Celeste* had been praying for her younger sister Luciana* to come to Christ for seven years.
The older of the two sisters became a believer seven years ago. As her faith strengthened, it broke her heart to see her little sister drift further from the Lord as the years passed.
But when Celeste heard that the God Loves You Tour was coming to London, she prayed even more fervently, asking God to use the event to change Luciana’s life.
The tour has stopped in the United Kingdom for four consecutive years, with events in Glasgow (Scotland), Cardiff (Wales), Sheffield, Birmingham, and Liverpool (England). This June marked the third time that Franklin Graham has preached in London.
The sisters were among the 17,000 people who filled ExCeL London on Saturday night for a free event with music from Michael W. Smith, CeCe Winans, and The Afters, and an evangelistic message from Franklin Graham.
And like Celeste, thousands of people have prayed desperately for their loved ones to come to Christ through these events. They expected God to perform a mighty work—transforming hearts and impacting their cities for His kingdom.
“I just told my sister that I was coming to the event,” Celeste shared. “I didn’t want to pressure her, so I just planted that seed in her heart.”
One day, her sister sent her a message with a picture of an advertisement for the God Loves You Tour she saw while walking the streets of London.
“I keep seeing these ads. I think it’s a sign,” Luciana commented after she sent the picture.
“I just kept praying,” Celeste said. “And one day she told me she would come with me.”
At the event, Franklin Graham shared a message about a blind man called Bartimaeus in the Bible who asked Jesus to restore his sight.
“Bartimaeus was blind. He didn’t have a job. All he could do was just sit on the side of the road and ask for gifts from people passing by. Bartimaeus was poor,” said Graham. “But regardless of your worldly possessions, we are all poor toward God. … We are poor because of sin, because we’ve all broken God’s rules.”
“God loves you, and He will forgive you tonight,” he continued. “But you have to come through Jesus Christ because when He hung on that cross, He took your sin.”
When Luciana heard these words, her heart was pierced, and she knew she needed to turn from her sins and ask for God’s forgiveness.
When Graham invited those in attendance to come forward and pray, Luciana was one of the first to get up from her seat and walk toward the front. Celeste followed her closely, praising God as she witnessed the miracle that she had long prayed for.
“It felt really welcoming and powerful to be here tonight,” Luciana said after she prayed to confess Jesus as her Lord and Savior. “God had been nudging my heart in so many ways. My friends were turning to God, and coming in together. This was my time.”
Luciana is 19, and like many others in the United Kingdom, she believes that young people are searching for answers that only the Lord can provide.
“I believe that the younger generation is looking for God,” she said. “There are a lot of young kids lost in this generation, and I think it takes opportunities like this to bring everyone in.”
