Louis Zamperini shares his story at the 1958 Billy Graham Crusade in San Francisco.
in a great crusade like this
thousands of people come forward to
receive Christ as their Lord and Savior
many people are always asking do these
so-called converts last I never call
them converts I always call them
inquiries because they’re inquiring the
way to heaven and to forgiveness I think
also we could call them seekers because
some of them are seeking the way of
salvation but they do not become finders
but every night when I give an
invitation for people to receive Christ
I know that there are many who do find
Christ I also know that many of those
who come forward will not last because
Christ taught us in his parable of the
soul and the 13th chapter of Matthew he
said that he was a soul that went forth
to sow and he said that the seed was the
Word of God and it falls on various
types of soil and brings about different
types of reaction and Christ said that
some of those that were converted under
his ministry would not last in fact he
had a team of 12 men one of them’s name
was Judas and he betrayed him and he
lived close to Christ for three years
another one denied him until we know
that in a crusade like this where
thousands of people are coming to
surrender themselves to Christ that some
won’t last da luta the Evangelist was
walking down the street one day and a
man pointed to a drunk man a friend of
he has pointed to a drunk man over
against the saloon wall and said Mr
moody there’s one of your converts and
mr. moody said it certainly does look
like one of my converts it’s certain
enough the Lord’s but I know but I know
that there are thousands of others that
do laugh at this room tonight is filled
with hundreds of people that have found
Christ in the last few days and you’re
carrying your Bibles you’ve already
identified yourself with a church or
you’ve renewed your church vow in
dedication and now your life is
completely transformed
I remember nine years ago in Los Angeles
we were holding a Great Crusade it was
the first extensive crusade that we’d
ever conducted we went for eight weeks
in Los Angeles at Washington and Hills
Street and Life magazine became
interested in so they came out to take
pictures and there were four rather
prominent people who had come to Christ
among the many others we never do
announce the names of people who come to
Christ in our crusade since that day
many prominent people have come forward
in our meetings and we try to protect
their privacy because we believe that
God would have it that way and we try to
respect their right to find Christ
without publicity but on that occasion
when it was our first crusade these four
were publicized and I remember that one
of the reporters said to me is the
picture of these four was being taken he
said I’d like to see them ten years from
now
in other words very cynically he was
saying I don’t think they’ll last well
tonight we have three of those four on
the platform several weeks ago we
contacted all three of them and asked
them if they’d come in fact we contacted
all four because all four of them have
lasted and all four of them tonight are
either partially or wholly in Christian
work and I want them to come to the
platform
the first one is Jim vos and Luis
ambarina and stirred hammering I want
them to come up right now and then I’m
going to tell you about each one of them
and just in a sentence or two I want
these three men to tell you how Christ
changed their life their picture was in
Life magazine
nine years ago people weren’t sure they
would last but here they are nine years
later the second man is Luis Zamperini
maybe many of you remember the headlines
in 1936 some of you older people do
because Louis Zamperini was representing
the United States in the world Olympics
in Berlin he was the great Olympic Milo
and he was the man that climbed up the
rice stock and pulled Hitler’s flag
right down from the
top and the whole world guests and it
became an international incident during
the war Lewis ambereen II was an
American war hero he was 47 days on a
life raft floating around in the Pacific
and he began to drink when he came home
and he was confused and frustrated and
mixed up in his life and he too wandered
into that tent on Washington and Hill in
Los Angeles and found Christ is his
avian tonight he is the director of the
victory boys camp for juvenile
delinquents in Los Angeles giving his
full life now to try to rehabilitate
juvenile delinquents and lead them to a
knowledge of Jesus Christ Lewis we’re
delighted to have you with us tonight
Thank You Billy it was after the war and
with about $10,000 in back pay from two
and a half years in prison camp and also
collecting my life insurance for being
dead I became extremely selfish cynical
and greedy until the wind was finally
let out of my sails I lost everything
that I possessed outside of my wife and
little girl and it was then that my wife
was able to persuade me into going down
to that meeting at Washington and Hill
Street in Los Angeles where I’ve heard
the gospel from Billy Graham’s lips
there’s I sat in the meeting I heard
Billy Graham when he stated that God the
Son the Lord Jesus Christ could forgive
me for my sins and then if I put my
trust in him I could have eternal life
and so I went forward in that meeting
ask God to forgive me for not having
kept many promises I made on the ramp
I acknowledge the Gautham was a sinner I
asked the Lord Jesus Christ to come into
my heart and save me and of course he
did since then I have had an
unquenchable joy of working with these
wayward boys and
also preaching to them the same gospel
that I heard nine years ago thank you
very much
Thank You Luis