As many
have discovered, spreading the gospel can be one of the most
difficult tasks to complete. Right up there with cleaning
your house on vacation, some may rank spreading the gospel
as a noble act that needs to get done, but often times gets
lost in the hustle and bustle and is left sadly unaccomplished.
Thankfully, there are those who recognize the need to spread
the gospel and make it their life’s mission to seek
those who are lost.

Though
we are familiar with evangelists who are in the likes of greatness
such as Billy Graham, there is one movement of faith that
is catching the eye of many and drawing out thousands around
the world to not only profess their faith, but share it with
others in an unconventional way: through music, games, and
even extreme biking! With the aide and vision of Evangelist
Luis Palau and his creation of city “Festivals”
to share the good news, people all over the country and the
world are able to take the gospel to the street, literally.

Palau,
an Argentinean native, has ministered the gospel of Jesus
Christ since the age of 12. Being called the next Billy Graham,
Palau, who once actually worked under Graham, began his diffusion
of the gospel on a mega scale in 2001 with the creation of
the city festivals. These festivals, which have been featured
in publications all over the world, have graced a number of
different cities which have included Santa Cruz, California;
Madrid, Spain; Lima, Peru; Fiji; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Reno,
Nevada; and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The most
recent festival was held in the Nation’s Capital (Washington,
DC) during the weekend of October 8th and 9th. Positioned
on the national mall between the Capital and the National
Monument, the festival was packed with people from all walks
of life. Though many of the Saturday events were curtailed
because of treacherous rain fall, the main stage of the festival
continued to ROCK as Christian/ Gospel greats like Kirk Franklin,
tobyMac, and Kutless ministered to the 10,000 or so who were
determined to stick it out.

With
the rain breaking and sky clearing, Sunday brought out more
people to the now “muddy” national mall and gave
organizers a chance to return to “business as usual”.
Set up for the young audience, a Children’s area featured
Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber of the VeggieTales,
tons of carnival style games, and face painting.

One of
the most “outside-the–box” exhibitions was
the “Livin’ in Action” Sports Demo presented
by the Interstate Batteries. The exhibition, which was hosted
by actor and filmmaker Stephen Baldwin, featured a custom
built skate park lined with spectators and amateur skaters/
bikers who were dazzled by the amazing skills of professional
skateboarders and BMX riders. Along with the exhibition was
a series of interviews, conducted by Baldwin, of national
athletes from teams like the DC United, the Nationals, and
various NFL teams.

On the
main stage, the rocking continued with Jump 5, Yuri, CeCe
Winans, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Tye Tribbett and GA as
the special guest musical artists. As the evening progressed,
Luis Palau took the main stage to bring forth a mini message
of the gospel and invited those who wanted to know more about
Christ to talk to counselors, signified by their white visors,
who had been trained for such a task prior to the event. There
were even bilingual counselors, adorned in orange hats, who
were there to minister to those in Spanish.

Although
the goal was to have 100,000 in attendance at the event, the
weather deterred many from coming out and a total of about
60,000 actually came and worshiped over the two day event,
with 3100+ of them giving their life to Christ. I think it
is safe to say all was not lost!

The Festival
plans to make its next mark in Orlando, Florida on April 1st
and 2nd, 2006. The organizers of the Festivals have begun
working to hire individuals to plan the Orlando festival specifically
for their city. Many of the workers of the DC Festival will
be joining their counterparts in Orlando, as the festival
workers are invited to travel to the next city.

Though
the festival will be moving on to a different city, the message
of hope and peace will be continue to ring throughout the
theme of the festival and give those of us who us who have
found little time to complete the evangelism in our daily
lives a chance to fit it in. Now if only there were festivals
for the cleaning!!

For more information on Luis Palau and his ministry, visit
http://www.palau.org.