From the Slums to the King’s Palace

The True Story of Ron Comfort

Mom had been drinking all night, and in a crazed stupor, she held me, her six month old baby, out the third story window. Had it not been for my grandmother who rushed into the room and pushed my mother aside, I would have been a dead baby lying on the streets of Brooklyn, New York. This was just one of the many ways God preserved my life, so I could later become a child of the King.

I was born into a Roman Catholic home in Elmira, New York, in 1938. Shortly afterward, our family moved to Brooklyn and settled in the Bedford Stuyvesant District. The instance first mentioned was only a taste of the kind of daily commotion that existed in our home. Dad was in the Army, but when he was home on leave, he and mom were constantly drinking and fighting. Upon his release from the military, Dad left Mom and moved away.

Life only got worse! Drunkenness and immorality were the norm in our household, and little was done to conceal these vices. Mom had a constant stream of boyfriends come through our apartment. Sometimes her escapades were used to pay the rent. We also faced heartless beatings as a way of life. My sister, Eleanor, received scars in her youth that she bore until her death. My brother, sister, and I were simply an inconvenience to Mom’s sinful lifestyle. Many days we found ourselves wandering the streets of the city and stealing from fruit stands just to survive. In Brooklyn, you were either in a gang or the object of a gang. My brother Billy and I decided to join up, and as young boys, we were fighting with brass knuckles, terrorizing others, and picking up cigarette butts off the street to smoke them.

When I was just seven, Mom decided to get rid of us, so she put us on a bus and sent us to our father in Elmira, New York. She tied a string around our necks and a sign that read “These children are the property of William Comfort. See that he gets these children.” I can still remember what we looked like on that trip. We were merely skin and bones. When we arrived at the bus stop, no one was there to meet us, so a policeman took us to a shelter to wait until they could find our father.

Dad came the next day and took us to his home. He said, “Kids, do you remember when I brought Roxie to Brooklyn and told you she was your aunt? Well, she wasn’t your aunt. She was my girlfriend, and now she is going to be your mother!” We soon moved with Dad and Roxie to Asheville, NC, where we tried to begin a new life.

It was anything but that. The next eight years were filled with nothing but fear. I still remember the night my parents were both taken to jail because of a drunken brawl. Mrs. Tiller, a Christian neighbor, kept us during their jail stay and showed us real compassion. When we went to bed that evening, I saw her down on her knees weeping and praying, “Oh, God, save Bill and Roxie Comfort behind bars! Save Billy, and Eleanor, and little Ronnie!” I was seven, but this was the first time in my life I ever realized that anyone loved me.

Well into my teens, fighting and drinking continued without relief. My heart broke one day, when I overheard my stepmom tell Dad, “Bill, I wish we could get rid of Ronnie! I hate him!” I wept myself to sleep that night wishing I could just die.

From age eight into my early teens, Dad had me singing in night clubs, on the stage and on television. I sang with Minnie Pearl in the Grove Park Inn, on several Carolina radio stations, and all over the state. This developed in me a sense of self confidence and willful pride, but still I had no peace!

At fifteen, I was singing and acting in an outdoor drama called “Thunderland” which depicted the life of Daniel Boone. It was held in Hendersonville, NC. One Sunday, some friend and I headed to Boone, NC, to see a rival play called “Horn in the West.” While riding along the curvy mountain roads on a flat bed truck, I fell asleep and rolled off the back. I was taken to the hospital in Boone. When my parents arrived to see me, all but my right eye was covered in bandages. Dad fainted into Mother’s arms when he saw me. Afterward, I read about two teens who had died in an eerily similar accident. The Lord used this to show me the brevity of life and the certainty of death!

In spite of the accident, pride ruled my heart. When folks said I was a sinner, I would think, “I’m not, but my brother Billy is.” I worshipped at the altar of Ron Comfort, and had no room for God. At seventeen, my brother Billy joined the Air Force, and it was there that he accepted Christ. For ten days, while home on leave, he boldly preached the gospel to our family. He said I was lost and would someday stand before God, and no one but Jesus could save me from hell! Conviction began to build in my heart. I knew this was true, but I would purposely avoid conversations with by brother so as to escape facing the facts.

Two months later, I attended a city-wide gospel crusade in Asheville, NC. The evangelist thundered against sin night after night! He plainly explained that every person is a sinner. “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). One evening, in the middle of his message, he said, “There is a young man in this building who is living for himself, and his god is popularity.” I wondered who had been slipping him secret information about me! His message continued that all sinners are headed to judgment. “The wicked shall be turned into hell…” (Psalm 9:17). “Whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:15). Though I thought I was good, God said I wasn’t, and because I wasn’t, I faced certain doom.

Then the Bible pointed to Christ as the Answer for my dilemma. “When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6,8). I could see that Jesus died for me, but that wasn’t all. He rose again. “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof ye are all witnesses” (Acts 2:32). The preacher proclaimed that I would be saved if I only would “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31). That Friday night in November, 1953, I called upon Christ to save me, and He did. I was instantly changed and made a child of the King! Since 1961, I have been an evangelist, traveling around the world and preaching this life-changing gospel.

Though your life is marred by sin, Jesus came to rescue you. If you will believe on Him today, He will save you from sin and from Hell, and make you His child! Bow before Him and pray:

“Lord Jesus, I know I’m a sinner, and I don’t deserve your love. Yet I believe you died and rose again for me! Right now, I trust in you and you alone to save my soul, to take away my sin, and to give me a home in Heaven. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me.”

If you just called upon Christ to save you, He did! “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13). Please contact us and tell us of your new life in Christ!

Ron Comfort

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Evangelist Dwight Smith
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Shelby, NC 28152