In April of 1954, 13-year-old John Mosey went with his Sunday school teacher to a relayed broadcast of Billy Graham’s Harringay Crusade. 

“It was sound only,” he said. “I was in the Methodist Central Hall in Coventry, and that night I gave my life to Christ, and I never looked back. It was a Thursday night, and by Sunday, I’d read Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts and a bit of Romans.

That Sunday night, at an open-air service near his church, the man in charge put a microphone in John’s hand and told the audience, “There’s a young man here who’s got something he wants to tell you.”

“I was surprised,” John said, his eyes widening in memory. “But he gave me the microphone, so I told them how wonderful it was to have your sins forgiven! And since that night, I’ve preached around the world as an Assemblies of God minister, in 42 countries.” 

God has taught him a lot about forgiveness through the years. 

“Thirty years ago this Christmas, our teenage daughter was murdered. She was 19, and she was blown out of the sky, in Pan Am flight 103, which blew up over Lockerbie in Scotland. It was hard, but God helped us to forgive.” 

Through the tragedy, John was invited to speak at schools about the bombing, and each time he talked about forgiveness. He has preached in Westminster Abbey at anniversaries of the event where the prime minister and members of the royal family attended, and has written to the queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair on spiritual matters.

John, now 78, has seen hundreds come to Christ. Ten years after he accepted Christ, he baptized both his parents. Both his son and daughter are Christians; in fact, his son is now his pastor. 

“I am just so thankful for the ministry of Billy Graham, and even more for the grace of God,” he said “That’s why I’m here [at the Festival of Hope], serving as a counseling supervisor, so someone else can make the same decision I made as a young boy.”