Conversion Fever Breaks out in Bolivia

“Bolivia is in the throes of an awakening,” said evangelist Luis Palau at the close of a two-week crusade in Bolivia last October. An estimated 180,000 persons attended the meetings, which were held in three principle Bolivian cities: La Paz, Santa Cruz, and Cochabamba. And a remarkable 19,000 Bolivians, representing every strata of society, publicly professed Christ, 93 per cent of whom were Roman Catholics making first-time commitments. “The ratio of response to attendance” in Bolivia, Palau pointed out, “was over 10 per cent, the greatest in twelve years of crusade ministry.”

National attention focused on a presidential prayer breakfast held during the Palau crusade. Bolivian general and new president Juan Pereda Asbún was the guest of honor. Eight cabinet members and twenty-five high-ranking military personnel attended the breakfast held at a military club in La Paz—directly across the square from the presidential palace.

As Palau spoke from Deuteronomy 28:1–14, a minister of state was heard to make an exclamation at verse 12. It reads in part, “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.” Bolivia is in the process of renegotiating a loan with the International Monetary Fund.

“Positive benefits result for a country that obeys the voice of God” Palau asserted. President Pereda responded to that challenge by emphasizing the importance of “taking time out to set personal and national spiritual priorities.” He further stated, “This crusade is of national interest and we commend it to all our people.” Later that day Palau met privately with the president.

Each night in Cerrado Stadium, Palau was speaking to audiences of 13,000 people in this capital city 12,000 feet above sea level—so high that “planes don’t land, they just move up and park.”

On three nights in La Paz, police were forced to close the gates against overflow crowds. Two services were held on Saturday and Sunday, with lines of those waiting to get in stretching for three or four blocks. David Linas, La Paz dentist and crusade committee chairman remarked, “It’s great to see people lining up to hear the Gospel instead of to see ‘Saturday Night Fever,’ the current movie rage in La Paz.”

The La Paz daily El Diario carried in its Sunday edition a color youth supplement featuring Palau. Thousands of Bolivians hear Palau’s daily radio broadcasts and watch his television specials: His name is a household word.

A national television station carried the popular live “Luis Palau Responds” program, in which he answers telephone calls from viewers. (Comments Palau, “It’s like planting a microphone in a priest’s confessional. People open up in an unbelievable way.”) Six secular La Paz stations carried the crusade messages nightly. The Canadian Baptist-sponsored station Cruz del Sur broadcast them nationwide.

In such high Andes mining towns as Oruro, Huanuni, and Siglo XX, local churches placed TV and radio sets in their chapels. The messages relayed from La Paz drew crowds to hear Palau.

The combination of the stadium meetings and the broadcast media, observers believe, exposed most Bolivians to the Gospel. “The Gospel was preached to a minimum of 90 per cent of the people living in the three cities, which have a combined population of 1.5 million,” stated veteran Brethren missionary Wes Steffan.

Bible societies reported the distribution of more than one million Scripture portions in connection with the campaign. Every Home Crusade provided 500,000 Palau tracts, which were hand-delivered to homes before the crusades. Twenty thousand Emmaus Bible correspondence courses were given to converts, along with 20,000 Living New Testaments donated by World Home Bible League. Teas for women held in each city attracted a total of 1,200 mostly upper-class women, more than a third of whom indicated their desire to know the Saviour.

Family counseling centers, now a trademark of the Palau crusades, drew “more people for in-depth biblical counseling than any previous crusade,” stated counseling director Jim Williams.

The Aymara radio station carried Palau’s message with voice-over translation. The indigenous Aymaras make up 7 per cent of the Bolivian population and live on the Altiplano (the high plateau around Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world).

For the past eight years, there have been many reports of extraordinary church growth among the Aymaras. According to Assemblies of God missionary Bruno Frigoli, a new local church is planted every week among the Aymaras. Frigoli says, “The world does not realize that a revival has struck the Aymara people. Catholic churches have closed their doors in many villages, whereas thriving congregations among the Evangelical Friends, Baptists, Nazarenes, and Assemblies of God draw enormous numbers.”

Many observers think that the cooperation between Spanish and Aymara churches constituted a revival in itself. “Spanish and Aymara church leaders in La Paz have repeatedly claimed that unity between them was impossible because of ethno-cultural and linguistic differences,” stated Ruben Proietti, crusade coordinator. “Yet it was thrilling to observe leaders and laymen alike embracing and shedding tears as they watched cholas (Aymara women) confessing Christ side by side with fashionably dressed city women.”

Follow-up committees worked into the early morning after each meeting to register decisions and distribute cards to churches for prompt initiation of a series of six follow-up visits.

The biggest concern of evangelical church leaders in Bolivia now is to retain a large percentage of these converts.

“Bolivia has been in the midst of a revival,” commented Proietti, “and now not only the Aymara section but the entire country has become involved.”

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