Oops! I somehow missed that Monday was the 93rd birthday of the great evangelist Dr Billy Graham. Thank you to my friend Ann in Dereham for alerting me to this.
My parents met him on his first visit to the UK in the 1940s, when he visited their theological college in Glasgow, then they, and my grandparents were very involved in the Haringey Crusade of 1954 [both in the choir and as counsellors] I actually managed to be in the choir in Norfolk for the relays of the 1966 Crusade [mostly miming, my singing is dreadful!] I met his daughter Anne Graham Lotz a few years ago. Check out the Pathe Newsreel of 1954 here and the tribute from Jim Wallis of The Sojourners here.
Life has changed a lot since this enthusiastic preacher with his piercing blue eyes began his Crusade ministry, and we do evangelism differently nowadays – but there are many people throughout the world who would acknowledge that God used this man to bring them to a knowledge of the Gospel.
May God bless him – I thank God for his ministry throughout the years – and hope that when I am 93 I am still speaking about Jesus.
Thanks for the reminder. Billy Graham is an incredible man. In many ways I'd think he was 'not my kind of guy' at all - as you say, times have changed. But everything I ever hear about him makes it impossible for me to dismiss him and his faithful work for God. Ben was on the overning typing team for his London mission in the late '80s! The followup was incredible.
ReplyDeleteI like BG's quote, something like: 'You may not like the way I evangelise, but it's better than the way you DON'T evangelise'. I also like that he worked with Catholics. He's not allowed human divisions to stop the work of God.
I have many Billy Graham memories, too. My granny poured over her Decision magazines, seeking Jesus. She saved them and gave them to me when Bill and I got married.
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