A LETTER FROM JOHN WAYNE
Dr. Robert Schuller’s teenage daughter, Cindy, was in a motorcycle accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne was a big fan of Robert Schuller. He heard Dr. Schuller say on one of his programs that his daughter had been in an accident and had to have her leg amputated. John Wayne wrote a note to her saying:
Dear Cindy:
Sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you will be all right. Signed, John Wayne
The note was delivered to her and she decided she wanted to write John Wayne a note in reply. She wrote:
Dear Mr. Wayne:
I got your note. Thanks for writing to me. I like you very much. I am going to be all right because Jesus is going to help me. Mr. Wayne, do you know Jesus? I sure hope you know Jesus, Mr. Wayne, because I cannot imagine Heaven being complete without John Wayne being there. I hope, if you don’t know Jesus, that you will give your heart to Jesus right now. See you in Heaven.
And she signed her name.
She had just put that letter in an envelope, sealed it, and written across the front of it "John Wayne" when a visitor came into her room to see her. He said to her, "What are you doing?"
She said, "I just wrote a letter to John Wayne, but I don’t know how to get it to him."
He said, "That’s funny, I am going to have dinner with John Wayne tonight at the Newport Club down at Newport Beach. Give it to me and I will give it to him."
She gave him the letter and he put it in his coat pocket.
There were twelve of them that night sitting around the table for dinner. They were laughing and cutting up and the guy happened to reach in his pocket and felt that letter and remembered. John Wayne was seated at the end of the table and the guy took the letter out and said, "Hey, Duke, I was in Schuller’s daughter’s room today and she wrote you a letter and wanted me to give it to you. Here it is."
They passed it down to John Wayne and he opened it. They kept on laughing and cutting up and someone happened to look down at John Wayne. He was crying.
One of them said, "Hey, Duke, what is the matter?"
He said (and can’t you hear him saying it), "I want to read you this letter." He read the letter. Then he began to weep. He folded it, put it in his pocket, and he pointed to the man who delivered it to him and said: "You go tell that little girl that right now, in this restaurant, right here, John Wayne gives his heart to Jesus Christ and I will see her in heaven." Three weeks later, John Wayne died.
(From a sermon by Jimmy Haile, Hope for the Hopeless, 7/16/2011)