Thank You, Billy Graham

by Jerushah Armfield

  THOSE WERE TRULY GREAT DAYS

  Thank you, Billy! I remember as a young child going to your crusade here in Melbourne, Australia, with my parents. We also used to listen to your broadcast on the radio. We were so blessed. My mother had your photo in a frame on our mantlepiece. You could sense God’s presence over the radio as you preached. Those were truly great days! Your ministry changed my life. Thank you, Billy.

  AN OPEN LETTER OF THANKS

  Dear Dr. Graham, my spiritual destiny was set in motion when my Christian parents took me on vacation to attend your crusade in 1957 in New York City at Madison Square Garden, when I was eleven years old.

  I have no memory of what you said in your sermon that night; however, the Holy Spirit seized your words and with them wrapped my soul with the strength of eternity. I could not resist the beckoning of the invitational, “Just As I Am,” and made a mad dash to join those who felt the same tug of the Holy Spirit, an enormous crowd of people (which overwhelmed me not only in number but also in height). When I arrived in the decision room, a very nice woman led me to the Lord.

  Not long after that, you held a crusade in Louisville. My parents and grandparents had a party to welcome you and your staff. I remember meeting you. I recall looking up at this very nice, very tall man with incredible eyes. Standing there speechless, I thought I had just met and shaken hands with Jesus.

  Only years later did I totally commit my life to the Lord. Through many hardships, trials, and health issues, I have learned to depend entirely on Him for everything. In doing so, He has shown me that every Jordan barrier converts into an open portal, every pit offers golden nuggets, and every hill of difficulty transforms into a mount of deliverance. The Lord has proved to me over and over this promise, which has become my very favorite verse: “Did I not tell you and promise you that if you would believe and rely on Me, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40 AMP).

  I celebrated my spiritual birthday this summer; I was fifty years old. That is why this letter is so special to me. I cannot imagine my life without the Lord. I shudder to think what might have happened to me had I not been in NYC fifty years ago to respond to your invitation to accept the Lord. I thank that special woman, whoever she was, for leading me in prayer to receive Jesus as my Savior. However, I truly want to thank you, Billy, from the depths of my life, for your obedience to follow the Lord in the calling and purpose for your life. I am eternally grateful. Catch you on the other side!

  Lynn

  BORN AGAIN … THANK YOU

  At Explo ’72 in Dallas, I remember Billy Graham and Bill Bright sharing the Gospel with the people there. Most of all, I remember taking a stand and confirming my faith. I was a religious person and had attended church all my life, but after the meeting and prayer I knew without a doubt that Jesus Christ had come into my heart to be my Lord and Savior. I praise God for Billy Graham, because of the souls that he has won to Christ and because he stepped across denominational lines, took a stand for what he believed in, to bring unity to the Body of Christ and defined what the word Evangelical means. I believe Billy is a model for every minister sharing the Gospel, because he has not only talked the talked but led his ministry with integrity and purity of heart. God bless you, Billy Graham.

  MEN GOD USED IN MY LIFE

  Thank you, Billy, for your faithfulnes to God and His Word. I am walking with God because of how you did your part in His plan to reach me. When I was twelve, Billy pointed me to Christ, and at age twenty-four, men from the Navigators helped me learn to walk with Christ. I wanted you to know that godly men live on in the hearts of the ones inspired by them.

  AN ELDER BROTHER …

  I have watched Billy on TV ever since I came to Jesus back in 1975 at the age of ten. I have attended a few of his crusades in the New York metropolitan area. I have always enjoyed hearing him preach. Even more than that, I have admired watching him grow older with the Lord’s grace. He has been through many things as his body has aged, yet he keeps his youthful love and humility for the Lord. That is something I want to emmulate in my own life as I continue to follow Jesus.

