FROM DEATH TO LIFE
The Testimony of Pastor Tom Donovan
When you look at my life today, you see a Calvary Chapel pastor, Bible teacher, missionary, international businessman, husband, and father.
But that is not where my story began.
I grew up in a violent home surrounded by drugs, crime, and severe alcoholism. I was introduced to drugs and alcohol when I was only nine years old. By junior high school, I was drinking, smoking marijuana, taking acid and mescaline, and using cocaine.
By thirteen, I was already in serious trouble with school and the law. For the next eleven years, my life became a revolving door of addiction, courtrooms, A.A., N.A., crime, and incarceration.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
I wasn't preparing for a future.
I was destroying one.
The Night My Life Should Have Ended
In October 1999, shortly after being released from the Nassau County Correctional Facility, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, attempting to purchase ten pounds of marijuana and restart a drug distribution operation.
I thought I was going there to rebuild my criminal business.
God knew my old life was about to come to an end.
The drug deal went horribly wrong.
I was surrounded by a group of men, struck across the face with a handgun, and brutally beaten with guns, bats, rocks, and pipes.
Somehow, I escaped.
Covered in blood and barely conscious, I eventually ended up in an ambulance.
Then everything went black.
I was pronounced DEAD ON ARRIVAL at the hospital.
DOA.
That should have been the end of Tom Donovan's story.
But Jesus Christ wasn't finished.
Exactly Forty Days
My injuries were catastrophic.
I underwent four brain surgeries. Approximately one-third of my brain was removed. My vocal cords were severed, and I fell into a coma.
Days became weeks.
People prayed.
Church members held prayer vigils.
And then came day forty.
After exactly forty days in a coma, I opened my eyes.
And what came out of my mouth?
THANK YOU JESUS!
THANK YOU JESUS!
The man who had been pronounced dead was alive.
Doctors said I would never walk or talk normally again.
But doctors did not have the final word over my life.
Jesus did.
God Even Used Prison to Restore Me
After leaving the hospital and rehabilitation, my old legal problems were still waiting for me in New York. I had to turn myself in and eventually returned to incarceration.
But God did something incredible.
The prison system that had represented so much failure in my life became part of my restoration.
I learned to walk again in prison.
I learned to talk again in prison.
God didn't merely restore me to the man I had been.
He began making me into a man I had never been.
From Prison to the Word of God
After my release, I began seriously pursuing Jesus Christ and studying His Word.
I went to Calvary Chapel of Hope in Amityville, New York, where I sat under Pastor Claude Stauffer and learned the Bible. Later, under Pastor Kevin Henesy at Calvary Chapel Island of Grace, I became involved in outreach and missions.
Then God began sending me places I never imagined going.
The man who once traveled to move drugs began traveling to move Bibles.
The man who once lived for himself began traveling to preach Jesus Christ.
Eventually, missions brought me to Uganda, where I met Pamela, who became my wife, and God blessed us with our family.
And there, God continued doing what only God could do.
And Today... Look What Jesus Has Done
Today, I am a Calvary Chapel pastor who has been given the privilege of teaching God's Word and serving His people.
God led us to establish Freedom Chapel Fellowship, and what began as a step of faith is growing into something much larger than I ever could have imagined.
Today, Freedom Chapel Fellowship has three Freedom Chapel Kids Clubs reaching approximately 1,000 attendees every week.
We have two Freedom Chapel churches, with a third church now in development.
We have established a Freedom Chapel primary school, and our vision is eventually to establish a school connected with each Freedom Chapel location, helping children receive an education while being taught and discipled in Jesus Christ.
And we are preparing to establish a School of Ministry so that believers can be equipped in the Word of God, trained for ministry, discipled, and sent out to serve Christ.
But God didn't stop with traditional church ministry.
He took the very business abilities that I once used for selfish purposes and redirected them for His Kingdom.
I founded Him First Media Group, a Christian marketing agency built to help churches, ministries, Christian organizations, and businesses reach people more effectively.
Then came Lordsbook, a Christian social media platform dedicated to Jesus Christ—His preaching, His teaching, Christian encouragement, discipleship, prayer, testimony, and Christian community.
Think about the contrast.
