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Billy the Kid in Wales

An account of the Billy Graham visit in 1946 to South Wales

In his 1960s' biography of the evangelist Billy Graham, John Pollock says that Graham began his ministry in Britain in the South Wales town of Gorseinon.
He has since corrected that. The first two meetings were held in October 1946 at the Gospel Temple in Bristol, which is now demolished.
From there, the Graham team moved on to Caersalem Free Evangelical Church, Gorseinon, on Monday October 14 and, to accommodate the crowds, to Zion Baptist Church, Gorseinon, on Tuesday October 15 1946. After Gorseinon, Graham went on to Penuel, Pontypridd, a large church used for NYLC rallies (also now demolished) where he linked with the then local Stephen Olford.
The Gorseinon meetings came at the end of an evangelistic series at Caersalem run by David Shepherd, then an evangelist with National Young Life Campaign (NYLC). David's father had been one of the earliest converts during the 1904 Revival in Loughor/ Gorseinon. No one locally had ever heard of Billy Graham- though he was the leading evangelist with Youth for Christ (YFC), but he preached at Caersalem on Monday October 14. His theme was 'the rich young ruler'.

Phone call

The interesting question is how did Billy come to speak so early on at Gorseinon? According to Alan Ebenezer, of Caersalem, the initial information came to his father David Ebenezer, the President of YFC in Wales. Eric Hutchings rang him up to ask if he could use this young American evangelist in the South Wales area. Mr. Ebenezer contacted Caersalem, who had a history of hosting American 'convention-type' preachers during the 1930s. The meetings were arranged within a day or two and tagged on to the end of David Shepherd's campaign. Posters were quickly printed and Alan has a copy of one, with the names of the team on the bill. They were Billy Graham, the song leader Cliff Barrows and Billie Barrows, his wife and pianist, the soloist Stratton Stringfellow and George Wilson.

Massive turnout

Despite the brief notice, the turnout that night in Caersalem was massive. Several dozen were unable to get in to the meeting, including Osborne Elliot, one of the leaders. David Shepherd said he could see the following evening would be a problem and so he ran down to the minister of Zion Baptist Church, situated in the High Street, who agreed that the next night's meeting could move there - it had a large gallery and was the largest chapel in town. It was a Welsh-speaking, liberal church.
Billy Graham stayed with Tom and Lavinia Watkins in Pontardulais Road. Tom was a bus inspector, a figure of some presence in the neighbourhood. He had been saved in the 1904 Revival and was immediately impressed with Billy as Billy was with him. Tom arranged a gathering of the 1904 Revival men to meet him and there were several who felt that God's hand was specially upon this young man.

Sunny song-leader

At that time I was eleven and had started my second year in Grammar School. My first recollection of the events was Cliff Barrows, the sunny song leader, going down the High Street to Zion Chapel, playing a trombone and crowds of people building up. I had a seat with my father in the front centre of the gallery. We must have gone quite early. There was a huge congregation, some sitting on benches down both aisles, even up the pulpit steps. Cliff Jones of Caersalem (a brother of Lewis Jones, the 'Golden Boy' of Welsh Rugby!) when he finished work at 5.30pm had rushed to get to church early by 6.30 on the Tuesday night, but found he had to sit on the stairs up to the gallery. His wife, who was several months pregnant, was startled when a pew in the gallery collapsed under the weight of people. I recall Cliff Barrows teaching us two new choruses:

'Got any rivers you think are uncrossable?
Got any mountains you can't tunnel through?
God specialises in things thought impossible,
And he can do what no other power can do.'

And:

'Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine,
Flooding my soul with glory divine,
Heavenly sunshine, heavenly sunshine,
Hallelujah! Jesus is mine.'

They remained firm favourites in local youth rallies for years.

I went down

Billy preached on 'you are weighed in the balances (scales) and found wanting', a text from the dramatic account of Belshazzar's feast in the prophecy of Daniel. I was convicted by the picture he drew of the contrast between God's perfection on one side of the scales and how my sinful life would never satisfy his standard - the scales were weighed against me. The preacher's presentation of Christ as the substitute for sinners who stepped in on the sinner's side to even out the scales I saw as my only hope.
There was a fairly long appeal at the end and many people, perhaps dozens, went down and were led into a back room. Sitting where I was, I had a good view of all this and I was battling inside and felt I ought to have gone to the front but sat rooted. Eventually my Dad turned to me and asked if I wanted to go down. I said yes and after everyone else had gone into the church hall I went down, followed by a younger friend sitting near me. It was not easy to get past the benches because I had delayed, so I remember feeling very 'obvious'.
When I got to the vestry door it was shut. I had the chilling thought: 'I'm too late'. The parable of the five foolish virgins flooded into my mind. (I had had a good Sunday school grounding.)

Billy in the vestry

But, to my relief, the door was opened, by Billy himself and it seemed as if God was reassuring me about his mercy. I glanced to the right: Cliff Barrows was dealing with a crowd in the church hall. But Billy retained us with him in the vestry, along with my friend who, I was shocked to see, was grinning. But I meant business and Billy said to me afterwards: 'You're going on with the Lord, sonny, aren't you?' I got his autograph with 'Psalm 16.11' scribbled underneath, which I kept for many years but which has disappeared. Thankfully I did go on, but my spiritual experience is a blank after that for many years it seems. There was no kind of 'discipling' concept. Many who were converted that night 'discovered' each other later, sometimes years later.

The same night

Not many years ago, when preaching at Lonlas Mission, a lady in her late 70s, Katie Thomas, came and asked me if I had been converted in Gorseinon when Billy Graham preached. 'Yes'. 'What was the text?' I told her. 'The same night as me,' she said. In 1946, Mrs. Thomas was a married woman with a young son and feeling the responsibility of bringing him up properly. She was not a Christian herself and not much of a churchgoer, but had a friend who she much admired for her clear faith in Christ. This friend invited her to go from Lonlas to hear Billy and her husband was happy for her to go. When she got there and saw Cliff Barrows' colourful tie and the rousing music, she thought: 'These are a loud lot'. But when Billy started to preach she was instantly attentive and turned to the Lord that night. (Her son was converted years later in Swansea through the Graham film 'Oil Town, USA').
Among others converted was Gwyn Shepherd, David Shepherd's sister-in-law, though she said that the Spirit's work had already been done during the few nights David had preached. Geraint Morgan, the president of the Christian Union (CU), at University College, Swansea, recalls falling into conversation on campus that week with Joan Morgan of Gorseinon, a fellow student. She told him she had just been converted in a campaign led by an American evangelist. 'Who was he, Joan?' 'Oh, someone called Billy Graham!'

Geraint Fielder
Highfields Free Church, Cardiff