After 18 months of preparation, thousands from Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas filled the CenturyTel Centre in Bossier City, La., USA for the opening night of a three-day evangelistic event that saw crowds of attendants make their commitment to Christ.

|PIC1|More than 7,300 people came to the Franklin Graham Festival on Friday to hear the message of salvation from evangelist Franklin Graham and to hear the musical praise of gospel artist Nicole C. Mullen, Christian country music singer Dennis Agajanian, the Tommy Coomes Band, and a 1,200-member choir of local church members. In recognition of Veteran’s Day, a colour guard from Barksdale Air Force Base presented the colours.

During the evangelistic event, Graham, 53, asked all veterans and current members of the armed forces to stand and be honoured. And in this area that now houses many former residents of U.S. Gulf Coast cities destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Graham also asked hurricane evacuees, and those who have helped evacuees, to stand.

Graham noted that many people’s hearts were touched as television news programs showed rescuers lifting people to safety from rooftops after Katrina.

According to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, he explained that Jesus is the one and only Rescuer of our souls, saying “You can have everlasting life. But you’ve got to come through Jesus. There is no other way; it’s not Jesus plus something else, it’s not Jesus plus this, Jesus plus that. It’s Jesus, and Jesus Christ alone. It is Jesus Christ that came out of heaven down to this earth on a rescue mission.”

|TOP|As Graham preached from Matthew 8, which tells the story of a leper Jesus cured, the evangelist noted that "there was no hope, no cure, no doctors, nothing that could save this man.”

“He was hopeless,” he said, according to The Shreveport Times, “and he was going to die in his hopelessness unless he could get a touch from the Lord Jesus Christ,"

"He'll touch you tonight. He'll give you a new life a new beginning," Graham continued. "Will you come?"

In response, dozens trickled down the stairs and onto the floor where hundreds of counselors waited to pray with them. Of the 168 that accepted the invitation to put their trust in Christ, 113 were making first-time decisions for Christ.

Counsellor Minda Black of Shreveport was thrilled with what she saw at the close of the meeting.

"This is what we need,” she told The Shreveport Times. “If we had more of this, then we could get the drug dealers off the streets, the prostitutes off the streets. We all need Christ in our lives."

The Franklin Graham Festival, which continued on Saturday, will conclude with another message by Graham and special appearances by The Charlie Daniels Band and Lynda Randle.







Joseph Alvarez
Christian Today Correspondent