Recently I was delighted to send off to my primary publisher, Christian Focus Publications, the completed manuscript of a youth biography I’ve written on Luis Palau, the famous evangelist. CFP will likely publish the book this coming August or September as part of its Trailblazers series of children’s biographies on outstanding men and women of the Christian faith.
Here are a few of the primary reasons I think kids (and adults too!) will enjoy and benefit from reading this book:
(1) Second only to Billy Graham, Luis was the most prominent Christian evangelist in the world during the closing decades of the twentieth century and the opening decades of the twenty-first century. He was the premiere evangelist used of God in spreading the Gospel (good news) of salvation throughout South and Central America, and commonly became known as “the Billy Graham of Latin America.” Luis then went on reach millions of other people around the world with the Gospel, even while continuing his strong evangelistic endeavors throughout Latin America. Such an eminent servant of Christ is well worth learning about!
(2) Luis’s father died unexpectedly when he was only ten years old, and his family experienced marked financial hardships as a result. After coming to saving faith in Christ at age twelve, Luis then experienced significant discouragements and struggles in his spiritual life as a teen. Young readers will find much in his boyhood experiences that they will be able to relate to and gain guidance from.
(3) Beginning in his early twenties, Luis became actively involved in Christian service. He had a compelling desire to share the Gospel with non-Christians and frequently did so. He even had curious visions (which he kept to himself) of his preaching the Gospel in stadiums filled with immense crowds of people.
Luis thought that God might be calling him to vocational Christian ministry as an evangelist. He held back, however, from making such a commitment due to an absence of a pressing emotional conviction that He was called by God. He also hesitated because of an ongoing need to help support his family financially. Then the Lord worked through a series of definite and remarkable circumstances to lead Luis into fulltime Christian service and to further his education in preparation for such ministry. Consideration of Luis’s experiences in these regards will provide young people with much helpful food for thought concerning how the Lord would have them to serve Him with their lives, whether or not that be in some form of vocational Christian ministry.
(4) This book relates dozens of the hundreds of occasions when Luis proclaimed the Gospel to tens of thousands of people and saw thousands of them come to saving faith in Christ. The book also shares the dramatic conversion testimonies of many of the individuals who placed their trust in Jesus as a result of Luis’s evangelistic ministry. Those include the salvation stories of national political leaders, radical Communist rebels, those trapped in various types of abuse, people who had lost hope or become disillusioned with life, and others.
The instances of thousands of people simultaneously coming to Christ and the examples of individuals finding the Savior hearten Christians regarding the power of God and the Gospel to transform lives, whether by thousands or one at a time.
These are just a few of many reasons youth will enjoy and profit from reading this account of God’s tremendous work in and through Luis’s life and ministry. I’ll share other reasons as the book’s publication draws closer. I’ll also be sure to provide further information from the publisher about the book and ordering copies of it as all that becomes available.
Copyright 2025 by Vance E. Christie
