Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God. #BillyGraham

In October of 2002, Billy Graham came to Dallas to speak in what was to be one of his last crusades, The Metroplex Mission, a four night event. Weeks before, our church was contacted by the BGEA to be one of the participation area churches. I attended the Billy Graham five-week training program at our church and volunteered to be a counselor at the Dallas Metroplex Mission crusade.

Part of the 5-week training program included bible verse memorization, which my oldest daughter, Michelle, helped me with. As a result, she memorized those bible verses too.  It was during this time I began praying for one of my husband’s friends who was in the hospital and was not expected to live. My daughter and I went to visit him in the ICU at the hospital where we found him on a ventilator and unable to talk. That gave us plenty of opportunity to do all the talking. So we shared some of the Bible verses from the BGEA training, went over the plan of salvation, and prayed out loud for him.

The next day, my daughter told me that she had been sharing the Bible verses with her boyfriend and that he’d been asking a lot of questions about becoming a Christian. I encouraged her to go over the plan of salvation with him as soon as God gave her the next opportunity, which came that very night. He received Christ as His Savior in response to the gospel. He started attending our church and began a one-on-one Bible study with his Sunday School teacher. He also came to the first night of the Metroplex Mission and came forward to make a public profession of faith.

On that first night of Mission Metroplex, Billy Graham, at age 83, spoke clearly about God’s love and His plan of salvation. One of the first girls that I spoke with was a 22 year old young lady who came forward to rededicate her life. She explained that she first came to know Christ at age 20 but that she had not been following Him the way she knew she should. I told her that when I was young, I did the same. I explained that I first came to faith in Christ at age 12 and then drifted away in my teens and early twenties. I mentioned that when I was her age I was working as a cocktail waitress and bartender and didn’t turn my life around until I was in my mid-twenties, a few days after hearing Billy Graham speak on TV. Her eyes opened wide and she looked shocked. She told me that she was currently working as a cocktail waitress and bartender. So, out of the over 2300 people that come forward to make a decision for Christ that night, God arranged for the two of us with a similar background, to connect and speak with each other. Amazing

Over the next few nights at Mission Metroplex I had the privilege of talking and praying for several more ladies. After it was over I came away with the understanding that Christians should always be ready to share our faith anytime, not just at a Billy Graham crusade.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

Concerning my husband’s friend who was in the hospital, he passed away within a few days of our visit. While I don’t know if he was able to hear us, or if he ever received Christ, I do know it was those same Bible verses and plan of salvation that we spoke to him about that my daughter shared with her boyfriend, who in turn responded by receiving Christ. A little over a year later, this young man died unexpectedly at age 24 and I believe he is in heaven today because he placed his trust in Jesus.

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:15

On February 21, 2018,  I woke up to the news that Billy Graham had passed away at age 99. Billy Graham spent the bulk of his life preaching the the gospel and pointing millions and millions of people to Christ, one of which was me.

I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die. John 11:25