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'A Role Model For Christ'

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By MICHELLE BEARDEN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 4, 2008

A grandfather is a special gift for those of us lucky enough to be blessed with one or two.

And they often feel the same way about their progeny. As my Grandpa Bennett used to say, "Having your own children is like putting a deposit in the bank. But having grandkids? That's the time you collect the interest. All the fun without all the headaches."

I imagine there's a certain grandfather out there right now especially touched by what his offspring did in his name.

Their names are Basyle and Aram Tchividjian, brothers who collaborated to publish a book about the man they've always known as "Daddy Bill."

We know him as the Rev. Billy Graham.

To the Tchividjian brothers - whose mother, Gigi, is the eldest daughter of Billy and his late wife, Ruth - America's most famed preacher is a humble servant of God who preferred the old Morrison's Cafeteria to a Bern's, a gently aged Buick to a new Lincoln Continental, and who is just as happy chatting with a cabdriver as the chief executive of a worldwide corporation.

Yes, dozens of books have been written about Billy Graham. But his grandsons wanted to show a side of the man they dearly love through the eyes of ordinary people. They caught that innocent yet powerful essence in the just published "Invitation: Billy Graham and the Lives God Touched" (Multnomah, $19.99).

And they did it in a way their grandfather would appreciate. Just like Billy Graham used the media to transmit his message globally at a time when no one else was doing it, the brothers used the Internet to find their stories.

Last year, they launched a Web site, www.thankyoubilly.com, to ask visitors to recount how they were introduced to God through Billy Graham's life. It could be a crusade, a book or a radio or television show.

Plenty Of Memories To Choose From

More than 600 respondents have told their stories so far. The brothers selected about 40 stories, "an impossibly difficult task, because we had so much to choose from," says Basyle, who goes by "Boz."

"It's important to capture these stories now, because they're part of our history. When the people pass, so will those memories," he says.

Boz, 40, the third eldest of Billy Graham's 19 grandchildren, practiced law in Florida. This summer, he and his wife packed up their three young daughters and headed to Lynchburg, Va., where he's on the faculty of the Liberty University School of Law.

Graham's 90th birthday is coming up in November.

"He's got a 45-year-old mind in a 90-year-old body," Boz says. "And he misses my grandmother more than I ever thought. We're just enjoying what time we have left with him."

His personal favorite story: Back in 1988, he and a college buddy went to New Orleans, where Graham was attending the Republican National Convention. He and the friend stopped at the Marriott on a Friday night to visit his grandfather, who answered the door in his pajamas. Out of the corner of his eye, Boz could see an opened Bible next to his grandfather's bed.

Here's a man who could be with powerful people at any place he wanted in this city tonight, Boz thought to himself. Yet he chooses to be alone with his heavenly father.

"That made a significant impact on me," he recalls. "That was at a time when televangelists were dropping like flies in scandals, yet my grandfather was demonstrating a quiet, authentic walk with the Lord. Nothing showy, but the real thing."

Aram, 33, lives with his wife and three children in West Palm Beach, where he runs a Web site design and programming company. In the birth order of the grandchildren, he lands "smack in the middle."

Like his brother, he has poignant and cherished memories of Daddy Bill. One that stands out was when his grandfather came to Florida for a vacation, and spent about 30 minutes talking to a woman at the poolside.

"I remember him leaving the area to go up to his room, then bringing back a Bible for her," Aram says. "It was a small gesture, but it captures him. He loves connecting with people and sharing God's word at any opportunity he gets."

Another time, he and brother Stephen were visiting their grandfather while they were college students. As they were leaving, Billy Graham said he wanted to give them a little money to help with expenses. Aram was thinking $50; his grandfather wrote him a check for $1,000.

"That was a fortune to me - about four semesters of spending money," he says. "But then he looked into his checkbook and said, 'That was my last check.'

"Stephen was crestfallen. There was some talk about a check coming in the mail, but he never got it. And of course, I never split it with him. We're still talking about that."

Humility Is His Standout Quality

In separate interviews, both men called up the same quality to describe what defines their grandfather above all else: humility.

"That's the lesson that stands out above all others," Aram says. "What you see is what you get. A humble man who never forgets that God is responsible for everything he's achieved, every experience he's had."

The tabletop book also includes more than 60 photographs from family collections and the archives of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The Web site will remain active as the brothers continue to document stories.

He can't see the words as well as he used to, but Billy Graham will be given the audio version of "Invitation" so he can hear some of the recollections of ordinary people, touched in life-changing ways. That's a gift his grandsons are thrilled to give "Daddy Bill" in the autumn of his life.

"He always had time for us, no matter how busy his schedule was. If we needed to talk to him, he would find a way," Boz says.

"When people ask what it's like to have Billy Graham as a grandfather, that's what stands out the most. He is not some self-important icon. He's a man who never forgets to give credit to God and to be a role model for Christ."

Michelle Bearden can be reached at (813) 259-7613 or mbearden@tamptrib.com.

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