May 21, 2001
RUTH BELL GRAHAM:
Pilgrim's progress
___By Cecile Holmes
___Religion News Service
___ASHVILLE, N.C. (RNS)--The pilgrim was the second daughter born to medical missionaries when her journey began in 1920 in Quingjiang, China.
___Her first diary was makeshift, constructed of wallpaper and stationery from her daddy's hospital from which she cut off the logo. Through the years, there would be many other journals. In them she recorded her thoughts and feelings while growing up in China,attending Wheaton College, marrying and raising children, and facing the special challenge of being Mrs. Billy Graham.
RUTH BELL GRAHAM
___In "Footprints of a Pilgrim," readers gain a rare glimpse into the private and interior worlds of Ruth Bell Graham, wife and confidante of the world's most famous evangelist. With an introduction by her daughter, Gigi Graham Tchividjian, this collection goes behind the scenes of life for a woman beloved by many for her humor, honesty, compassion and spirituality.
___"If I marry Bill, I must do so with open eyes. It won't be easy," she wrote while in college. "After the joy of knowing that I am his by rights--and his forever--I will slip into the background."
___In this collection, some stories are familiar from previous books about this famous family. Others are newer tales. Nearly all are notable because Ruth Graham, who turns 81 June 10, writes with clarity and courage. Her soulful poetry and readable prose tell much about her interior struggles to accept God's call on her husband's life, especially when it came to the pressures of raising five children mostly on her own.
___Through journal entries, poetry, letters, photographs and stories, the reader hears about: Billy's version of asking Ruth out for their first date, her opposition to his involvement in politics, how Ruth slept with Billy's tweed jacket in the bed during his early travels, and son Franklin's tale of his mother locking him in the trunk of the car.
___Many of the anecdotes are insightful. Several are poignant. A couple are almost hilarious.
___"Mother's writing is very dear to her heart because she has spent many lonely nights sharing her thoughts and feelings, baring her soul with pen and paper," Tchividjian writes in the book's introduction. But this collection, which began as a reader's theater production of Graham's life story told through her own words in poetry and prose, almost didn't come into being.
___Despite months of planning and organization, Billy Graham, his son Franklin and others were worried up to the first performance that it might not be well-received, that it might even embarrass Ruth Graham. As her daughter wondered whether she should cancel that first event, held three years ago in Asheville, N.C., Ruth Graham phoned her.
___ She told her daughter to go ahead, but that didn't keep Ruth Graham from worrying.
___"But when mother is upset, her head begins to itch, and after all that had transpired, it itched terribly," Tchividjian writes. "She couldn't get to sleep but remembered that she had something in one of the bathroom drawers for itching."
___Ruth Graham got out of bed, found the medication and rubbed it on her head. The itching subsided and she fell alseep. "In the morning, she awoke only to find her hair standing straight up all over her head like a hedgehog," Tchividjian says. "She looked at the tube of itching cream and discovered that she had rubbed Preparation H all over her head. It took her three shampooings and an application of dishwashing liquid to get it out."
___A professional touring group will be performing "Footprints of a Pilgrim" throughout the country in this year and next year. Plans are also in the works for a PBS special that would air nationally.
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!
