Evangelist Billy Graham died today, Wednesday, February 21, 2018 of natural causes. The famous preacher was 99 years old.

Billy Graham was born on November 7, 1918, just days before the Armistice ended the First World War. He grew up on a dairy farm in Charlotte, North Carolina during the Depression and came to value hard work as a result. Graham attended the Florida Bible Institute, now called the Trinity College of Florida, and graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois in 1943.

Graham was launched into the international spotlight following his Los Angeles Crusade in 1949. The event was originally scheduled to last for three weeks but was extended to last more than eight weeks. The Crusade had a full house every night.

Today, Billy Graham is known around the globe. He has preached in a wide variety of locations, from remote African villages to the heart of New York City. He has preached in nearly every country of the former Soviet bloc, including the former USSR itself. Graham has since expanded his ministry to take advantage of modern mass media. He began the “Hour of Decision” radio program, a syndicated newspaper column known as “My Answer,” the “Decision” magazine which reaches more than 425,000 people and a variety of Christian television shows. Graham has also written 33 books, and his autobiography, “Just As I Am,” appeared simultaneously on three different best-seller lists in one week.

Billy Graham has counseled multiple presidents and has reached more people through live audiences than anyone in history. He has ministered to nearly 215 million individuals across 185 countries and territories in person and reached hundreds of millions more through book sales, television programs and newspapers. Despite his death, that number will only continue to grow as long has his works remain in print or on air.

Though his books will live on, Graham will also be remembered in a much more personal context by his family which includes 19 grandchildren and numerous great-grandchildren in addition to his five children, Virginia, Anne Morrow, Ruth Bell, Nelson Edman and William Franklin, III. 

Billy Graham has been an icon in evangelicalism for nearly 70 years and continued to be considered “America’s Pastor” even as he battled Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, hydrocephalus and pulmonary complications over the years. Even when forced to examine his own mortality, Graham kept his faith in God. “Do I fear death? No,” he said. “I look forward to death with great anticipation. I’m looking forward to seeing God face to face, and that could happen any day.”

Graham’s passing is a source of great sorrow to his family, his followers and the many to whom he preached. Those who knew him can find comfort, however, in knowing that Graham finally gets to meet the God he dedicated his life to serving.