Reminiscing on Billy Graham’s landmark crusade in apartheid South Africa
“The South African Congress on Mission and Evangelism in Durban in March 1973 was, I believe, a turning point both in our own ministry and for South Africa.” – Michael Cassidy
When AE invited Dr. Billy Graham as a guest speaker for the Mission Congress, there was a frenzy of interest from the South African public. The Congress was a landmark event in segregated South Africa, as Christian leaders of all races and denominations united in pursuit of true Gospel transformation.
On Saturday the 17th of March 1973, a large evangelistic rally was held at Durban’s Kings Park rugby stadium. A record audience of between 45,000 and 50,000 gathered that day. In a landmark moment for South Africa, a racially diverse, yet peaceful crowd had gathered publicly.
In his autobiography Footprints in the African Sand – My life & times*, Michael Cassidy reflects, “Here was South Africa as it should really be – a glorious kaleidoscope of racial beauty and diversity. In fact, never did the segregationist way seem more unnatural and grotesque than in those moments.” He goes on to describe the ripple effects that the rally had on the nation, “Newspaper banners screamed in hyperbole: ‘Apartheid Doomed’. Beyond that, multitudes in that stadium and around the country via the media caught a vision of what South Africa could become.”
Dr. Graham gave a simple Gospel message that day, followed by an invitation to accept Christ. More than 4,000 people surged forward. Counsellors struggled to provide follow-up booklets to all the new believers, many of whom were unable to get near the platform area.
Michael Cassidy describes the beautiful scene that followed:
“Blacks counselled Whites. Whites counselled Indians. Coloureds counselled Blacks. And so it went, for an hour or more, as the stadium slowly began to empty. This was South Africa. The Beloved Country. The country to weep for. And pray for. And work for. Here it was in an identity crisis, and trying to find itself. And here was the Spirit of Jesus on the job, proclaiming good news to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind, and liberty to those who are oppressed… Of course, history would prove that we still had a long way to go. But a start had been made.”
In reflecting on that day at Kings Park, Prince Mntambo, an African pastor, said,
“Black alone looks dull. White or yellow alone look pale and empty – but black, brown, yellow and white look like beautiful flowers planted by God. That was the beauty of Kings Park with Dr. Billy.”
*Footprints in the African Sand – My life and times (by Michael Cassidy) is available for purchase from AE Australia. Contact:ae@aeint.org
Please pray for our upcoming missions across Africa and for the Gospel to reach those that have never heard it before.
AE is blessed with the fact that there have been many people, and still are, who have supported us through decades, and some even since our inception in the early 60’s. This is an immense privilege and AE needs to register this with great gratitude to the Lord and to those long-term donors who are still alive.
However, the real challenge facing the ministry now is to establish a new base of new donors and prayer partners who will themselves become dedicated and long-term supporters. In my view we need a new and imaginative strategy to find and identify these younger donors not only in all our support countries, but in all the countries where we have national teams.
This is a necessary investment made in the present now, but which will establish our strength in the future. This is what AE’s early pioneers did in the 60’s and 70’s and it has stood us in very good stead.
In the next edition of our African Harvest, you can read more about the friendships AE has built across the ages. Inspiration, support and friendship from Billy Graham, John Stott, Francis Schaeffer and more.
I guess the very heart of the AE vision that has brought us to this great sixtieth anniversary day would lie in the very nature, context and wording of the Lords clear call to me in Madison Square Garden in 1957 during the Billy Graham New York crusade (photo). Can you imagine. I was visiting relatives in USA during a summer vacation during my university studies in England and was invited by a student in Fuller seminary to go down to some of the crusade meetings. There, night after night, I heard Billy Graham faithfully and clearly preaching the Gospel. I was touched and stirred. In fact, inspired.
One night after one of the meetings I was down in the basement of Madison Square Gardens where people where respondees were being counseled. I was pensively walking up and down and reflecting on what I was seeing. Then, like Isaiah, I can say, “I heard the voice of the Lord…” (Isaiah 6: 8) It was a pivotal moment in my life and the Word was clear and unmistakable. “Why not in Africa? I want you to do evangelism in the cities of Africa.” Over and out! I was startled, even shocked, because I only saw myself as capable of evangelizing young school boys as a Christian School master and I was terrified of public speaking. I tried to protest my inability but the message of the Voice persisted and that night I left Madison square gardens a called man.
And it was on that word and that experience that AE came forth with its vision “To Evangelize the cities of Africa through word and deed in partnership with the Church.” The Lord brought many others to share in this call and that is why 60 years later we are here celebrating the anniversary of the launching of our ministry in the mission to Maritzburg in 1962.
Praise His Name!
I am presently the Chairman of AE Ghana board and live in Accra, the capital city of Ghana. I have been in ministry for the past 41 years in various capacities. I have served as an evangelical leader in Ghana were I had led teams to Dr. Billy Graham’s gathering of evangelist in Amsterdam and also to Luasanne in Malina in the Philippines. I was part of the initial planning team to the last meeting at Cape Town, South Africa.
I have served with the late Robert Williams in the Missions team of BGEA, and together with my colleague in Ghana, Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, travelled to Los Angeles in the USA to translate Dr. Billy Graham’s sermons into our local dialects for the purposes of evangelism in Ghana.
