Footprints of a Pilgrim - Remembering Ruth Bell Graham (Full Program)

she was a beautiful young woman whose heart was set on a life of service in the adventurous land of Tibet until she crossed paths with an unexpected force when I came out and saw her standing that he said that is Ruth Belle at that moment I was in love not only in love something told me inside she'll be your wife find out how her answer to his question would literally change the course of history hear from those who loved her I believe that Billy Graham liked having a strong woman I think he was enchanted by his wife I think he probably sometimes stepped lightly around his wife which is a pretty darn good I loved Ruth Graham and it was very easy to love with grandma I think it was because she was so real laughs with those who knew her best I know Billy would say that tomorrow night I'm gonna ask my wife to say a word and one time she got up and she said hi and turned around and sat down again my friends around said ask her for a date well I couldn't get a courage enough to because I knew she was popular with other boys I tried to hold her hand she pulled it away and I'll never forget that how rejected October I said well I failed with this one anyway unbeknownst to the young Billy Graham he hadn't failed completely with the lovely Ruth McHugh Bell she was impressed with a six-foot - 21 year old southerner but she was also a serious student and she believed her course was set Ruth was fully prepared to embark on a journey similar to the one taken by her parents 25 years earlier in 1916 young Nelson and Virginia Bell left their home in the US for the war-torn countryside of northern China he was fresh out of medical school and she was trained as a nurse but these enthusiastic medical missionaries weren't exactly welcomed with open arms instead they were called foreign Devils life was far from easy for the Bell family in a turbulent time in China's history there were warlords bandits Japanese communists and the calming down all fighting back and forth I can't recall going to sleep at night without hearing gunshots in a country round effect despite hardships the bells chose to stay working long hours concerned for the physical and the spiritual health of their patients they went there because they loved the Chinese people and they wanted to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people for Ruth China was home and it created in her a strength of character at age 13 she wouldn't need that strength like never before sent to join her older sister Rosa at a missionary boarding school in North Korea Ruth was desperately unhappy I'll never forget the night before I set sail for North Korea from Shanghai crying myself to sleep and praying earnestly that I would die before morning well morning broke over that great gray city and obviously God have not seen fit to answer my prayer Ruth experienced a deep homesickness that persisted until the fall of that first year she was faced with what some might call a crisis of faith I've knew God loved the world and gave His only begotten Son but I was only one little person in the whole world they didn't feel included I went to my older sister an asset or two she said you might try putting your own name in the Bible and so I read in Isaiah 53 he was wounded for Ruth's transgressions he was bruised for Ruth's iniquities the chastisement of Ruth's peace is upon him and with His stripes Ruth is healed and then I felt included in later years Ruth would look back on her boarding school days is a special training period during the months of separation from family I learned things that only God Himself could teach me little knowing that he was just beginning to prepare me for a lifetime of goodbyes in 1937 is Ruth's mother prepared to send her to college in the United States Ruth's argue that it was just a waste of time in her mind her future was already planned she would never marry and she would spend the rest of her life as a missionary in Tibet her parents simply smiled and put her on the boat to America once again Ruth was not happy well I remember when I first saw him oh that was before we met and he was dashing down the steps of Blanchard two at a time and my impression was there was a young man in a hurry this man that ran the furniture truck I began to tell me about this girl from China he said she's the girl for you and he began to tell me so many great things about it that I wanted to meet her and then when I finally saw her and met her briefly I was frightened to death to ever ask her for a date but I finally worked up enough courage to ask her to go at Christmas time to the Messiah so I took her and on the way back to where she lived in the snow I tried to hold her hand she pulled it away and I'll never forget that and how I rejected I felt I said well I've failed with this one anyway the work Billy didn't know was that Ruth was more interested than she revealed imagine I didn't even know the man I just been with him that for that one date but I just prayed and I said lord if you will let me share his life I will consider it the greatest honor possible and fortunately I didn't know what lay ahead I wouldn't have had nerve to pray a fry like that over the next few months their relationship grew and deepened to the point that Billy was talking of marriage but Ruth was grappling with a heartfelt struggle that prevented her from saying yes I had since I was a young girl felt that God wanted me to go to Tibet as missionary she had made all of her plans and thought that's what she was going to be and she never wanted to be married she wanted to go as a she said an old maid missionary at one point he had preached a whole week and had gotten $65 for his preaching and he went out and bought her little diamond ring and gave it to her but the struggle was still going on at one point she was so undecided that my father said then give me back the ring and her hand just tightened over her ringing and she wasn't gonna give it back and so she married him on August 13th 1943 Ruth and Billy were married in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina their individual callings became one as did their very lives the night I got married I was so frightened not