It was a Saturday afternoon on July 1, 1885 when a Boston Sunday school teacher,, who wanted to be sure all the students in his class personally knew the Lord, felt the tugging of the Spirit to share his faith with a young 17 year old shoe salesman he knew. At first Kimble vacillated, unsure if he should talk to the man. But he finally mustered his courage and went into the shoe store. There Kimble found the salesman in the back room stocking shoes, and he began to share his faith with him. As a result, the young shoe salesman prayed and received Jesus Christ that day. That shoe salesman's name was Dwight Moody (better known as D.L. Moody), and he became the greatest evangelist of his generation. The faithful Sunday school teacher had no idea that this act of faithful evangelistic witness would reap such a rich harvest for heaven. It has been estimated that during his lifetime, Moody traveled more than a million miles (before the days of commercial air travel!) and spoke to more than 100 million people.

But the story doesn't end there. Several years later a pastor of a small church by the name of Frederick Meyer (better known as F.B. Meyer) heard Moody preach in England. Meyer was so deeply stirred by Moody's preaching that he himself embarked on a far-reaching evangelistic ministry. Once when Meyer was preaching on a college campus, a student named John Wilbur Chapman (better known as Wilbur Chapman) accepted Christ as a result of his presentation of the gospel. Chapman became a great evangelist in the generation succeeding Moody's. During Chapman's ministry in Chicago, Illinois (USA), a baseball player with the "Chicago White Stockings" had a Sunday off (as did all professional ballplayers in those days) and was standing in front of a bar on State Street. A gospel wagon from the Pacific Garden Mission came by, playing hymns and inviting people to the afternoon service down the street. This ballplayer, Billy Sunday, recognized the hymns from his childhood, attended that service and received Christ as his personal Savior. Sunday played baseball for two more years, then left professional sports to minister in the YMCA in Chicago. Sometime later, Chapman was passing through town and invited Sunday to join his crusade team as an advance man, to help organize pastors and set up evangelistic meetings. Sunday enthusiastically agreed. After two years, Chapman left the evangelistic ministry to become the pastor of one of the leading churches in America. Although Sunday felt stranded, he refocused on national crusade evangelism and soon began scheduling his own crusades.Chapman later became involved in the YMCA and employed a baseball player to help him prepare to conduct an evangelistic crusade. That ballplayer, who later became a powerful evangelist himself, was William Sunday (better known as Billy Sunday).

In 1924 a group of businessmen invited Billy Sunday to hold an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, which resulted in many people coming to Christ. A group of local men were so enthusiastic afterward that they planned another evangelistic campaign. When they asked him to return later, he could not so In 1934, a lesser known evangelist named Mordecai Hamm came to Charlotte to hold a crusade. Hamm's crusade went well, even though it did not have many converts. On one of the last nights under the big tent one tall, young, lanky, farm boy walked up the aisle to receive Christ. The boy's friend's called him Billy Frank. We know him today as Billy Graham.

Talk about a chain of events! And it all started with an ordinary Christian named Edward Kimble, who reached D.L. Moody, who touched F.B. Meyer, who reached J. Wilbur Chapman, who helps Billy Sunday, who reached a group of men, who invited Mordecai Ham, who reached Billy Graham. Look at what God has done over these many years because of the faithfulness of one person.