An extraordinary life with world evangelist, Luis Palau

An extraordinary life with world evangelist, Luis Palau

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

NASHVILLE, TN (ANS) -- I had just moved to Southern California in 1982 with my family to start a new life here in the Golden State, when a Christian businessman, Duane Logsdon, with whom I had just co-authored a book called "The Million Dollar Promise," invited me to join him and his wife, Carole, on a return trip to the UK to report on a crusade that Argentine-born evangelist, Luis Palau was to hold in the Yorkshire city of Leeds.

Carole and Duane Logson who invited Dan Wooding to join them for the eventful Leeds crusade

Duane was, at the time, chairman of the board for the Luis Palau Association, and I was excited to be able to be back in the land in which I was raised by my missionary parents, Alf and Anne Wooding. (I was born in Nigeria in 1940, but moved to England during World War II two years later.)

It turned out to be a rather strange affair for Luis as he was constantly heckled by some anarchists in the crowded tent where his outreach was being held, but one good thing came out of the Leeds trip, and that was I began a long friendship with David Jones, who is now VP of Corporate Affairs at the Luis Palau Association in Portland, Oregon.

I caught up with David earlier this year at NRB 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, and was able to interview him for my Front Page Radio program, and we began our chat reliving that bizarre time together in Leeds.

"Well yeah that was back in 1982, and Luis had just come from Guatemala where he had an amazing outreach event attended by 700,000 people on the closing Sunday," he said. "It was phenomenal when you see the aerial photos of it. From Guatemala, we went straight to Leeds, England, where we went from a crowd of 700,000 to maybe a couple thousand people in a tent and people asking us, 'What are you doing in Leeds in a tent?'

"The reason is that Luis just has an amazing affection and love for the British Isles and the people of Great Britain. It was British missionaries that introduced Luis' parents and his family to Jesus Christ. So he feels an amazing indebtedness to Britain for their passion in the old days for sending missionaries all over the world especially to his homeland Argentina."

Luis Palau spoke to overflow crowds every night during his ten-day 1982 Leeds, England Crusade. Despite nightly attempts by anarchists to disrupt the meetings, and threats to burn down the tent, some 35,000 attended the mission

I reminded David that on the first night in that rather dilapidated tent that had holes in the roof where the rain would come in, Luis was about to begin his message when a blonde young woman slowly walked down the aisle, got on the platform, and began shouting, "Luis Palau is a fraud, and the Messiah is living in Clapham." She repeated this several times until the sound engineer was able to "cut off" her microphone and security escorted her out of the tent.

A huge smile enveloped David Jones's face as he remembered the incident, and he said, "Luis was absolutely in shock and he wasn't too sure what was going on because in all his years of preaching and ministry nothing had ever happened like that. You know, of course, it would happen in the British Isles because you Brits are crazy (laughs). But, yes, that was a wild night because once they removed her from the microphone and Luis resumed his message and it came time for the invitation for people to receive Jesus Christ, we then discovered that there were a group of anarchists throughout the audience who had been coached to jump up and down and disrupt the meeting. I recall we had some overzealous Christian police volunteers who I think were with an organization called the Christian Police Association who were very effective at removing the anarchists from the meeting.

"These protests went on every night of the meetings in Leeds. It was wild. We even had several bomb scares and threats to burn down the tent."

He went on to say, "I don't think Americans realize that that this part of England has had a lot of satanic influence with a long history of occult activity and black magic. It's one part of England where historically it's been a very demonic area so to go in there and share the love of Jesus Christ was special to us in a bid to try to dispel that darkness.

David Jones, Luis Palau's colleague for 35 years

"But an amazing thing happened during the Leeds crusade. We've been laughing about it now, but there was just a great harvest at that event. Luis and I and other team members have run into people the last 35 years all over England who say they came to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior when they attended the tent meetings in Leeds. So something good came out of it.

"But not just in England. We were over in China a few years ago where Luis has had an open door to do ministry there, and he was privileged to speak at one of the leading universities in China, probably considered equal to Harvard, and he was asked to speak on 'Is Jesus Christ Relevant?' The interesting thing is when he was in Leeds he spoke at the University there on the very same topic. So Luis is addressing professors, students at this prestigious university in China, and afterwards two professors came up to him and whispered in his ear. One of them said, 'We were students at Leeds University back in 1982 when you came and spoke and we gave our lives to Jesus Christ that day.'

