Three years ago, Oliver Graham had the perfect job. A medical sales rep with top-dollar contracts, he boasted a good salary, flexibility and great clients.
But when God got the Grahams’ attention for overseas missions, all they could say was “yes.”
“We knew this ‘going to missions’ was serious business,” said Graham, who describes himself as a simple country boy.
Now the Grahams are on the front row of what he calls a “God thing” — an explosion of decisions for Christ in picturesque Q-city, China.
Since Graham and his wife, Joy, began mentoring six Chinese believers 20 months ago, those believers have started more than 55 churches and led 4,000 people to Christ. And the conversions are coming so fast, it’s impossible to keep count.
But Graham is clear about one thing: he didn’t start it — God did. And he’s worked primarily through Chinese believers, which is the foundation of a lasting church-planting movement.
“God is in the driver’s seat,” Graham said. “God was working in Q-city since the beginning, and He asked us to show up.”
As a strategy coordinator, Graham wants to evangelize through the Chinese themselves rather than forming a ministry dependent on him.
“If Oliver was telling one by one, Q-city would never be reached,” Joy Graham explained. “He wants this to be as Chinese as possible and not get in the way of what God is doing. He’s asking (Christian) brothers and sisters here to share daily, and that’s what makes multiplication.”
But the incredible growth hasn’t come easily.
Q-city, where noisy marketers peddle rice, cats and bins of red peppers, has a history of Chinese traditional religions as long-standing as the mountain shrines. Language barriers and spiritual warfare challenge the entire Graham family, even on the brightest of days.
In the early days, as Oliver Graham wrestled with stacks of training material that didn’t always seem to fit, he wondered if he had come to the right place.
“I had to work through translators, and the Chinese believers just weren’t getting it,” he recalled. “We’d be teaching the same material over and over again. I spent literally months with my nose in my Bible saying, ‘This just isn’t working.’
“I came to a point where I thought, ‘It’s going to fail.’ Coming out of a sales background, you can’t fail. If you do, you lose your job, lose money. You have to become creative — and you don’t always have to depend on God.”
When Oliver Graham realized he had taken matters in his own hands rather than depending on God, he called Chinese partners together and asked forgiveness.
“When I began to tell the guys, ‘I don’t know — let’s seek God’s face on this,’ this is when the breakthrough in trust came,” Oliver Graham said.
The moment was a crucial turning point.
“He meets with brothers, shares their joys and pain, prays and plans,” Joy Graham said. “They cast a vision, and they hold each other accountable. They will meet for hours. They are partners, and their opinion means more than Oliver’s. He loves these guys. They are his closest friends.”
The Grahams and their Chinese partners continued fasting, praying and petitioning God to provide a “person of peace” through whom to work. And when He did, Joy Graham said, it “was like Christmas.”
“We were praying every step of the way,” she recalled. “We rejoiced in every scheduled and unscheduled meeting. When Oliver would meet with (the other Chinese believers) and they shared their hearts to reach Q-city and agreed to pray and study with Oliver, our entire family cried and jumped up and down for joy.”
And as God poured His Spirit on Q-city, people began to come to Him in vast numbers. “It exploded so fast that we didn’t know how to handle it,” Oliver Graham said. “It was way faster than we ever expected.”
To handle the exponential number of new believers, Oliver Graham and his partners made plans for stronger churches, stronger leadership and rapid evangelization.
Oliver Graham is thrilled to see the miracles God has done in Q-city — from independent churches to healings to thousands of saved lives. It’s bittersweet, though, because Oliver Graham knows this means he will soon be done.
“You close out your ends, and then you leave,” he said. “There are many occurrences every week where I have to let things go. You’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing — you’re working yourself out of a job.”
But the Grahams’ passion and message go on through their Chinese partners committed to evangelizing Q-city. “Oliver pushes us by providing a good model and a good example,” says Danyili, one of the original six believers Oliver Graham mentored. “He and his family made themselves available to God, and that’s an encouragement to me — and for them to love the Chinese people so much.”
“Today, when they look at all God has done, they’re amazed,” Oliver Graham said. “We can’t believe that it’s actually happening. How could anyone really be prepared for this? It was and is truly beyond my wildest imagination.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Names changed for security reasons. (IMB)
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