The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA) has ministered in Italy through various outreaches over the decades, starting with a Billy Graham event in Turin in 1967. In
recent years, Franklin Graham held evangelistic Festivals in Milan and Rome (pictured here).
Franklin Graham will return to Italy to share the Good News at the Noi Festival in Naples on Sept. 14. More than 300 evangelical churches in southern Italy have come together for the event. The first Noi Festival in Milan in 2022 and the second one in Rome last year drew a total of 31,300 people—the largest evangelical outreaches of their kind in Italy.
More than 4,600 Christians were trained to share their faith during the preparations for Franklin Graham’s Noi Festival in Milan. The word noi in Italian means "we," bringing the idea of unity to the Festival name.
Following the Milan Festival, enthusiasm for the event in Rome continued to build among Italy’s Christians, many of whom served as volunteers in Milan. Trained prayer volunteers like this man (pictured) spent time talking and praying with attendees who surrendered their hearts to Christ after the Good News was shared.
With the largest elderly population in Europe, Italy was hit hard by the pandemic—with many residents losing their lives to COVID-19. In March 2020, Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (BG-RRT) chaplains deployed to serve alongside Samaritan’s Purse at the organization’s 68-bed emergency field hospital in northern Italy. >>Watch a short video about the chaplains’ ministry during the pandemic.
While hundreds of patients were treated by medical professionals, chaplains comforted the isolated and sick, encouraged those working around the clock, and talked with families and community members nearby.
One month later, in April 2020, the Gospel was shared for the first time on secular TV in Italy—through a one-minute message from Franklin Graham that reached millions of homes. More than 750 trained pastors and volunteers answered calls and chatted online with those who prayed to make a decision for Christ or wanted to know more.
Fifty-seven years after Billy Graham shared the Gospel with 3,000 people in Turin, Italy, please pray that many others will surrender their lives to Jesus Christ as Franklin Graham shares the same Good News during the Noi Festival in Naples next month.
