SHUSTER: Of course, another YFC person associated with Europe is Bob Evans. When was...when did his involvement in YFC begin?

JOHNSON: We were looking for someone to sell bonds. I think I mentioned this in a previous talk with you. We were looking for somebody to sell war bonds.

SHUSTER: Who was looking for someone?

JOHNSON: I was.

SHUSTER: For YFC or [unclear]....

JOHNSON: For YFC in Chicago. We were having a big...big meeting in Soldier's Field, Chicago. And to demonstrate our patriotism to our country, to show that Evangelical Christians are also loyal Americans, that there could be no mistake about that. So I decided, together with my counselors, that we would sell war bonds at the Soldier Field rally. But we wanted someone who could represent the military. And in our inquiries here and there, I don't recall where, we came across the fact that Norfolk, Virginia, there was a man there at the American Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, Bob Evans, who was a Wheaton College graduate and a chaplain who could come. So we suggested, "Let's have him come." So we worked it out with the military to have him come in uniform. And he had been at the Anzio beachhead [1944] in the Mediterranean theater of the war and so on. And he had gotten some vision of Europe at that particular time while he was in the military. And his parents had been missionaries in Africa before, so he came from a missionary family. We brought him to Chicago and he spoke along appropriate lines of the patriotism and Christian loyalty to their country and so on. And we sold an enormous amount of war bonds.

SHUSTER: Do you recall...?

JOHNSON: They say that we sold more war bonds at that rally than any other large meeting in the history of the United States.

SHUSTER: Do you recall how much you sold?

JOHNSON: No, I don't. I couldn't tell you what we sold. We...I didn't pay too much attention to those details which I should of. In hindsight, you know, a lot of things you should have kept a record of, and you didn't. But that was the reputation we gathered out of that. As a result of that meeting doors opened for Bob Evans in YFC. Naturally, people would like to have him come and speak, and he's a good speaker, good, solid Christian leader. And he became executive director of YFC under myself. By myself being president he became executive director and administrator, working in the Chicago office and continued there. And he went with us to Beatenberg. At Beatenberg his vision of Europe was reinforced and perhaps enlarged. And as a result of that, in the course of time, not...not too long a time either, he developed what is now known as Greater Europe Mission. Warren Filkin...Dr. Warren Filkin, prominent Christian leader, and Noel Lyons, N-O-E-L Lyons, who had been the director of...well, basically I think for the Moody Bible Institute, joined with him and started the Greater Europe Mission.