Out of Death Comes Life
by Jeremy Reynalds
August 3, 2007
COSTA MESA, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- In a recent broadcast of his Front Page radio show aired on Southern California's KWVE radio station, Assist News Service Founder and President Dan Wooding talked with Bruce Sonnenberg and Warren Duffy.Bruce is the president of "He Intends Victory," a ministry to those affected by HIV and Warren (known as Duffy) is the host of the Duffy and Company and radio show which also airs on KWVE.
Duffy and the Beach Boys
In addition to being a long time broadcaster, Duffy also did public relations for the Beach Boys in the mid-1970's.
Dan asked Duffy to describe the experience. Duffy said at the time he was involved with them the Beach Boys were at a "dormant" period in their career and they were in the "doldrums." Laughing, he said, "They were looking for some good PR people to help them out and they couldn't get any of the good people, so they hired me."
Duffy helped revitalize the Beach Boys career by booking concerts in outdoor arenas, a rarity in those days.
He said that the biggest concert the group performed in 1976 was in Mile High Stadium in Denver. He said the Beach Boys hired a then new group called Fleetwood Mac that had just released their first album to open the concert. Carlos Santana, whose career had also bottomed out, played next and the finale was the Beach Boys. Duffy said that the outdoor strategy worked, with 155,000 people buying tickets at 27 dollars and 50 cents each.
Duffy said that resulted in a lot of money being made by young group members back in that era.
Dan commented that the last time he saw the Beach Boys was at Newport Beach and group member Mike Love said it was "great" to be there. He added, "and at my advanced age it's great to be anywhere."
Duffy Meets Terry
Dan shifted gears a little, asking Duffy how he met his first wife Terry, who has since passed on to be with the Lord. Duffy revealed that in those days he was a Taoist and Terry was a Hindu. Duffy lived in a large property overlooking Malibu, and decided that if he could find someone to share his faith with he'd get married. He met Terry and the two of them soon realized that they were serious about each other. The two of them left Malibu and went to Desert Hot Springs close to Palm Springs, California.
Not far from there, Duffy said, was a small retreat center called The Sky Valley Retreat Center. "And there was young pastor whose name was Bruce Sonnenberg, sitting across the table from me. He has been my friend now for 27 years and (our) first Christian pastor when we came back to our faith in The Lord. He shepherded us through, married us, and eventually did Terry's funeral service."
Bruce said that meeting began a life long friendship. "We had many times of sharing a meal together, and sharing our hearts and talking and praying and crying about Jesus a lot, and just learning together about Jesus. It was a wonderful time."
Bruce encouraged Duffy to go back to Hawaii. He said, "I thought it would be a wonderful move for him, and it was a wonderful move from God. They went to Hawaii and started their church over there, a very difficult thing to do by the way ... and they did a wonderful job of it."
The Launching of He Intends Victory
Dan asked Bruce to tell the audience about the beginnings of He Intends Victory, as was key to Terry Duffy becoming a board member.
Bruce said that in 1987 a couple of men in his church who were HIV positive asked to talk to him. They wanted to look at how Christians could successfully minister to people who were HIV positive.
Bruce added, "They were former drug addicts, and they'd come through the Orange County Rescue Mission where I was president of the board at the time. That was how the ministry of He Intends Victory began. We began with a support group in Irvine. That has grown so much that now we're in 16 countries around the world including six in Africa."
Dan then asked Duffy how his wife Terry had become involved in He Intends Victory.
Duffy said that through their friendship with Bruce and his wife Joanie they had heard about the new ministry of He Intends Victory and they were very inspired.
"Here's a local church pastor and he's taking on essentially the most controversial ministry of that era," Duffy said. "People were being asked to leave Christian churches because they tested positive for HIV. So here's this guy come along, and he's my pal, and he says 'no, no, no; this is a mission field.' And we're thinking, 'holy cow he's absolutely right' because we all know one of the greatest preachers in the world is death. It makes us all confront our own mortality, and here are people coming to the Lord because they're facing their final few years maybe. So Bruce is out there on this mission field. There was an opening on his board, and Bruce and the team ... invited Terry to join."
Bruce said he knew that Terry had a really compassionate heart and because of that her name came up right away. "She so graciously agreed (to join). Terry just jumped right in there. She was a powerhouse and a great gift from God."
Terry and He Intends Victory
Dan recalled the first time that Terry came to a He Intends Victory booth at the National Religious Broadcasters meeting.
Dan said, "You talk about passing by on the other side! Just about all the broadcasters as soon as they saw this was a bunch of people with AIDS or involved with people with AIDS, they were really passing by on the other side. I believe that Terry Duffy managed to grab hold of (the late Campus Crusade for Christ Founder) Bill Bright, explain what the ministry was about and Bill came to the booth. Before we knew it he was asking for people with HIV so he could hug them."
Dan said following that incident, evangelist Luis Palau, who had just lost a nephew to HIV AIDS, came by the booth.
