From England’s second-largest city, Birmingham, to Scotland’s most populous city, Glasgow, the God Loves You UK Tour proclaimed the Good News of Jesus Christ two consecutive weekends in June.

Birmingham

Retired Pastor Brian Atkins hurried to the main entrance of Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, on June 15, along with about 50 others who had come on his double-decker bus. When he finally stepped inside, he was pleasantly surprised.

The auditorium was full.

“It was clear when I walked in that a lot of prayer had gone into this,” he said. 

So much prayer.

For almost three years, a group of prayer warriors met on Zoom each week to pray for Franklin Graham’s U.K. Tour. This year, they started praying Monday-Friday at 3:16 p.m., hearkening to the verse in the Book of John that so clearly presents the Gospel. Some fasted from 12 midnight to 12 noon, or to 3:16 p.m. Participants were encouraged to set their watches for 3:16 as a reminder to pray for the unsaved. 

And now the Spirit was moving inside the arena. At times, it seemed like every member of the audience was on their feet, hands lifted as high as they could reach as Dennis Agajanian, TAYA, Michael W. Smith, and the Tommy Coomes Band sang songs proclaiming Jesus as Lord.

Franklin preached about Zacchaeus the tax collector who in Luke 19 climbed a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus over the crowd. “Zacchaeus was curious,” Franklin said. “Maybe you’ve come here tonight because you’re curious … Jesus called Zacchaeus by name. Is He calling you?”

 Nora O’Sullivan knew that God was calling her. 

She had received Christ but said she had gone the worldly way again. “I wasn’t pleasing God,” she said. “And for the last two weeks, everywhere I looked, there were signs for the Tour: On buses. It was advertised on a house when I was walking my dog. On social media. I thought, He’s calling me. I knew He wanted me here tonight. I had to come ask for His forgiveness.”

One young man came, weeping.

“His eyes were full of water,” counselor Keith Palmer said. “He said, ‘I did not know I was dead in my spirit.’” 

Nine people from Tipton Christian Church also realized they were dead in their spirit. Seven were members of the same family. “The mom in the family signed everyone up to ride the bus to the event,” said Pastor Steve Peach. “She said she didn’t expect them to come to the front, but every one of them did. They had been coming to church for a while, but it’s one of those things where people are coming to church, and you’re not sure where they are spiritually.

“It was quite emotional to see all of this happening, especially since we had been putting flyers in the hands of strangers, and then to see so many people coming to Christ. It’s what I had dreamed and prayed for.” A husband and wife came after having been invited by the wife’s father. The wife hadn’t seen her dad since she was a little girl. She had contacted him some time earlier, and he had invited both of them to church and to the God Loves You Tour. As soon as the preaching finished, the husband rushed out of his seat, followed by his wife. “It’s amazing how God brought them back into [the man’s] life, into the coffee morning at church, then into His Kingdom,” said Tony Guy, a counselor at the event. “God is so good.” More than 8,000 people attended the meeting, and more than 600 made decisions for Christ—an indication of the deep yearning for God in Birmingham and the Midlands, said Raj Kaul, a Tour associate. “There is a great stirring up of the Spirit, a refreshing among the churches,” he said. “The Tour is going to be a legacy, where people look back and say, ‘It all started on June 15.’”  

Glasgow

Millie* sat next to her new friend Olivia* during the Glasgow stop of the God Loves You Tour on June 22. She’d started working for Olivia about a month earlier, and every single day Olivia had talked to her about the Lord and His good works.

Millie listened intently as Franklin Graham elaborated on the meaning of sin.

“What is sin?” Franklin said, his voice echoing through the OVO Hydro Arena, a popular concert hall in this city where 51% of the population says they worship no god.

“Sin is being disobedient to God,” Franklin said. Lying, stealing, adultery … And then he listed that one sin that pierced Millie’s heart. 

“There may be many of you here that are guilty of having an abortion,” Franklin said. “And it has haunted you all of your life. And you’ve wondered, will God forgive you for what you’ve done? I’m here tonight to tell you, yes! He will forgive you! He’ll cleanse you, and He’ll set you free tonight from the guilt and the shame that you’ve carried all these years.”

He’s talking to me! Millie kept thinking. But wait, God forgives this sin?

“I’ve had three abortions,” the 26-year-old said later, pushing back tears. “It broke my heart for so long. I didn’t think God would forgive me. But Franklin said that God would forgive me, and that I could have a fresh, clean slate if I would just give my heart to Him.”

Franklin’s words gave her the courage to get up out of her seat and walk to the front of the arena, along with more than 500 others, to receive Christ’s love and forgiveness. 

Laura McDade of Edinburgh also wanted forgiveness. It was a text message from her 9-year-old daughter, Autumn, three years ago that set her mind in this direction and brought her to the arena. Autumn, now 12, sent the message from a church summer camp, and it simply said, “Mom, I think you need to put your trust in Jesus.”

 “Ever since my daughter sent me that text, I’ve been drawn more and more toward God,” Laura said. “I’ve watched how she puts her whole life in Christ—her values, everything she does. I’ve been going to church all my life, but I’ve never felt what I feel tonight, and I’ve never understood it until now.” 

More than 7,500 attended the event in Glasgow, with 115 buses traveling from as far as Aberdeen, which is about 145 miles away. The Tour was an answer to years of prayer by hundreds of local Christians for their city to get back to its original motto: “Lord, let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of Thy Word and the praising of Thy Name.” 

“We have been seeing a new season of unity and coming together for prayer, and also for sharing the Gospel with our friends and family,” said Jamie Gibson, pastor of Freedom City Church. “The God Loves You Tour is a way for us to keep that momentum going.”

Alex Barlow—who worked on the original event that had to be canceled in 2020 (see page 27)—said that knowing so many souls have been added to God’s Kingdom makes the years of waiting worthwhile. “It’s been really amazing to see it finally come together,” he said. “There’s a charge on us now—to not let it be just another event. What are we going to do with it?” ©2024 BGEA

Photo: Paul Sherar / ©2024 BGEA