On the 49th anniversary of Billy Graham’s legendary Crusade in Seoul, South Korea, hundreds of prayer intercessors from the East Asian country are traveling to the United States, where they will disperse throughout 20 cities June 1-5 to pray for revival in America.
“After the Crusade, prayer revival broke out in many different churches in South Korea. … And churches started to grow,” Aaron Park, executive director of the World School of Prayer, said, referring to the 1973 Crusade that brought an estimated 3.2 million people to the Yoido Plaza in Seoul.
Over the course of the four-day Crusade, which took place May 30-June 3, 1973, some 75,000 people indicated that they had put their faith in Jesus Christ.
“Through prayer revival and church growth, God brought us blessing, economically and spiritually,” Park said. “We realize it is time for us to go and pay back our spiritual debt to America with prayer, so let’s go and humbly serve the American church with prayer.”
On Sunday, May 29, Project Pray, an organization dedicated to serving as “a catalyst for a ‘Great Awakening’ in America and the world,” partnered with the World School of Prayer to broadcast a special program called “America’s Prayer Meeting” from the new Billy Graham Archive and Research Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Although not yet open to the public, the center is meant to be a place where people worldwide can come and study the records and historical data of how God used Billy Graham, and in turn, be inspired and equipped to become future Gospel evangelists.
“Mr. Graham would have been so pleased that the very first event, the first moments of this building, has to do with prayer,” said David Bruce, executive vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and former personal assistant to Billy Graham. “One of the things that characterized Mr. Graham’s life, as long as I knew him … he was man of prayer himself; everything would begin and end in prayer.”
P. Douglas Small, president of Project Pray, said that he believes these next few days of prayer—culminating on Pentecost Sunday, June 5—could lead to a watershed moment for America.
“The whole world is looking at us,” he said. “We need a spiritual awakening again, and it comes always on the wings of prayer.”
Above: Billy Graham’s June 1973 Crusade in Seoul, South Korea, marked his largest Crusade ever.
Photo: Russ Busby/©1973 BGEA