Young Billy Graham slung his bag across his shoulder and stepped into the canoe. He eased it slowly into the Hillsborough River, directly east of the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club. It was dawn, and a mist covered the river like a blanket. He paddled quietly, almost as if he didn’t want to disturb the somber ambience, while the early bird chirped.
Billy was now 18 years old, and had recently transferred from Bob Jones College in Cleveland, Tennessee, to Florida Bible Institute in Temple Terrace, Florida, near Tampa. He had had a rough time in Bob Jones College. So bad that he had almost been expelled. But he had been given a second chance after a straight talk with Bob Jones Sr. who warned him not to throw his life away: “At best, all you could amount to would be a poor country Baptist preacher somewhere out in the sticks … You have a voice that pulls. God can use that voice of yours. He can use it mightily.”
“A voice that pulls”, he thought to himself as he paddled across the Hillsborough River. Well, tonight he was to preach at the Bostwick Baptist Church near Palatka, Florida, and this voice had better serve him well.
When he was a boy he loved reading, and his favorite books were novels for young boys. Tarzan was his idol, and often he would hang on the trees in the yard and yell like Tarzan, scaring both horses and drivers by the road near his farm home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
But yelling is quite different from preaching, and tonight would be the trial to know the difference: whether he would yell to scare, or preach to pull.
He needed to test his voice, and that was exactly what he wanted to do this morning. He had seen a little island on the Hillsborough River that seemed to be the ideal spot to try out his voice without anyone judging him.
Some 10 minutes later he pulled his canoe to a stop near a cypress tree stump at the edge of the island. He securely tied up the canoe on the stump and leapt on to the grassy edge. He then pulled the canoe further on to the grassy verge, pulled his sling bag back in place, and looked around him. This morning, his congregation would be the local birds, alligators and cypress tree stumps on this island.
He walked a little inland, and began his sermon, “Ladies and …”. He stopped, cleared his throat and began again, fighting off a feeling of foolishness that was almost choking him. How in the world does one preach to birds and alligators?! He decided perhaps a song would help set the atmosphere. He placed his sling bag in front of him, pretending it was a pulpit, and stood behind it, Bible raised in one hand. He began to sing “Just as I am without one plea…” His confidence grew as his voice rang out across the island. A few birds took off and landed again, chirping in oblivion to their visitor’s message.
Billy spent the best half of the day on the island, going through his sermon over and over again. He headed back in his canoe to the 18th green of the Temple Terrace Golf and Country Club, west of the island. A slight breeze steered him in the right direction, and he could almost feel the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit with him as he headed for land. He suddenly felt convicted of his call; a purpose and a destiny awaited him on this land.
Little did he know, that this “bird and alligator preacher” would one day preach to millions worldwide, and that a memorial park bearing his name (Reverend Billy Graham Memorial Park) would be established right there on the Hillsborough River where he was walking!
His voice was indeed a voice that pulled.
From the age of 28 until his death, he was to hold over 400 crusades in 185 countries on 6 continents. He was destined to pull over 3.2 million people to Christ through his crusades. His voice was to reach over 2.2 billion people worldwide with a message of hope and life through Jesus Christ.
He was destined to hold his own television series, the Billy Graham’s World Television Series entitled Starting Over, which was to reach over 2.5 billion people, broadcast to 200 nations in 50 languages.
He was to be a greatly admired man all over the world, and a legitimator of presidents. He was to be a spiritual adviser and counselor to every US president from the 33rd president, Harry S Truman to the 44th president, Barack Obama.
He was to marry his class mate Ruth Bell, have 5 children, 19 grandchildren, 41 great grand-children and 6 great-great-grandchildren at the time of his death in 2018, at the ripe old age of 99.
No one in the history of Christianity is estimated as having preached to so many in their lifetime. His was truly the voice that pulled, and a life well lived.
Hebrews 12:14
14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Author: Nana Akua Dede
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Graham