Tens of thousands of Filipinos poured into Manila's Rizal Park as evangelist Franklin Graham spoke on the love and forgiveness found in Christ Thursday evening – the first day of the Metro Manila Festival.

|PIC1|From Feb. 2-5, the four-day festival will proclaim to Manila's millions that "There is Hope," according to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Festival, the organisation for which Graham serves as president and CEO.

Graham, 53, took the platform in Rizal Park, well aware of the unrest Filipinos had recently faced, having met with national leaders in the days leading up to the Festival, according to the BGEA. In those meetings he had expressed a desire to share “God’s message of hope, especially in light of the challenges facing the Philippines today.”

Metro Manila, Philippines, has been one of the fastest-growing regions in the world the last 30 years, and it now stands as a major cosmopolitan center of Southeast Asia with more than 11 million people living in the 17 municipalities that make up the metropolitan area. The nation is struggling against poverty, crime, unemployment, drugs, and the spread of HIV-AIDS.

According to Bishop Reuben Abante, general secretary for the Festival, “The Philippines is simply crying out for preaching of the Gospel and the spiritual regeneration it brings.”

Local churches have been affected, and their growth stagnated.

|TOP|Preparations for the Metro Manila Festival have helped to join Christians across denominational lines in unprecedented numbers.

Graham told the crowd about Nicodemus, the Pharisee from the Jewish ruling council who went to Jesus one night with a question. He said that this troubled man was someone with "very high intellectual qualities... a religious man."

"Many people trusted him," yet that was not enough to give him hope. "He came to Jesus Christ," he said.

More than 1,490 committed their lives to Jesus Christ out of the 33,700 who attended.

|AD|Graham’s visit to Manila is part of an eight-city tour scheduled for this year. Other cities Graham will tour in 2006 include:

New Orleans, La.
Mar. 11-12

Angola, La.
Apr. 1

Mobile, Ala.
April 21-23

Baltimore, Md.
July 7-9

Quito, Ecuador
Sept. 21-23

Winnipeg, Canada
Oct. 20-22

Okinawa, Japan
Nov. 3-5





Rhoda Tse
Christian Today Correspondent