MY EXPERIENCE AT A BILLY GRAHAM CRUSADE

“But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”  (John 1:12 ESV)

In 1994, when our family was living in Cleveland, Ohio, we learned that a Billy Graham Crusade was coming to town. Part of the procedure that Billy Graham always followed was involving local churches and ministries across a broad denominational perspective. Billy Graham's team would solicit churches to pray and to send harvesters into the field. A lot of before-hand prayer and preparation was involved. I decided that I would be willing to be trained as a counselor -- one who comes to the stadium floor at the designated time, to meet people who wanted to receive Christ into their lives right then and there. Each night of the crusade Billy Graham would preach a basic gospel message, and then follow that with an invitation -- an invitation for people to leave their seats and come to the stadium field. Once people were gathered, he would invite them to pray a simple prayer with him, acknowledging their sin, accepting God's forgiveness in Christ, and asking Christ to come into their heart and live with them daily.

I was trained and prepared to answer any questions that came my way as I met with people who had ventured down to the field. Over the four-day crusade I probably counseled with 6-8 people of all ages. One night, I got down to the field and was looking for someone to talk with. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find another counselor, a woman. She was standing a short distance from a man and a woman who had come down to the field together. She asked if I would talk with the man while she talked with the woman. I said I would be glad to. Then she said, "They're developmentally disabled, here with a group home." My first reaction was… my training had not prepared me for this. Then God reminded me that He had prepared me for this through our son Dustin and his developmental disabilities.

Suddenly I felt empowered by the Spirit. I introduced myself and quickly found out that he could not speak, but seemed to understand basic things. While waiting for Billy Graham to invite the large crowd to pray with him, I talked briefly with this man. I asked him where he thought God was, and he pointed to the sky.

Soon Billy began to speak again, and then invited people to pray with him. As Billy prayed, this man prayed in unintelligible words -- more of a guttural speech. After the prayer was finished, I asked him where he thought God was now. And I'll never forget what he did next. He pointed to his heart. In his own way he was saying that God in Christ was now living in his heart. He got it!

-- Rev. David T. Wilkinson

#4282