I once used business to help distribute drugs.
Today, I use business to help distribute the Gospel
I once traveled looking for drugs.
Today, I travel preaching Jesus Christ.
I once lived in and out of prison.
Today, I pastor churches.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
Today, we're building schools and preparing a School of Ministry.
I once destroyed lives through the things I participated in.
Today, God has given me the privilege of helping build ministries designed to teach His Word and reach thousands of people with Jesus Christ.
That isn't self-improvement.
That is redemption.
The Potter Wasn't Finished With the Clay
Jeremiah 18 describes God as the Potter and us as the clay.
That is my life.
I was broken clay.
Violence damaged me.
Addiction damaged me.
Crime damaged me.
My own sin damaged me.
Eventually, even my physical brain and body were broken.
But the Potter never lost control of the clay.
God took what looked ruined and reshaped it.
He took a prisoner and made him a pastor.
He took an addict and made him a Bible teacher.
He took a ninth-grade dropout and made him an international businessman.
He took a man involved in the drug business and gave him a Christian marketing agency.
He took a man whose voice was supposed to be gone and gave him a platform to preach, teach, and encourage people in Jesus Christ.
And He took a man who once lived only for himself and gave him the privilege of helping build churches, children's ministries, schools, a School of Ministry, businesses, and a Christian social platform dedicated to Jesus.
The glory does not belong to the clay.
THE GLORY BELONGS TO THE POTTER.
Romans 8:28 — The Story of My Life
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) says:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
I don't simply quote that Scripture.
I have lived it.
God took the violence.
The addiction.
The drugs.
The prison cells.
The failures.
The brain injury.
The four surgeries.
The forty-day coma.
And somehow, through His grace and sovereignty, He worked all of it together and brought me to where I am today.
So don't tell me someone is too broken for Jesus.
I know better.
Don't tell me the addict can't become the pastor.
I know better.
Don't tell me the prisoner can't become the preacher.
I know better.
Don't tell me the ninth-grade dropout can't become a businessman, build schools, or teach the Bible.
I know better.
Don't tell me God can't take the worst chapters of someone's life and use them as part of an incredible testimony.
I KNOW BETTER.
Because I know where I came from.
And I know Who brought me here.
I was pronounced dead.
Jesus gave me life.
I couldn't walk.
Jesus raised me up.
My vocal cords were severed.
Jesus gave me back my voice.
And today, I use that voice to preach Him, teach His Word, and encourage others to follow Jesus Christ.
My testimony is not:
Look what Tom Donovan built.
My testimony is:
LOOK WHAT JESUS DID!
And after everything God has brought me through, my heart still comes back to the same words that came out of my mouth when I woke up after forty days:
THANK YOU JESUS!
All the glory belongs to Him.
— Pastor Tom Donovan
The Testimony of Pastor Tom Donovan
When you look at my life today, you see a Calvary Chapel pastor, Bible teacher, missionary, international businessman, husband, and father.
But that is not where my story began.
I grew up in a violent home surrounded by drugs, crime, and severe alcoholism. I was introduced to drugs and alcohol when I was only nine years old. By junior high school, I was drinking, smoking marijuana, taking acid and mescaline, and using cocaine.
By thirteen, I was already in serious trouble with school and the law. For the next eleven years, my life became a revolving door of addiction, courtrooms, A.A., N.A., crime, and incarceration.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
I wasn't preparing for a future.
I was destroying one.
The Night My Life Should Have Ended
In October 1999, shortly after being released from the Nassau County Correctional Facility, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, attempting to purchase ten pounds of marijuana and restart a drug distribution operation.
I thought I was going there to rebuild my criminal business.
God knew my old life was about to come to an end.
The drug deal went horribly wrong.
I was surrounded by a group of men, struck across the face with a handgun, and brutally beaten with guns, bats, rocks, and pipes.
Somehow, I escaped.
Covered in blood and barely conscious, I eventually ended up in an ambulance.
Then everything went black.
I was pronounced DEAD ON ARRIVAL at the hospital.
DOA.
That should have been the end of Tom Donovan's story.
But Jesus Christ wasn't finished.
Exactly Forty Days
My injuries were catastrophic.
