Empowering the Next Generation of Evangelists
This memorial fund for Jean Graham Ford will carry out her vision for mentoring younger men and women all over the world who are emerging evangelists. These young leaders will be those who show tremendous potential to share the Gospel in their own context. Seasoned evangelists will mentor them based on geography or cultural similarities. Whether they are a pastor or lay leader and whether they are part of an itinerant ministry, a church, or a parachurch, emerging evangelists will benefit from the ministry of Jeanie’s Vision!
Please consider partnering with us to meet our immediate goal of
$1.8 million to support Evangelists Around the World.
DONATE Mentoring emerging evangelists around the world
To help raise up and mentor a new generation of evangelists in the United States and around the world
• Mentor young evangelists by providing safe times, safe places, and safe people to sustain them for a lifetime of ministry.
• Mentor evangelism leaders within local churches.
• Identify and train current senior evangelists to come alongside these young male and female evangelists as mentors.
Evangelists often feel lonely and isolated. The calling to itinerant ministry, requiring much traveling from place to place makes it difficult to put down roots and feel deeply connected. One young evangelist said, “Community is one of the biggest missing pieces. Being an evangelist can feel very, very lonely, yet nobody seems to ever talk about it.” Numerous resources exist to support pastors, but not many for vocational evangelists.
Men and women in their twenties, thirties, and forties who show tremendous potential to share the Gospel in their own context. These younger ones will be mentored by seasoned evangelists, based on geography or cultural similarities.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
– II CORINTHIANS 12:9 NIV
Just after 11 a.m. Eastern Time on February 29, 2024, Leighton Ford’s wife and Billy Graham’s youngest sister, Jean Graham Ford, joined her siblings and parents in the arms of Jesus. The Bible verse 2 Corinthians 12:9 characterized her life. The power of Jesus in Jeanie was made perfect through her two most prominent weaknesses — her voice and her vision.
Born in 1932, Jean was raised on the Graham family’s dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina. Billy Graham was already a teenager when she was born. In his autobiography, Just As I Am, Billy Frank (as she called him) remembers a trip to Florida:
“While we were in Orlando, Daddy did something unusual: he encouraged little Jean (who was four) to get up on the table in front of the guests and ‘preach’ to them. She was so cute, with her beautiful blond hair, that they stopped to pay attention. I don’t know why Daddy put her up to it, but Jean was serious about her message and told the guests they needed to come to Jesus. I guess you could say she was the first preacher in our family.”
At the age of twelve, Jean became critically sick with polio. She later recalled:
“That night, I heard the nurse tell my mother and father out in the hall that I would not make it through the night,” Ford said, later noting the doctors were concerned because polio had paralyzed her throat. They feared it might spread to her heart or lungs.
“I was so sick. Maybe 103, 104 fever, terrible headache, and neck ache. And I did not care whether I made it or not… I do remember this very clearly, that if I died that night, at that age, that would not have bothered me so much because I knew then I was going to heaven.”
Her father, Frank, physically removed her from the quarantine facility and took her home. Eventually, the paralysis subsided but the damage was permanent. She was able to speak and swallow but with much difficulty for the remainder of her life.
Later, she met her husband, Leighton Ford, at Wheaton College. Leighton was an Associate Evangelist and Vice President for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association from 1955 to 1986. He then founded Leighton Ford Ministries which focuses on training and mentoring young leaders in evangelism.
Leighton and Jeanie ministered together in both organizations. Their family grew with three children. Sandy died following heart surgery in November 1981. Debbie, their oldest child, is married to Dr. Craig Gourley and lives in Charlotte. Kevin, the youngest, is married to Caroline and currently leads Leighton Ford Ministries.
Jeanie found her voice as a Bible study leader in Charlotte where she also founded Women of Vision, a volunteer movement of World Vision. She actively served as an elder at Myers Park Presbyterian Church in Charlotte and also helped the church raise $31 million for outreach.
“Don’t forget the evangelists,” she would remind Leighton as he traveled the world, giving voice to a new generation of emerging leaders.
For over 40 years, Jean struggled with her second weakness, a vision challenge known as Benign Essential Blepharospasm. This neurological disorder causes spasms, or twitching, of the eyelid. But she was best known for the hundred of men and women who sought her counsel on her back porch where each individual felt truly “seen,” despite her vision challenges.
Her two greatest weaknesses were perfected through Christ (2 Cor 12:9). At LFM, we want Jeanie’s voice and vision to continue through the lives of a new generation of evangelists who have a passion for sharing the Gospel. Men and women who model all that was important to Jeanie — sharing Christ, loving her family, and living out the Bible. Before she went home to be with the Lord, she shared with Kevin and Caroline, “I’ve lived a long life. I have no regrets. I’ve served my Savior well.”
Jean Graham Ford’s legacy lives on in the hearts and lives of those she touched. We also hope it will spread to other men and women around the world. It’s a legacy we all want to leave behind – serving our Savior well.
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good
news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim
salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”ISAIAH 52:7 (NIV)
Every time we headed off to help young leaders spread the Gospel, my Jeanie would say, “Don’t forget the evangelists.”
She and her brother were two of a kind. Both raised on a red clay dairy farm in North Carolina with a strict mother, who taught them the Bible and a kind father who guided them with his prayers. They both became Christ sharers who felt called to let others know this God who loved and could save them.
He traveled across the world preaching to millions and millions. She stayed close to home for the most part living that good news with her three children and her husband.
He raised his powerful and strong voice like a thunder. She spoke like a quiet stream with a voice made quiet by her childhood polio.
Watauga County, NC – Hurricane Helene Response
