Franklin Graham Reaches Out To North Korea
Franklin Graham, who heads up Samaritan’s Purse as well as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, a pair of Christians organizations based in North Carolina, USA, is in North Korea this week to meet with high-level government officials and visit his ministries’ humanitarian assistance projects.
“I believe it is important to make visits like this to help improve better relations and to have better understanding with each other,” said Graham. “I’m going as a minister of Jesus Christ with a message of peace and that God loves each one of us regardless of our borders or politics.”
Ruth Bell In Korea
The Graham family has a long history with the Korean people dating back to 1934 when a young Ruth Bell (Graham) attended mission school in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Ruth was the wife of Billy and mother of Franklin who went home to be with the Lord in 2007.
In 1992 and again in 1994 Billy Graham met with Kim Il Sung who was the country’s leader at that time. In 2008, Franklin Graham brought aid for the North Koreans and preached at a newly constructed Protestant church in Pyongyang.
Medical, Dental Assistance
Since 1997, Samaritan’s Purse has been active in North Korea, initially with medical and dental programs as well as providing relief worth $10 million. Next week, Mr. Graham will be making a presentation totaling $190,000 in equipment and supplies for a new dental center being built in Pyongyang.
He will also visit a provincial hospital in the countryside where a generator system installed by Samaritan’s Purse, in conjunction with USAID, is now providing electrical power where none previously existed. Mr. Graham hopes that additional opportunities to visit hospitals and dental centers where Samaritan’s Purse has provided aid will present themselves during his stay in North Korea.
Previous Assistance Rendered
Responding to destructive flooding in North Korea in 2007, Samaritan’s Purse hired a 747 cargo airliner to present $8.3 million in medicine and other emergency materials, for what proved to be the first direct flight from the United States to North Korean since the Korean War armistice in 1953.
Following his visit to North Korea, Mr. Graham will head to China to check up on Samaritan’s Purse supported initiatives there.
See Also — Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
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