"This just shows the importance of befriending and reaching out to international students. It's a very important ministry.

"But back to his visits to the UK, it's amazing how many events we've had where for whatever reason the anarchists want to come out and try to disrupt the meetings. But you know what they meant for evil the Lord has effectively turn for good and we've been blessed to work with our brothers and sisters in England, Scotland and Wales through the years and we've just seen many people trust Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

"Two of the reasons Luis loves going back to the British Isles are because he wants to show his gratitude for the number of missionaries Great Britain has sent throughout the world, and it gives him an opportunity to meet so many men and women who came to know the Lord at one of his meetings, many of whom have gone into the pastorate or fulltime ministry. By the way, Matt Redmond, the well-known worship song-writer, at age 12 made his decision to follow Jesus Christ at a Luis Palau crusade in London at old Queens Park Rangers stadium."

David then told me that Luis Palau has preached now in over 75 countries, often with great danger to himself.

Luis preaching in 2011 at his Arizona Festival in Phoenix

"I know the Shining Path Guerillas put a contract out on Luis's life. They said, 'Leave the country now or you're going to die like a dog.' Luis didn't know what that meant, but it didn't sound very good. So his security team had to take him to a different hotel every night so hardly anyone knew where he was. Obviously at the stadium the security was very high and fortunately he didn't 'die like a dog' -- he's still alive and preaching.

"He's 78 years old and is the most healthy and fit 78 year old I know. He's got a fifteen year plan. I mean how many 78 year old men have a fifteen year plan for their life?"

I then asked David to give an outline of Luis Palau's background, and he replied, "Luis is from Argentina and was born into a very affluent family. His dad was a very successful contractor, but sadly when he father was in his mid-thirties and Luis was only 12 years old, his dad died of pneumonia leaving behind Luis and his five younger sisters. His mother was not a business woman and within a couple of years she lost the business to some relatives.

"So the family went from wealth and affluence to extreme poverty and, during those teenage years, Luis thought he'd become a lawyer so he could defend all the widows and orphans in South America, but the Lord got a hold of him and helped him realize that he could do a lot more good for the world by proclaiming God's Good News and introducing people to his Son, Jesus Christ.

Luis and Pat Palau

"When Luis was in his early twenties he came to the United States to further his theological studies at Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Oregon where he met his wife Patricia. People often ask us why our headquarters are in that Portland, Oregon, and the reason is it's the hometown of Mrs. Palau which would be a good enough reason, but Portland is also a nice place to live. "In the early sixties, Luis and Pat were missionaries with Overseas Crusades, which became OC International. Luis eventually became president of the mission and then in 1978 he stepped down as president to form his own evangelistic team headquartered in Portland. Since 1978 Luis has done scores and scores of outreach events around the world, some of the largest evangelistic events in the history.
"He's had the privilege of introducing millions of people to Jesus Christ and the Lord has really blessed his ministry. Being originally from Argentina, Luis speaks Spanish fluently but he is also fluent in English. Luis has three daily radio programs, one in English and two in Spanish. He's been broadcasting in Spanish for over fifty years. Luis has no idea how old he is because he's got the same amount of energy that he had when I first met him thirty-five years ago."

China has been a place where Luis Palau has had some amazing experiences, said Jones.

"Luis has had a love for China since he was a boy," he went on to say. "His mom helped him develop a love for all people, but especially the people of China. As a boy Luis prayed for countries especially China and he dreamed of the day when he might be able to share Jesus Christ with the Chinese people.

"Then the Lord miraculously opened up that door some thirteen years ago. We went in through the front door, not the back door, befriended national leaders both in political and religious circles. It took a lot of time and patience. Luis just won favor with the People's Republic of China and they've allowed him to do quite a number of outreach events. I don't know of anyone else who's been allowed to do these things.

"In the process, Luis befriended Zhao Qizheng, the minister of information and former Mayor of Shanghai, and they became very good friends. Dr. Zhao then suggested to Luis, 'Let's do a televised debate on Christianity and atheism.' So they did this national televised debate that was also carried on the radio. They called it "A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian.' The marvelous thing about it was that Dr. Zhao presented his case, but the Chinese authorities also allowed Luis to explain what he believes, why he believes it, why he's a Christian and why he's a follower of Jesus.
"And the most fascinating thing is that they took the audio of the televised debate, had it transcribed and then Dr. Zhao and Luis were given editorial license to edit the transcript and make it into a book. The Chinese government printing press published it and it became a best seller."

