Triangle Reflects on Graham

Jun 15, 06:21 AM

Current Headlines: By Martha Quillin, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 15--While her husband provided counsel for presidents and prime ministers, Ruth Bell Graham had her own ministry. She taught the principles of the Bible to her five children. She brought the Gospel to women in prison. She raised money to improve the health of children around the world. She was both spirited and spiritual.

Prison ministry

Elaine Funderburk of Raleigh began a Bible study fellowship at North Carolina Women's Prison as a result of prison outreach that began with Ruth Graham. Funderburk had been influenced by Bible classes Graham's daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, taught at Hayes Barton Baptist Church and was inspired by Ruth Graham's correspondence with convicted murderer Velma Barfield.

"The women who have been through the Bible studies in Women's Prison, those are her spiritual children," Funderburk said. "Some of them are out of prison and working at good jobs now, and that wouldn't have happened if it hadn't been for God's word going into that prison, and she is responsible for that.

"She had such a love for people, just the common people.

"She was a spiritual mother to a lot of people, directly and indirectly, and we'll all miss her."

'A great team'

William Sanderson, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church in Wendell, met Billy Graham in 1971 at a crusade in Lexington, Ky., and followed his ministry through the years. He recalls that when he saw Ruth Graham on stage with her husband, she never took her eyes off him.

"They were just a great team.

"She's an impeccable example for pastors' wives, as well as for other women, of how they are to live a moral, true and committed life with the Lord and with their husbands.

"The enticements of the world today never entered the Grahams' minds.

"... She was always encouraging other women whose husbands were in ministry to pray for their husbands and to support them, knowing they are going to be away. That was her way of helping, and Billy lived for that help, and loved it."

Her No. 1 love: Jesus

Ralph Thompson, pastor of administration for Bethesda Baptist Church in Durham, said Graham was an inspiration.

"I would say that Ruth Graham was a model wife and mother, but there was one man that she loved more than her husband, and that was Jesus Christ. That was evident by the life that she lived."

'With love in our eyes'

Danny Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, visited in the Graham home a month ago. One of the couple's grandsons, Will, graduated from the school.

"She was a great lady who made a lot of sacrifices. He was gone months at a time, and they've got five children, so she was the one being both mama and daddy for extended periods of time. She was willing to do that to free him up to go around the world and preach the Gospel. He would be the first to say that had she not been that kind of a lady, he could not have had that kind of a ministry.

"When I was there, he said, 'You know, Ruth and I don't hear or see very well anymore, so I will just go into the bedroom and hold her hand, and we just look at each other and love each other with our eyes.'

"It still brings tears to my eyes that he could speak such tender words."

Staff writer Martha Quillin can be reached at 829-8989 or martha.quillin@newsobserver.com.

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