In this photo, Nicky Cruz – a former gang leader in New York City who came to the Lord through the ministry of David Wilkerson – is praying for men and staff at the recent annual banquet for the Delmarva Adult & Teen Challenge, headed by Bob Carey.

Over the years, I’ve occasionally sent men coming out of addiction to Bob Carey for help if they needed more intense, initial discipleship than we could offer.

Although I wasn’t at last night’s banquet, it reminded me of a personal story about Nicky Cruz and my family as I was growing up.

In the late 1960s, my parents – Bob and Mary Jane Wright – were part of a new Pentecostal church in Annapolis, Maryland, soon after receiving to the Lord while stationed overseas. My father was a naval aviator, and had returned to the United States with a passion to reach others for Christ.

Somehow, he had come to know Nicky Cruz and had invited him to hold an evangelistic rally in Annapolis. To help pull it together, my dad started reaching out to the broader Body of Christ, including some prominent black pastors who loved the Lord.

The church my parents were attending objected to the fact that the Cruz rally would be open to all, because back then many fundamentalist and old-line Pentecostal “churches” believed in racial separation.

My parents were threatened that they would be excommunicated and shunned if my father continued to reach out to the black community for the rally.

Wrong move!

My dad didn’t flinch for one second, even though he was a relatively new Christian, but chose to do what’s right and left that church. Ultimately this resulted in a strong move of God in our area as Nicky Cruz came and boldly proclaimed the Gospel to blacks and whites alike.

Because of that rally, racial barriers were broken, many came to the Lord, and the body of Christ was strengthened throughout the region.

Nonetheless, my parents were ostracized by white racist “Christian” leaders in the area and were never welcome in any of their “churches” over the coming years.

The Cruz rally, however, began a chain of events that led to an amazing local outpouring of the Holy Spirit, with my parents serving at the forefront of that outpouring as it continued to unfold.

As a result, my parents became pivotal leaders in the Jesus Movement when it hit Maryland soon after, and our house became a hub in the area for that new move of God.

I was in high school at the time, and never knew when I woke up each morning who my folks had taken in the night before. Inevitably, there’d be someone in our spare bed who was escaping abuse or drugs as my parents took them in to minister the Lord’s hope and redemption to them.

Literally thousands of people came to the Lord through them over the coming years, and my parents helped birth many simple, participatory churches throughout the State to help provide solid discipleship for a flood of new believers.

Without Nicky Cruz and his willingness to stand with my father in proclaiming the Gospel out of obedience to the Lord and against the powerful, abusive religious bigots of the day, none of that likely would have subsequently happened.

That Cruz rally and what it helped birth also became a critical part of my own legacy. It was pivotal in my own spiritual formation and is a part of who I am in the Lord even to this day.

And here we are, nearly 60 years later, with Nicky Cruz still mentoring and leading others to Christ.

What a wonderful legacy of a true servant and man of God!

May we all follow his example!

This side of heaven, however, we’ll likely never know the full impact we’ll leave behind as we obey God rather than man …

And humbly do His will as He directs.