Q: What gave Billy Graham a scare while he was enjoying the outdoors in Australia?
A: Sharks.
In 1959, during his three-month-long tour of Australia and New Zealand, Billy Graham had a rare day off to rest and relax.
He and three other members of his evangelistic team—Cliff Barrows, Walter Smyth and Paul Maddox—decided to head to a beach town on Australia’s Gold Coast in Queensland.
The four men parked their car by a quiet, sandy beach near Surfers’ Paradise. God had been moving powerfully during the Crusade events, and the team took time to pray and have a Bible study by the water.
>> Hear from 10 Australians whose lives were touched by Billy Graham.
Then Mr. Graham and Mr. Barrows went for a swim. Mr. Graham told the following story in his autobiography Just As I Am:
“We were enjoying being pounded by the waves when all of a sudden we heard Walter and Paul yelling, ‘Sharks! Get out—sharks!’ We looked out and saw fins coming toward us. Apparently, we had not quite reached Surfers’ Paradise.”
Both men got out of the water safely, if a bit shaken.
Mr. Graham returned to the U.S. with story after story of God’s goodness. By the time the Australia tour came to a close, more than 3 million people had heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ at a Crusade event—close to a third of the country’s population at that time. Many Australians are still experiencing the ripple effects of that historic visit.
Franklin Graham is going to Australia 60 years after his father’s watershed trip.
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