“Therefore He says: ‘Awake, you sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.’ ” Ephesians 5:14 NKJV
Torrey Johnson wrote to Percy Crawford: “You gave fresh approach to the ministry of youth across the country. God raised you up at a time when mass evangelism was in the doldrums. You, with a few others, held high the torch, and dared to believe God to see us through the early 1930s to the thrilling days of the 40s and 50s.”
One of Crawford’s major dreams was to build a Christian college.
He wrote: “The King’s College will be, as far as it is in our power to make it so, a college with the highest standards of any college in the country.”
Percy and Ruth Crawford and their 10 year-old daughter Donna Lee lived at the King’s College Briar Cliff campus. As president of King’s College for 22 years, he based the school on the belief that the Bible is God’s infallible Word, and can be relied upon to be the Word of God in truth.
October 9, 1949 the announcement was made: “On television: Young People’s Church of the Air presents ‘Youth on the March.’ ” Percy began the first gospel program televised coast to coast. Later, he worked to bring into existence his vision of a Christian broadcasting network.
“Percy was first and foremost a preacher, whose gift of evangelism encompassed other gifts – a singular vision, an entrepreneurial spirit, and an uncanny ability to invent new strategies and new avenues for spreading the gospel.”
Percy Crawford had been booked to speak at Chicagoland Youth for Christ Saturday, October 29, 1960. Dave Breese asked him to postpone coming to Chicago because Breese was hosting the “Harvest of Sacred Song” musical by Thurlow Spurr and Harold DeCou that evening.
Crawford then accepted an invitation to speak at Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Youth for Christ instead. With his wife Ruth and 10-year-old daughter Donna Lee accompanying him, he stopped to pick up a coat he had left behind earlier at Howard Johnson’s on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Between the car and the restaurant, he suffered a heart attack and was rushed to the nearest hospital. On Monday, October 31, 1960, Percy Crawford’s life on earth ended. But Crawford’s ministry and legacy have continued.
Though I never got to hear or meet Percy Crawford in person, ironically October 29, 1960 was the first opportunity Mary and I had to attend Chicagoland Youth for Christ.
Dave Breese asked me to open the rally in prayer, and afterward urged me to come backstage, saying, “Thurlow and I think we have found your ‘Tami’ model.” Meeting this very attractive young lady, I asked if she would be interested in being the image for the Youth for Christ magazine campaign “Teens Are Most Important,” but that no one would know her real name. She arranged for me to meet with her dad the next week. He approved his daughter’s representing Youth for Christ Magazine, and said, “Incidentally, the reason we were not at the very first Chicagoland Youth for Christ rally is because that is the night our daughter was born.”
As Mary and I were engaged to be married, we chose as our life verse 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.”
We waited several years before our daughter was born. As a Liberty University student, her on-campus job was photography. Backstage in the green room at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Washington DC, Warren Wiersbe spotted her name tag and said to his wife Betty and evangelist T.W. Wilson, “This is the real Tami.”
Tami Dooms is now president of TTT Christian Youth Ministries, is a CPA and attorney, serving the Lord full-time, and continues using her camera to creatively communicate Christianity.
Tami photographed teenagers marching from Darmstadt to TTT, and designed the billboard incorporating that picture with the message “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Courtesy of Lamar outdoor advertising, the billboards are seen by thousands of passersby along busy highways; a reproduction of the billboard appears on tent banners, flyers, and God’s ABCs. It personifies “keep your flag of faith unfurled – Christ through you can change the world.”
Between July 7 and August 1, she is coordinating Fair Share teams going with the Gospel to nine tri-state counties. Saturday, August 2 – TTT’s “Big Splat-t-t” watermelon night, is to include a Fair Share report.
Every TTT tent at county fairs has a flag of faith at each of the four corners, and a “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” banner displayed prominently.
He can give you light.