into what I was saying my wife and I have memorized our vows and I couldn't remember what I memorized I just made him up as I went along and I can't remember to this day what I promised him it wasn't long before the Graeme family grew to include five welcomed little ones and Ruth adored being a mother but her time talents and ministry were not limited to the four walls of their mountaintop home I don't think people realize that the mother read and gleaned illustrations for him she was one of his greatest advisors and one of his greatest critics Billy I'm told that Ruth is a student of the Bible and that she's quite a help to you is that right she is there die would never prepare a sermon oh I never have prepared a sermon without asking her counsel and advice she is certainly a woman of God and a great help made to me she fulfilled her call not by standing in a pulpit and preaching she fulfilled her call by staying at home raising us so that my daddy could stand in the pulpit and be the one that preached but she was just as called as he was there tonight watching this program on your wife and four children daddy we could've been here week we were out there we love you very very much and the thing that I love him congratulations Peter my mother loved my daddy she was great when he wasn't there and she was full of life and she loved life she had a real zest sparkle in her all the time but when my daddy walked into the room it's like there was a glow I would say again we've been married 36 years but I still would rather see a little bit of bill than a whole lot of anybody else on I'm more deeply in love we know each other better we love each other more we woulda lasted this long without the Lord and his presence if God has brought you together there's going to be someone to turn to because every marriage has its difficulties true love comes from God and I think that a marriage must be consist of three people the man the woman and God it was Lord of both our lives and the closer you get to him like spokes of a wheel the closer you get to the sound of your clothes to get to one another coming up behind her simple elegance was a quick wit and surprising thirst for adventure she loved life she loved people she had a grand sense of humor she was very mischievous as well she also told us that it there comes a time to quit submitting and start out winning and she did a lot of outwitting Ruth Graham's life was a portrait of strength and grace experienced her story again and share it with others through this beautiful tribute program as a thank you for your support we'll send you footprints of a pilgrim visit billy graham TV or call one eight seven seven five six seven eight nine eight nine tonight I'm glad to tell you as we close that the Lord Jesus price can be received your things will get the Billy Graham library is a place for all walks of life to recharge reflect renew your faith and return again and it's done I just can tell you that Ruth was fun she had a twinkle and she was fun I tried to please the Lord and let the chips fall right at me and sometimes chips oof all she'd accept a challenge anywhere and she could hold her own against anyone she went from you know hand gliding to motorcycle riding to being on her knees you know with the Lord she just embraced life and wasn't afraid of life she was deeply spiritual but she never ever pretended to be something she wasn't in fact you know for her to give an interview with scared daddy to death because you have no idea what she's gonna come out with he has to be neat on like you do in front of the camera yeah neat but he's a slob at home busiest oh that is so good to hear I know Billy would say that tomorrow night I'm gonna ask my wife to say a word one time she got up and she said hi and turned around and sat down if you can laugh at yourself and laugh at the stupid things you do oh it helps even while raising a hard-headed son Ruth managed to combine her motherly determination with a little mischievousness when I was getting older and is getting a little slower out of bed in the morning she'd come up and she'd say get up there's a job getting you up because he liked to sleep later so I wouldn't wake him up one morning he was sound asleep but the cat on his back at that time I smoked cigarettes and I put all my cigarettes in a big tin cup next thing I know she picks up that can of cigarettes and ashes and she just dumps it on my head then I started locking my door door was locked so I crawled out the window next to him and that had my mouth a tin cup half full of water and I was making my way across the roof to his wound I spent a thousand but good I heard her get out there on the roof and just about the time she got to my window I jumped out of bed and slammed the wind and I locked it and all of a sudden this wicked face appears there when they vidiian and slammed the wind it goes in my face and now Mama's backing up on the roof to get back to my brothers when if I had had enough sense I would have run to his room and locked his window such antics reveal only one side of Ruth's grains character she also thought deeply prayed fervently and loved unconditionally her style was certainly different than my father she I never got up and really preached like he did or gave an invitation an altar call but her her life was the gospel Jesus was her center we knew that Jesus was the reason she was the way she was but she didn't preach it she just simply lived it Ruth would give everything away I mean she just gives to all any poor person any a sick person any person that needs any help she's there even in the most difficult circumstances Ruth was compelled to open her arms when most would turn away there was this one little girl it was burn you couldn't recognize her face and mrs. cream said oh look at her isn't she darling I never forget her going and picking that little girl up and I'm talking about Jesus loving her and she said Dennis play jesus loves me I start playing jesus loves me and she was whispering something and that little child's ear and to at least two eyes he was blinded just tears came down what could I learn what could the world learn from mrs. Graham you do the work that Jesus did show compassion the Jesus show it on