The news makes me sad, yet I am so grateful for the gentle, kind persuasion Graham used.  It was around 1972 that he traveled to the various unions and shared the Good News of God with those of us who were elementary teachers for the church.  We got college credit for spending three weeks, all day, five days a week, learning of the One who draws us to Him because He is worthy of our admiration and trust.  Looking back, those were the most productive three weeks of my life.  The smile never left his face as he described the grand themes of salvation, made available for us by the ministry of Jesus, interwoven with the infinite love of the gentle Father, and thereby worked out within us, for by beholding we become changed.  Even as I have stumbled along since then, those three weeks have been a constant source of inspiration and grounding.

It is heartening to know that the ideas he taught have been spread far and wide in the last 40 years by many who gladly heard the good news and shared it with others.  Yet it is sad to realize that there are pockets of determined resistance, even now.  Yet of all the criticism I have heard leveled at Graham, not one word of it has been grounded in any substantial understanding of what Graham actually taught.  For some, the larger view is just too large to be kept in focus.  But God will clear their eyes even as He heals us all in the re-creation to come.

May God continue to bless your ministry at PineKnoll.

Don Oellrich, CPA