The thunderous music inside ExCel London subsided after Dennis Agajanian, The Afters, Cece Winans, the Tommy Coomes Band and Michael W. Smith had left the stage. For almost an hour, it had seemed like all 17,000 members of the packed audience were standing on their feet and singing at the top of their lungs.
Franklin launched into the story of blind Bartimaeus, a beggar who sat at the city gates asking for alms. Franklin made his intentions clear. “I’m going to give you an opportunity tonight. If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior, if you’ve never made Him the Lord of your life, tonight I’m going to give you an opportunity to do just that.”
Harry started to feel nervous. He and his wife, Lauren, were standing near the wall at the side of the room. He didn’t yet know Christ, and he didn’t know how his life was about to change.
Bartimaeus was blind, Franklin said. All he could do was sit by the city gate, day in and day out, and beg for gifts from the passing crowds.

Then Jesus came by, and Bartimaeus called out to Him: “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
And Jesus did. He healed the man’s eyes, and immediately he could see.
Like Bartimaeus, Christians throughout London had been calling out to God for their unsaved loved ones—just as they did in 2022 and 2023 when the God Loves You Tour came to the ExCel center and hundreds received Christ.
Spurred on by these stories of salvation, doubt fell from Christians’ hearts like the blindness fell from Bartimaeus’ eyes, and they began to see what could happen when they unite and pray earnestly for God to move—even in the United Kingdom, where Satan had been a roaring lion.
“Let’s make no bones about it,” said local pastor Oliver Raper. “The battle between Christian faith and secular humanism with its antigod sentiment in this country is not a figment of imagination. It’s a very strong, real sentiment.”
When this year’s Tour was announced, 350 pastors joined together to kick off preparations. Taking hold of their faith like never before, they went to their knees in prayer, and ultimately, Christians from more than 1,500 churches attended events leading up to the Tour.
More than 3,700 people attended the Christian Life and Witness Course (CLWC), where they were trained to share their faith and to counsel those coming forward at the Tour invitation, and more than 2,118 attended 12 Pursuit of Worship youth events throughout the region.

“What happened at these events was amazing,” said Reuben Morley, the Tour’s youth director. In some cases, young people gave their lives to Christ. And in others, entire youth groups came forward to declare themselves all in for Jesus.
“These youth have gone out and witnessed to their friends, and now they are bringing them to the Tour because they want them to come to Christ too.”
Youth from Calvary Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, took to the streets to share the Gospel and invite people to the Tour.
“Doing this brings me a lot of joy,” said Evan, 17. “It helps me to see how God is moving not only in the United Kingdom, but also in myself.”
On the Thursday before the Tour, pastors heard teaching from Skip Heitzig, pastor of Calvary Church, during a “Preach the Word” conference. Skip reminded them that the church in every generation rises and falls on the strength of the pulpit.
All of these events—in addition to the repeated Tours—have helped light a spiritual fire across London.
“By continuing to come back not just to London, but Birmingham, Newport, Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and all the other places they’ve been, and helping our voice to be heard, BGEA is coming alongside us and saying to the church, ‘You are not alone,’” Raper said.
It has refreshed pastors, said Pastor Jeremiah Dawood. “When we see waves of people coming forward to accept Christ at these Tours, it’s tremendous. It brings us back to our first love—
the Gospel.”

The Gospel permeated Franklin’s Bartimaeus message. “When Jesus went to the cross, God laid on Him the sins of man—past, present, future. He took your sins on the cross … The Bible says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. God wants to forgive. You’ve got to come to Him through Jesus Christ. Jesus came to save sinners. Is He calling you tonight?”
More than 1,450 people rushed down the aisle in response to the invitation—including Harry. He had come with Lauren to the event for the same reason he goes to church with her every Sunday, “because I love her,” he said. Lauren watched as right before her eyes God answered her prayer and saved her husband, the father of her 18-month-old daughter.
“I’ve been praying and asking God for my husband’s salvation for several years now,” she said, “just determined for him to come to Christ and be saved. And God has claimed him. He’s taking him for the Kingdom.”

Counselor Lara Deen was thrilled when one of the two women she invited came to the event.
“She told me it was her birthday on the 21st and she was planning to spend it in Bracknell with her family,” Lara said. “When I suggested she could celebrate her birthday by joining us in London, she was skeptical and said she would ask her 12-year-old daughter if she was interested. I thought it was a polite way of declining my offer.”
To Lara’s surprise, the woman texted her later that evening and said that her daughter wanted to go, and so did her husband.
“This lady is Polish, so I was surprised when I saw her husband was a Sikh man wearing a turban joining us in the coach. They enjoyed the worship, and my Polish friend was dancing with her hands in the air. She kept thanking me for inviting her and said she couldn’t have had a better way to celebrate her birthday.”
During the invitation, the daughter ran ahead, and the mother followed.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Lara said. “I was so pleased for them. God is doing amazing things in people’s lives, as we are in the end times.”
Susan Over, who traveled three hours on a train from Portland, England, recommitted her life to Christ.
“I made this decision a long, long time ago, but the issues of life pulled me away. Tonight, Franklin Graham said God loves everyone and is willing to forgive us if we repent, so I’m coming back.”
As the event ended and Christians began to leave the ExCel London, counselor Sheba Haruna reflected on the night.
“The Word of God has gone out like a seed again in London, the center of the U.K., and to many people the center of the world,” she said. The city of 9 million is again made stronger for Christ, she said.
“I pray the Lord will send His Spirit to water and germinate all that seed, that the new believers in Christ will grow and mature. Then we will all celebrate because we are all in this family of God, and London will be on fire again in Jesus’ Name.” ©2025 BGEA
Photo: Logan Ryan / ©2025 BGEA