people and that's what she did Ruth Graham really loved she loved people and she loved the world and she was a great lady my mother was saved as a young girl and put her faith in Jesus but it's growing in a relationship with God where she knew him as a living invisible person but somebody who is very real in her life who had a plan and purpose for her life whose will for her life was good it was the best god bless each one of you as only he can and may you to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ if there's anything you can take from my mother's life you need to know God in a personal permanent love relationship through faith in Jesus and as life progresses it's like the life of Jesus just blossoms within you and and takes over and so the confidence that you see the peace the love the joy the zest for living that's really the life of Jesus coming out and my mother as she just completely day-by-day yielded her life to him early in their marriage a serious virus threatened billion Ruth's plans for a happy future a 1944 journal entry reads the doctors told us there would be little chance of our ever having children bill took it hardest from what I've been told I mean he was very ill could have even died from it and he didn't think that they would ever be able to have children so Ruth did which he had always done with life's unexpected disappointments she poured her heart out by putting pen to paper she shares in her journals her feelings and she had to give that over the Lord in the spring of 1945 Ruth wrote these words after the disappointment but trying to let hope die in a matter-of-fact sort of way I'm going to have a baby nine months later she goes to daddy and she says well I think that the baby's coming tonight and I'm in labor and daddy said oh I don't think so and he went on to Mobile Alabama to a crusade and I was born that night it would be a snapshot of Ruth's life to come setbacks answered with glimpses of grace and challenges met by God's faithfulness - the happiest occasions back in recallnet is when JG and bunny Franklin it relieved my arms when they first arrived as the family grew so did Billy's ministry successful citywide campaigns in a popular radio program placed the young evangelist on the threshold of a national reputation we didn't realize his children that daddy was well known or anything but I guess when Look magazine and Time magazine and Life magazine would come to the house with daddy's pictures on the front we began to realize there's something special here but Billy's positive publicity brought with it some negative side effects free soon the tourists began to arrive bus loads of people were now coming to Montreat and they were stopping the bus and people were coming into the yard walking around the house peering through the windows things like that helped us realize we needed to get away from Carlo highest and he which we loved so Ruth took matters into her own hands and came up with a plan to build little piney Cove a unique mountaintop home the Graham home is perched high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina near the village of Montreat a mile from their nearest neighbor good evening Billy hello it must be good to be home oh it's really wonderful it's really luxurious to be home with my family again tell me whose idea was it to keep things rustic well ed the idea is rude I think she's a little more rustic in her ideas than I am and she designed the architecture for this house most of it has everything from junk shop salvage yard and we had lots of fun scaring the country back in the mountains ed they feel quite a few of these cabins built by the early North Carolina pioneers and you're willing to hunt a bit you can usually find one although Ruth Graeme's life continued to be full busy and blessed it was not without its difficulties frequent farewells and lengthy separations made her for all practical purposes a single parent they'll been gone pretty close to six months that was the longest he was ever away and we had a trundle bed under our bed and Franco would sleep on that in the morning he raised up he looked though his mama who is that in bed with you any other wife and mother in the world the next time Billy Graham took off would have said I can't believe you're leaving me again you're leaving me with all of his kids all of this laundry all of this housework and mother I never in my lifetime ever heard her complain my mother's way of dealing with it very often was to get busy there may be a tear in her eye but she didn't focus that again she made the most of all it comes the least of all that went she knew that my father was to preach the gospel God had called him to proclaim and preach the gospel to the ends of the earth and her job was to facilitate that we knew what he was doing we knew the importance of what he was doing and mother underscored that over and over again that this was the highest calling a lot of times I would go down this driveway here with tears in my eyes I didn't wanna go because I need to be several weeks or months before I'd seal there were times when she would go and take a jacket out of his closet and sleep with it so she could smell the smell and for you know a young woman that's tough I mean he would have been very difficult to you haven't gone so much of the time for any other reason and that is sharing Jesus Christ with with people I've never known her one time to say stay home don't go if God has called you you obey God there were never been a Billy Graham without a Ruth Graham she protected my father if anybody criticized him I tell you what you had to go through mama first it's sort of like a coach's wife there's no security in our husband's jobs but it there away a lot and they get criticized a lot or praised a lot and it takes someone like Ruth Graham who is steady and solid to cope with that kind of thing in our home my wife has had to be father and mother and she's done a magnificent job and I give her credit tonight she's read them with a Bible in one hand and a Hickory stick in the other the two together were a great team she didn't try to get in the spotlight the times that my father would try to give her recognition she would try to hold back and she didn't