(RNS) — It’s long been said that the late evangelist Billy Graham called his daughter Anne Graham Lotz the “best preacher in the family.”

Now, Lotz has begun passing along her family’s legacy of preaching and teaching to one of her two daughters, Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright.

“I present the gospel and will give an invitation, but I feel like Rachel-Ruth has more of a gift of evangelism than I do,” Lotz told RNS in an interview last week. “She’s incredible the way she can present the gospel and bring people to that point of repentance and where they want to claim Jesus as their savior and Lord.”

Lotz, 77, is the president of AnGel Ministries in Raleigh, North Carolina, while Wright, 51, is vice president. Through the ministry, Wright leads an online weekly Bible study that reaches thousands via the internet in more than 125 countries.

And in November, Wright will be the main seminar speaker at the Christian conference center named for her grandfather, the Billy Graham Training Center at the Cove, across the state in Asheville. It’s a role Lotz has typically held. 

“She has the same calling that I do,” Lotz said of Wright. “You feel supported, you feel relieved, you feel that God’s just given me this blessing — and it could be anybody, but that it’s a daughter is exceedingly precious. And so, I know that the baton is being passed.”

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In the meantime, the two women continue to collaborate, including on their third joint book, “God Won’t Leave You There: Joseph’s Story,” to be released on March 31. Wright wrote the chapters, and her mother polished them and added the introduction, as well as the Scripture reflections and prayers that follow each chapter.

Lotz said her father told her repeatedly she should write a book about Joseph, the biblical character from the Book of Genesis who was betrayed by his brothers, was later imprisoned under false pretenses and eventually became the second most powerful leader in Egypt.

“I love the story of Joseph, but I never felt released to do that,” Lotz said. “And I believe it’s because God was withholding that from me because he wanted me to do it with Rachel-Ruth.”

After both women faced health challenges — Lotz survived breast cancer, and Wright faced serious heart ailments — they decided now was the time to write about a character whose troubled life was one to which they could relate. They dedicated the book to the “one whose life has been turned upside down.”

The interview with Lotz and Wright was edited for length and clarity.

How are you doing, given that you both have had medical challenges?

Lotz: I’m eight years out of cancer, so I still get my checkups every year, but all seems to be well. And then I just had my second heart ablation in January, and my heart is quiet. And I have a new hip (laughs). At my age, it’s just sort of patch, patch, patch, but I’m doing good. God has been so faithful. 

Wright: It’s been quite a journey, because I had those SCAD heart attacks, the spontaneous coronary artery dissection, four years ago. Then, for the three years after that, I just had so much chest pain and heart pain and PTSD. I ended up having blood clots in my lungs. At one point, I had a mini stroke. I mean, it’s been crazy. So God has just taken me to a deeper level of trusting the Lord. I’m really doing good now.

Why did you write about Joseph, a biblical character who had a tumultuous life and who you see as a role model for yourselves and others?

Wright: It’s hard to even believe how focused he was on the Lord, how great his faith was in the Lord, through just terrible, terrible circumstances. His brothers became jealous of him. He thinks he’s just going to check on them and go back to his dad and tell him about them, and the next thing you know, they seize him — they throw him in a pit, and they sell him into slavery. Just watching how he handled life’s terrible situations, that hit us. And seeing him do it in such a beautiful way, where instead of him fighting and getting angry and turning against God, he wasn’t bitter or angry. He’s a phenomenal person to look at and try and mimic.

After the suffering that mom and I have been through, we feel like, in some ways, we can understand when life just keeps hitting you, that this is how you do it. The way that Joseph suffered is the way that we should do it as believers in the Lord.

Lotz: In that few seconds of time, his life turned upside down. I think it’s a timely message for this day and time when life is hard and people are struggling and maybe don’t understand why God has allowed whatever it is. Joseph suffered and struggled, but he just embraced every place he was and learned from it, so that he was ready for the next step.

In the book, you write about helping others in the midst of your suffering, as Joseph did, caring for the fellow prisoners while he was serving an unjust sentence. In the midst of your health situations, were there times when you were able to follow that example?

Lotz: I told my girls (her other daughter, Morrow Reitmeier, joined Wright in accompanying Lotz to chemotherapy treatments) it’s like a mission trip. I know God is in control, but there’s so many, many, many people, whether it’s when you’re waiting for a lab draw, waiting for a chemo infusion, even now, going to the doctor’s office, and it’s interesting the ministry you can have. I prayed with all of my doctors, prayed with the nurses. This nurse was disconnecting me from the IVs, and I just led her through the gospel and then took her hand and prayed with her, and she prayed to receive Christ. I’m sure I’ve missed more opportunities than I’ve taken, but I believe God has allowed me to go through those things not just for myself, but for others.

You describe about how your father continued to read Scripture even when he couldn’t see it well any longer. Could you briefly describe what tools he used and how that affected you?

Lotz: They were like on poster boards, big white sheets in his bathroom, in his bedroom, in the kitchen. So everywhere he looked, he could then read the Scripture. He and mother both had that macular degeneration. She had her assistant type out the Psalms and portions of Scripture that she wanted. And those letters must have been at least an inch or 2 inches tall. Neither mother nor daddy wanted to listen to the audio version. They wanted to see it in black and white.

Rachel-Ruth, you say that you were the “most unlikely of the family to be in public ministry with my mom.” Do you feel the weight of continuing the legacy of ministry as a granddaughter in the Graham family?

Wright: I don’t feel the weight of carrying it on. I think that’s the biggest privilege I have is to serve the Lord that way. But I don’t think that I was the likely one because I struggled in school growing up, I had a learning disability in reading comprehension. And now I’m writing books — if that doesn’t show you what God can do. I feel like I’m a walking testimony of what God can do with a nothing.

Anne, how about you? And are you still going to speak publicly?

Lotz: I’m still doing that, just going where God sends me and giving out his word to the specific audience. It doesn’t matter to me if the audience is one or 10,000, or if it’s male or female, or if it’s young or old. As I’ve gotten older, I want to be more strategic in the things I accept. So as long as he gives me breath and opportunity and invitations to do that, then I’ll be doing it.

But I will tell you that I feel Rachel-Ruth coming alongside is almost a relief because I feel I have support. Last year, she was having heart issues, and so I took some engagements for her. But I have the confidence that if something happened to me, she could take engagements for me and it would be a lateral move.

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