The Hidden Life of Luis Palau

Luis Palau was born on November 27, 1934, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His childhood was woven with both faith and sorrow. His father was a prosperous builder and a devout believer who loved to pray aloud and read the Scriptures to his children every night. When Luis was ten years old, that familiar voice fell silent. His father died suddenly of pneumonia, and the young boy stood beside the coffin trembling in confusion. His family was left in poverty, but his mother, Matilde, refused to lose hope. She gathered her children around the family Bible and prayed each night that God would raise one of them to serve the nations.

In that small home filled with grief, the first embers of his calling began to burn. His mother's steadfast trust became his earliest lesson in faith. She prayed daily for missionaries, for the poor, for their neighbors, and for revival in Argentina. Luis listened, and without realizing it, he was learning the language of prayer. When he was twelve, after a sermon at church, he went home troubled by the thought of eternity. That night he knelt beside his bed and surrendered his heart to Jesus Christ. He would later say that though the prayer was simple, it changed everything.

As a teenager, he worked in a bank by day and preached in the open air by night. He preached first to walls, practicing his messages in abandoned lots until the words burned within him. Soon, he gathered small crowds, often ridiculed but undeterred. The streets of Buenos Aires became his first mission field. He preached repentance, the cross, and the love of God with a passion that startled his peers. He read the lives of Dwight L. Moody, Hudson Taylor, and Charles Finney, longing for the same flame of revival that had marked their generation.

In 1952, he heard a sermon broadcast on the radio by a young American evangelist named Billy Graham. The message pierced his soul. Graham's clarity and boldness showed him that the gospel could shake nations. He began translating Graham's sermons into Spanish and preaching them to anyone who would listen. Years later, he would meet Graham personally, who became his mentor and lifelong friend.

Palau left Argentina in 1960 to study theology at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon. There he met a young woman named Patricia Scofield, whose steady faith matched his own passion. They were married, and together they built a ministry that would touch continents. In 1962, Billy Graham invited him to serve as an interpreter in evangelistic meetings. Palau learned not only how to preach to crowds but how to live humbly before God.

He returned to Latin America aflame with vision. City after city opened its doors. In Colombia, Peru, Chile, and Argentina, crowds gathered by the tens of thousands. He preached from open-air platforms, his voice echoing across fields and plazas. In every message he called men to repentance and faith in Christ. Miracles of conviction filled the altars. Hardened hearts were softened. Families were restored. Churches that had been dry and lifeless found new strength through his campaigns.

Behind the stage, however, was a man of prayer more than a public figure. Luis Palau rose early each day, often before dawn, to read his Bible and pray. He kept journals filled with the names of cities, nations, and leaders he was interceding for. His co-workers said that before each crusade he would go alone to a quiet room, sometimes lying prostrate on the floor, whispering the same prayer again and again, "Lord, glorify Thy Son. Save the lost. Visit the nations." He was gentle with people but fierce in the secret place.

Prayer was his breath. It steadied him in exhaustion, lifted him through opposition, and anchored him in humility amid global recognition. He prayed for governments, for presidents, for pastors who struggled, and for his team that traveled tirelessly with him. His discipline was consistent and pure. He never allowed public success to replace private communion.

He carried this rhythm of prayer into every trial. When diagnosed with lung cancer in 2018, he faced it with the same peace that had guided his life. He said, "My body is weak, but my soul is alive." He continued to preach whenever his strength allowed, sometimes sitting in a chair on the platform, smiling and proclaiming the message that had shaped his life: that Jesus Christ forgives sinners and gives eternal life. His final years were a living sermon on endurance, gratitude, and faith.

On March 11, 2021, at his home in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by his wife, sons, and grandchildren, Luis Palau finished his race. His final words were words of peace and joy. He told his sons, "Keep preaching the gospel. Never stop. Never stop." He closed his eyes as one who had already seen his reward.