Library

  One of the trips we took, as part of the First Baptist Seniors, was to the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte.  It was near the airport, so there was some plane noise nearby.  The grounds also has the boyhood home of Dr. Graham, which was moved from its old location further up the road.  And, there are the graves of some family and friends.  Billy was still living, when we were there, but his wife had passed away and was buried there.  Also buried there was George Beverly Shea, or "Bev" as I knew him.  As I have noted before, my father knew a lot of giants of the faith.  Consequently, I knew them too.

 We got to the library around 10am and toured the site.  I was most interested in the memorabilia that they had there of Billy's life and crusades.  That brought back a lot of memories.  We had a tour guide who did a good job.  After the tour, I told him the story about meeting Billy Graham in Atlantic City with my father, and his turning down Billy's invitation for us to come to supper one night while at Ridgecrest.  You can go back and read that story back from 1963-64.  The tour guide was most interested in my story, and we laughed about it and cringed at the same time.  We had lunch there, and I bought one of Bev's cd's.  I also got a nice cloth bag from there by subscribing to Decision Magazine.  I use the bag with my groceries today.

 I then walked around the grounds.  It was very peaceful.  I came upon the graves of Ruth Graham and Bev Shea.  I had a nice time with them.  We were supposed to leave at 2pm. One of our group was late, and we had to wait for her.  So, we hit some traffic going back home.  It was a good trip with a bunch of reflections on my previous life.  I kind of wish I had paid more attention to who these people were, when I was young.  They were just my father's friends.  They were amazing people.  Most were very humble people, like my father.  They did the work they were called to do and without any fanfare.  Maybe more people need to take that approach.