Billy Graham

Billy Graham (born November 7, 1918) is an American Southern Baptist evangelist who has preached around the world, reaching live audiences of 210 million people in 185 countries. He has led hundreds of thousands of people to make personal decisions to accept Christ into their lives, this being the main thrust of his ministry. Many of his sermons center on the topic "Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation". He has often advised U.S. presidents and continues to be listed as one of the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World" in Gallup Polls.

Billy Graham made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ in 1934 during a revival meeting conducted by Mordecai Ham. Graham was ordained in 1939 by a Southern Baptist church. He attended Florida Bible Institute now called Trinity College . He graduated from Wheaton College in 1943. It was during his time at Wheaton that Graham decided to take the Bible as the infallible "word of God". He also married Ruth Bell, whose parents were Christian missionary doctors in China. He and his wife have three daughters, two sons, 19 grandchildren and many great grandchildren.

Graham joined Youth for Christ after graduating from Wheaton. He travelled throughout the United States and Europe as an evangelist. Graham scheduled a series of missions in Los Angeles, California in 1949. The missions went on for 8 weeks after being originally schedule for only 3 weeks. This happened on many other of his early missions. He had missions in London, England which lasted 12 weeks, and a New York, New York mission in Madison Square Garden in 1957 which ran nightly for 16 weeks.

Rev. Graham served as the President of Northwestern College in Minnesota from 1948 to 1952. Rev. Graham founded the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in 1950 headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Association later relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina. BGEA Ministries have included:

• "Hour of Decision" a weekly radio program broadcast around the world for over 50 years
• Mission television specials which are regularly broadcast in prime time in almost every market in the U.S. and Canada
• A newspaper column, "My Answer," carried by newspapers across the United States
• "Decision" magazine, the official publication of the Association
• World Wide Pictures which has produced and distributed over 130 productions