Though frail and ailing, 87-year-old Billy Graham delivered a strong message of hope to more than 33,000 people gathered in Baltimore’s Camden Yards during the last night of a July 7–9 Metro Maryland Festival.
“Unfortunately, I’m getting too old to do this, and I thought on my way out, this may be the last opportunity to preach to an audience like this,” said the elder Graham, who was driven to the platform in a golf cart.
In a historic moment for Marylanders, the evangelist shared the stage with longtime crusade associates Cliff Barrows, now 83, and George Beverly Shea, now 97, in vintage crusade fashion, offering a clear grasp of the gospel of Jesus Christ through messages and songs.
The trio has ministered twice before in Baltimore, most recently in 1981 and in 1949, the year that Graham’s signature crusade ministry first garnered national attention.
It was then that Graham’s famous Los Angeles tent meetings catapulted him and his associates into an internationally recognized crusade ministry.
From there, the team went on to share the gospel with more than 210 million people in live audiences at hundreds of crusades and rallies in North America and around the world.
“It’s been 60 years of ministry. We have an amazing relationship that only the Holy Spirit could have made,” Graham said. The ministry team members each expressed thanksgiving for the transformation in Baltimore since their last visit, commending the city’s leadership for its hard work in building the Inner Harbor and otherwise beautifying the once-decaying area.
Graham also directed his attention to his 53-year-old son, Franklin, noting, “I am happy to have a son preaching the gospel like he is.”
In fact, in 1952, when Graham’s fourth of five children was born, a Western Union telegram seemed to foretell Franklin Graham’s eventual ascent into ministry.
“Welcome to this sin-sick world and the challenge you have to walk in your daddy’s footsteps,” the telegram read.
“People all over the world admired Billy Graham as a spiritual leader. I suppose it only seemed natural to them that his firstborn son would eventually plant his tiny feet in those large footprints,” another note read.
Now president and CEO of both the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, an international humanitarian ministry, the younger Graham has continued the tradition of stadium-sized evangelism events.
All together, more than 80,000 people attended the three-day festival, which also featured Christian-rock band the Newsboys, gospel legend Andrae Crouch, former “American Idol” contestant George Huff, country-western superstar Randy Travis and a 1,500-voice choir from area churches.
KidzFest, a special event for children on the morning of July 8, featured the popular superhero Bibleman.
Franklin Graham preached on the nights of July 7 and 8, before yielding the pulpit to his father on July 9.
Each evening culminated with the characteristic call to Christ accompanied with a chorus, beckoning people to leave their stadium seats and go to the outfield to indicate their interest in beginning a relationship with Christ.
Thousands of people poured onto the Camden Yards’ field each night, an answered prayer to event organizers. (BP)
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