  Kyle

  NEW FAITH IN CHRIST

  My wife and I are thankful for the ministry of Billy Graham, because we both came to trust Christ as our Savior in our senior year of high school. I trusted Christ at the 1969 Billy Graham crusade in Anaheim Stadium. A friend invited me to go and sing in the choir for the crusade. On the last day of the crusade, I finally gave in and went forward. That was an amazing experience for me. I have never felt happier in my life. I invited my wife to come to the crusade, too. (Of course, she was not my wife then.) She said no. But we had a long talk about spiritual things on a date in April 1970. I got to share my journey to faith with her. She was very interested. So I invited her to our youth group meeting. The night she came, we saw the Billy Graham movie His Land. She trusted Christ shortly after the movie. We got married a few years later and have been married for almost thirty-five years. We have been very involved in ministry in several churches and have led short-term missions trips to Russia. So, here’s another way God has used the Billy Graham ministry. Thank you so much for being obedient to God’s call.

  STAFF DEVOTIONS

  My respect for Billy Graham has always been high, but that respect grew tremendously after my interaction with the staff of BGEA. My only exposure to Billy Graham was through books and the occasional crusade on television, until I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, to plant a church. Several BGEA staff attended our small congregation, and I was invited to speak to the entire BGEA staff for their morning devotions. As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed, honored, and intimidated at the same time. What could I possibly say to a staff that was serving the Lord with Billy Graham? I was greeted with warmth and treated like family when arriving at the BGEA offices. After nervously addressing the staff and delivering a short devotion on the love of God, I was encouraged and sincerely thanked by many of the BGEA team. They presented me with a limited edition Billy Graham book and made me feel like I genuinely belonged. I will never forget the Jesus-like acceptance and love I felt that day from the BGEA staff. I haven’t met Dr. Graham personally, but I believe the measure of a man can be found in those around him. The people at BGEA are truly the shoulders on which Billy Graham stands, and my reason for respecting him more than ever.

  Derek

  MIRACLE

  Dr. Billy Graham, thank you for coming to Pittsburgh in 1968. My eldest son, then ten years old, received Jesus Christ as his personal Savior. He had a severe reading disability, diagnosed then as dyslexia. We were told by the neurologist there wasn’t anything that could be done for him. The next year, during Lenten season, the Episcopal church in Monroeville had a series of lessons entitled “God’s Presence in Everyday Living.” My husband and I attended. The first night was on salvation, and I knew I was saved. The second evening was on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I prayed, “If this is real, make it known to me.” A soft voice in me said, “Say thank you.” I quietly said, “Thank you for Your gift of love.” The third night, the topic was on healing. We were told that if we wanted to see demonstrations of healing by God to go to the Baptist church in Oakmont on Saturday evening. The whole family went, and a Rev. Chuck Trombley told of his son’s healing of brain damage from a motorcycle accident. My son asked if he could let Rev. Trombley pray for him. We skeptically agreed. Our son was totally healed over a period of the next three years. The first thing I noted was that he had depth perception. Then his grades came up from Cs and Ds to Bs and Cs. He continued to improve and by ninth grade was received into the National Honor Society. Today, he is a graduate of Grove City College as a chemical engineer and now teaches advanced math in a Christian school in California. He answered the call of God to leave engineering and teach God’s lambs. He is presently forty-nine years old, with no symptoms of disability. Thank you, Billy Graham, for laying the Gospel groundwork for the charismatic renewal in Pittsburgh.

  SINCE WAY BACK WH
EN …

  During the 1970s, stacks of Decision magazines sat in the small drugstore in our home in Indonesia. Friends who could read English helped themselves to a copy or two. As a teenager, I read them voraciously. English just happened to be my favorite subject in school.

  It was my mother’s oldest brother who started it all. He’d attended the Southern Baptist seminary in our hometown. And he was all for you and your ministry. I guess his excitement rubbed off on us. From his contacts in America came extra copies of Sunday school materials. Judging from the parcels of Decision, he must’ve been in touch with BGEA. (One issue I recall had a fiery-red “World Aflame” as the front-page/main article.) Then someone asked him to help translate these materials into Bahasa Indonesia. He got hooked! For decades, he translated tracts and Christian magazine articles from Dutch and English. He had the tracts printed and distributed them to various corners of our home country.

