“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.” 2 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV
When Billy Graham transferred from Florida Bible College to Wheaton College, he was asked to transport a quartet to sing at evening meetings, and he would be the speaker. The first place they went was a church in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Completing his senior year at Wheaton, Graham was serving as pastor of Wheaton Gospel Tabernacle. Meanwhile, he met and became engaged to Ruth Bell, a missionary doctor’s daughter who had grown up in China. Just before Billy and Ruth married, Wheaton graduate Torrey Johnson recommended him as prospective pastor at Western Springs (Illinois) Baptist Church to Robert Van Kampen, a deacon.
Torrey Johnson later asked Graham to consider taking over the “Songs in the Night” Sunday evening radio broadcast. Graham went to Moody Bible Institute radio station WMBI and met with the station’s director of music, George Beverly Shea, inviting him to sing on the weekly broadcast in Western Springs. Mr. Shea reluctantly consented.
Meanwhile, Torrey Johnson was spearheading Chicagoland Youth for Christ meetings at Orchestra Hall, and invited Billy Graham to be the first speaker.
Graham was endeavoring to enlist as an Army chaplain but could not pass the physical. Radio listeners provided funds for Billy and Ruth to spend a week in Florida in December. Torrey Johnson and his family were staying on the same street, and Torrey invited Billy to go fishing with him. During that providential time together, Torrey presented his vision for pulling together all of the Youth for Christ ministries that were happening across America and beyond, to form an organization to be called “Youth for Christ International.” He asked Graham to prayerfully consider being the first staff member of the new organization, to begin the following January.
Torrey Johnson was booking Billy Graham to speak at Youth for Christ rallies when possible, and he asked Billy to take his place to speak in Detroit. It was Billy Graham’s very first airline flight.
The Torrey Johnson / Billy Graham connections continued personalizing again Romans 8:28: “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.”
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10 NKJV
As Mary and I were celebrating our first year of marriage, her parents invited us to accompany them on a trip to the Southern Baptist Convention in San Francisco, traveling to most of the western states (except the Dakotas), and from Tijuana, Mexico to Vancouver, British Columbia.
Meeting with Charlie and Claire Mellis at Mission Aviation Fellowship headquarters in Los Angeles on our first wedding anniversary, I learned that all MAF pilots would also be required to be aircraft and engine mechanics. It was a shock because I had no aptitude for that, but I was challenged to continue pursuing the possibility of opening Brazil for MAF.
At the Southern Baptist Convention, we presented a sign with the message “Christ is the answer,” to be offered in the Baptist Book Stores catalog. When we returned to Greenville, South Carolina, it became our first “roadside missionary” along US Highways 25 and 29.
Dr. Gilbert Stenholm, dean of the Bob Jones University school of religion, asked me to consider making “Gospel signs” my extension ministry and allowing Bill Brown, a senior, to take over the Hendersonland YFC ministry.
We organized Gospel Advertising Association, and soon handled advertising for over 100 evangelists, providing posters, bumper strips, and other materials for their meetings, sending advertising materials to 47 states.
One of the most successful evangelists was T.W. Wilson, who had come to know Jesus Christ personally at the Mordecai Ham meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the same time Billy Graham was born again.
When I graduated in 1954 from Bob Jones, T.W. Wilson asked me to meet him at the Youth for Christ International convention at Winona Lake, Indiana, where he offered to introduce me to all of the evangelists affiliated with Youth for Christ. It was a distinct honor to accept his invitation, and a real delight to be introduced personally to Torrey Johnson.
God connects and reconnects whom He wishes, when He wishes, and where He wishes.
The “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” message will be displayed on tent banners and labels on water bottles to be shared, God willing, during July and August in nine Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky county fairs and street festivals.
God will work in and through you when you invite every possible person to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”