Next year Franklin Graham will cross the country, preaching in Perth, Darwin and Adelaide and across to Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

“We will share the same life-changing message of hope my father preached in Australia 60 years ago,” said Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the international Christian relief organisation Samaritan’s Purse, which both have offices in Australia.

“I first went to Australia in 1975 with my good friend Bob Pierce, who founded Samaritan’s Purse. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to preach in many locations across this incredibly beautiful nation. I’m looking forward to returning next year to share with the people of Australia that God loves them.”

The Graham Tour will include what are described as “positive, family-friendly events” that will feature popular Grammy-nominated music artist Crowder. One tagline for the events will be “Two generations with the same message” (Actually, there are three generations. Franklin’s son, Will Graham has proven himself an effective evangelist with a series of tours of regional cities, including Kalgoorlie this year.)

The tour dates:

• Perth February 9 at the Perth Arena.

• Darwin February 13, Darwin Convention Centre

• Melbourne February 16, Hisense Arena

• Brisbane February 18, RiverStage

• Adelaide February 20, Titanium Security Arena

• Sydney February 23 and 24, International Convention Centre

Asked whether Franklin Graham’s reported closeness to President Donald Trump would affect the mission, Karl Faase, who chairs the Billy Graham organisations in Australia, told Eternity, “It is an issue that affects one sector of the community – people who think that everything Trump does is bad, [but] this does not represent the whole community, or every sector of the Christian church.

“But many of the evangelicals who voted for him were not saying ‘we love Trump’, but rather ‘we don’t love Hillary [Clinton]’. A few weeks ago, Franklin Graham was one of the Christian leaders who took issue with Trump for separating children from their families at the border. He’s not sitting on the sidelines cheering everything Trump does.”

This is not the first Australian tour for Franklin Graham, who headlined an evangelistic campaign called Festival Victoria 2005 which drew a total attendance of 80,000 with the support of 820 churches.

GrahamTour.com.au offers free downloads to publicise the events, courses to help people witness, a chance to volunteer and to register your church.