You see, when my oldest son was younger Billy Graham was his idol. Yes, he was. He would collect all his books, watch his movies, read all about him, receive his magazines, and admire all that Mr. Graham had accomplished for the Lord. We had built him a small pulpit for his birthday (per his request) and he would put on a little suit and pretend that he was him and preach.
We had even taken him to The Billy Graham Center Museum (which we highly recommend for all to visit) here is a picture of my son when we got there:
And here is another:
(This is Stephen at what was Billy Grahams pulpit that was custom made for him and electronically controlled--this was flown to many crusades and speaking events around the world.)
This is a quote from him as he looks back on life that was hanging in the museum. You can read more of his popular quotes here.
My son even received a letter in the mail from him when he was younger, you can imagine his excitement at the time. He pulled it out for us to look at today:
He even received letters like this from his son, Franklin Graham through their Billy Graham Evangelist Association.
Now back to telling my son, I wasn't sure how he would take the news now that he is 18 but he knew that one of Billy's most famous quotes was "My home is in heaven, I'm just traveling through this world."
And how did he handle it? He looked sad--it was kind of like losing a close friend. But he was glad that Billy had finally met His Lord and Savior.
My second oldest son wanted to spend the day doing something special to remember him so he ran downstairs and pulled out these two movies we had:
So while we homeschool today I want my children to remember his legacy. How he impacted the millions of people world wide and what that meant to them.
If you have never seen these movies or would like to share them with your family you can find them below:
You can find it HERE.
You can find it HERE.
My son's all time favorite book to look through for hours was this beautiful book that is now fall apart at the seams from so much use. It is also called Billy Graham: God's Ambassador. The pictures in it are amazing:
There are so many beautiful photos of his family life, evangelistic tours and ministry. We loved this book!
Here are a few more from my son's collection:
Peace with God
Hope for the Troubled Heart
Living in God's Love: The New York Crusade
Just as I Am - Autobiography
Billy Graham Christian Worker's Handbook
Ask Billy Graham
Rebel with a Cause: Finally Comfortable Being Graham (a book from his son, Franklin Graham)
Hope for Each Day (not pictured)
This one is good for younger kids:
It is from the Young Christian Library Readers (we love this set) and you can find it HERE. We actually used several of these as readers for our homeschool. They have learned about many missionaries and Christian heroes through them.
Our prayers are with the Graham family at this time. Heaven's gain is our loss. May God be gloried through this amazing legacy that was left behind and may all of us be inspired to live a life like his - sacrificing to share the good news of the Gospel of our Lord to a lost world who desperately needs to hear it.
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3 comments:
Well said and shown! How much a loss he is to so many, but how heaven rejoices at his arrival!
I agree, Pam--thanks for stopping by!
Thank you. This was very interesting. I love how much your son was affected by him. We really enjoyed those movies, too. The family had a nice service for Billy Graham today. Franklin has done a great job of continuing the legacy to serve our nation in Christ's name.
In our Classical Conversations community, my son did a report on Billy last year. In our timeline song, 23 world events happen after he is mentioned. We pointed out that he has witnessed all these things changing.
Another good visual is how many US Presidents he met with. I'm glad he got to meet with President Trump, and that our President greatly admired him, spoke highly of him, had gone to a crusade with his father when he was a boy, continues to meet with Franklin Graham, and has helped us with our religious freedoms.
One day we hope to visit the Graham museum in South Carolina.
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