August
13, 2003
Bill Bright’s Coronation Day
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I
am sure you have heard by now that our beloved leader and friend Bill
Bright passed into eternity on July 19th at his home in
Orlando, Florida.
The
Lord gave us a special blessing by allowing almost 4,000 staff to be
together when Steve Douglas stood to tell us that Bill was gone.
We were all together in Moby gym at Colorado State University for
our staff training when we got the news.
We were able to pray and worship the Lord together as a staff
family. We were overjoyed that he was no longer suffering from his
illness and was now in the presence of the ONE he loved and served for
more than 50 years.
CCC staff Celebration, Ft. Collins Colorado
Vonnette and their
son Brad, along with his family, flew out over the weekend to be with
us. She said, “There
is
no place I would rather be at this time than with the Campus Crusade
family.” Monday night was a private celebration
for the staff, of his
life well lived for his Savior.
Dr.
Bright has had a tremendous influence on our lives. Both Patti and I learned about knowing Christ personally
through the ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.
We had the privilege of hearing from Dr. Bright in our
conferences over the years. His
favorite message to us was Living the Spirit Filled Life.
Vonette and Brad
This
message has probably had the most impact on our lives.
It is one we probably need to hear over and over again because I
believe it is the
secret to living a successful Christian life.
Trying to live such a life is impossible with out the Holy Spirit
living it through us. In
his honor and
because of God’s great love for us, we are including a
link to a copy of the Spirit-filled Life booklet. Please join
us in reading this and
rediscovering the life the Lord meant for us all
to live here on earth.
We
are reminded and comforted by what Bill said to us: “For a believer,
death should be a time of great celebration, not sorrow. It is sad only
for those who have no hope, no God and no
Savior. For loved ones left behind, following the death of a believer,
Jesus left a special message
‘…If you really love me, you will be
very happy for me, for now I can go to the father…’ (John 14:28,
Living Bible)
Thanks
to Jesus, death has no sting! We
can indeed be happy for Dr. Bright and celebrate his home going. Mrs.
Bright is doing remarkably
well. Some media people helping with the web
cast of the Ft. Collins memorial service were overwhelmed at how happy
and peaceful she was.
She
wore red for the occasion; Dr. Bright’s favorite color for her.
Our
lives are so blessed to have a small part in what the Lord has done
through this ministry in the past 50 years.
Thank you for partnering with us.
We are truly blessed.
In
His service,
