Safari for Souls

"Future missionaries will see conversions following every sermon," wrote Africa's famed Christian trail blazer, David Livingstone. "We prepare the way for them." If he had returned to his Dark Continent last week, Missionary Livingstone might have thought that his prophecy was coming true; Evangelist Billy Graham had begun a seven-week "safari for souls" through Africa, and was using methods to attract "decisions for Christ" that would have astonished the dedicated Scot.

"The year 1960 may be the most important period in Africa's history," said Baptist Graham just before he took off last week on a preaching tour that will take him to 16 cities and nine countries--Liberia, Ghana, Nigeria, Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Kenya, Ruanda Urundi, Ethiopia (South Africa is not included because Billy Graham insists on unsegregated meetings, which are illegal in the land of apartheid). Continued Billy: "We believe God directed the launching of this undertaking at the opening of Africa's year of destiny. We hope to be able to make some contribution to Africa's hour of decision."

Confusion of Tongues. To make that contribution, Graham and his "team" face a hard schedule of plane and auto travel, holding the mass rallies for which he is famous, plus conferences with Protestant mission leaders and heads of government. They will also face an unprecedented confusion of tongues; some local leaders asked for as many as five translators to relay Billy's words. And they will be up against stiff competition from non-Christian groups, notably the growing numbers of Moslems, and many offbeat Christian sects, such as Ghana's Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim, and the Musama Disco Christo Church.

Evangelist Graham's safari began at Monrovia, capital of Liberia, where he was welcomed by Vice President William Tolbert, acting as "crusade chairman" in Liberia. Said President William V. S. Tubman : "We expect the souls of people here to be watered, refreshed and blessed."

Billy watered them with two jam-packed meetings of some 6,000 in Antoinette Tubman Stadium, at which nearly 1,000 people, including President Tubman's daughter, made "decisions for Christ." Billy won his hearers' hearts when he reminded them, as he will remind all Africa, that Christ was neither white nor black, and that it was in Africa that the infant Jesus found refuge from Herod. And he gave Liberia a new catch phrase with his description of "Mr. Two-Dollars walking down the street" to illustrate how small is the value of a man when measured in terms of the raw materials that make up his body.

Ga, Twi & Ewe. Graham's next stop: Ghana, where a 25-member committee of Protestant leaders has been working since September to prepare the Ghana crusade. Accra (pop. 208,000) had never seen anything like it. Under the leadership of Methodist Minister Peter Dagadu, volunteers had papered the city with thousands of posters, banners, handbills and hymn sheets. Four national newspapers carried ads: CALLING ALL CHRISTIANS--HEAR BILLY GRAHAM--ADMISSION FREE.

Every half hour in the Kingsway, Accra's No. 1 department store, a female voice over the public-address system urged customers to get their free tickets to hear Billy Graham. Interpreters were selected for Ghana's major languages--Ga, Twi and Ewe--and more than 600 church workers were trained as counselors. The result was auspicious for the African crusade. For his last meeting, about 15,000 Ghanaians turned out to listen under the blazing sun.

The strenuous, seven-week African tour may be Graham's last major crusade. In future, Graham, still suffering impaired vision in his right eye from an arterial spasm early in 1959, hopes to limit himself to one-or two-week campaigns. "The longer crusades were taking too much out of me physically," he explained. "Something went out of me in London [three months] and New York [four months] that will never be replaced." In the meantime, the challenge of Africa seemed not to daunt him. Said Billy: "The future of the world may well lie in Africa."

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