Her arms are outstretched, palms facing upward. She closes her eyes, tilts her head toward the ceiling and moves her lips in gentle prayer. The perfectly coifed blonde hair and navy blue business suit suggests she belongs more in a boardroom than at a prayer meeting. But on this night, she has something more important to do. Tonight she has a meeting with God.

To fully appreciate the appeal of southern evangelist Billy Graham is to watch the 20,000 devoted in prayer. It is truly an awesome sight. And when Graham asks the crowd to come forward there is a gentle rumble throughout the stadium as people, from all walks of life, slowly make the descent from their seats to stand before him and accept Jesus Christ into their lives. For four days the Billy Graham National Capital Mission made Corel Centre its home. By the time Graham left town 107,000 had attended and about 9,000 went forward to publicly commit themselves to Christ.

"The response was higher than I had anticipated," said Rick Marshall, director of the Billy Graham Crusades." He said Canadians are somewhat reserved by nature and the approach used by a Billy Graham mission was not one common to many Canadians, so to have that many attend was "a genuine indicator of success."

Marshall, who has been with the Billy Graham mission for 18 years, said he did witness something unique during Youth Night Saturday night.
"I saw on that night something I have never seen before," said Marshall. "Billy Graham got up with his Bible and his notes, he read the title, quoted the scripture, raised one question and then he closed his notebook. He saw the kids down in the front and from where I was watching it looked like he was speaking to his grandchildren."

He said although there were 18,500 inside and thousands outside while Graham was speaking to the kids, "you could literally hear a pin drop. It was truly amazing."

For Kanata resident Tony Copple the experience is one he won't soon forget. "To me, the last five days have been some of the best days of my whole life," he said.

Months prior to the Mission Copple trained as a supervisor counsellor, which meant he was to direct counsellors to those who needed to be counselled when they came forward. But after a couple of nights of hearing the wonderful stories other counsellors had to share he knew that was something he had to do. Over the remaining nights Copple counselled three people - one of them was a 10-year-old girl.
"The personal experience of counselling is like nothing you've ever done. Leading people to the Lord is very rewarding."

Copple attended his first Billy Graham Mission in England in 1984.
"Ever since I have been convinced of the power of this form of bringing people into Christianity," said Copple. And it is something he wouldn't hesitate to do again.
"If they have a Billy Graham Mission within driving distance in the next 10 years I'll be there," he said.

Kanata Baptist Pastor Doug Ward, who played a major role in organizing the event, attributes the success of the mission to the legwork done prior to the mission.
"I believe it had to do a lot with the direction the advertising campaign took," said Ward. "It was different and controversial. We weren't just hanging out a shingle saying `Y'all come to the Corel Centre' There was an edge to it, it was quirky and it presented a professional image."

Ward said once the daily papers got onboard the snowball effect took place and all kinds of media became involved in covering the mission.
"This was an event worth covering."

Ward said the mission was a success in so many ways.
"There were a lot of wonderful things that happened on the floor during the mission."

People from the Billy Graham organization will stay in town until the end of August to make sure those who did come forward are helped and to tie up loose ends.

But by all accounts the mission was a success.

"I just feel sorry for the people who didn't go. They missed such a huge thing for themselves, for their lives and for their city," said Copple.