The World’s Most Famous Evangelist
Dr. Billy Graham is the world’s most famous evangelist. He has preached the gospel to more people than anyone else in history. Almost 215 million people in over 185 countries have heard the gospel live through him. In addition, hundreds of millions have been reached through television, video, movies and the internet.
A series of meetings held in Los Angeles 1949 made Billy Graham known to the general public. The media drew attention to a young preacher, who kept filling the meeting tent with listeners evening after evening for two months.
Billy Graham spent his childhood in North Carolina, USA. At age of 15, he made his commitment to Jesus Christ at a traveling evangelist’s meeting in his hometown Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1939, Billy Graham was ordained a priest (Southern Baptist Convention). He studied at the Florida Bible Institute. In 1943, he graduated from Wheaton College, Illinois, and married his fellow student Ruth McCue Bell.
Shortly after graduation, Billy Graham joined Youth for Christ, an organization founded for the ministry of youth and servicemen during World War II. He preached throughout the United States and Europe immediately after the war as a rising young evangelist. But it was not until the Los Angeles Crusade in 1949 that made his calling as a speaker to masses all over the world clear.
Billy Graham was born on 7 November 1918. He lost his wife in 2007. They have three daughters, two sons, 19 grandchildren and numerous great grandchildren. The next generations continue the work of the evangelist and Bible teacher. Dr. Graham, turning 99 in the fall, lives at home in the mountains of North Carolina.