Lead me on, Precious Lord

Let's see now...how long have I been a Christian?  I was 19 and working as a secretary on a college campus when a girlfriend invited me to church.. It didn't look like a church, but was a nondescript store front with no steeple. We walked in to a room full of students with a half dozen adults sprinkled amongst them.  "What kind of a church is this?" I'm thinkin', but then my mind was drawn to and riveted on the young man in the pulpit with an open Bible from which he was preaching his young heart out to sixty or seventy people.  I didn't have a Bible and actually had only once or twice glimpsed my grandmother's before she died.

The young fellow was mentioning somebody by the name of Jesus. I had heard his name from the mouth of my boy friend Ted's dad who often spewed out a volley of Jesus Christ words.  ...but this young man was speaking tenderly about Jesus.  The next Sunday my friend Jan couldn't go to "church" so I went alone.  You know Who was drawing me, but I didn't at the time. This speaker spoke about this same Jesus, and I was drawn like a fly to honey to the front of the room  to ask him who he was talking about.  He drew me to a chair where we sat down, he opened his Bible and in less than ten minutes I crossed over from death to everlasting life in Christ. I don't remember the scriptures he read.  I just remember feeling sure that he was right. ....then I walked over to one of the adult men and said something like this: " Who are you folk? "  In the most gentle of voices a man named Elmer Nelson answered: "We six adults belong to First Baptist Church downtown.  We don't expect students to come all the way to our church so we rent this building, one of us drives to Kansas City on Saturday night where we attend the Youth for Christ rally and bring back the speaker to tell you young people about Jesus on Sunday mornings. Come back next Sunday and you will hear a different speaker."

I went back to my apartment, mulling all of this over, feeling somehow different inside. Now I know Who had moved into my very being, but then I did not know.  I was excited.  I wrote my boyfriend, Ted who was finishing out his stint in the U.S. Navy in Memphis, Tennessee, then I called my mother who did not share my excitement. I was disappointed. The week dragged by and I returned the following Sunday to hear a young man by the name of ...Billy Graham.  I had no idea who these men were. All I knew was that what they were saying was the Truth. Somebody gave me a Bible.  I was invited into Mr. Nelson's home with others and was treated with love and kindness. My parents and my brothers hired a private detective to check out Mr. Nelson. I was humiliated when I learned of this, but Mr. Nelson explained that my dad and brothers did not have the Holy Spirit in them and could not possibly trust an older man to have good intentions toward a young girl like me.

In a few months Mr. Nelson invited me to attend a conference at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, along with two other carloads of young people. We walked into that giant auditorium, and behind the pulpit was ..... Billy Graham. ...speaking to several thousand conferees that had come from around the world.  Two days later Mr. Nelson invited me to lunch with Billy Graham who had recently become the Interim President of Northwestern Bible College in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We ordered lunch and then in a matter of
\\\ minutes the course of my life was changed forever. Billy invited me to come to his Bible College.  His words are sealed in my memory: "Mr. Nelson is on my Youth for Christ Board. He tells me that you are a young woman with a heart to learn all you can about the Lord.  I am offering you a year of education at my school. You will owe no tuition for that year. The second semester has already begun and we do not want you to miss out on any more classes. We have taken the liberty of purchasing tickets for you to fly out of O'Hara tomorrow for Minneapolis where my staff will meet you. Jo Ann, how are you feeling about this?"

I was so stunned I couldn't feel!  I could barely whisper,  I never returned to Kansas except for visits. Ted joined me at Northwestern, and as the saying goes, the rest is history.

On my refrigerator is a letter Dr. Graham's secretary wrote me.  I quote: "I had the privilege of reading to Billy Graham your recent letter to him. At the age of ninety-six, macular degeneration makes it impossible to see to read his own mail now. You will never know what an encouragement letters like yours are to him in his later years. Your testimony is especially meaningful since it began so many years ago, and God has led and used you and your husband in your own ministry since those Northwestern days.  Thank you for taking the time to write and tell him--and thank you for being such a blessing."  Sincerely yours, Stephanie Wills, Secretary to Billy Graham/

Why me, Lord? ... this Kansas farm girl who wanted so much to go to college.  ...but You had more than "college" in mind for me,  You had marked out for me a life of opportunity to tell others of Your Grace. Precious Lord. You have, for all of these years,,,

...taken my hand, led me on, helped me stand.
I become tired; I become weak and I become worn.
But through the storm, through the night, 
You lead me on to the Light.
Take my hand, precious Lord, 
You will lead me Home.

Love,  Jo