I underwent four brain surgeries. Approximately one-third of my brain was removed. My vocal cords were severed, and I fell into a coma.
Days became weeks.
People prayed.
Church members held prayer vigils.
And then came day forty.
After exactly forty days in a coma, I opened my eyes.
And what came out of my mouth?
THANK YOU JESUS!
THANK YOU JESUS!
The man who had been pronounced dead was alive.
Doctors said I would never walk or talk normally again.
But doctors did not have the final word over my life.
Jesus did.
God Even Used Prison to Restore Me
After leaving the hospital and rehabilitation, my old legal problems were still waiting for me in New York. I had to turn myself in and eventually returned to incarceration.
But God did something incredible.
The prison system that had represented so much failure in my life became part of my restoration.
I learned to walk again in prison.
I learned to talk again in prison.
God didn't merely restore me to the man I had been.
He began making me into a man I had never been.
From Prison to the Word of God
After my release, I began seriously pursuing Jesus Christ and studying His Word.
I went to Calvary Chapel of Hope in Amityville, New York, where I sat under Pastor Claude Stauffer and learned the Bible. Later, under Pastor Kevin Henesy at Calvary Chapel Island of Grace, I became involved in outreach and missions.
Then God began sending me places I never imagined going.
The man who once traveled to move drugs began traveling to move Bibles.
The man who once lived for himself began traveling to preach Jesus Christ.
Eventually, missions brought me to Uganda, where I met Pamela, who became my wife, and God blessed us with our family.
And there, God continued doing what only God could do.
And Today... Look What Jesus Has Done
Today, I am a Calvary Chapel pastor who has been given the privilege of teaching God's Word and serving His people.
God led us to establish Freedom Chapel Fellowship, and what began as a step of faith is growing into something much larger than I ever could have imagined.
Today, Freedom Chapel Fellowship has three Freedom Chapel Kids Clubs reaching approximately 1,000 attendees every week.
We have two Freedom Chapel churches, with a third church now in development.
We have established a Freedom Chapel primary school, and our vision is eventually to establish a school connected with each Freedom Chapel location, helping children receive an education while being taught and discipled in Jesus Christ.
And we are preparing to establish a School of Ministry so that believers can be equipped in the Word of God, trained for ministry, discipled, and sent out to serve Christ.
But God didn't stop with traditional church ministry.
He took the very business abilities that I once used for selfish purposes and redirected them for His Kingdom.
I founded Him First Media Group, a Christian marketing agency built to help churches, ministries, Christian organizations, and businesses reach people more effectively.
Then came Lordsbook, a Christian social media platform dedicated to Jesus Christ—His preaching, His teaching, Christian encouragement, discipleship, prayer, testimony, and Christian community.
Think about the contrast.
I once used business to help distribute drugs.
Today, I use business to help distribute the Gospel
I once traveled looking for drugs.
Today, I travel preaching Jesus Christ.
I once lived in and out of prison.
Today, I pastor churches.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
Today, we're building schools and preparing a School of Ministry.
I once destroyed lives through the things I participated in.
Today, God has given me the privilege of helping build ministries designed to teach His Word and reach thousands of people with Jesus Christ.
That isn't self-improvement.
That is redemption.
The Potter Wasn't Finished With the Clay
Jeremiah 18 describes God as the Potter and us as the clay.
That is my life.
I was broken clay.
Violence damaged me.
Addiction damaged me.
Crime damaged me.
My own sin damaged me.
Eventually, even my physical brain and body were broken.
But the Potter never lost control of the clay.
God took what looked ruined and reshaped it.
He took a prisoner and made him a pastor.
He took an addict and made him a Bible teacher.
He took a ninth-grade dropout and made him an international businessman.
He took a man involved in the drug business and gave him a Christian marketing agency.
He took a man whose voice was supposed to be gone and gave him a platform to preach, teach, and encourage people in Jesus Christ.
And He took a man who once lived only for himself and gave him the privilege of helping build churches, children's ministries, schools, a School of Ministry, businesses, and a Christian social platform dedicated to Jesus.
The glory does not belong to the clay.
THE GLORY BELONGS TO THE POTTER.
