Texas evangelist marking 1,000 revival meetings

LONGVIEW?Two teen-aged boys sat next to another during lunch at Woodrow Wilson High School in Dallas. They pressed the claims of the gospel to the heart of a 16-year-old sophomore, Billy Foote. They consistently invited Foote to their home church, where he eventually repented of his sins and trusted Christ during a 1956 revival at Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church.

"When I accepted the Lord, my life took on a total new meaning," said Foote, whose alcoholic father died in a bar fight. "I came out of my shell. And that had a lot to do with the positive peer pressure of those students who had a heart for God. That helped set my path straight."

Two years later at Shiloh, Foote gave his life to Christ again as he surrendered to full-time Christian ministry. That same year at Bagwell Baptist Church in Bagwell, Foote conducted his first revival meeting, leading the music.

And this month?April 26-29 at Trinity Baptist Church in Longview?Foote will hold his 1,000th revival.

Then on May 2, officials at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall will confer an honorary doctor of divinity degree on Foote, who attended the institution, and where he met Winky.

Regarding the longevity and success of so many years in ministry, the elated Foote quickly diverts credit from himself and onto others?the first being God: "I just say 'thank you, thank you, thank you,' over and over to the Lord these days for letting me be a part of all he has done," Foote told the TEXAN. "I'm blown away by the joy of it all.

"And I thank God for Winky, my wife, who has felt the call to what we have done just as strongly as I have all these years," he said, noting that she continues as the revival soloist in the majority of their meetings. "There's never been a time she wasn't ready and willing to go. She's never kicked in the traces because she knew we were going to minister in the name of Jesus."

Foote is also grateful for his children, who often traveled in a motor home as Foote traversed the countryside from meeting to meeting. He said that Wendy Foote Tompkins and Billy James count those days as some of their fondest childhood memories.

Three years into the revival ministry, Foote met James Robison. The two teamed-up as Foote led the music and worked with youth. His first revival meeting with Robison in 1962 was Foote's 38th.

"The doors just blew wide open," Foote recalled. "It was incredible."

Early in his ministry, Foote enrolled in Decatur Baptist Junior College in Decatur, but had to drop out for financial reasons. He then became involved in ministry at a church in Mesquite but was asked to leave that church as he became ensnared with a faction of members who were against the pastor. Foote was devastated, dejected and despondent, but later realized he was at fault. Foote said he learned a "very valuable lesson from that knockdown early in his ministry."

Weeks later, Foote met with T.C. Gardner, who headed up Training Union ministries for the state convention. "He asked me, 'Do you think God has called you to ministry?' And I told him, 'Yes, I do.' And he told me, 'Then get your eyes back on the Lord and get back to what God has called you to do,'" recounted Foote.