Graham, amid New York's tapestry, continues to point toward heaven

Michael FalcoRNS

Possible last crusade - Evangelist Billy Graham addresses the crowd at his New York Crusade in Flushing Meadows Park on June 26. Due to health problems, many consider the crusade Graham's last in New York.

NEW YORK (BP) - As he has for 60 years, Billy Graham ended his three-day New York crusade June 26 by offering about 90,000 in the crowd a glimpse of heaven. But as in perhaps no other crusade in his long history of evangelism, New York provided heaven's face.

Tucked into a corner of Queens where more than 130 languages are spoken each day, the Greater New York Billy Graham Crusade drew more than 230,000 people from every part of the world - whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, people whose families came to America generations ago and people so fresh they still marvel at this nation and its freedoms and opportunities.

A true representation

The remarkable diversity reflects the host city, home to the sort of integration of God's people Graham has advocated for all his evangelical career, and fitting for what many considered could be his last such gathering.

"Every nation on earth is truly represented on the sidewalks of New York City," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his welcoming message June 25. "And they are all here tonight."

Tall signs dotted the crusade's corner of Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, guideposts for Koreans, Urdus, Arabs, Indians, Russians, Portuguese, Chinese - in Mandarin and Cantonese, Spanish-speakers and many of the other ethnic groups that make up the patchwork of people in New York. They answered Graham's calls to salvation by the thousands, some 8,300 over three days.

"I see white Christians, Hispanic Christians, Asian Christians, Jewish Christians," said A.R. Bernard, chairman of the New York crusade's organizing committee and pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn. "I see the body of Christ like it's never been seen before."

And even in that body, where small differences in teachings can lead to deep rifts, New York embraced all the differences as Graham preached that belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior unites all Christians as family.

For Roman Hernandez, who moved to New York from Mexico just a few years ago, listening to the evangelist preach in person was "one of the most beautiful experiences of my life."

"It's a great honor for all the people who will make their way here this weekend," he said. "It truly is like heaven will be."

Michael FalcoRNS

Sending praise - Darren Valdez of Staten Island prays at evangelist Billy Graham's crusade in New York on June 26.

As MercyMe, a Texas-based band of white musicians performed "I Can Only Imagine" on Saturday, a tall young Hispanic man held his New York Yankees cap in his right hand, his fists clenched in emotion, as he sang along.

At Saturday's gathering, the South African band Tree 63 had played its first few notes when hundreds of young people of every color rushed to the stage - arms outstretched, dancing, clapping, singing along to the group's best-known song, "Blessed Be Your Name," and thousands of voices carried the chorus across the vastness of the park.

Franklin Graham, who had earlier offered his testimony as a modern-day prodigal son who found satisfaction only in God, led his frail father to the large wooden lectern, a great effort for the elder Graham who responded to the cheers of the crowd with a small smile. Suffering from Parkinson's, fluid buildup on the brain and prostate cancer, the 86-year-old evangelist shuffles with a walker, the lasting effects of a hip replacement and broken pelvis. Near him sat New York's two senators, Charles Schumer and Hilary Clinton, and with her, her husband, Bill, the former president.

Lifelong committment

Though he no longer delivers his message with the fire of his youth, and his last New York crusade seems an impossible distance from the 100 nights he preached at Madison Square Garden in 1957, Graham's commitment to his core message never wavered, and thousands heard his voice and came forward.

"My old friend George Beverly Shea is 96. I'm 86, on my way to 87. I know it won't be long before both of us are in heaven," Graham said. "But the Bible tells us to be prepared, and we look toward death.

"You may have many more years, but you never know," he told the crowd. "But this might be the last day of your life. And there comes a time when it will be too late."