  Translations of articles used to be staple fare in church magazines, but sometime in the 1980s, my uncle ran into trouble. The BGEA representative in Bandung notified him concerning copyright infringements. (It was way too late to do anything about the problem.) In any case, Dr. Graham, I hope you’ll find it amusing to learn about this incident. My uncle went home to be with the Lord in 2003, at the age of eighty.

  SALVATION

  I have watched Billy Graham on TV for most of my life. I thought I was saved when I was five, but as an adult I realized I had never really turned control of my life over to God. I was in an unhappy marriage, had a three-month-old baby, and was suffering from postpartum depression. The only relief I got was reading the Psalms. One day, I started reading an old Billy Graham book that was my mom’s. In the middle of reading, the Holy Spirit touched my heart. God showed me a struggle going on between Him and my will. He spoke to me and said, “Don’t you think what I have for you is better than anything you could have for yourself?” I got born again that very minute! Only God knows the number of people drawn to Him because of Billy’s ministry!

  I’M A PREACHER NOW

  Some of my earliest memories growing up in the church were times I’d sneak upstairs to the sanctuary when no one else was around and pull up the pastor’s chair to the pulpit so I could stand and pretend I was the Rev. Billy Graham. I’m a preacher now and don’t need that chair to stand behind the pulpit.

  RESTORED AT LAST

  I was a gang leader at the age of nineteen. I wanted so desperately to find God, yet didn’t know how to go about it properly. I fancied the girl who invited me to Billy’s crusade and went with the intention of disrupting the meeting. However, I sat and listened to the message, and when the time came to go forward for the altar call, I found myself being lifted from my seat and going forward under some other force than my own. I received Christ into my life that night and felt His overwhelming love pour into me. I called it His first love. All I wanted was to do good for everyone, and even after leaving the park I went to the centre of the city and started praying for those whom I felt were lost like I was. His love set me free from seeing others’ faults. It was a tremendous occasion for me. I am now sixty-eight years old and still in love with Him, more so than ever. “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.” I thank Dr. Billy Graham for his time and effort in preparing himself to come to New Zealand, and for the message he spoke that night. Some years later, I became a foreman at a job making fridges and freezers and had to go into the city for some parts. It was there that I met again my counselor who prayed for me and laid hands on me for the receiving of the Holy Ghost. I was so excited that he remembered my name. Praise God for people like you, Billy. May you be richly blessed in all you do. I know God has set aside a mansion for you, and when the time is ready, you will hear him say, “Well done, my faithful servant.” Bless you and all your staff, in Jesus’ name.

  Lawry

  A TESTIMONY

  In May 1959 (the year Billy Graham came to town), I was only a young man, in my eighteenth year. At the time, I was living with my father in a home fractured by divorce. I was regularly seeing a girlfriend who was a Christian. (However, I was not aware of this.) I went with another (very sceptical) friend to the Billy Graham crusade at the Wayville Showgrounds in Adelaide, and God began speaking to me that night. After the meeting, on the way out, I purchased a Bible, much to the disgust of my mocking friend. Despite that, with determination I began reading the scriptures at home.

  The following Sunday (May 31), I rode my bike (twenty kilometres) to see my girl and to share dinner with her family. She asked me to go to church with her. During the service, she went forward for the Lord’s Supper (she had missed the morning Communion service), and as I witnessed that act, God touched my life with a profound sense of a deep and desperate need. My heart burned as if on fire, and my soul was deeply disturbed. When we arrived home after the service, Bev took me into a quiet room and turned on the radio, tuning in to the Hour of Decision broadcast.

