Door
1953, he was called upon through a family connection to help the Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association set up a Canadian headquarters.
Donations were pouring into the American office from Canadians who listened to the radio
program. Because there was no Canadian office,
the association could not issue receipts.
A Graham association official came on the
7 a.m. train from Minneapolis and left 12 hours
later. On that one day “we opened an office, set
it up with furniture, hired the first employee and
registered the charity,” remembers McCarthy.
“When he left I was so exhausted I went home
and went to bed.” McCarthy went on to serve on
the Canadian board along with Billy Graham for
years. (He’s still a member emeritus.)
“When you are with him,” says McCarthy,
“you know you are with a special person. This is
somebody God has touched differently from the
rest of us. He has no ego.” Humility is a word that
comes up again and again from those who know
and have worked with Graham.
For Canadians, humility spoke volumes, especially coming from an American evangelist.
Brian Stiller was president of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada when he co-chaired
the committee that brought Graham to Toronto
in 1995. (Stiller has recently retired as president
of Tyndale University College and Seminary, be-
Pho Tos: Billy Graham EvanGElis TiC assoCia Tion
”God loves you and he wants to have a relationship
with you.” From the 1950s (left) until recent years,
Billy Graham preached a very simple message.
coming its chancellor.)
“Graham practised humility: his body language, his verbal language, making sure others
were speaking, not allowing them to feed his
ego. He was always interested in what other
people were doing and why. The other thing I
found was that he was always asking me to pray
for him. Frequently throughout a conversation,
he’d put his hand on mine and say ‘Brian, would
you pray?’ ”
Don McCarthy remembers being at one conference where Billy Graham staff from around
the world had gathered to share ministry updates. “In the mornings Billy would sit in the audience when staff gave reports,” says McCarthy.
“One time Billy got up to the microphone and
said ‘One thing that bothers me is that I wish I
hadn’t been convinced to call it the Billy Graham
presidential gopher
In the Toronto crusade in the 1970s,
my dad was on the committee, and i
was in university. i knew the city well
and became a gopher for the com-
mittee. i would do things like pick up
leighton Ford at one location and
take him to another. The Graham
team stayed at one hotel. Billy stayed
at another, which was always called
The location for security reasons.
in those days they communicated
with radios. his team was passionate,
focused, generous and very profes-
sional. They had a full media team
so, if the Toronto Star wanted a photo
of Graham walking the streets of
Toronto munching a hotdog, they
would make that happen. i’d be
asked to go to an intersection and
a guy would walk up and give me a
brown paper envelope. it was Gra-
ham’s sermon. i’d take that and drive
it up to John wesley white’s house
for him to do a final check for the ref-
erences to local culture and events,
maybe a crack about the maple leafs
[Toronto’s hockey team].
–Bruce Clemenger, president of
the Evangelical fellowship of
Canada
Billy Graham EvanGElis TiC assoCia Tion
shea-graham
partnership
Recently at George Beverley shea’s
100th birthday party in north Caro-
lina, i saw Billy in a wheelchair. he’s
very frail. about every five minutes,
Billy would reach up a feeble hand
and pat George on the hand. and
then about five minutes later George
would reach over and pat Billy on the
hand. it brought tears to my eyes.
They worked together for 60 years.
Billy would say “i can’t preach unless
George sings the presence of God
into the stadium first.” That spoke
volumes to me about their loyalty
one to another. Billy really loved
people. he loved his team members.
and he trusted the holy spirit in the
other person.
–david mainse, veteran tv
broadcaster
July / August 2009
July / August 2009
