c. 1998 Religion News Service

CAIRO, Egypt _ Luis Palau, the Beaverton, Ore.-based evangelist often called “the Billy Graham of Latin America,” has concluded a four-day campaign here that could make him one of the most popular Christian preachers in the Middle East.

Despite a bomb scare, overflow crowds heard Palau every night at Kasr el-Dobara, the largest Protestant church in the overwhelmingly Islamic Middle East. And, borrowing a strategy Graham has used successfully, Palau’s team videotaped each message and sent copies by plane, train or automobile to 569 churches throughout Egypt, where the tapes were played to congregations the next day.

As a result, more than 150,000 people heard each message, according to church leaders at Kasr el-Dobara. That would make the four-day evangelistic effort, which ended Sunday (March 15), the largest in the modern history of Egypt.

Each night of the campaign, more than 3,000 people packed into the relatively narrow, five-story Presbyterian church three blocks from the Nile in the heart of Cairo, an ancient city of 13 million. Those who could not wiggle their way into the sanctuary watched Palau on closed-circuit monitors in the church’s courtyards and meeting rooms.

Hundreds of people, most of them young, gathered in the street. Some climbed a fence surrounding the church so they could get a glimpse of Palau and hear bits of his Christian message of salvation.

Rifle-carrying Egyptian police guarded all entrances. In the five years since Muslim militants began a campaign to destabilize the Egyptian government, Egyptian Christians and Western foreigners have been frequent targets.

The latest incident occurred in November, when militants dressed as police officers sprayed gunfire on foreign tourists outside one of Egypt’s most famous ancient temples, killing 65 people.

As Palau preached Saturday night, a man called the church and asked for the pastor. Speaking in Arabic, the man said, “There’s a bomb in the church, and it’s going to go off in six minutes,” said John Schaefer of Mondial, a private security company hired to protect Palau.

“The first thing I did,” Schaefer said, “is start my stopwatch.”

Schaefer and others signaled to Palau.

“They said, `Cut it, cut it,”’ Palau said, chuckling over the scene a day later. “I’m thinking, `Why? It wasn’t that long of a sermon, was it?”’

Palau abruptly ended his message, and the security team whisked him away in a Jeep instead of the Mercedes-Benz he came in. Schaefer said he feared the bomb threat was intended as a distraction to set up some other type of attack.

“How do you know they’re not doing that for an ambush?” he said.

Church officials, saying they have received many such threats, appeared unfazed by the incident and chided the security team for over-reacting.

“Talk about a cultural difference,” Schaefer said.

That difference was also evident in the services.

Palau paused frequently so that a translator standing next to him could deliver his message in Arabic. Palau spoke in English but stressed the fact that he was born and raised in Argentina before settling in Oregon.

“Somehow, because he is an Argentinian, his spirit is close to the Egyptians,” said Marian Garas, 22, who helped the church with the videotape distribution. “His style is very warm and very simple. He reaches the simplest people.”

Although those born into Christian families generally are allowed to practice their faith in Egypt, converting from Islam to Christianity is considered highly offensive, if not illegal. Some converts have been jailed and even tortured. Several attend Kasr el-Dobara.

Palau said he came to Egypt planning to be “extremely cautious” in his comments to avoid offending Muslims. But church leaders encouraged him to be bold, and he was.

“You may be religious,” Palau said in one message, “but you don’t have life until you have Jesus. You can say your prayers many times, but you don’t have life until you have Jesus.”

Semeh Tawfik, co-pastor at Kasr el-Dobara, said more than 500 people, most from nominally Christian families, became “new, born-again Christians” at the church. It was not immediately known how many made similar decisions through the videotapes at places such as Luxor, Assiut and Minya.

Tawfik said the 569 churches that participated in the Palau campaign “are now joined.” He said, “This gives us a very deep sense of belonging, of oneness in Christ.”

The revival cost about $75,000, with the Palau ministry picking up most of the tab, Palau said. Nightly collections went to the Cairo church, he said, with “not a penny” coming back to Oregon.

Later this year, Palau plans to preach in Turkey. There is talk, he said, of a campaign to bring his message “via satellite to the whole Muslim world,” adding that “technology is breaking through many barriers.”

“There are more than 300 million Arabs,” Palau said, “many of whom have never heard the name of Jesus in a clear fashion.

“We’re doing this because we love Arab people. But the fairest explanation is we are commanded to do this by the commander in chief (God), and we’re just following his orders.”

DEA END OKEEFE