Luis Palau’s Life Reflected His Mission of Conversion

6 min read

In commemoration of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs through October 15, Museum of the Bible is exploring the life of Luis Palau, a prominent Latin American evangelist whose ministry spanned almost six decades.

Luis Palau preaching

Figure 1: Luis Palau preaching.

Palau grew up in Ingeniero Maschwitz, a small town near Buenos Aires. The only son of seven children, he was born in 1934 into a bilingual family. His father’s parents immigrated from Spain after World War I, while his mother was Scottish and French.

Palau’s parents, Luis Palau Sr. and Matilde Balfour de Palau, became Christians after Edward Rogers, a British oil executive, gave Palau’s mother a Bible. Rogers continued to serve as a spiritual influence on Palau during his childhood. When Palau’s father unexpectedly died when Luis was just 10, Rogers helped the family financially.

Two years later, Palau’s conversion experience came while he was at summer camp and a counselor led him to believe in Jesus Christ.

“You don’t have to have a jaw-dropping story of how you received Jesus. It just must be yours,” Palau later wrote in a memoir. “Some have the light falling from heaven, the Damascus Road experience that takes them from the ‘chief of sinners’ into the arms of Jesus. Some of us are kids just starting to learn what sin means, and the light from heaven looks like a shaky flashlight beam on the page of a Bible as chilly rain falls around. All that is important in our conversion is the reality of it.”

According to the Luis Palau Association, Luis heard the well-known evangelist Billy Graham on the radio in 1952 and prayed that he would become an evangelist like him. Eight years later he traveled to the US and studied at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. There he met his wife, Patricia Scofield, an Oregon resident with her own dreams of global evangelism. They married in 1961, moved to Detroit, then spent time in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Mexico with mission organization OC International. Together they had four sons, and they raised them in Oregon.

Palau continued his missionary work, establishing his radio ministry in 1964 and holding large-scale revivals. After moving to the United States, he established the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association, eventually speaking to millions worldwide.

He briefly met Rev. Billy Graham in Argentina, and their paths crossed again as Palau approached 30. At the beginning of Palau’s ministry, he translated for Graham, and during their ministries, they occasionally partnered together. Graham was also instrumental in helping Palau fund his growing ministry work. Palau imitated his city-centered strategy, naming businessmen to his board, using current events in sermons, and having prominent athletes give testimonies at his events.

He became one of Billy Graham’s most prominent successors and shared the gospel in more than 80 countries, leading millions to follow Jesus. Noted for bringing together an array of Christians, including Protestants, Orthodox, and Catholics, he preached the gospel to heads of state in Latin America and the USSR, just after the Iron Curtain fell.

Despite living out his adult life in the US, Palau remained connected to Latin America through the radio—the same medium through which he first heard Graham preach. His evangelizing in Latin America came during a historic time. Pentecostalism had arrived in the early 1900s, but by the 1960s and ’70s, other evangelists wanted broader focus on social work, while Palau focused on conversions. He often bought simultaneous primetime coverage to televise his crusades.

In the 1990s, Palau’s global ministry began focusing on the US. With the encouragement of his sons, who took active leadership roles in the ministry, his events became rock concerts and community service projects. He changed from “crusades” to “festivals,” and from sports venues to downtown city parks, often accompanied by community projects. One spring break, he even broadcasted at dozens of churches via satellite, with the congregations encouraged to reach college students through beach parties with local bands, speakers, and sports.

In a 2018 interview with K-LOVE’s then-CEO Mike Novak, Palau recounted that his mother told him to go to a town in the hills of Argentina where there was no Bible church. He responded, “Mom, I’m waiting on the call. My mom said, ‘the call went out 2,000 years ago, the Lord is waiting on the answer, forget the call.’” Palau answered the call and spent nearly 60 years fulfilling it. “My wish and desire is that people get right with God, settle the big question, and die happy, knowing they will be with Jesus,” Palau said. Although he passed away in March 2021, his organization is still thriving.

Museum of the Bible received this Luis Palau Bible in 2018.

Title page of the Luis Palau Bible with Palau's handwritten notes.

This Bible is from the early years of his ministry. The pages are full of notes and sermon outlines, helping guests understand the impact of the Bible used by one of the twentieth century’s most notable ministers.

Luis Palau Bible opened to the book of Hosea.