It seems that Bono wrote a poem of his own inside that book. The book is now on display at the Billy Graham Library and thanks to a visitor’s review we can see the first line of that poem:

“The journey from Father to friend is all paternal loves end. It was sung in my teenage ears in the voice of a preacher loudly soft on my tears.”

Bono has joined a cast of other celebrities in expressing thanks to Billy Graham. As an added Billy Graham-Bono connection, there are pictures of Billy Graham, Bono and Franklin Graham taken that day during Bono’s 2002 visit. To my knowledge, those photos have never been made publicly available.

“I couldn’t have had a ministry without him,” Billy Graham said, too frail to hold the microphone himself. “Thank you and God be with you. I love you.”

Shea was presented with a Rodgers organ as a gift, which he tried out for the crowd, though the organ is more of a loaner. Franklin Graham noted that Shea can keep it as long as he lives. After his death it will be donated to the Angola State Penitentiary.

Billy Graham’s public appearance might give some measure of credibility to speculation that he’ll travel to Minneapolis later this year to attend a dedication at Northwestern College, where he served as president in the 1940s.

Billy Graham first recruited Shea in 1944 to appear on his new radio show “Songs in the Night.”

“Bev was the very first person I asked to join me in evangelism,” Graham said. “He was well known in the Midwest, but at the same time he was humble … It was God who brought us together. [Shea's] rich, bass baritone voice has touched the hearts of millions in our Crusades … I don’t believe I’ve ever heard him utter an unkind or critical word about anyone.”

Christian publisher Ambassador International is also collecting birthday wishes for Shea as a part of promotions for their upcoming biography, George Beverly Shea: Tell Me the Story.

“After a visit in the Oval Office, Johnson proposed a swim in the White House pool. That no one had brought a bathing suit was no deterrent; in years to come the president would often interrupt meetings to suggest and swim and needle anyone who was reluctant to strip naked and dive in a baptism in intimacy.”

A TIME magazine article described it as “an encounter that included both prayer and skinny-dipping in the White House pool.”

The second best swimming with the president story has to be from 1979 when Graham borrowed a pair of white swimming trunks from George H.W. Bush. After lunch Graham walked back to the condo alone for a nap and inadvertently walked onto a Mexican naval base. An armed guard stopped Graham and detained him for trespassing. With no identification, wearing nothing but borrowed swim trunks and facing a language barrier, Graham had a hard time explaining what he was doing. The armed guard ordered Graham to sit down on a bench until a superior officer could sort it out.

The officer eventually released the world famous evangelist, telling him to walk home barefoot on a hot sidewalk. When Graham finally returned to the condo he realized the bench he’d sat on had been freshly painted. Two green stripes crossed the seat of Bush’s swimsuit.

Graham could never get the swim trunks clean and Bush laughed it off, saying the sacrifice was worth it. Barbara Bush joked that the incident proved “unfortunate things happen even to God’s chosen people.”