The Power of Testimony

14 || ALL BUT NORMAL
began attending Youth for Christ meetings led by a committed
young couple, George and Pat Phillips. Their zeal for
the Bible and prayer inspired Bev, and in recent weeks, her
prayers took on an urgency that caught the attention of the
Phillipses and her friends.
“Pray for this boy I like, that he’ll come to Jesus,” Bev
asked repeatedly at Youth for Christ meetings. “And for my
dad to come to Jesus too.”
That prayer became the focus of her life, and friends
heard her pray with startling passion, “God, use me in any
way that you want to see John and my dad come to know
Christ.”
John had attended church with Bev’s family a couple of
times, though he would have rather spent time alone with
Bev, enjoying conversation outside the presence of spying
sisters and Bev’s parents. That kind of opportunity had not
come until now, the evening of March 30, 1962.
At around eight o’clock, John pulled up outside the Gilvin
home in his Corvair. The quad headlights lit up the street,
and the Chevy bow-​tie badge seemed to glow with inner
warmth. Without making a scene, Bev traipsed out the back
door and hopped into the passenger seat. John’s lanky frame
and goofy smile were visible in the darkness.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hi,” Bev responded, grinning across the divided bench
seat. He thought she was vivacious and beautiful, good-​
hearted and mischievous, all in right measure.
“Well, here we go.”
John took the long way to Goldblatt’s, making a circle