Twas He that sought the lost,
That found the wand’ring sheep,
’Twas He that brought me to the fold,
’Tis He that still doth keep.
No more a wandering sheep,
I love to be controlled;
I love my tender Shepherd’s voice,
I love the peaceful fold.
No more a wayward child,
I seek no more to roam;
I love my heavenly Father’s voice,
I love, I love His home!
§
Come and hear, all ye that fear God,
and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.
Psalms 66:16
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Bob Krajcik
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