In the same month evangelist Franklin Graham concluded his China visit, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association special topic film crew accompanied by former world tennis champion Michael Chang and his newly-wed (Amber Liu) visited churches in Jiangsu, which is 120 miles south of Beijing, from Oct. 26 to 30.
BGEA is producing a documentary, so the purpose of visiting Jiangsu is to collect relevant information. The film crew visited “sheng-en” church, meaning holy grace, in Qingpu District, Huaian City and the places where Billy Graham’s deceased wife once lived.
Meanwhile, using “gu-yun” river or old transport river, Huaian City’s historical site, as back-draft, Chang introduced the land that once nourished the Graham family.
Three generations of the Graham’s family shared a friendly relationship with the Chinese people: Franklin Graham’s grand-father Dr. L. Nelson Bell once served in China as a doctor of 25 years, Franklin Graham’s mother was born in Jiangsu, China, in 1920, she planned to return to China for service and to be a missionary to Tibet, but her marriage with evangelist Billy Graham changed her destiny.
Franklin Graham said that my mother’s wish before was to go back to China to live, but after she met my father Billy Graham, her life changed. He reminisced that despite this fact their family still has a very deep burden for China. In 1988, they’ve visited Ruth’s birthplace and preached the gospel.
In mid-October’s visit to China, Franklin Graham met with Wang Zuo-An, head of China’s State Administrative Religious Affairs Bureau (SARA), and preached to nearly 10,000 people at Bethel Church in Baoding, Hebei. In addition, representing Samaritan’s Purse as the founder, he visited Chengdu, Chongchin and other places, Samaritan’s Purse sponsored rural hospitals and dental clinics and the victims of the Sichuan earthquake from 2007.
