Franklin Graham marks 9/11's 25th anniversary with new BGEA broadcast and call to faith

The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association's new 30-minute program, "A Day That Changed Our Lives Forever," marks the 25th anniversary of September 11 with survivor testimony and a call from Franklin Graham for America to return to the faith he says filled churches in the days after the 2001 attacks. Graham, who serves as president and CEO of both BGEA and Samaritan's Purse, told Fox News Digital that his prayer is for Americans to recognize their need for God the way the country did after September 11. The program airs on Fox News Channel at 12:30 a.m. ET.

Graham hosts the broadcast and ties it to his own account of traveling to New York after the attacks, where he saw people holding photographs of missing loved ones while searching for any word on family members. He said he began calling pastors and asking them to come help comfort and pray with grieving families. That response, in his account, led directly to the formation of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team. BGEA says the team has since grown into an international network of thousands of crisis-trained chaplains who work alongside people facing emotional and spiritual needs after tragedies and disasters.

Survivor accounts

The program centers two testimonies. Genelle Guzman-McMillan, identified as the last person pulled alive from the World Trade Center rubble, spent 27 hours buried and unable to move before rescuers reached her. She says she cried out to God while trapped, felt someone take her hand, and heard a voice tell her help was on the way and she would be fine. She describes that encounter as angelic and says she came to faith beneath the ruins.

Sujo John's account turns on a narrower margin. He worked on the 81st floor of the North Tower on September 11 while his pregnant wife worked on the 71st floor of the South Tower. After escaping separately, he spent hours believing she had not made it out. His phone rang. She had arrived at work minutes late, and both survived.

Graham also cited his father, the late Rev. Billy Graham, who addressed the country from Washington National Cathedral during the national day of prayer that followed the attacks. The elder Graham said then that the nation was "involved in a new kind of warfare" and needed "the help of the Spirit of God." Franklin Graham quoted that statement, then added his own framing: "just as America needed the help of God then, we still need His help today."

His stated prayer for the nation is that it will "turn back to the God of Heaven who has brought us to this day and sustained us every step of the way."