John Graham was born on the Isle of Lewis and soon after coming to faith, felt a call to Jewish mission.

He and his wife Katie were both natives of the Isle, where John served as a deacon before training for the ministry at the Free Church College. Prior to this he had studied mathematics at university.

In September 1978 John was appointed as a Christian Witness to Israel (CWI) missionary and the following month was ordained by the Free Church Presbytery of Lewis. After a brief six months under the mentorship of Ray McCabe in Glasgow, John and Katie set off for Australia in 1979 with their daughters Katie and Margaret.

John and Katie both took readily to life and work in Australia, eventually becoming citizens. A number of Jewish people came to faith through John’s ministry. One of the most remarkable parts of his work was through a weekly Saturday morning New Testament study with a group of Ultra Orthodox Jewish men. Their leader was an internationally respected mathematician, scientist and scholar, who also understood New Testament Greek.

John patiently and thoroughly taught these religious Jewish men about the Messiah from John’s Gospel and Paul’s letter to the Romans. As they examined the material, debate naturally ensued, but this never led to them rejecting John. In fact even after the studies ended their personal friendships continued on.

He left CWI and became the minister of Bondi Presbyterian Church, which had many Jewish people in its neighbourhood.

John was a humble, spiritual, learned and zealous evangelist, and the full extent of what he accomplished by God’s grace in Sydney will be known only in eternity.

For over twenty years, former CWI missionary John Graham reached out to his local Jewish community in Sydney and saw much fruit for his labours. After suffering with cancer for a number of years, John went to be with the Lord on 31st October. He was aged 79 and passed away in a hospice in Sydney.

From the CWI Herald

(This was supplied to welovestornoway.com by Bill Lucas and we apologise for the delay in getting it on-line.)