America's most famous evangelist Billy Graham — whose ministry headquarters were located in Minneapolis for nearly 50 years — turns 93 today.
Graham has remained active in his golden years, having just published his 30th book "Nearing Home," in which he ruminates about growing old and dying.
Tom Breen with The Associated Press writes: "the prospect of old age and death was for a long time something he (Graham) tried not to think about, despite his convictions about the eternity that awaits human beings."
Graham's birthday comes just as six decades of his recordings have become available in a searchable online database. Visitors to www.billygraham.org can find nearly 1,700 audio files from his six decades of public ministry — including several sermons he delivered in Minnesota.
Northwestern College in Roseville recently dedicated a new campus building to Graham, their former president. It's the only structure in Minnesota named for the preacher who launched a worldwide ministry here more than 60 years ago.
Graham didn't make it to the ribbon-cutting ceremony last month for the Billy Graham Community Life Commons building at the Christian liberal arts school where he was president from 1948 to 1952. But William Graham IV attended the event and read a letter written by his grandfather.
Graham moved his evangelical headquarters from Minneapolis to North Carolina in 2004. He tends to stay close to home in Montreat, N.C., where he has the 24-hour care of a nurse.
