MARCH 2018 • Vol. 5, No. 3
BRADENTON FLORIDA | FREE - Donations Welcome!
He’s Alive The Newspaper Of Proof He’s Alive
“I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.” -Revelation 1:18a PAGE 8
PAGE 5
...stealing cars, 2 murdered wives, mental hospitals, drug & alcohol abuse, & prison to Church Elder - Andrew Vance
Victory! Trump moving Embassy to Jerusalem on May 18th
Summarizing Billy Graham’s Life and Legacy in Four Words By A. Larry Ross
HE’S ALIVE NEWS PO BOX 14931, BRADENTON, FL. 34280
LOCAL POSTAL CUSTOMER
DALLAS, TX (ANS – February 24, 2018) -- As scholars determine the legacy of evangelist Billy Graham, who passed peacefully in his sleep the morning of Feb. 21, 2018, when he was called home by the Lord he so faithfully served for most of his 99 years, I have been reflecting on some of the defi-
ning characteristics I observed while serving as his personal media spokesperson for more than three decades. Through the years, many reporters have asked me to sum up Billy Graham’s life and legacy in one word. But in response, I have to use four: humility, integrity, authenticity and love -- each of which I have observed consistently in my travels with him. In July 1999, I accompanied Mr. Graham to the local NBC affiliate in Jacksonville, where he did a remote interview with Katie Couric on Today. While waiting in the green room, the floor producer asked me if he would be willing to sign her copy of his recently published memoirs, Just As I Am. Despite symptoms of Parkinson’s that made writing difficult, the evangelist was happy to oblige, which so touched the young woman that she asked Mr. Graham if she could pray for him. That moved me deeply, as it was the first time in my then-quarter century of traveling with him that someone took such an initiative, rather than asking him to offer a prayer on his or her behalf. After the producer left the room, Mr. Graham turned to me and said genuinely, “I have never understood why in the world anyone would want my autograph.” At first, I thought he was joking, but then realized his puzzled sincerity was reflective of his self-identification as “a country boy called to preach,” who could not fathom why the Lord chose him to be blessed with such spiritual responsibility and global op-
portunity. As best I could, I tried to clarify for Mr. Graham what his inscription in her book meant to that young woman and others who made similar requests through the years, explaining his obvious influence and the significant impact of his ministry on her, since she had made a faith commitment at one of his crusades as a teenager. To my surprise, he responded, somewhat matter-of-factly, “I have only asked for one autograph in my whole life.” Now it was I who was flummoxed, as I sat in stunned silence trying to determine who that individual would have been, going over in my mind myriad celebrities, influencers and world changers Mr. Graham had met during his travels. “It was John Glenn. He and I sat next to each other at the March 1998 TIME magazine 75th anniversary gala at Radio City Music Hall honoring all living cover subjects.” “As we got up to leave, John asked me for my autograph,” Mr. Graham continued. “I replied, ‘I’ve never asked anyone in my whole life to sign something. Could I have yours?’ And so, we swapped autographs!” Among the many examples of Mr. Graham’s personal, spiritual and financial integrity, I remember when he kicked off the twelve-week, six-city Mission England tour the summer of 1984 in Bristol, west of London. In their coverage of the opening service, local papers appealed to their readers’ British reserve through articles crit icizing the “emo-
Billy Graham preaching
Larry Ross with Billy Graham
Katie Couric
Cliff Barrows with Billy Graham
tionalism” of the American evangelist’s meeting. Their evidence was the fact that the choir sang softly during his invitation for people to come forward to make a faith commitment. So, for only the second time in the history of their ministry, before the start of the meeting the next evening, Mr. Graham told program director Cliff Barrows to refrain from having the choir sing dur-
Bill Clinton with Billy Graham ing the invitation. But the next day, the headlines in the paper read, “The Emotionalism was in the Silence,” and Mr. Graham decided that if he was going to get criticized, they should at least do it right, and they went back to the choir accompaniment for the rest of the mission -and ever since.
In August 2005, just two months after he had preached his final crusade in New York City, I went to visit Mr. Graham at his log cabin home in western North Carolina. While sitting together on his back porch for several hours, eventually watching the sun start to set over... Continuation on Page: 7