On Safari

It was an exciting week for Evangelist Billy Graham on his African "Safari for Souls'"--crocodiles awaited him on one side, fixed bayonets on the other.

Resting up at Victoria Falls. Billy was asked by a British movie company filming a life of Missionary-Explorer David Livingstone to ride by the crocodile-infested Zambezi River in a Livingstone-style litter of poles borne by four natives. "I've been trying to keep my weight down," Graham explained later, "but I was too much for one of the bearers, who buckled and broke his pole. I came within an inch of joining the crocodiles."

He moved into the Central African part of his six-week crusade with a meeting in Southern Rhodesia's second largest city, Bulawayo (pop. 168,000), where 10,000 men, women and children crowded into the stadium in an unsegregated mixture of black, white, brown. "No American city would stage such a turnout on a Saturday," said Billy. "That's the day we do our shopping and take a bath at night."

"This is the Church." In Salisbury (pop. 282,000), he spoke to 25,000 people in dripping rain ("If you are soaked to the skin tonight, it will be worth it. This is the night for which you were born") and drew 1,255 "decisions for Christ."

Later Billy gave a reporter some of his own frank thinking about his mission. "When people come forward from small congregations to a mass meeting, it means something in their lives. They say 'This is the church.' Sometimes the local people overdo the publicity, and sometimes they underdo it. I believe, however, that in some countries the church should make use of the modern methods that have been used to sell products." Questioned as to the "luxury accommodations" enjoyed by him and his team, Billy replied: "We stay where we can get good food and water to keep us fit and well during the campaign, and not all the hotels can be called luxurious. If I rode down the streets in rags on a donkey like Christ, people would say I was doing it for publicity."

"Not a Ball Game." In Chingola, Northern Rhodesia, a mob of more than 100 stone-throwing natives tried to break up a meeting led by Graham's assistant, Evangelist Grady Wilson, and in Kitwe rumors spread that the police would shoot down Africans at the rally. Over a burst of catcalls and whistles, Evangelist Wilson appealed to the crowd: "There are people here who need Christ. This is not a ball game or a political rally--it's a church service, and I ask for silence."

When Billy himself spoke in copper-mining Kitwe, police ringed the area with riot cars and motorcycles, and a steel-helmeted platoon with tear gas and fixed bayonets stood by while 15,000 gathered to hear the Graham gospel. A crowd of young nationalists yelling "Freedom!" stoned cars on their way to the rally, and during Billy's talk the police were ready to take over his powerful public-address system at the flick of a switch. But all stayed quiet, and 1,400 made "decisions for Christ."

Said Billy when it was over: "That was the greatest meeting I've had in Africa. I had been afraid of some disturbance, but it didn't come. There was a storm threatening, and I was afraid the rally would be rained out before I could give my message, but it didn't come. God looked over that meeting. It was supernatural--and now I realize that my own faith was lacking."

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