c. 2005 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Undeterred by drenching rain and a flood warning on its first day, a crowd of enthusiastic Christians sang worship songs and cheered for Jesus at the “DC Festival” Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 8-9) on the National Mall.

Dressed in a denim shirt and holding a small black Bible in his hand, evangelist Luis Palau urged the crowd on Saturday to make a faith commitment.

“I want to invite you to make a big decision in your life,” the 70-year-old said into a cordless microphone that curved around his chin.

“The decision is this: The Bible says, `Come near God and he will come near to you.”’

With a slogan of “great music, good news,” the festival featured Christian musicians and sports figures, offering an alternative to stay-in-your-seat crusades that have been the evangelistic model for years. While rain limited attendance to about 10,000 on Saturday, organizers said more than 50,000 attended Sunday.

“The methods are nothing but a delivery system for the sacred message, which is about the mysteries and the eternity of God,” the Oregon-based Palau explained before the festival began. “It’s one of my great dreams … that people see Jesus Christ as part of their life and, therefore, it should be a lot of fun.”

Calling the event a “festival” made sense to attendees like Michelle Moore, a high school senior from Springfield, Va.

“I think … the name is more friendly to nonbelievers than the name `crusade,”’ she said.

Moore, a member of a nondenominational evangelical church in Burke, Va., prayed and sang along with the speakers and singers.

With pouring rain throughout the first part of Saturday, the Palau organization decided to postpone events until late afternoon, halting for the day children’s activities and skateboard exhibitions that have become a hallmark of the festivals. Those activities resumed Sunday under cloudy skies with no rain.

The Palau-organized festivals date to 1999 and have gathered crowds in the hundreds of thousands in such cities as Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Tens of thousands have turned out for similar revivals in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia.

In Washington, young people in the crowd jumped up and down Saturday _ in and around puddles _ to the music of the Dave Lubben Band even as they kept their umbrellas aloft.

Anthony Holmon, a 33-year-old member of a Baptist church in southeast Washington, stood with his daughters and cousins, who were awaiting a performance by gospel artist Kirk Franklin.

“My pastor gave an appeal for the people to support something good and this is something good for the community,” he said. “Something that involves family and outreach.”

His was one of almost 900 churches from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia that supported the festival. About 500 other churches were expected to host events in locations across the country as they carried live footage of the DC Festival via satellite. About 1,200 radio stations were scheduled to carry portions of Sunday’s event.

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Holmon and others in the audience said they were more familiar with some of the Christian artists set to perform than with Palau himself but the evangelist has said in the past that he’s glad to share the stage with others who can spread the gospel message.

Hawaiian surfer Bethany Hamilton, who gained fame after losing her arm in a shark attack, did just that during her few minutes in front of the crowd on Saturday.

“God’s just so amazing and I just want to remind you that he’s there for you,” she told the audience, the left sleeve of her green sweatshirt blowing in the wind. “Life is going to be a million times better with him by your side.”

Palau took the stage Saturday between musical acts and introduced brief videotaped remarks from former President Clinton and President Bush. Clinton congratulated Palau for his “message of hope” and Bush credited him for bringing people together in “fellowship and in celebration of faith.”

In addition to the onstage verbal messages from the bands, Hamilton and Palau, people shared their faith nonverbally on the patch of grass between the National Museum of the American Indian and the National Gallery of Art.

An elaborate cross was tattooed on a man’s right shin. A couple huddled on a blanket under an umbrella decorated with a large sunflower and the words “Follow the Son.” A white Toyota Scion parked on a closed 4th Avenue not far from the stage was decorated with the Ten Commandments, a stone motif and the words “A Scion from God.”

The National Mall event had a budget of $3.4 million, with almost all of it raised by the time it began. Portions of the Washington festival will air in a TV special produced by PalauFest Productions in early December on network television.

Palau said he hopes to bring the festival to more countries in western Europe in the future.

“I think the festival model might just break through what the crusade model wasn’t able to do,” he said.

While some staffers of the Luis Palau Evangelistic Association expressed disappointment in Saturday’s weather conditions, they said they were satisfied with Sunday’s attendance. Palau became a bit of a cheerleader in Saturday’s rain, preaching mini-sermons and even leading songs for the loyal supporters who arrived before the delayed events got under way.

“You either believe that God is sovereign, that he makes no mistakes, that his way is perfect, as the Bible says, or you don’t,” he said in a mid-afternoon interview on Saturday.

“And I believe it.”

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