More than 200,000 people were reached in the Colombian capital city of Bogotá during a recent city-wide campaign featuring US evangelist Andrew Palau, according to organisers.
The campaign, which culminated in a mass rally on the night of Sunday, 19th August, came 52 years after Palau’s father, Luis Palau, held his first historic major evangelistic campaign in the city. The starting point for the Luis Palau Association’s worldwide evangelistic effort, it is said to have marked “a powerful shift in the trajectory of Colombia”.
An evangelistic rally in the Plaza de Bolivar. PICTURE: Via Palau Association.
Multiple gatherings aimed at groups including women, children, business and civic leaders and prisoners were held in the lead-up to the final event which was held on the Plaza de Bolivar, the same location of Luis Palau’s first event. Along with the 200,000 people reached in person during the campaign, organisers said more than 550,000 people watched the festival online through Facebook Live.
Organisers said that by the end of the week, more than 18,500 people had made public confessions of faith in Jesus, 100,000 New Testaments had been distributed, and working in partnership with Bibles for the World, an additional 50,000 copies of the Gospel of John were handed out.
Kevin Palau, son of Luis Palau and president of the US-based Palau Association, said the festival was a “team effort”.
“No one church or organisation could accomplish something of this scale on their own,” he said in a statement. “It was a beautiful picture of the entire Body of Christ working together to bless a region.”
Along with performances by Christian musicians, testimonies and preaching, the festival also featured a preview of an upcoming movie telling the story of Luis Palau which will be released in early 2019 in the Americas.
Organisers said Luis Palau, who was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in January, was hoping to join his son for this historic campaign but unable to do so for health reasons. Instead his wife Patricia attended the events.
~ www.palau.org/events-bogota-2018.
