“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NKJV
Earl Radmacher wrote: “In the whole Bible, there is no more passionate, comprehensive statement of the truth of the Gospel than Galatians. Salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ alone. No work can earn salvation.”
My parents and I lived in Virginia a short time, celebrating Christmas 1940 there. A memorable gift was a touch of destiny: a metal model 4-engine propeller-driven DC-4 American Airline. At age 9, I had not yet been in an airplane. but was fascinated by aviation. It would be five years before my first ride in a small airplane, and 15 years before my first commercial flight.
In 1934, a 5000 square foot tabernacle was built in Charlotte, North Carolina for an evangelistic outreach by Dr. Mordecai Ham.
Billy Graham reluctantly attended, meeting the Wilson brothers Grady and T.W. Sometime before his 16th birthday, Billy and T.W. responded to the invitation.
“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8 NKJV
During my student days at Bob Jones University, T.W. Wilson, a BJU grad, spoke in chapel, and we met immediately following. My Dad designed a poster for T.W., and we began supplying advertising for his crusades. Athens, Georgia was first.
T.W. invited me to meet him at the Youth for Christ International Convention at Winona Lake, Indiana in July 1954. He promised to introduce me to Youth for Christ evangelists and leaders, and other significant YFC personalities.
“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend.” Proverbs 27:17 NKJV
Someone has well said, “It’s really not what you know but who you know that provides a constant array of open doors.”
T.W. introduced me to Torrey Johnson, founder and first president of Youth for Christ, and other YFC personalities, including Mel Larson, editor of YFC Magazine.
Torrey asked, “Will you do posters for my crusades? I’m not having as many as I used to, but I’m still having some, and I would like for Gospel Advertising to help me.”
After graduating from Bob Jones University, I made an appointment with Dr. Bob Jones Jr. to present a poster idea to possibly advertise his crusades. He greeted me, “George, I wondered when you were going to approach me about advertising my meetings.” I explained I wanted to wait until after my graduation. He responded, “the timing is right.” He was preparing for an area wide crusade in Colorado for March 1955.
They ordered hundreds of posters and bumper strips, and were almost finished when we got word that my Dad’s mother, my grandmother Maggie Gaines Dooms, had gone to her heavenly reward February 22, 1955.
My Dad and Mother and my wife Mary drove to Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and I stayed back to coordinate completion of the project for Bob Jones Jr.’s Colorado crusade and get them shipped. When I was at the Greenville airport to get my ticket, Cliff Barrows was getting ready to board another flight. He asked, “George, where are you going?” I told him about my grandmother’s memorial service and that I was flying to Evansville. He said, “Do you know that T.W. is going to be there next weekend at the Rescue Mission?” I was surprised to learn that he was to be in Evansville. Cliff had flown all over the world, and was unaware that this would be my first airline flight: from Greenville to Louisville, Kentucky on a Lockheed Constellation, and then board a smaller plane from Louisville to Evansville, where my family met me. Going to my grandmother’s memorial service and later driving back to Evansville, we listened to T.W. speaking on WGBF from the Evansville Rescue Mission.
T.W. invited me to Charlotte and took me to his parents’ home, showing me flyers from Billy Graham during his Florida Bible College days. He took me to a Christian Businessmen’s Committee luncheon and introduced me to T.W. Wilson Sr (his dad), William Franklin Graham Sr (Billy‘s dad), and Vernon Patterson, who had chaired the Graham team’s first campaign to include Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea.
“A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24 NKJV
Earl Radmacher wrote: “While believers live on physically, Christ also lives within them spiritually.”
Can you say with Martin Luther, “This is true faith: a living confidence in the goodness of God.”