August 7, 2000
MORE THAN 10,000 participants from around the world gathered in Amsterdam for what is considered the world's largest school for evangelists. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association sponsored the event.
Mantle quietly passes during Graham event
___By Yonat Shimron
___Raleigh News & Observer
___AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (RNS)--Roger Hartmann, a 26-year-old furniture-maker from Germany, converted to Christianity after hearing Billy Graham preach in Essen seven years ago.
___So when he heard that Graham was inviting young evangelists from all over the world to a conference designed to teach them how to spread the Christian faith, he filled out all the applications with the hope he would see the person he called his "spiritual father" once again.
___"When you hear Billy Graham talk, you know he's a person who knows life," said Hartmann, who lives inBraunschweig. "He's rich in experience. I feel like he knows what's he's talking about."
FRANKLIN GRAHAM
___But Hartmann and 10,000 other evangelists from every corner of the globe never got to see the white-haired evangelist.
___Graham was too weak to make the trip to Amsterdam in person. A planned greeting via satellite was canceled at the last minute too. A statement from his publicist said he lacked the strength to speak to a camera from Rochester, Minn., where he has been an outpatient at the Mayo Clinic,receiving therapy for a condition in which fluids collect on the brain.
___His son, Franklin Graham, filled in with a previously prepared statement from his father. But the cancellation foreshadowed an organizational succession that has been expected for years. The 81-year-old Graham may still preach one day, but the conference offered the first clear signal that his era has come and gone.
___Even without Graham as its star vehicle, the nine-day conference opened July 29 with the fanfare befitting an ambitious event five years in the making at a cost of $40 million. An African children's choir sang and danced. Photos of people around the globe flashed on giant video screens. And representatives from each continent got up on the stage to tell moving stories of how Christianity had changed their lives.
___The 10,000 participants who had assembled in Amsterdam, mostly from poor developing countries, said they were not disappointed.
___"We really appreciate that Billy Graham managed to pull this off even though he wasn't feeling well," said Munetsi Jeki, a 32-year-old church deacon from Zimbabwe. "We might never have had a chance to attend such a relevant conference. We are all praying for him that he gets better."
___The association not only paid the way for participants traveling from developing countries, but its staff and volunteers also met them at the Amsterdam airport, bused them to the conference center and registered them with an efficiency that would impress business schools.
___At the conference center, each participant received a plastic, hospital-like wristband with the Amsterdam 2000 logo, a zippered black tote bag with a program folder, and two white, button-down shirts.
___Many evangelists, particularly those who cannot afford hotels, were then routed to a makeshift dormitory 25 miles away in Utrecht.
___Participants said they came to learn practical ways to make the Christian faith attractive to a new generation.
___"The world is changing," said Abilio Silva of Portugal, a 30-year-old electrical engineer who works with several churches. "How do you say `Jesus loves you' to a person who lives only with computers? I want to learn to be more effective."
___Others said they were struggling with regional problems particular to their corner of the world. One man from Zambia said he needed advice in opening a Christian center for poor single mothers and street children. Another man from Myanmar (Burma) said he needs help in spreading the faith among the country's 135 ethnic groups.
___They all agreed that as Christians their first obligation is to focus on evangelism.
___"Whatever evil we experience in the world today is the result of the sinfulness of man," said Reuben Ezemadu, a participant from Nigeria. "The only way to change that is from the inside. What we're talking about is the inner conviction that can bring about a changed society. The gospel is the vehicle."
___That statement is one with which Graham himself might have heartily agreed.
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