A year after evangelist Billy Graham said farewell at his final crusade in New York, grandson Will Graham held an evangelistic celebration in the states for the first time.
Some 4,500 people turned out Monday night for the three-day Greater Gaston Celebration in Gaston County, North Carolina - the first of its kind in the area in over five years. Reminiscent of the evangelistic crusades led by Billy Graham, the outreach event had the traditional choir of local volunteers with longtime choir director Cliff Barrows.Although seemingly carrying on a family legacy of preaching to large crowds "crusade-style," the third generation Graham had insisted that he isn't trying to be a Billy Graham. "There's no replacing Billy Graham," he told The Charlotte Observer.
Preaching his primary emphasis, Graham told the thousands at the celebration of the presence of sin in humans and the need for a Saviour. "Our greatest need is that we need our sins to be forgiven," he said, according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
The eldest of four sons of Franklin Graham, who heads the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Will Graham, 31, has led evangelistic events in Canada and India. This was his first celebration in the United States and he plans to lead a crusade in Ohio.
His US event follows his father's successful outreach in Ecuador. More than 140,000 heard the gospel and more than 13,600 made commitments to Jesus Christ in September. The Franklin Graham festival was reported as the largest evangelistic outreach in Ecuador's history.
Generations of missionaries had come and gone throughout the 20th century, according to missionary V. Raymond Edman, former president of Wheaton College. In recent years, however, tens of thousands have come to know Christ and the "Festival de Esperanza" came at a ripe time for a large harvest.
The younger Graham generations continue their global outreach with scheduled festivals in Japan, Canada and the United States.
