Oral Roberts' Granddaughter Talks To The News On 6

By Ashli Sims, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Oral Roberts was more than just a mission, a ministry or a university; He was a patriarch.

The News On 6 sat down with his granddaughter on Tuesday to talk about the man behind the ministry.

"We had known this morning. My dad called and said it's happening," said Jordan Roberts, Oral's granddaughter.

Despite the warning, Jordan Roberts says hearing her grandfather was gone was a shock.

"You can never be prepared even when you know it's coming; you're never quite ready," Jordan said. "It's an immediate sense of sadness and loss for someone that you love very much."

Love that stretched around the globe, news of Oral Roberts death spread fast and the phones started lighting up, prayers from as far away as Africa and England.

To Jordan, Oral Roberts was just her "Andy," as he was known in the family.

She is following in his footsteps by working in the ministry's TV program. She says she was literally born into it.

"When I was born my father and grandfather decided that they wanted to put it on TV," Jordan said.

Oral never made it.

"He locked himself in his car somehow in a dark garage, and he missed the whole show. He missed it all, and he was so upset because he missed it."

Jordan says that is her favorite story because it tells you the larger-than-life minister was also flesh and blood.

"That is how he was. He was such a normal man. He was such a great man of God but he was a normal guy, he locked himself in the car," Jordan said laughingly.

Jordan takes comfort in the many well-wishes of others and also the fact that this is what her grandfather would have wanted.

"We spent Thanksgiving with him, and he said I'm ready to go home. I miss my wife. I'm ready to see her. I want to go to heaven and meet the Lord," Jordan said.

She believes her grandfather is now reunited with her grandmother - just in time for their wedding anniversary on Christmas Day.