It was fitting that the Wyoming State Capitol was under construction Friday as Franklin Graham visited the capital city on his 35th Decision America stop.
Even before he started talking about rebuilding America’s moral foundation, many of those gathered were discussing a new chapter for our country. And many of them were Millennials and younger.
“I just pray that God will start working miracles in our country,” said Brandon Clyburn, a 25-year-old who hitchhiked from across the border in Colorado to Cheyenne last month.
Brandon said he was tired of his old life and “wanted to live for God.” He’s already found a job and a church and showed up Friday to pray with other Christians for the nation. He’s also praying non-Christians will start a new journey of their own through a one-on-one relationship with Jesus.
“Once people understand the Gospel, it will change our country,” said 20-year-old Daniel Reich, holding a New Testament and a small American flag in one hand.
It’s Christ who brings healing to our lives, he said, and Christ who can help heal the nation one person at a time.
Daniel, a Bible college student in California, came to the rally with his sister, 15-year-old Hope, and their three brothers—17, 13 and 6.
Hope said the tour has inspired her to pray more—and not just her typical prayers for family and school, but for America’s next president and the nation as a whole. Whenever Daniel is home from college, he helps lead the family in prayer.
“I don’t really keep up with what’s going on,” admitted their 13-year-old brother Josiah. Yet, he was right there with his siblings to join in prayer anyway and hear how he can make an impact.
As Franklin Graham has said in 35 states now, everyone can do something to bring about change.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we need God’s favor today in this land,” he said from the Capitol lawn Friday.
He told the story of how Nehemiah found favor with God when he prayed for his country and how God allowed Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem “because of the prayer of one man.”
With hundreds gathered at the Wyoming rally, he asked, “Do you think God might hear our prayers today?”
Franklin Graham used Nehemiah’s prayer as a model, leading the crowd in confessing sins of the nation, their personal sins, the sins of their ancestors, and in praying for local and national leaders.
He also challenged them to back biblical candidates, saying it’s a Christian’s duty to be involved in current events and to help keep America from straying further from God.
“It’s time to push back, fight back and say, ‘We’re not going to let that happen,’” he said, standing firm on the platform.
That push back is what the younger generation needs, said two teenagers at the prayer rally.
“I think we need better morals. … We’re kind of zoned out and don’t really care that much,” said 13-year-old Breanna.
“It’s definitely a more atheistic generation,” her 16-year-old brother Ethan said, adding that he’d like to see people his age become less self-centered and more focused on God.
The siblings came with their grandparents, Charles and Margaret Shearer from Casper, Wyoming, about two-and-a-half hours from the Capitol.
Charles is a U.S. Navy veteran who’s fought for America’s freedoms, and Margaret got teary-eyed as she considered her grandchildren’s future.
“I’d like to see them have the same opportunities other generations have had—freedom of religion, freedom to worship,” she said.
Those freedoms are in danger, Franklin Graham has said, if American Christians don’t speak up.
Which is why so many people have said they’re encouraged to see thousands turn out for the Decision America Tour.
Margaret said her generation “may never know what the impact is [of the tour], but I think there will be one.”
Nearby stood Ted Robertson, ready to pray once again after recently finishing his own countrywide prayer tour. A Northfield, Minnesota, resident, Robertson started praying in every state capital in 2000.
On Friday, Ted chatted with a woman holding a white flag bearing four words that sum up what the Decision America Tour is all about: “An Appeal to Heaven.”
“It’s now, or it’s too late,” he said.
