TALES...LONE STAR ROAD REPORT

LONE STAR ROAD REPORT: A SPECIAL REPORT ON THE WEST TEXAS FESTIVAL 2000 WITH FRANKLIN GRAHAM (PART I)

LUBBOCK (Special): "I'm going to do tonight like Elizabeth Taylor said she told her ten husbands--'I'm not going to keep you long.', Melvin Graham told a capacity crowd at the United Spirit Arena April 30th gathered to see the last night of the West Texas Festival 2000 with Franklin Graham. The younger brother of world-renowned evangelist Dr. Billy Graham and uncle of Samaritan's Purse founder and Billy Graham Evangelistic Association vice-president Franklin Graham. The uncle and the nephew also shared verbal jabs about Melvin's six surgeries "...to try to find a brain".

But apparently Billy's younger brother did not necessarily come to the podium in Lubbock just to talk about his skull or Liz Taylor--"...I came to talk about the Lord...I wanted to come talk about how my brother and myself were reared. We came up from the country as many of you did-- in fact, probably most of you..."

But in spite of what was a background of what some might have considered hardscrabble living, Melvin told those assembled--"There's one thing that happened in our household- -that is, my daddy and mother took us to church. No matter how busy they were, they took us to church; they did not send us. I think that's partially lacking today here in America-- and we have problems today that we didn't have when I was a boy. I went to church every Sunday--not necessarily because I wanted to, but because I had to. Somebody said, 'We didn't have drugs back then.' I said, 'Oh, we did. We got drug to church every Sunday; drug to Wednesday night prayer meeting; we got drug around a lot of places."

Melvin Graham served as one of the highlights of the three-day Festival at the United Spirit Arena April 28th-- 30th which also featured nightly evangelistic messages by his nephew, Franklin as well as performances from artists such as Ricky Scaggs, Jars of Clay, and Michael W. Smith. Over 40,000 people were in attendance throughout the event, with Saturday night's attendance of 15,774 breaking all previous attendance records set since the USA was built less than two years ago on the Texas Tech University campus--with some of those spilling into the overflow sections outside. Sun. night also saw a capacity crowd--in which around 2,000 to 3,000 had to be turned away from the overflow section due to inclement weather.

Festival Executive Committee Chairman Rick Canup said that the reason for bringing the Festival was that "...a group of pastors and lay leaders met together with a strong

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