David then explained why the Palau Association has, in recent years, expanded his outreaches into festivals.

"What happened was we shamelessly copied the Billy Graham model for years feeling why not copy the best. Luis and our ministry have the greatest respect and admiration for Dr. Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association," he said. "In the early days, they were so gracious and generous to help us get going. Actually it was a gift from the Graham Association that enabled Luis to start his ministry.

Luis with two of his sons -- Kevin, left and Andrew right

"But around the end of the nineties the crusade model wasn't working for us anymore for a lot of reasons. But we did notice on youth night, the crowds were bigger and we had more unchurched people show up. Luis's sons -- he's got four boys -- were just having a conversation one weekend saying that we need to come up with a model that will be attractive to young people. "Andrew Palau, one of Luis's sons who was at one time sort of the black sheep of the family [and who has written a book about his rebellion called 'The Secret Life of a Fool'] and had just come to Christ, said, 'Dad, we need to come up with a model that's attractive to my old frat buddies from the University of Oregon because they're not going to come to a football stadium and listen to a choir and a preacher.' So we totally discarded the model we'd been using and we came up with these outdoor festivals where there's music and food courts and sometimes a petting zoo as well as a children's area with inflatables, a skate park and BMX motorcycles.
"At first I think Luis thought this was going to destroy his ministry and I know he was wondering what in the world are the pastors going to think of this model. And when we did the first festival in '99 in Portland, Oregon, some reporter asked Luis, 'Well, how many people do you think will come?' Luis replied, 'I'll be happy if 5,000 people show up and then I'll be giddy if 10,000 people show up, but you know if 5,000 show up we'll be happy.'

"We had 93,000 people show up for the event and the impact on the city of Portland was absolutely fantastic. It was the beginning of what's being called 'The Portland Story,' a model for sustainable community service and evangelism. There's just something very special happening in Portland, Oregon and it started with a prayer movement and that '99 festival."

What does festival consist of?

Kevin Palau, president of the Luis Palau Association, speaking at the 2008 Portland Festival

"It looks sort of like a normal festival you'd see in any city," said Jones. "It's a safe event to invite your friends because it looks like other festivals in the city with music, food and corporate sponsors. During the day, in different parts of the park, the gospel is being shared on multiple stages. There might be different kinds of entertainment and performances and music, but often as many as 12 times during the day somebody is sharing the Good News and giving people an opportunity to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and people are standing by to pray with them and counsel with them.

"In the evenings there will be several headlining bands and obviously that's very attractional for people. And then Luis will do what he's been doing for five decades -- he'll give the Good News. He might be wearing khakis and a polo shirt as opposed to a suit and tie, but the message hasn't changed, just the packaging. And we always save the best band for last because we realize that if Luis were last on the agenda a lot of unchurched kids might leave the park after the final band. We purposely leave the last band till the end of the evening.

Luis' son Andrew preaching at the San Diego Festival in 2010

"We've actually had some events where we've even had fireworks. The festivals are slightly different in every city. The music's a little different depending on what the churches inviting us might want in terms of local music tastes. There's lots of room for creativity. But we want it to look like a normal event, a normal festival that's held in every city. There are festivals going on all the time in America. "The big difference is no alcohol (laughs). It is a Christian event organized by the Palau Association and the hundreds of churches that invited us. But it's a fun, free family-friendly event where it's easy to invite an unchurched person to come have a day of fun with the family, but it's also an opportunity for them to hear the claims of Jesus Christ in a very relevant and practical way."

I concluded the interview by asking David what was the biggest lesson he had learned from Luis Palau over his many years of working him.

"I think one of the lessons was something that happened when I left the business world 35 years ago to join Luis," he said. "A very wise man, Dr. Jim Williams, pulled me aside and he said, 'The most important thing you need to know when you go into ministry is some things aren't wrong; they're just different.' And that's something that those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ forget at times. I think a lot of times we want to attach a moral value to things that are just a matter of taste and they're not really right or wrong, they're just different."

And Luis Palau is definitely different, but what a legacy he has given to the world.

To learn more about the ministry, please go www.palau.org and to hear the entire interview with David Jones, please go to: http://www.assist-ministries.com/FrontPageRadio/FPR7.21.13DavidJonesMono.mp3 

Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.