Man's Unlikely Journey Leads Him Full Circle To The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

Meet a man whose life took some unlikely turns on the way to becoming a new spokesman for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Ken Barun is painfully aware of the hitch in his step. His bad hip never lets him forget it.

But then, his long walk to the corporate offices of the Billy Graham ministry has come with more than its share of hitches - and highlights.

"Living a drug infested life on the streets of New York prepared me to know what it was like to be in trouble," Barun said.

The streets of New York were just the beginning of an unlikely road that would lead Barun to the Reagan White House where he worked with Nancy Reagan on her "Just Say No" campaign against drugs. Then it was to the corporate boardroom of McDonald's where he started the Ronald McDonald House Charity with $300,000. He "super-sized" that to $1.8 billion before retiring last year.

Now he's with the management of the world's most respected Christian Evangelistic Association.

That's a trail even Barun may have trouble believing - especially since the man helping to coordinate the opening of this living testament to Christian Evangelism was born and raised Jewish.

"I'm a born again Christian, and I am what people call a completed Jew. I've come full circle in this," Barun explained.

Barun said he became a Christian six years ago, but the circle may have started to close when he was just a boy and Billy Graham was a young evangelist beginning his television ministry.

"It was very interesting, because there is a Jewish family gathering to watch a Christian pastor preaching the gospel, and I was fascinated by this. It was my first introduction to Billy Graham!" Barun remembered.

It is no small irony then that Barun's challenge now as Communications is to prepare the ministry to move forward after Billy Graham.

"What we have to do in my job of Communications is really to let people know we are here. That we will continue to carry on our mission and what God has put us here to do," Barun explained.

And to complete a long and unlikely journey that was always leading here.