Evangelist Billy Graham will call his four-day Ottawa mission a success even if just one person turns to God.
 Dressed in a dark suit and speaking with his southern-tinged accent, the 79-year-old preacher made his first public appearance in Ottawa yesterday to talk to reporters about his mission which takes over the Corel Centre tomorrow to Sunday.
 Graham said he hopes the mission will prompt people to talk about God and religion in coming weeks and months and that some will make a commitment to God.
 "We're praying that many people will do that. We don't have any figures or statistics or suggestions as to what the statistics should be because if just one person comes to Christ all of this would have been worthwhile," Graham said.
 "We may be here just for one person or for 1,000 or for 5,000 to try to win them to Christ."
 This is Graham's first full mission in Ottawa, but not his first visit to Canada's capital. He has held one-day rallies here -- one in 1949 when he was with Youth for Christ and another at Lansdowne Park in 1955 -- and he also spoke at a Council of Churches meeting in 1965.
 His last Ontario mission was in Toronto in June 1995 where Graham, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, was hospitalized after collapsing during a speech. He spoke only on the last two nights of the five-day mission.
 The disease tires Graham easily and he said his thinking isn't as clear as it once was, forcing him to pause during sermons.
 Graham was gently helped as he stepped onto the platform at the start of yesterday's press conference, but he said his last report from doctors at the famed Mayo Clinic was favorable.
 The world's most famous evangelist, who has preached the gospel to more than 210 million people in more than 185 countries, spoke fondly of Canada calling it a "peace-loving" country.
 "We love Canada. And every time I see that Maple Leaf anywhere in the world my heart warms just as it does when I see the Stars and Stripes and sometimes even more because I love this country," Graham said. "We have a tremendous number of friends in this country."
 The $2.2-million mission is expected to fill the 18,500-seat Corel Centre during its four nights. Another 15,000 seats will be set up outside where the faithful along with the curious can watch the sermon on a giant screen.
 In sermons that he hopes will be relevant, Graham said he'll answer the questions asked by many people, including who is Christ and why God allows suffering in the world.
 Graham came at the invitation of 470 local churches representing 42 denominations, who saw the mission as a way to halt their declining attendance and influence.
 Graham said he hopes that spirit of cooperation will linger and strengthen when the four-day mission is over.
 "I think there already ... has been a sense of new unity in the churches," Graham said. "That doesn't mean they all believe the same thing and dot every 'i' and cross every `t' together. But that does mean they want to work together for the betterment of the community."
 Rev. Allen Churchill, chairman of the National Capital Region Billy Graham Mission, said it wasn't easy getting local churches to set aside their own interests. An attempt seven years ago failed and it was only in the past two years that local churches came together.
 "It's like trying to get Ford, GM and Chrysler together to build a car," said Churchill, a minister at Dominion-Chalmers Church.
 The mission is a homecoming for George Beverly Shea, 89, a Winchester-born gospel singer who has been with Graham since 1947.
 Although he lives in North Carolina, Shea keeps a summer hideaway near Ottawa that he visits every year.
 Since arriving in Ottawa, Shea said he has played piano at the Sunnyside Ave. church where his father was a pastor and he saw the two homes -- one on Patterson Ave. and the other on Metcalfe St. -- where he grew up.