Around 700 people surrendered their lives to Jesus Christ during evangelist Franklin Graham’s 4-city “God Loves You” tour in the United Kingdom.
As reported by CBN News, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham traveled to Liverpool, Newport and Sheffield last month to preach the Gospel. Graham, the CEO and president of Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), worked with Christians from over 2,000 churches to make the tour a reality in the U.K.
About 11,000 people were reportedly in attendance during the tour, and at least 700 made professions of faith.
“There is a real sense that we’re here for this time and what Franklin was talking about, we feel very similarly that God has stepped in, and this is a key time for the proclamation of the Gospel, especially emerging out of the pandemic and the results of the pandemic,” BGEA’s U.K. Director Robert Chilvers told Global News Alliance (GNA).
“Emerging from that, we feel very much not only that we have the opportunity, but we can encourage other churches to take the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel boldly and clearly,” he added.
Chilvers noted that BGEA is thankful for the churches who collaborated with them on the U.K. tour.
“We’ve been training people in the local churches to lead small groups, we call discovery groups, to which inquiries are referred. It’s encouraging to hear that many churches are establishing these groups especially to care for those who are making a response to the Gospel,” he said.
Before going on the tour, Graham faced some backlash from LGBT activists due to his biblical convictions on marriage and sexuality. The pushback included protests against ads promoting the “God Loves You” tour that were set to be placed on buses across the city.
In July, Graham will travel overseas once again to continue the tour in ExCel London. Last year, he launched the tour across eight cities in the United States.