Watering a Boy's Dream

Did Billy Graham realize the cup of cold water he gave to a 12-year-old boy in 1965 would influence this boy to grow up and be on a quest to reach one million decisions for Christ by the end of 2010? 

In 1965, Billy Graham held a crusade in Minneapolis, MN. That's when Tom Elie sensed God's call. He said, "I felt that God had put it on my heart to reach masses of people for Christ." 

Tom wrote Billy Graham and was surprised when Mr. Graham replied with encouraging words to pursue God's call. Mr. Graham's legacy had an impact on Tom. 

Inspired, 12-year-old Tom wondered, "How do I win people for Christ?" Then an idea took root. He saved his allowance to purchase gospel messages from the Chicago Tract Society and mail the messages to people whom he randomly picked from the phone book. One time a woman wrote back and thanked Tom for sharing God's love. "I just wanted to do whatever I could do that would reach outside of the box," Tom said. 

The horseback evangelist
The legacy in Tom's family began in 1906. A horseback evangelist rode into a northern Minnesota town to hold a gospel meeting. Someone had invited the town drunk who had also been known as the wife beater. This meeting had been the first time the inebriated man had heard about quenching his thirsty would with the "Living Water" of Jesus Christ.

"The town drunk got gloriously saved and changed from the inside out," said Tom. "He had become so radically changed that he became known as a 'Trumpet for Godl.'"

This once "town drunk" turned "Trumpet for God" was Tom's great grandfather who had passed the Christian legacy down to his generation. "This is the power of one decision coming to Christ," Tom said.

Teenage preparation
As a teenager Tom attended an all-church prayer meeting. He knelt on the cold ceramic floor when a hand touched his shoulder and a voice gently prayed, "Lord, make this man another Billy Graham." The affirming hand and voice had been that of the visiting Bible college professor. This had been another cup of cold water that encouraged Tom to keep purusing God's call to win masses of people for Jesus Christ.

At 16, Tom's youth group returned with jubilation from a month-long mission trip in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They had walked hut to hut and introduced people to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Tom said ecstatically, "We saw about 500 people come to know Christ!"

Years of shaping
Over the next thirty years, evangelism took many forms in shaping Tom for the coming soul harvest, including leading worship as a music pastor and planting a church as a pastor.

"At 19," Tom said, "I became part of a hippie's church that was really reaching a lot of young people for Jesus Christ." This Minneapolis church was called Jesus People Church. As music pastor, it's where Tom led a hippie crowd of thousands in worship for twelve years. Then in 1984, God called Tom to plant and pastor Praise Assembly in Minneapolis. He pastored there for twenty years.  

In 1996, Tom sensed God urge him to double his prayer life. He said, "God told me to seek His face; not His hand." God had been teaching Tom about His favor through listening obediently in prayer and His Word. Tom realized, "The work God does in me is more important than the work I do for Him. And as I am in His presence, it changes me to become more efficient in being His representative." 

Divine favor
When Tom doubled his prayer time, he began to see God's hand orchestrating his life. "God's favor woulde open doors in six minutes that would have taken me six years to accomplish." He noticed a supernatural provision of relationships and contacts that he could not have made on his own.

A month later, Tomhad been invited to the rich harvest fields of India. After seeing masses of people eager to hear about a loving God, he returned home and founded Oasis World Ministries, an evangelistic ministry that is bringing "Living Water" to thirsty souls. It wasn't until 2004 that Tom passed the mantle at Praise Assembly to serve full-time at Oasis.

A goal and a deadline
In the year 2000, Tom ran across a quote by John Maxwell, "A goal without a deadline is just a dream." So with only 15,836 decisions for Christ reached, Tom set a deadline of December 2010 to reach ONE MILLION decisions. He set the bar so high that when it was reached, everyone would know that it must have been God's grace and favor to work to make it happen. As of December 2010, Oasis had exceeded their one million soul goal with 1,007,379 decisions for Christ!  

Tom will go wherever people are thirsting for "Living Water." He ventures to places where others have labored in the harvest fields preparing the soil, planting the seed, and watering the crops for a harvest of souls. Tom focuses on traveling where a major gospel crusade has never been held or hasn't been held in decades. 

Revisiting fertile ground
In September 2009, Tom traveled to the mountain-tops of Kohima, Nagaland, India to hold a gospel crusade at the very grounds where Billy Graham held the last crusade in 1972. This had been Tom's 37th trip to India.

Working with pastors and local churches of many denominations, the Oasis team anticipated 5,000 attendees, but God exceeded their expectations when 22,000 people came on Sunday alone. Over 11,840 signed decision cards for Christ had been collected in those five days, many came from college-age men and women. Afterward the local pastors reached out to those who had made decisions for Christ and invited them to learn and grow in their newly found faith.

God's multiplication of one
The legacy of Billy Graham lives on. Tom said, "We thank God for him in sustaining grace and his life and the legacy he leaves for future generations to follow."

"Millions have been won to Jesus Christ down through the years," Tom said, "and multiplied millions more, because of the effects he has had upon his audience like me, who have gone out and multiplied the efforts of the kingdom."

A cup of cold water in the form of encouraging words had confirmed what God had placed in a 12-year-old's heart and influenced him to pursue God's call, carry out His plans, and populate heaven!

"The power of legacy over time," Tom said, "is something we will all rejoice together in some day."

Written by Jennifer Klitzke