  The Holy Spirit met me in that hour, and when Billy gave the invitation, I called the crusade counseling line in Adelaide and gave my life to Christ. Bev was very excited, and I was totally overwhelmed, not realising just how much my life would change after that night. I soon found myself baptised, in a church, teaching Sunday school, and was invited to be a member of a beach mission team, playing piano accordion as the team musician. I played wonderful choruses for children on the beaches and at night played to the adults in tent missions. Best of all, I played songs from the Billy Graham crusade songbook at those meetings.

  The next step was full-time Bible college for three years—and what amazing adventures God had planned! Marriage, missions, more training, more study, pastoral ministry, many trials, countless defeats, victories, failures and mistakes, countless miracles, faithful provisions, amazing grace.

  In 1959, I read and memorised the following quote from one of Billy’s books: “Study the Bible, read it and then live by it; only then will you be able to show to a confused world the transforming power of an indwelling Christ.” By God’s mercy and grace, I have. What a precious and wonderful Savior Jesus is.

  Thank you, Billy, with all my heart. How often I have wished through these years that I could meet and pray with you.

  Alan

  SAVED AND SEALED IN BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA

  I was raised in the Pittsburgh area as the only child of two loving parents who were faithful with church attendance and service in a mainstream Protestant denomination, yet I had no personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. In Sunday school, I was taught from an early age to love God. As the middle school years approached, I was surrounded by Roman Catholic girlfriends, so my interest in their faith peaked, and I began to practice Catholicism, reading my Bible and going to Mass. My parents were horrified, yet wisely refrained from forbidding me. God had a marvelous plan ahead.

  By age sixteen, I was determined to convert when I turned eighteen and would not have to have parental consent. In December 1969, I was grounded over Christmas break because I had seriously disobeyed my parents. I was sulking in my room one evening a few days after Christmas and turned on the battered black-and-white TV that only got one channel via rabbit ears. A Billy Graham crusade was in progress. I normally would not have watched such “Protestant heresy,” yet something in Dr. Graham’s voice and his earnest appeal, coupled with the simplicity of the Gospel message, snagged me. I watched the entire crusade, and at the close, alone in my room, I sank to my knees and I gave my life to Christ, unreservedly, forever. I knew I would never convert to Catholicism. I knew I had found the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I followed up with Martha Cumberland, a crusade counselor in Butler, Pennsylvania, who came to my home and led me through the plan of salvation and then discipled me actively for two years. My parents came to faith in Christ shortly after I was saved.

  Now residing in Raleigh, North Carolina, I will celebrate forty years with Jesus this December. I have made Him Lord as well as Savior, and I have no regrets. Because of many who prayed, a
nd those who raised and taught Billy Graham, he was able to usher me into the presence of the living God so that I could have the most significant encounter of my life on one cold, northern night. I am confident that the Lord will finish what He has begun in me. Thank you, Dr. Graham, for being His instrument!

  Susan

  “IT’S TIME TO COME HOME”

  I remember it like it was yesterday. I was living in St. Paul in 1990 and had just found out that my father had cancer. I was sitting at my kitchen table, thinking about what I could do. I was the younger of two girls, and my sister, a single parent, had a young child of her own. I knew she could not take time off from work, nor would she be able to give the support my mother would need to take care of my father and his illness. I knew they would need a lot of help, possibly twenty-four hours a day, and this was going to be the ordeal of a lifetime. Having been an oncology/hospice nurse, this was difficult, because I wanted to be with them and do the things nurses do.

  As I was sitting in the quiet, I heard a Billy Graham crusade come on TV. I did not realize that I was unconsciously listening. (My mother had listened to Billy Graham crusades when I was growing up, but I had never spent time listening to them.) As the topic of the crusade was being introduced, I looked up at the television and I was stunned! The topic of the crusade, and I believe it was also printed on the TV screen, was “It Is Time to Come Home.” At that very moment, I had peace and knew exactly what I had to do. God told me it was time to go home. A decision was never so easy to make in my life, as I knew that God was talking to me. Those few words changed my life.