RSS Feeds|
• Front page • Metro • Sports |
Paige Fincher, 10, and Barbara Pressley from Greenville look at the view from the prayer room at Billy Graham’s Training Center at The Cove near Asheville, N.C.
SWANNANOA, N.C. — When evangelist Billy Graham held his first training seminars at the secluded spot in the western North Carolina mountains now known as The Cove, the accommodations were Spartan at best.
“At first, we had no food service, no lodging, no transportation,” executive director Scott Holmquist said. “We would cater food from Three Little Pigs (barbecue restaurant). It was a wonderful, humble beginning.”
Twenty years later, the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove has become a major operation and part of the world-renowned pastor’s ministry. There are dozens of employees and volunteers, a chapel and visitors center, the training center, an administration building, two inns and a lodge.
About 10,000 people visit each year for Cove-sponsored training and events, while another 10,000 come from churches that rent space. The site — which celebrated its 20th anniversary with an open house on Saturday — is also visited by about 26,000 tourists annually.
