American Evangelist Sammy Tippit thought he grew up in a family without any spiritual ties. After he came to Christ, he was kicked out of the house. What Tippit didn’t know was that his father had run away from biblical instruction taught to him by his parents.
The evangelist says he doesn’t remember his father ever talking about his grandparents. In searching out his roots, “I discovered a rich heritage that I [didn’t know about]. And when I discovered it, one of the moving things I found was that my grandmother—whom I had never met because she died before I was born—was a godly, praying woman.”
The only thing written about her was her prayer life. Tippit says she prayed that her lost son would come to Christ. “God answered her prayers through a grandson [me] whom she never met and whom she never got to know, to bring her son back to the Lord.”
Tippit’s father was saved on his deathbed. He says that led him to write the book, Praying For Your Family: An Eternal Legacy.
“The very first part of the book is: What do you do when you pray? I mean, a lot of people don’t know what to do. And then, how do you pray for your family? What are the obstacles? What keeps you from doing that? I believe it will help our listeners and see God do a work in our families.”
“If God were to touch their families and people were to come to Christ inside our families, there would be an evangelism explosion,” Tippit says. “We could turn this country around if we would just reach our own families.”
While the book started off as an effort to help the North American church, it has now grown. “I started having [Christians from other countries] say, ‘Can we have it over here? Can we have it in our country? We need this so desperately.’ I found that there is a crisis that is happening around the world in families and homes. So, the book has now been translated into numerous languages,” Tippit explains.
In July Tippit will be heading to Brazil not only to lead evangelistic meetings, but also to lead a conference on Praying For Your Family.
While the prayers of Tippit’s grandmother were answered, God has done exceedingly and abundantly above what she could ask or think because her grandson is being used to share Christ in the Middle East, Asia, South America, Africa and Europe. Countless thousands are people are reaping the benefit of faithful prayers of a little old woman in the woods of North America.
See an error in this article?
To contact us or to submit an article
