Throughout Luis Palau’s long, fruitful career as an eminent worldwide evangelist, he saw many instances of people’s lives being dramatically transformed by Christ and the Christian Gospel of salvation. Here’s one of those amazing true stories.
Late in 1970 Luis Palau and his team were making advance preparations for a large evangelistic campaign to be held in Lima, the capital of Peru, the following year. At that time Peru was not a safe, stable country. A military dictatorship had seized control of the nation, and communist rebels were trying to overthrow the government. Many rebels were carrying out guerilla warfare. Bloodshed was common in parts of the country.
Luis was invited to preach at some pre-crusade rallies in Lima in December 1970. At one of those meetings, a communist revolutionary named Rosario came with the intention of attacking him or perhaps ending his life!
Rosario was born out of wedlock in the slums outside Lima. She grew up full of anger at the lack of food and water as well as the poverty she saw all around her.
Although she did not finish her formal education, she became an avid reader. By age thirteen she was reading the works of Marx and Linen. By the time she was eighteen she had become a militant communist.
She hated the upper classes and anyone else whom she thought stood in the way of communist ideals being set up in society. More than once on her missions, she had violently attacked or even killed her perceived opponents. She also hated anything having to do with God or Christianity.
Rosario happened to hear one of Luis’s Spanish radio programs and learned that he would be speaking live at a theater in Lima that evening. Though she knew nothing else about him, she was immediately filled with rage and hatred toward him.
That night Rosario sat in the auditorium, listening to Luis’s message on ‘The Five Hells of Human Existence’ – murder, robbery, deceit, hypocritical homes, and hatred. Each sin he mentioned pricked her conscience. When he gave an invitation at the close of the sermon, she came forward with scores of other people. But murder rather than becoming a Christian was on her mind.
A little old lady, a Peruvian Christian, had come forward as well, to counsel anyone who might desire guidance in making a spiritual decision. Approaching Rosario, the older woman asked, ‘Madam, may I help you receive Christ?’ Rosario struck the well-intentioned counselor, then panicked at the commotion she had caused and fled from the theater.
Later that night, as Rosario tossed and turned in bed, God’s Spirit kept pressing two verses from Luis’s message on her mind. The first, Jeremiah 17:5, states: ‘Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.’ The contrasting verse, Jeremiah 17:7, says: ‘Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.’
Very early the next morning, Rosario fell on her knees and trusted in Christ Jesus to save her from her many sins. She stood back up a fully forgiven, completely changed child of God.
Previously Rosario tried to help the poor by forcing radical communist ideology on society, even through the use of violence. After her Christian conversion, she did even more to aid the poor, but now out of Christian compassion. Through her efforts, running water and electric lights were provided for the poor neighborhood where she had grown up.
She also met with factory bosses and admonished them to treat their employees fairly. ‘I warn them,’ she stated, ‘that Christ is over them’ (Colossians 4:1). She addressed high school classes and debated political issues, using her own experiences to show that only Christ can meet people’s deepest needs. Scores of young people came to believe in Jesus as a result of her ministry.
Luis did not learn about Rosario’s Christian conversion and subsequent service until he read her testimony in a German news service report, a full ten years after the initial Lima crusade of 1971. A few more years passed before he finally met her during another Lima campaign.
Luis correctly points out: ‘Marxist revolutions in Latin America and elsewhere have never transformed lives for the better. As Rosario’s story illustrates, the only revolution that works occurs every time someone becomes a new creation in Christ. He alone changes lives for good here and now – and for all eternity.’
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Many more examples of people’s lives being dramatically transformed through saving faith in Jesus Christ are included in my new youth biography, Luis Palau: Calling the World to Christ. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at www.vancechristie.com if you would like to learn more about coming to know Jesus as one’s Savior and Lord.
Copyright 2025 by Vance E. Christie
