NEW YORK, N.Y. – Evangelist Billy Graham spoke words of hope to 250,000 New Yorkers who had gathered on a sunny afternoon at the Great Lawn in Central Park. Preaching from John 3:16, “For God so loved the world,” Graham said, “There is one thing I want you to take from the park when you leave here today – it is this – God loves you and is interested in you.”

New York Mayor David Dinkins gave Billy Graham a special welcome from the platform saying, “This is the largest multi-cultural revival meeting the world has ever seen.” Reporters described the crowd as a mixture off white, black, Hispanic, Asian American and a surprising number of teenagers and young people. Graham said he wanted to bring the city together in a new way as a Judeo-Christian witness and to promote racial unity. “Our social problems are basically mortal and spiritual problems, and moral problems require a religious solution,” Graham said. “Some ask, ‘Why has God abandoned us?’ God has not abandoned us, we have abandoned Him.”

Billy Graham’s largest meeting ever was in Seoul, Korea with over 1 million.