Friends, faithful, famous pay respects to Graham

After an estimated 6,000 people filed past his casket on the grounds of the Billy Graham Library on Monday, the stream of well-wishers continued Tuesday.

"I can't even understand why I'm feeling so emotional," said Velda Harper of Charlotte. "What I remember as a child growing up, my mom always having the crusades on and us watching the crusades from when I was a little girl."

Volunteers and chaplains with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, which is headquartered on the library grounds, stopped people waiting in line and leaving to ask if they could pray over them.

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"We know personally how prayer has impacted us and how our prayers have impacted others," said Pat Ballem, who came to Charlotte from New Jersey to pay her respects. "[Prayers] are not nothing; they're everything."

"You can never have too much prayer," Harper agreed.

Graham once said, "True prayer is a way of life, not just for emergencies."

"I had to stop doing everything because I would never have this opportunity again in life to have this moment with you and the Graham family," Rev. Lamar Dunford of New Orleans told a chaplain who prayed with him.

Steve Farmer and his three sons likewise drove to Charlotte from Louisiana and welcomed the chance to pray near Graham.

"It was something special," Farmer said, "especially, you know, just viewing the casket and coming through, you know, just the moment there, and she just walked up and said, 'Hey, you mind if I pray for you guys?' I'm like, 'Sure.'"

Former President Bill Clinton was among the mourners Tuesday, after former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura Bush, paid their respects on Monday.

"He was a profoundly good man who conveyed a simple belief – than we can claim kinship with God by asking," Clinton said. "He showed his faith by his works and by his life."

Clinton spoke privately with Graham's son, Franklin Graham, for more than 20 minutes, and the two prayed together over Billy Graham's casket. Later, the former president recalled how, when he was 11 years old, he went to a Billy Graham crusade in Little Rock, Ark., and saw the evangelist stand up to segregation.

"The White Citizens Council tried to get Billy Graham to preach to a segregated audience, and he said that God didn't see us that way, and if that was going to be the rule, he was going to cancel the crusade and tell people why he did it. They folded quick," Clinton said. "When he gave the [altar call] invitation, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people came down in tears together. It had a profound effect on me."

Noting Graham's close relationship with him and other presidents over six decades, Clinton said he agrees with people who say religion and politics shouldn't mix too much.

"But don't forget," he added, "those of us who are Christians believe in a God of second chances, and politicians need those more than anybody else. So, you've got to cut [Graham] a little slack for trying to give a willing ear and an open heart without regard to his political preferences.

The visitation continues until 10 p.m.

On Wednesday, 30 family members will travel with the casket on a cargo plane operated by Samaritan's Purse, the international relief organization run by Franklin Graham, to Washington, D.C., where Billy Graham will lie in honor in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

Graham's funeral is set for Friday in a tent outside the Billy Graham Library, and President Donald Trump is expected to be among the 2,300 invited guests.