want recognition although Ruth preferred life behind the scenes she still found a way to let her voice be heard I would rather write them speak and at the time it takes me to work up a message I would rather be work writing something put it in a book and then people get tired of hearing me they can close me up and put me on a show her lifelong passion for writing became a ministry to millions I found a complete woman in her poetry because she showed me her anxiety her fear her longing her longing her yearning her joy her surprise and of course it goes without saying she showed me her great faith and her great devotion to our Lord Jesus Christ she gave her family um her the sunshine in her life but the tears and the storms and the hard times she gave to her pen that's what I think is so terrific about her work she just gives you everything she's got I think that you can see even her writings and in some of her sharings that we've had our struggles in the family with produções we've had divorce in the family and then of course she had the great physical disabilities she struggled physically a lot Routh's battle with painful disabilities began unexpectedly in 1974 people try to help their grandchildren by fixing a certain swing and a tree the wire broke gave way she fell she was unconscious for several days she's sort of developed degenerative arthritis because of that she ended up by having I believe a total of all isio three or four hip replacements so this is a fall that altered really says said of course of things in her life physically the amount of pain that that she lived with we'll never know but a massive amount through it all we people who saw her so often remember the smile and how are you today just fine thank you and that takes some spiritual stamina even the week of her death mama how you doing Oh son I'm doing fine how are you she had lived eighty-seven years living out a life of faith that was rooted in God's Word worked out in prayer lived in obedience faithful obedience through good days and bad days and I'm telling you something it showed towards the end of her life always always always mother's theme was the faithfulness of God God has been faithful God has been faithful there's so much to look forward to I mean after this life and there's so much look back on God and the thing that stands out my life above everything else is a faithfulness of God and the happy memories and loads of friends and all the promises of God that you have seen come true my mother was fearless I cannot remember a time in her life where she was afraid I guess if she was we never knew it as children she chased rattlesnakes rode motorcycles even tried hang gliding one time and I think my mother was the way she was because when she grew up in China she grew up in the middle of a very turbulent period of history and she just didn't know fear and as a young girl my mother asked Jesus Christ to come into her heart she believed with all of her heart that Jesus Christ was God's son who died on a cross for her sins who rose again and she invited Christ to come live in a heart you see the Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of God's glory and that the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is Jesus Christ the Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shouldn't perish but have everlasting life my mother had that hope she had that anchor she was fearless my question to you is do you know Jesus Christ my mother wasn't afraid to die she was prepared ready to go are you if you die today would you go to heaven with God welcome you would he receive you if you're not sure you can be sure all you have to do is just pray this prayer with me you can do it right now wherever you are just pray this prayer dear God I'm a sinner I'm sorry for my sins forgive me I believe that Jesus Christ is your son who died and rose again for my sins I want to invite him to come into my heart to live and I want to follow him as my lord from this day forward forevermore I'm in if you prayed that prayer I want you to call the number that's on the screen we have some literature that we would like to give you very important that we get this to you I want you to have that god bless you partner with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association to reach those who don't know Christ join with us through your prayers and financial support in spreading the gospel through live events outreach films internet evangelism and much more get involved today call eight seven seven five six seven eight nine eight nine or go to Billy Graham TV as a thank you for your support we'll send you this month's special gift footprints of a pilgrim remembering Ruth Bell Graham this collector's DVD includes booths personal poetry additional stories from the archives and more visit Billy Graham TV or call one eight seven seven five six seven eight nine eight nine God has called us to a serious business taking his love taking his message taking his salvation to the ends of the earth what are we going to do about it Jesus Christ is alive he's here tonight and he'll come into your life they just accepted Christ in you made a come to Christ or coming to Jesus you're coming to the one who made you the one who died for you have you been born again the my hope project is an opportunity for Christians to share the thing that is most important to them all we need to do is invite the people in our lives who we know don't have the same hope that we have in Jesus Christ and watch this program on television with the Internet evangelism we can go to countries that I would never be able to visit we could go anytime day or night in the midst of disaster there's an emotional spiritual care component and as chaplains that's what we're called to focus on let's take the gospel to the ends of the earth and this Jenna you

Channel: Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Views: 448,085

Rating: 4.9020057 out of 5

Keywords: Billy Graham, Ruth Graham, Ruth Bell Graham, Christ, faith, inspirational, footprints, China, evangelism, BGEA, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Franklin Graham

Id: is9MrevpN88

Length: 29min 29sec (1769 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 08 2016