For a town of 19,000 people, Broken Hill sure can pull some big names. Over the weekend, Billy Graham’s grandson, evangelist Will Graham has been in the outback town preaching the gospel to youth, business people and everyone in-between.

A 13 hour drive from Sydney, and five hours from Adelaide, Broken Hill isn’t the most obvious destination for an international speaker. A local Church of Christ minister in the old mining town first approached the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Australia about whether they could run some training in the town. Little did he expect Will Graham to set aside four days to headline a massive rally they ended up calling REALITY: Discovering Life’s Purpose.

BMX/Scooter comp

And they’ve certainly made the most of the opportunity. Over the last three days, there has been a men’s breakfast, a BMX competition, a youth rally featuring Australian band ‘Compliments of Gus’, a combined church service and another rally for all ages. And that’s just the organised events. The Billy Graham evangelistic team has also been walking around town speaking to locals about Jesus, while the Vision Radio Network has been broadcasting live from Broken Hill.

Jorge Rodriguez from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association says for a town where there are only around 300-400 regular churchgoers, there’s been an encouraging response, with many people wanting to give their lives to Christ.

“So far during this crusade, 70 people have made commitments to follow Jesus, and the majority are first time commitments. And that’s not counting tonight’s evangelistic outreach dinner or people that may have been listening to the radio broadcasts across the country.”

“One of the people who came forward to give himself to Jesus last night had heard of the crusade on the radio in neighbouring Ivanhoe, and he had travelled 200 kilometres on unsealed roads plus another 100kms on sealed roads to come to the crusade to give his life to Jesus.”

Sunday night rally

Eternity understands an Italian backpacker gave her life to Christ in tears this morning while listening to a live broadcast happening inside Gloria Jeans café in town. She was planning to hitchhike to Adelaide when someone bought her a plane ticket to Adelaide, fed her and gave her something to drink. Then, on hearing the gospel, she gave her life to Christ.

The stories keep coming in, of taxi drivers, at-risk youth and locals who’ve not been to church in decades responding to the gospel.

Apart from seeing people come to Christ, the big miracle according to local Christians is the way the churches have come together for the event. Chairperson of REALITY, Ron Hellyer said one pastor told him that for the first time, “all of the sheep are now in the same paddock.” Having met for months to pray for the event, the churches are experiencing a newfound unity in the gospel. “I can tell you that what’s changed in this town is that we have a unified church and God is pouring out his spirit and blessing over it,” he says.

Ron doesn’t think it’s overstating it to call what’s happened in the weekend revival.

“His [Will Graham’s] heart is in the bush and that has really engendered the community to him, and there’s been an amazing refreshing in the town, and that refreshing is part of revival.

“It’s going to take me weeks to process all of this, because of what it’s done for our town and what we’ve seen happen in the spiritual realm in our city and outside our city.”

The REALITY rally concludes tonight with a business dinner at the Civic Centre in Broken Hill.