Sid Roth

SID: Hello, Sid Roth your investigative reporter here with Faye and Gary Whetstone. And Gary is in the hospital for the insane. He’s locked up good. They’re about ready to give him an electronic lobotomy; reduce him to a 3 year old. Someone comes in. He doesn’t even know who they are. They lead him to the Lord. He says “I’m ok now, I have God inside of me”;and they said sure. And they’re still going to do this procedure; and a voice says “Run!”The door is unlocked; a padded door with the bolts and the padlock – it’s open. He goes out, he runs out of the hospital. He gets out, but then he was told to go back to the hospital. And they investigate and examine him and found out he was as normal as could be! They released him, he married his childhood love; was it back in junior high you knew each other?

FAYE: We knew each other that long.

SID: And everything is going to be wonderful; except at one party. You smoke one joint of marijuana and then what happened?

GARY: All those thoughts came back again. The tormentors came back into my mind, and Faye who had said to me, “If you ever went back to that mindset she said we’re done”.

FAYE: I said I’m out of there.

SID: And you were.

FAYE: I was.

SID: And Gary, what happened to you? Did you just leave and say bye bye. I’ll just find someone better?

GARY: My mother told me, “Gary you’ve got demons in you.”I’m thinking “Oh great! What is a demon?”And during the course of that time, I did leave; by a little court order that she got for me to make sure that I left; just a little assistance to leave. And during the time that I found out that, I really was having a lot of torment in my mind. I tried to commit suicide sitting on a railroad track; and the next thing I found out is man, that I needed freedom and even though…

SID: And why were you unsuccessful, by the way at the railroad?

GARY: The train was actually being fixed. The rail where I set my car, they moved the train over to the other rail for that one night. I found out the train always runs on that track that night was on another track and didn’t hit my car; and I figured well, there must be a God in heaven trying to help me out of this thing and he did.

SID: And what happened next? You have a court order, you can’t go home anymore. Your wife wants a divorce?

GARY: I went and checked myself into a private psychiatric hospital personally. I said that’s it. I just I know that I’m in a warfare, and I didn’t know how to win. These voices kept speaking and I knew that if I could get these voices to stop, I could have a sane life and a fulfilled marriage. And I went in there and I stayed for a few days. And a man and another fellow came in. They were ministers; they ministered deliverance; cast these demons out of my life; I checked myself back out of the mental hospital, fasted and prayed for my wife; babysat for our children while she dated other men; and God spoke to my heart that I would learn love in my relationship loving my wife.

SID: Faye, what did you think when he was saying everything’s fine? I’m back to normal? I love you. What did you think?

FAYE: Well, I think a lot of times Sid, and what I went through in particular, is you wait for the changes in a person’s life. Just because somebody says something is different; when you’ve been through a lot with a person, you want to see the changes. And immediately I saw changes in Gary’s life. I saw the expression of God’s love that I had never seen before.

SID: So you stopped the divorce?

FAYE: No, I continued on with the divorce.

SID: Why?

FAYE: Well, I wanted my freedom. I wanted to be able to walk out at any point and time that I could, rather than to be caught in a marriage that I wasn’t sure was going to work.

SID: Ok Gary, the date of your trial for your divorce. What happened?

GARY: Well first of all, I paid for the divorce because God spoke to my heart, “Give her everything she wanted.”

SID: Was this a little strange?

FAYE: Yeah, but he had been strange before so it wasn’t a surprise. (laughter)

GARY: I paid for the divorce and so the judge says,

FAYE: And I took everything by the way.

GARY: Yeah, she sure did. She was trained right. The judge says “Do you have anything to say?”I said “Yeah. I’d like to read…”He said “I’m sorry. You can put your hand on the Book but you can’t read it.”I said “No. I want to read one sentence.”

SID: Did you know what he was up to?

FAYE: I knew something was going on and I was like, “Ok. Here we go! Just give me those divorce papers!”

GARY: So he said “Go ahead. For the court record: what do you want to read?” So I turned over to 1Corinthians. It says,“…but if she departs, let her remain unmarried or reconcile to her husband.”So I closed the Bible and I said “Today your honor, I’d like to let the court know that I will only permit Faye Whetstone to be reconciled to me. Thank you.”So that was it. He declared us divorced.

