Florida megachurch pastor Joel Hunter told Beliefnet editor Steve Waldman and me that Billy Graham gave him advice in what to pray for tonight's benediction.

"We had this fairly long communication where I was just saying, 'Hey give me some counsel here.' The gist is, he saw this as a magnificent opportunity. He said, 'I'm proud that somebody of your stature gets to do this.' He just gave me some council, 'Just say what God gives you to say.' He's so frail, he can't hear right now, so his assistant was the one who sat down with him. It takes him a while now to communicate. His assistant was the one who was telling me all of this.

"He said he'd be praying for me, and he'll be watching."

Posted by Ted Olsen on August 28, 2008 7:59PM