Dawn Smith Jordan didn't just meet Billy Graham. The former Miss South Carolina was invited to sing and speak on stage
"It was one of those I needed to pinch myself, am I really doing this? Am I really meeting Billy Graham?"
Dawn Smith Jordan didn't just meet Billy Graham : the former Miss South Carolina was invited to sing and speak on stage when his crusade came to Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia in 1987.
"I had no idea until the day of the crusade that I would tell my story and sing," said Jordan.
The Billy Graham crusades brought thousands together to hear his message. Jordan shared her testimony and sang on stage.
"It was a very brief part of my story, but in about two minutes, they asked me to share about my younger sister's kidnapping and murder that has taken place a little over a year before the crusade, " she said.
Jordan's sister, Shari Smith, was 17- years-old when she was taken from her driveway and murdered by Lexington County serial killer Larry Gene Bell in 1985.
The search for her sister is still the largest manhunt to happen in South Carolina history.
"Looking back, it is something that I would never have chosen to happen, yet I shared that night that I chose to trust in God even then, and that his grace would be sufficient, which was so appropriate that I was able to sing 'Amazing Grace.'"
Jordan went on to say that, "because that is what I stood on: the grace of God. He had already gotten us through a year and we would do what Shari said and take it one day at a time and look back--that is a lot of one days at a time. "
The very nervous 22-year-old was standing on stage with Rev. Graham in front of thousands of people. Over the week long crusade, 98,000 filled the Gamecocks' stadium.
"To hear him preach live and to see the people come forward at the end and to think 'wow what an opportunity.' I mean how many people get to be a part of something that huge?"
"Now it is really funny because I am on the Billy Graham classics, " she said while laughing, "which makes me feel so old."
Jordan says over the years she has questioned her faith like anyone else, but feels that opening up about her family's tragedy has given her the opportunity to inspire others for nearly 25 years.
"I'm really grateful because still to this day when I am traveling and singing people would say, 'oh I have seen you on the Billy Graham crusade' and that was really something that opened doors for me as a Christian singer."
Her mission work will continue, and she says meeting Rev. Graham has been one of the highlights of her career because he is a man who lived what he preached.
"I think Billy Graham will be remembered for his passion of the gospel. He is truly someone who is has said go into all the world and preach the gospel. To me he is known to my generation as the greatest evangelist of our time."