SID: Ok, so you walked out of the courtroom. But you had another idea. What happened?

GARY: I asked her if she’d like to go out to lunch because…

SID: You’ve got chutzpah!

GARY:  Hey, she was available! Free woman!

FAYE: And I was free. I had my paper in my hand…

SID: Yeah, you were free! But you just got rid of him!

FAYE: I know, but I had that divorce paper in my hand; which gave me authority I thought, and gave me control.

SID: Did you go out on a date with him?

FAYE: I sure did.

GARY: I had the money for the lunch.

SID: Why did you do that?

FAYE: Well I had been taking everything from him all along so…

SID: You could take a little bit more, I understand; but you didn’t give up. And when he did give up?

FAYE: He never gave up.

SID: And when he didn’t give up; he just kept courting you and courting you when did you melt?

FAYE: Well, he showered me with such kindness and love and never really asking for anything; just continually giving of himself. I began to see changes in him and I began to want what he had; and that was a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that was when things began to change; because I knew there was only one thing that could have changed him as a man; and it was the Lord.

SID: And you liked the change?

FAYE: I liked the change. He was so gracious and so kind. And I watched it over a period of months. I watched it, how he changed in the workplace. I watched how he changed relating to our children. I watched how he changed relating to me; how he was different in every aspect of his life; and it wasn’t just words but it was actions.

SID: At what point did you decide this man should be my husband? There’s no one better out there than him?

FAYE: I’d always loved Gary, and I think a lot of times we do that. We know that we love somebody and we see such potential in them, but because of what has happened we tend to doubt and believe that they can actually change. And it was through my relationship with the Lord and learning to trust the Lord. When I could trust the Lord, I could trust the Lord in Gary. I could trust the Christ in him; and that was where change really took place. And it was a point of trusting God more than I trusted the man.

SID: So you decided to get married again?

FAYE: We did it again.

SID: How long have you been married now?

GARY: Oh we’re now married 33 years.

FAYE: 33 years.

GARY: …with 9 months off for bad behavior.

SID: (laughs) and you know. What do you two do now?

GARY: Well, we’ve been pastoring now for 20 years.

SID: How many Bible colleges or schools have you set up?

GARY: Oh we’ve opened up now over 390 some Bible colleges and this next year we’ll open another 200.

SID: Were you fearful though? Even though you saw the changes in Gary? Were you fearful to go back to him?

FAYE: Absolutely.

SID: Because maybe he’d take another joint and you’d be right back where you were?

FAYE: Absolutely, but I had to trust the Lord more than I could trust him; and when I did that, the Lord has never disappointed me. The Lord has never failed me. The Lord has never let go. And that’s where my trust has been for the past…well we were divorced in 1975.And that’s where my trust has been ever since then.

SID: You know if there’s hope for Gary and Faye, of course there’s hope for you. And you may say, “Well I don’t love the man.”I bet you said I don’t love him anymore.

FAYE: Well of course.

SID: And you didn’t, but you didn’t even know what love is did you?

FAYE: No, not as a kid.

SID: And you know what? You don’t even know what love is. You say “Well I don’t feel like I love my husband. I don’t feel like I love my wife anymore. You don’t even know what love is. I tell you that God has chosen your spouse out of all the people on the face of this earth. And I’m going to tell you something else; you divorce your spouse and you get married again. You will find that same thing you didn’t like in that new person. So make it easy on yourself. Besides that there’s no one better and I’m telling you, this is your moment to decide make a quality decision. Make a quality decision first; not about your spouse but about God. Come to know him. Tell him you want to; it’s not a religious thing I’m talking about. It’s intimacy with him. Religion is the best thing we have when we don’t have intimacy. Intimacy is far better. It’s knowing he loves you. Just reach out to him. You’re hurt; you’re a very hurt person. He knows that he’s the only one, the only one that cares. And I tell you, as you change, your spouse is going to change. And the most wonderful life is ahead. Look what Gary and Faye would have missed if Gary hadn’t held onto the word of God. Hold on to the word of God. The word of God says what God has put together, let no man put asunder. Get to know your heavenly Father. Oh does he love you.