Franklin Graham takes message of hope to Cambodia

By Patra Ann Taylor

Franklin Graham (through interpreter Lokru Mao) told attendees that God sees them, even if they are small

The relief program called Love in Action was carried out in partnership with local churches and BGEA

At dusk, the former airport in Siem Reap, Cambodia, looked less like the site of a mass rally than a gathering place for the hungry, the grieving … and the hopeful. Buses streamed in for hours. Worship music floated over the grounds. Families settled onto folding chairs and crowded into the open spaces, while local church members moved through the gathering with the quiet purpose of hosts who knew that what was happening here was more than a concert, more than a sermon, more than a weekend event. It was a first for Siem Reap — the city’s first large-scale evangelistic festival in more than 1,000 years — and for many in the audience, the first time they had ever heard the Christian message.

More than 27,000 people attended the two-night Love Siem Reap Festival, where the Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and president of Samaritan’s Purse, urged listeners to turn from sin and trust Jesus Christ for forgiveness and eternal life.

For the Rev. Graham, the event carried both personal and spiritual weight. His father, Billy Graham, preached to crowds around the world but never in the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. The Rev. Graham said it was “a privilege” to bring the Gospel to a place his father had not reached. The invitation from local churches made the moment especially meaningful

because the festival was not imposed from outside but welcomed from within by Cambodian pastors and congregations.

The festival arrived at a difficult moment for the country. The January 2026 outreach came amid the aftermath of deadly border unrest that displaced hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. Samaritan’s Purse was already working with churches to provide food, blankets, mosquito nets and other relief to families who fled with little more than the clothes on their backs. The Rev.

Graham believes that kind of aid and the preaching of the Gospel belong together because a crisis often opens the door for people to ask why they are being helped. A stadium-sized invitation

According to the Rev. Graham, more than 90 percent of Cambodians are Buddhist, and many in attendance had never heard the Gospel message. The scale of the event — which organizers said was made possible by nearly 475 local churches and a fleet of nearly 600 buses — proved that something far bigger than one ministry was at work.

The festival paired the Rev. Graham’s sermon with music from Cambodian worship teams and international Christian artists, including TAYA and The Afters. But the centerpiece of the event was the invitation at the end, when the Rev. Graham urged attendees to turn from sin and to trust Jesus Christ for salvation. “When we gave the invitation,” he stated, “hundreds of people

responded, many of them literally running forward.” That response was especially encouraging to Cambodia’s churches, many of which are small house churches scattered throughout the country.”

Relief and proclamation

The Rev. Graham’s approach to evangelism is shaped by a world in which disasters seem to be multiplying. He said the Bible teaches that crises should not surprise Christians, and that when people are “down in the ditch of life,” believers should come alongside them with both help and hope. To the Rev. Graham, that’s what evangelism looks like in the 21st century: sharing the

Good News, whether people are in a stadium, in the middle of war, or trying to find their next meal. “Everyone needs to hear the hope-filled message that we can be forgiven of our sins by putting faith and trust in God’s Son, Jesus Christ,” he stated.

He rejects the idea that the ministry’s mission is to gain influence or to shape public opinion. “My mission isn’t to win hearts and minds — it’s to tell the truth of God’s Word,” he said. For the Rev. Graham, the world’s deepest problems are not political or economic but spiritual, and the only message powerful enough to change hearts is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Politicians, he

added, come and go, but “the Word of God stands forever.”

A local welcome

The Siem Reap outreach was not just a Graham family event or a Billy Graham Evangelistic Association production; it was, by all accounts, a local church effort with government approval and broad support from Cambodian Christian leaders. The Rev. Graham said the festival was held at the invitation of Cambodia’s local churches and in cooperation with authorities, a point he

emphasized as part of his broader philosophy of ministry. The Rev. Graham does not hide the Christian identity of the work, but neither does he force beliefs on anyone. Instead, the organization helps people regardless of background or religion,

and when assistance is offered without conditions, people tend to respond with gratitude rather than suspicion. That approach reflects the biblical story of the Good Samaritan, helping those “in the ditches of life” so they know God has not forgotten them. The human cost of the border crisis made that message especially poignant. As the Love Siem Reap Festival unfolded, Cambodian believers described families who had fled gunfire in the middle of the night, carrying children and little else, and said relief work and preaching were both necessary if people were to recover. The Rev. Graham’s own words echoed that theme:

People need to know there is help, he said, but also that there is a reason for the hope being offered.

Young believers, new beginnings

One of the most moving aspects of the festival was the response from young people. According to local pastor, the Rev. Hong Chan Narom, who traveled more than 300 miles from Sihanoukville, he said it was powerful to see so many youths respond to the Gospel, and described the message as simple enough for everyday people to understand. Lokru Mao, the Rev.

Graham’s interpreter and a Christian ministry director, said the event greatly encouraged local churches and that the turnout exceeded expectations.

The festival also produced stories of individual transformations. One attendee, Soklai Chea, a displaced Prey Chan resident, said he believed God had rescued him when he fled the border conflict and that hearing the Rev. Graham preach helped him understand Jesus as the one who had spiritually saved him. The churches that hosted the event are now expected to come

alongside people like Soklai Chea for follow-up and discipleship. That emphasis on follow-up reflects the broader pattern of the Rev. Graham’s ministry, which combines public proclamation with sustained relief work. Samaritan’s Purse has worked in

Cambodia for more than 20 years, supporting livelihoods, medical services, education, clean water, safe migration training and school construction.

A legacy carried forward

The trip to Cambodia also connected the Rev. Graham’s present-day work to his father's legacy. Asked what it meant to preach in a country Billy Graham never visited, Franklin Graham said he would have loved to ask his father to come along and see the hunger for the Gospel. He added that his father’s ministry was always about one thing — proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ — and that remains true today for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. The Rev. Graham does not think of his work in terms of five-year plans or metrics, but as obedience to God’s leading. “This isn’t our ministry — it’s His,” adding that growth and new opportunities are evidence of God’s direction rather than human strategy.

Just prior to the Siem Reap gathering, the Rev. Graham met with Christian leaders and government officials in Phnom Penh, where more than 2,700 church leaders from all 25 provinces gathered for a fellowship meal with officials. The meeting was intended to strengthen relationships during a time of crisis and to pray for Cambodia’s leaders.

By the end of the festival, the scale of the event was measured not just in bus counts or crowd estimates, but in the quieter details that followed: a young person stepping forward, a displaced family hearing words of comfort, a pastor from a distant province making the long trip to witness what happened, and churches preparing to walk with new believers after the lights dimmed. The Rev. Graham said these moments are what matter most. “To have 27,000 people come together to hear the Gospel was something only God could do,” concludes Rev. Graham. “We give Him the glory for each and every person whose life has been changed for all eternity.”