I have served in the Ghana Baptist Convention as Pastor for 34 years and as a Vice-President for 7 years. I was the founding team leader of African Enterprise Ghana, responsible for the sub-region of West Africa and at one point the Pan African Missions Director and also as Deputy International Team Leader responsible for North and West Africa. I currently serve as the Ghana AE board chairman and a member of the International Board of AE.
I am on retirement from my Pastoral ministry but serve as the local AE Ghana team evangelist.
At the moment, my wife of 43 years is sick to the point of death. She has been bedridden for about 6 months and has developed bad bedsores as a diabetic. It has been emotionally, psychologically and financially difficult for me personally and our children as well.
I am, under God, doing pretty well; notwithstanding occasional heartbreaking episodes.
Thank you for caring for me and wanting to pray for me and my family. Please pray that God’s sovereign ultimate will will be done over the life of my wife. She is currently going through so much pain that breaks my heart.
Sincerely Yours,
Nii Amoo Darku ( Rev. Dr.)
Nii Amoo’s story:
The work of African Enterprise is characterized by personal transformation, and one of the leading success stories of people coming to Christ is the current chairman of African Enterprise Ghana Nii Amoo Adarku. It was a long pathway that led Nii Amoo to become personal chaplain to the late Ghanaian president Prof John Atta Mills, and a member of the elite ‘Council of State’ advising the President and senior government leaders, largely through the evangelistic outreach of AE.
Born to Muslim parents, Nii initially came to Christ through the work of a Christian union at school. But his pride and faith was savagely crushed when some new Christian leaders demoted him from class captain, and he vowed to punish the Christian faith through partnering with overtly anti-Christian Islamic organisations.
However his life took a turn toward restoration of faith when he married Margaret, a nominal Christian who married him on the proviso that she would be able to continue attending church. Whilst this was a start of his journey back to Christ, it wasn’t until their marriage reached a crisis point during the pregnancy of their first child which exposed to Christian TV screened at the hospital. The evangelistic message truly transfixed him, he said. “I was so drawn to the message that I had to go and get a TV for my own home and watch these programs myself”, he said. “Eventually the true message of Jesus burst through into my life, and hand in hand with Margaret in our lounge we both came to faith in Christ.”
It was at that point that Nii Amoo decided to dedicate his life to Christianity through various roles in Christian media, church leadership and postgraduate study in theology. His evangelistic work was eventually noticed by the AE leadership, and he was approached and commissioned to establish AE’s office in Accra Ghana in 1994.
Quickly taking on a number of international leadership roles within the organization, including International Missions Director for West Africa, he worked closely with the founder Michael Cassidy to introduce many of the innovations that characterise AE’s unique ministry today. The 1997 pan- African mission was a high point he said. “It was at this point that we introduced some of the social action initiatives such as medical outreach during mission, established the parliamentary Christian fellowship group in Ghana, North African mission to Sudan, Egypt and Tunisa and the street route marches.”
He served as Team Leader of Ghana for 15 years until 2009, and in 2010 took over as Chairman. Nii Amoo believes that his experience has been very helpful to advise current team leader Rev Ben Sachie. “In time I am due to step down in accordance with best practice of board chair tenure now in place at AE. I would really like to encourage our supporters to continue to pray for us as we continue on this important work that has serious eternal consequences for our nations. Africa is producing the most Christians in the world today, and is best equipped to send missionaries to North Africa in particular.”
“His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.” – John Stott
Back in the 70’s when Billy Graham started to travel internationally, he would come across many evangelicals but they were all disconnected from each other. Traveling, ministering and spreading the Gospel alone. This was a concern for Dr. Graham who knew that the spirit of humility, friendship, prayer and partnership will bring hope and strengthen one another on mission.
The Lausanne Movement was born, chaired by John Stott they organised the very first international congress on world evangelisation back in 1974. An astounding 2,400 participants from 150 nations gathered in Lausanne, Switzerland for the first event. AE’s founder, Michael Cassidy was part of the initial planning of the very first congress. Later he served on the advisory council and was the chair of the Mission Committee for the 3rd Lausanne Congress held in Cape Town in 2010. Cassidy also became an honorary chair of the Movement in 2012.
Michael Cassidy at the Lausanne Congress 1974
The Lausanne Covenant emerged from this first congress in 1974. This document defines what it means to be an evangelical. It is also a call to Christians to unite and spread the Gospel throughout the world. Many mission organisations, including African Enterprise, use The Lausanne Covenant as their statement of faith.
You can read The Covenant here.
“Throughout their lives, Billy Graham and John Stott gave peerless leadership to evangelicals around the world. We should not look for successors. Their joint work in establishing a movement that bound evangelistic passion with theological reflection, and orthodoxy with orthopraxy, has proven a watershed for evangelicals. To this day, world congresses, global gatherings, and issue-specific forums and consultations have continued to be convened in what Billy Graham called ‘the spirit of Lausanne’—a spirit of humility, friendship, prayer, study, partnership, and hope—the very spirit mirrored in his friendship with John Stott.” – Billy Graham and John Stott, A friendship of evangelistic passion and theological reflection, The Lausanne Movement
More on the AE team and their involvement in The Lausanne Movement:
Michael Cassidy
Stephen Mbogo
Emmanuel Kwizera