Dan said, "He came and hugged everybody, and then from what I remember got up and spoke that night asking people to get behind this ministry and visit the booth. So Terry played a great role right at the beginning when there was so much misunderstanding. She was such a (great) PR person in the nicest way. She could persuade people to do things."
Duffy recalled his friendship with Bill Bright, who he said was his very first guest as a Christian talk show host When Duffy's old show went into syndication Bill was also Duffy' first syndicated guest. Duffy said, "I think we were the first couple that he shared with about the seriousness of his illness, because just about the same time when he got his diagnosis Terry received her diagnosis and both of them were on more or less the same journey. They got to share phone calls, letters, correspondence and we became really close."
Bruce said that a remarkable facet of Bill's character was that even though he was the founder of one of the largest missions organizations in the world, he was "a humble man (who) walked in the footsteps of Jesus, and he took time to be there with Terry and Duffy and minister to them as Terry was facing these issues."
Cancer
Dan asked Duffy how he and Terry got the news of her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, about which they learned in Dec. 1999.
Duffy told Dan that he and Terry were on vacation in the Rockies and had stopped by Focus on the Family in Colorado Springs to see Dr. James Dobson, and have lunch with him in his office. After that Duffy and Terry went to the mountains. When Terry started to experience some discomfort in her stomach, they thought she had contracted a stomach virus When Duffy experienced similar pain they both thought that they had contracted e-coli or something similar. However, Duffy's pain got better while Terry's stomach began to expand. A visit to the doctor produced a diagnosis of stage four ovarian cancer a day before the couple's 24th wedding anniversary. They soon learned the grim news that the chances of beating the deadly disease for more than five years were less than 10 percent.
Duffy described his reaction of the diagnosis to Dan. He said, "I was 12 years older than my wife. She loved older men! But you don't expect that any more than a parent expects they're gonna bury their child that you're going to bury a wife who is 12 years younger. You figure she's gonna be there ministering to you while you're going through the last stages of your life, and all of a sudden here came this devastating news. When we got the news I broke down and started crying. However, Terry with her bubbly spirit started interviewing the doctor. She said, 'Well tell me now, what do I do about this? I mean do I go for chemotherapy or for radiation; when's my hair gonna fall out?" You knew Terry and how she would react to news like that. It was amazing."
Bruce said, "Yes, she faced all her problems and challenges straight on. She wasn't afraid of anything."
Dan Wooding recalled a Movie Guide Award just before her death where Terry received an award from Ted Baehr.
He said, "She was her usual wonderful self, and if you didn't know what had happened you wouldn't even know she was sick I did what may have been the very last interview with her. She was just astonishing."
In the Lord's Presence
Bruce recalled the hours just before Terry's death when Duffy called him. "He said, 'Bruce you need to come. It's really time.' Terry had her bags packed. I mean whatever goes in the bags before you head to heaven, that was being placed in there and we were there for the last few minutes."
Bruce said that with Duffy and Terry being him and his wife's two closest friends for years the experience was very difficult.
"So it was hard being there, and yet knowing that she's being sent forward ahead of us into heaven, and that she's there helping organize things for the Lord right now," he said. "It was just difficult to let go though. There were lots of emotions, and in some ways great sadness and great joy all mixed together."
Terry Lives On
Bruce felt strongly that Terry's memory needed to live on through her major passion - helping children in Africa with HIV. So he helped found the Terry Duffy home in Jinja, Uganda.
Bruce explained that some of Duffy's fans had raised funds to help cover some of the costs of Terry's sickness. When she passed on to be with the Lord there was some money left over. Duffy asked Bruce if He Intends Victory would be interested in accepting the money. Bruce said the ministry would gladly accept the funds.
"We knew immediately that we needed to open the Terry Duffy home in Jinja, Uganda. So (we did)," Bruce said. "We have twelve children who live there and really are secure in their love for Jesus, and their sense of a future as Christians. They're wonderful children."
Bruce said that in addition to the Terry Duffy home there is also additional ministry in two other villages. The ministry provides medical care for two villages with about 750 residents, as well as helping with all their agricultural needs,
"We help them out," Bruce said, "but it's really all done in memory and in honor of Terry."
Duffy said the connecting link for Terry with Africa came through her older sister Chris who had been called to mission work in the northern part of Nigeria.
Terry went over to visit her big sister over in Africa, fell in love with the country and heard about the AIDS epidemic that was occurring.
Duffy said, "The fact that Bruce has put together this home that forever will be the Terry Duffy home and be a lasting memorial to her; I can't think of anything better."
Bruce added that the children staying in the home are known as Terry's kids.
Duffy reminded listeners that the fifth anniversary of Terry's homecoming just occurred, and that a great way to honor her life would be to make a contribution to the AIDS orphans staying at the Terry Duffy Home in Uganda. Those wishing to help can mail a check designated for that purpose to He Intends Victory 77 Post, Irvine, California 92618.
People wanting to learn more about He Intends Victory and the Terry Duffy Home can do so by going to www.heintendsvictory.com
© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission.
