BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Well, hello everybody. I just wish that I could be there with you today, to be there in person on this 40th anniversary of our beloved friends, Kenneth and Gloria Copeland. Forty years ago, I guess back in one year, 39 years ago, they drove into the entrance of Oral Roberts University. They drove through the flags that represent the different nations where all of our students come from—more than 50 nations. And Kenneth enrolled as one of the oldest freshmen that we had. And later, the first brush I had with Kenneth was through my crusade associate, Bob DeWeese, who was also our pilot. And he said, “Oral, I need another pilot and we’ve just had a crack pilot enroll at ORU.” “What’s his name?” “Kenneth Copeland from Fort Worth, and I think your wife, Evelyn, knows his mother.” And later I found out that Evelyn did know his mother and they were good friends. Well, we hired Kenneth to fly us to our crusades and other places, and Kenneth ended up doing more than being a pilot. He became my driver from my hotel to the crusades, or if a city was near enough to Tulsa, we would drive. And Kenneth also became the one to prepare the invalids in a special place, a special tent that we had alongside the big 10,000-seat tent, for the ambulances and others that brought the sickest people you ever saw to receive prayer. And Kenneth’s job was, when I was preaching, to be listening. And at the end of it, while I was getting ready to come into that special tent and lay hands on each invalid, to get up and rephrase in about five minutes, maybe ten, what I had said and to tell them what I was going to do. I was going to touch each one in the Name of Jesus. And as the months went by, I saw that Ken was doing such a great job which, by the way, was the first experience he’d ever had in anything like this. I would know that Kenneth was always by my side, sometimes whispering something in my ear about a particular sick person. And I remember once, when we came to a severe cancer case and I turned to Kenneth and I said, “Kenneth, you lay your hands on this person.” And Kenneth had never done that, but he was courageous and he went over and prayed at that time the best he knew how and I wasn’t quite pleased with the strength and the enthusiasm of his prayer. So he remembers this: that in a very strong voice, I said, “In the Name of the lion of the tribe of Judah, rise up and be healed!” He said that was one of the most impressive things for his life and for his future ministry. Kenneth was like that. When we were driving from the hotel to the crusade and auditoriums under the big tent, he had been told by my men, “Don’t talk unless Brother Roberts addresses you,” because I had my mind on my message and on my attitude. Sometimes I did engage him. And if I had something burning in my heart, and I saw he was going into the ministry, I would lay it on him. I had no idea what a fantastic memory this young man had. I think Ken was maybe 28 or 29 at that time. BVOV : 11

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