Rev. Orland A. Wolfram ("Brother Orland")
Orland Wolfram's Sermons, Articles, and Letters
"This photo of Orland Wolfram shows the force and intensity of his life. . . There is strength and intensity that I thought . . . fits in with the articles [of his being] shared on the Internet." --Dr. Robert B. Dallenbach |
Orland Albert Wolfram was born in 1912, the
first of three sons, to Pillar of Fire missionaries Rev. Albert and Rev.
Gertrude Wolfram. Early in life he exercised saving faith for salvation
in Jesus Christ and shortly accepted a call into full-time Christian service.
A man who has been called brilliant by many who had the privilege of knowing him, Brother Orland early displayed and developed many talents. He had a gift for music which he nurtured through innumerable hours of practice and study. He played piano and organ like an angel. Both his example and his teaching have inspired generations of instrumentalists. Later in life as a missionary to the poorest of the poor in Guatemala, he carried an accordion with him and gave the gift of beautiful music to those for whom the purchase of a piano or organ for their humble congregations would be an impossible dream. |
Orland Wolfram studied mathematics and physics and taught numerous classes in Pillar of Fire high schools and colleges. He studied architecture and created plans for, and built, several buildings still in service today. He excelled at sports, which he delighted in. He had unparalleled insight into the Bible, which he loved to study and to teach.
When Bro. Orland's mother was stricken with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow, and became bedfast, he willingly undertook arduous duties as nurse and companion to her and his aged father. Only after she died in 1959, six years after she had contracted an illness which usually took lives within months, did he move forward on a call which he had felt for years: to go as a missionary to Central America.
He had no Spanish and no support from a large mission board when he left for Guatemala, and the country was dangerous for evangelical Christians, who frequently were physically attacked. But his calling was clear and he persevered. (See his article, "First Days on Foreign Mission Fields," for a fascinating description.)
Even when he was maimed and blinded in a terrorist bomb blast, he was not dissuaded from his calling.
Orland Wolfram died in January, 1987, still "with his boots on" at the age of 74. He is buried in Guatemala City where he had given twenty-five years of his life in the service of his Lord. He never married. He was survived by two younger brothers -- Gordon (since deceased), and Donald -- and seven nieces and nephews, as well as uncountable "sons and daughters in the Gospel," by whom he is greatly missed, but we look forward with a sure hope to our reunification in Heaven when this life is over. [Suzanne Wolfram, niece; 05-24-99]
Orland Wolfram's Sermons, Articles, and Letters
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