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