SACRAMENTO, Calif. (WordNews.org) June 18, 2012 – With temperatures in the triple digits, more than 75,000 central Californians turned out for evangelist Luis Palau’s festival on the grounds of Cal Expo on June 16-17.
Major Christian artists TobyMac, Skillet, Mandisa, Phil Wickham, and Lincoln Brewster performed at the event as well.
“We were ecstatic with the response from the Sacramento Valley and beyond,” said Palau. “We’ve prayed for an opportunity to come to the state capitol for decades and we were richly blessed.”
The bi-lingual Palau added a Spanish language event on Friday night at Capital Christian Center, one of the area’s largest churches and one of more than 470 congregations and businesses supporting the festival.
The festival also represented the culmination of a six-month initiative called The Season of Service (SOS), in which Christians committed acts of service within their communities.
“You have the church community, you have public entities, you have non-profits…all coming together,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson of the initiative. “The ministry that happens within the walls of our churches is great, but what happens beyond the walls of the church is where the real ministry takes place.”
The Sacramento festival will be the only U.S. stop this year. Palau also is planning trips to Eastern Europe, Great Britain, South America, Africa and Australia. The Oregon-based Luis Palau Association has a radio and television ministry. His latest book, “Out of the Desert: Into the Life God Fully Intended” was released earlier this month.