The September 9 release date for my new youth biography, Luis Palau: Calling the World to Christ, quickly approaches! Here are ten quick reasons why I think kids (and adults too) will enjoy and benefit from reading the book.
1. Known as “the Billy Graham of Latin America,” Luis Palau was the second most influential evangelist in the world from the 1970s to the 2010s. He proclaimed the gospel of salvation in-person to some thirty million people in over eighty countries. Through his live speaking events, radio and television broadcasts, books and magazine articles, as well as online podcasts and blogs, he ministered to more than one billion people. Such a prominent, influential servant of Christ is well worth getting to know!
2. Through the influence of dedicated Christian relatives, teachers, and missionaries, Luis was led to trust in Jesus as his Savior at twelve years of age. But owing to hurtful treatment he received from a respected Christian mentor, confusion and bitterness he experienced over other hard boyhood trials, and common teenage temptations, his young Christian faith was nearly wrecked. How God graciously drew him to the Savior, then back to Himself are instructive stories.
3. Luis’s father, whom he highly admired, died suddenly when he was just ten years old. Partially due to unscrupulous people taking financial advantage of Luis’s widowed mother, the Palaus struggled materially for over a decade. Luis’s educational desires and career ambitions needed to be sacrificed in order to become the primary provider for his family. But how God helped them and grew their faith through those difficulties is enlightening and inspiring.
4. Though Luis was an active evangelist from age nineteen, for several years he hesitated about committing his life to vocational Christian ministry. He did not have a pressing emotional conviction that he was called to that type of full-time Christian service, and he had a strong sense of responsibility to provide for the material needs of his mother and sisters. God providentially led and provided in remarkable ways to enable Luis to receive a Bible college education in the United States, while the Lord simultaneously supplied the needs of his family back in Argentina. Luis’s experiences will provide young people with 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.
5. After Bible college, while serving as a zealous young missionary, Luis had an irrepressible desire from the Lord to carry out mass evangelism ministry through large citywide evangelistic crusades. For a few years his superiors in the mission organization with which he served held him back from doing so, thinking he needed to grow in experience and humility. In time, God opened doors for Luis to preach the gospel to untold thousands of people in numerous cities throughout South and Central America. In the decades that followed God continued to expand Luis’s evangelistic ministry far beyond all he ever imagined, using him to proclaim the good news of salvation to millions of people at evangelistic crusades and festivals around the world.
6. 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 individuals were from all types of cultures, social statuses, occupations, and belief systems. The instances of thousands of people simultaneously coming to Christ, and the examples of individuals finding the Savior, underscore the power of God and the Gospel to transform lives, whether by thousands or one at a time.
7. Luis poured out his life in unflagging evangelistic service of the Lord for more than six decades. His service entailed exhausting exertion and numerous other personal and family sacrifices. Clear into his eighties he sought to “burn on for God” with all his heart, soul, and strength. Near the end of his life, he stated of his willing evangelistic service: “If I was given a thousand lifetimes, I would dedicate them all to the same calling.” Such an example cannot help but encourage Christians in their own service for the Lord.
8. The only way to explain all the notable developments of Luis’s life and the extraordinary outcomes of his ministry endeavors is to understand that God was obviously and powerfully at work in and through it all. Luis would have been the first to acknowledge that only God could bring about the exceptional features and results of his life and ministry. The ultimate purpose of this book recounting Luis’s life story, then, is that the Lord would receive all the honor and glory for what He accomplished for and through His faithful servant.
9. I’ve sought to relate the highlights of Luis’s life and ministry in an interesting and understandable fashion. The book is intended primarily for youths ages 8-14, and I’ve written the work especially with them in mind. I think older teens and adults will also find it engaging and beneficial. Extra features of the book include a helpful Timeline of Luis’s life as well as Thinking Further topics for each chapter to aid readers in contemplating how what they’ve read applies to their own life.
10. Christian Focus Publications has done its habitual outstanding job in producing this attractive youth biography. Daniel van Straaten’s cover illustration is dramatic and appealing. CF4KIDS, the children’s branch of CFP’s publishing ministry, has similarly produced scores of quality youth biographies in its popular Trailblazers Series.
Luis Palau: Calling the World to Christ can be pre-ordered from Christian Focus Publications or other of your favorite booksellers. Here’s a link to further information from the publisher about the book:
Copyright 2025 by Vance E. Christie