Romans 8:28 — The Story of My Life
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) says:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
I don't simply quote that Scripture.
I have lived it.
God took the violence.
The addiction.
The drugs.
The prison cells.
The failures.
The brain injury.
The four surgeries.
The forty-day coma.
And somehow, through His grace and sovereignty, He worked all of it together and brought me to where I am today.
So don't tell me someone is too broken for Jesus.
I know better.
Don't tell me the addict can't become the pastor.
I know better.
Don't tell me the prisoner can't become the preacher.
I know better.
Don't tell me the ninth-grade dropout can't become a businessman, build schools, or teach the Bible.
I know better.
Don't tell me God can't take the worst chapters of someone's life and use them as part of an incredible testimony.
I KNOW BETTER.
Because I know where I came from.
And I know Who brought me here.
I was pronounced dead.
Jesus gave me life.
I couldn't walk.
Jesus raised me up.
My vocal cords were severed.
Jesus gave me back my voice.
And today, I use that voice to preach Him, teach His Word, and encourage others to follow Jesus Christ.
My testimony is not:
Look what Tom Donovan built.
My testimony is:
LOOK WHAT JESUS DID!
And after everything God has brought me through, my heart still comes back to the same words that came out of my mouth when I woke up after forty days:
THANK YOU JESUS!
All the glory belongs to Him.
— Pastor Tom Donovan
FROM DEATH TO LIFE
The Testimony of Pastor Tom Donovan
When you look at my life today, you see a Calvary Chapel pastor, Bible teacher, missionary, international businessman, husband, and father.
But that is not where my story began.
I grew up in a violent home surrounded by drugs, crime, and severe alcoholism. I was introduced to drugs and alcohol when I was only nine years old. By junior high school, I was drinking, smoking marijuana, taking acid and mescaline, and using cocaine.
By thirteen, I was already in serious trouble with school and the law. For the next eleven years, my life became a revolving door of addiction, courtrooms, A.A., N.A., crime, and incarceration.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
I wasn't preparing for a future.
I was destroying one.
The Night My Life Should Have Ended
In October 1999, shortly after being released from the Nassau County Correctional Facility, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, attempting to purchase ten pounds of marijuana and restart a drug distribution operation.
I thought I was going there to rebuild my criminal business.
God knew my old life was about to come to an end.
The drug deal went horribly wrong.
I was surrounded by a group of men, struck across the face with a handgun, and brutally beaten with guns, bats, rocks, and pipes.
Somehow, I escaped.
Covered in blood and barely conscious, I eventually ended up in an ambulance.
Then everything went black.
I was pronounced DEAD ON ARRIVAL at the hospital.
DOA.
That should have been the end of Tom Donovan's story.
But Jesus Christ wasn't finished.
Exactly Forty Days
My injuries were catastrophic.
I underwent four brain surgeries. Approximately one-third of my brain was removed. My vocal cords were severed, and I fell into a coma.
Days became weeks.
People prayed.
Church members held prayer vigils.
And then came day forty.
After exactly forty days in a coma, I opened my eyes.
And what came out of my mouth?
THANK YOU JESUS!
THANK YOU JESUS!
The man who had been pronounced dead was alive.
Doctors said I would never walk or talk normally again.
But doctors did not have the final word over my life.
Jesus did.
God Even Used Prison to Restore Me
After leaving the hospital and rehabilitation, my old legal problems were still waiting for me in New York. I had to turn myself in and eventually returned to incarceration.
But God did something incredible.
The prison system that had represented so much failure in my life became part of my restoration.
I learned to walk again in prison.
I learned to talk again in prison.
God didn't merely restore me to the man I had been.
He began making me into a man I had never been.
From Prison to the Word of God
After my release, I began seriously pursuing Jesus Christ and studying His Word.
I went to Calvary Chapel of Hope in Amityville, New York, where I sat under Pastor Claude Stauffer and learned the Bible. Later, under Pastor Kevin Henesy at Calvary Chapel Island of Grace, I became involved in outreach and missions.
Then God began sending me places I never imagined going.
The man who once traveled to move drugs began traveling to move Bibles.
The man who once lived for himself began traveling to preach Jesus Christ.
