“This project is Pastor Chuck Smith teaching through the Bible; Genesis to Revelation; chapter by chapter; line by line.”

Chuck Smith, who by now was close to tears, then reacted by saying, “I’m absolutely overawed. It just touches my heart to realize that the Word of God which, of course He said, He would honor above His Name, is so important and, of course, for any lasting work to be done, the people have to be grounded in the Word.

“It isn’t just receiving Christ; it’s growing in Christ and that growth comes through the knowledge of the Word of God. So to realize the fruit of this will be in creating a lasting work for the Kingdom, thrills and blesses me.”

I wondered if he had any idea this had been taking place and he replied, “I really wasn’t aware that this was going on, but I’m so pleased.”

Both men then paid tribute to their Godly mothers and the influence that they had on their respective lives.

K.P. Yohannan said, “Growing up in India, we had six boys in my family and I’m the youngest. My mother prayed and fasted for three-and-a-half-years, every Friday, that at least one of her sons would become a missionary. I didn’t know this was going on, but this was her devout walk with the Lord, and her prayers were answered when God called me, so I’m so grateful for her life and now she’s with the Lord.”

Chuck Smith then responded by saying, “Well, in reality just before I was born, my sister, for all practical purposes, died as far as they could tell. She had stopped breathing; her eyes had rolled back and so my mother had taken her up to the church and the pastor said, ‘Get your eyes off your little girl, and get your eyes on Jesus.’ There and then, my mother made a vow to the Lord in which she said, ‘If you give me my little girl back, I will give my life to serve you.’ Well, that happened.

“Two months later, when I was born, the doctors informed my mother that she had a little boy and she said, ‘Lord, I will fulfill my vow to you through my son.’ So she started me, when I was very young, and she taught me how to read out of the large print Bible that we had. My bedtime stories were always Bible stories and so I grew up just surrounded by the Word and knowing the Word and being taught it.

“She didn’t tell me of her vow, much like K.P’s mother, until when she was dying and she was in our home and then she told me the commitment that she’d made of my life to the Lord when I was born. She didn’t want to influence my decision; she wanted it to be the Lord that influenced me so it was just a mother who prayed that changed my life.”

He added, “I can’t remember waking up any morning at home, but that I heard her out in the living room praying. She was just a woman of prayer, a woman of commitment to the Lord and, really, she’ll get the rewards in Heaven rather than me.”

I then reminded Chuck Smith that we were standing close to where the “Big Tent” had been pitched and where so many hippies found Christ.

“Well actually those hippies are now grandparents, you know,” he laughed. “So many of them are in the ministry and we’ve watched them grow up, but with the growing up, we have seen the Gospel continuing to just expand further and further. So the excitement of seeing the long-haired, bare-footed kids, is no longer there, but to realize that they have grown up and are doing a work that is reaching the world is just an exciting thing.”

I pointed out to K.P. Yohannan that possible some bare footed kids in India where now going to be blessed with these teaching CDs.