|PIC2|More than 30,000 people attended the Franklin Graham Festival of Hope last weekend in the eastern European country of Estonia.

It was the first time Franklin Graham held a festival in the country although his father, American evangelist Billy Graham, had held an evangelistic event in the capital city of Tallinn in 1984.

Some 350 local churches helped bring the message of hope to people in Estonia and to their neighbours in Latvia and Finland who came by bus to Tallinn to attend the three-day event.

Popular musical performers that took the stage included Michael W Smith and musical artists from Estonia, Finland, Belarus and Ukraine.

Some 10,000 turned out on each of the three days to hear Franklin Graham preach his message of hope in the Gospel.

International Christian relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse, which Graham also heads in addition to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, distributed gift-filled Christmas shoe boxes to needy children in Estonia.

Estonia was the location of the second Graham festival this year. In March, Graham kicked off his 2009 crusade schedule in Uruguay and will head to cities across the US as well as Bogotá, Columbia, in the coming months.