Eventually, missions brought me to Uganda, where I met Pamela, who became my wife, and God blessed us with our family.
And there, God continued doing what only God could do.
And Today... Look What Jesus Has Done
Today, I am a Calvary Chapel pastor who has been given the privilege of teaching God's Word and serving His people.
God led us to establish Freedom Chapel Fellowship, and what began as a step of faith is growing into something much larger than I ever could have imagined.
Today, Freedom Chapel Fellowship has three Freedom Chapel Kids Clubs reaching approximately 1,000 attendees every week.
We have two Freedom Chapel churches, with a third church now in development.
We have established a Freedom Chapel primary school, and our vision is eventually to establish a school connected with each Freedom Chapel location, helping children receive an education while being taught and discipled in Jesus Christ.
And we are preparing to establish a School of Ministry so that believers can be equipped in the Word of God, trained for ministry, discipled, and sent out to serve Christ.
But God didn't stop with traditional church ministry.
He took the very business abilities that I once used for selfish purposes and redirected them for His Kingdom.
I founded Him First Media Group, a Christian marketing agency built to help churches, ministries, Christian organizations, and businesses reach people more effectively.
Then came Lordsbook, a Christian social media platform dedicated to Jesus Christ—His preaching, His teaching, Christian encouragement, discipleship, prayer, testimony, and Christian community.
Think about the contrast.
I once used business to help distribute drugs.
Today, I use business to help distribute the Gospel
I once traveled looking for drugs.
Today, I travel preaching Jesus Christ.
I once lived in and out of prison.
Today, I pastor churches.
I dropped out of school in the ninth grade.
Today, we're building schools and preparing a School of Ministry.
I once destroyed lives through the things I participated in.
Today, God has given me the privilege of helping build ministries designed to teach His Word and reach thousands of people with Jesus Christ.
That isn't self-improvement.
That is redemption.
The Potter Wasn't Finished With the Clay
Jeremiah 18 describes God as the Potter and us as the clay.
That is my life.
I was broken clay.
Violence damaged me.
Addiction damaged me.
Crime damaged me.
My own sin damaged me.
Eventually, even my physical brain and body were broken.
But the Potter never lost control of the clay.
God took what looked ruined and reshaped it.
He took a prisoner and made him a pastor.
He took an addict and made him a Bible teacher.
He took a ninth-grade dropout and made him an international businessman.
He took a man involved in the drug business and gave him a Christian marketing agency.
He took a man whose voice was supposed to be gone and gave him a platform to preach, teach, and encourage people in Jesus Christ.
And He took a man who once lived only for himself and gave him the privilege of helping build churches, children's ministries, schools, a School of Ministry, businesses, and a Christian social platform dedicated to Jesus.
The glory does not belong to the clay.
THE GLORY BELONGS TO THE POTTER.
Romans 8:28 — The Story of My Life
Romans 8:28 (NKJV) says:
And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
I don't simply quote that Scripture.
I have lived it.
God took the violence.
The addiction.
The drugs.
The prison cells.
The failures.
The brain injury.
The four surgeries.
The forty-day coma.
And somehow, through His grace and sovereignty, He worked all of it together and brought me to where I am today.
So don't tell me someone is too broken for Jesus.
I know better.
Don't tell me the addict can't become the pastor.
I know better.
Don't tell me the prisoner can't become the preacher.
I know better.
Don't tell me the ninth-grade dropout can't become a businessman, build schools, or teach the Bible.
I know better.
Don't tell me God can't take the worst chapters of someone's life and use them as part of an incredible testimony.
I KNOW BETTER.
Because I know where I came from.
And I know Who brought me here.
I was pronounced dead.
Jesus gave me life.
I couldn't walk.
Jesus raised me up.
My vocal cords were severed.
Jesus gave me back my voice.
And today, I use that voice to preach Him, teach His Word, and encourage others to follow Jesus Christ.
My testimony is not:
Look what Tom Donovan built.
My testimony is:
LOOK WHAT JESUS DID!
And after everything God has brought me through, my heart still comes back to the same words that came out of my mouth when I woke up after forty days:
THANK YOU JESUS!
All the glory belongs to Him.
— Pastor Tom Donovan
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