Lorne Sanny writes:

Before I met Charlie Riggs, he had worked for seven years as a roughneck in the oil fields of Pennsylvania. Social graces weren't particularly prominent in his life. He could hardly talk without stuttering. If you asked a personnel board to consider him as a trainer of counselors for, of all things, the Billy Graham Crusades, he would have been last on the list.

But God picked him out. He has trained several hundred thousand people in personal counseling all over the world through his work with the Billy Graham team.

When Charlie first came into my home, I was disappointed. I had scheduled a Bible class for servicemen, and he was the only one who showed up. One man! In those days I didn't realize the importance of helping just one fellow. I was forced into it.

He would come to these meetings and sit without a smile, looking tough and rugged. We would have our Bible class, and then he would leave.

But it wasn't long before Charlie came in one night and said, "Lorrie, let me show you something God gave me out of the Scripture." I also remember the night when he said, "Lorrie, I've been getting up to meet the Lord in the morning at six, and then a quarter to six, and then five-thirty, but it still isn't time enough. I just feel I ought to get up and start my devotions at five." Soon I found out he was reviewing two or three hundred memorized verses a day.

To me it's astounding what God has done with that fellow. I would never have picked him out for it. In fact, I've quit picking out people for what God wants to do with them.

But I am having an ever-increasing vision of the possibilities of every individual as a channel of blessing through the transforming power of Christ.