You would think having the world’s most recognized preacher for a father might help you get your own ministry started. But Anne Graham Lotz, founder of AnGeL Ministries, tells Washington Post “On Faith” reporter Sally Quinn that her dad, Billy Graham, was not always supportive of her desires to get into teaching Bible.
The traditional role of women in my father’s house was that the wife stayed home – you know, kept the house, cooked the meals, raised the children, so the husband could go out – and that’s what my mother did, and she did it beautifully. And when I felt called of God to start the Bible class, neither of my parents supported me in it, and mother actually said, “Anne, the idea’s a good idea, and God will honor you for having the idea, but you’re not to do this.”
Once her parents saw her leading Bible study, however,
… they recognized that God had indeed called me … and they just did an about-face to the point that my daddy has been so gracious in some of the things that he’s said …. but had I not had that, I still would have done it.