Hi, I'm Christi Graham, host of All in the Ground with Samaritans Purse.

On the ground with Samaritans Purse brings you stories of how God is working,

and I have the privilege of introducing you to the people that we help,

our volunteers and our staff, including our president Franklin Graham.

I believe that our calling is to take the gospel to the ends of the earth.

We don't feed people or take medicine without telling them about who Jesus Christ is

and what he did on the cross.

Listen to All in the Ground with Samaritans Purse on Apple or Spotify,

or find the link in today's show notes.

I am almost levitating in my seat about today's conversation on back porch theology,

because I have the huge privilege of introducing you to one of my living heroes of the faith,

the man who introduced me to grace.

I've been attending church since I was in utero and have been reading the Bible or having

it read to me from my earliest memories, but the concept of grace, of God's unmarried favor,

was always kind of like wet soap to me. It was hard to hang on to,

until I moved to Nashville at the age of 21 and began attending a church led by a

Birkenstock wearing pastor named Scotty Smith. It's not hyperbolic to say that holy spirit

used Scotty to create a seismic shift in my heart toward Jesus.

The long season I enjoyed as a member of his church, and ultimately,

as one of the students he mentored at Covenant Theological Seminary,

is what built the spiritual scaffolding that now supports my belief system,

as well as the intimacy I have with Jesus. I love and respect this man so much that if I had

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