Ted Bruun on how Luis Palau leveraged his experience to invest in the next generation of evangelists.
—by Ted Bruun
About two weeks before Luis passed, Ted Bruun shared this touching tribute on Facebook.
Over the past almost 20 years, Luis and his team have quietly come alongside young, unknown, and often relatively undeveloped visionaries and evangelists. Rather than leveraging his accomplishments and experience to build a bigger and bigger kingdom of his own, Luis directed his team to invest much of their time, effort, and resources to help raise up a new generation of leaders who could continue this work to, “Demonstrate and Declare the Love of God” to everyone, everywhere.
—Ted Bruun
I have a lot of friends who might wonder about high-profile Christian leaders like Luis Palau and his family. Maybe you're someone who has privately questioned what a person like that is "really like"?
If that's you, for your consideration, let me tell you what I know about Luis Palau.
This is a man, a family, who has spent decades leading the way, on the cutting edge, of the global effort to share the Good News of the Gospel with hurting people everywhere. From coast to coast, and continent to continent, Luis, his family, his team have blazed a trail for innovative outreach that is loving, "serving centered", relevant and effective. Through their constant selfless work, they've gained a reputation as perhaps the world's leading vanguard organization for evangelism.
Considering all that, it's likely no real surprise that Luis Palau is a household name in many circles around the world, and that the entire Palau organization enjoys the great respect of so many leaders, both internationally and here, across the United States. It's completely logical after all, considering the rich history of innovation and accomplishment they have. It's expected that such a record would bring such recognition.
What many might not expect, however, is how this man, this family, this team, have chosen to use that reputation and the tremendous influence it's given them.
Over the past almost 20 years, Luis and his team have quietly come alongside young, unknown, and often relatively undeveloped visionaries and evangelists. Rather than leveraging his accomplishments and experience to build a bigger and bigger kingdom of his own, Luis directed his team to invest much of their time, effort, and resources to help raise up a new generation of leaders who could continue this work to, “Demonstrate and Declare the Love of God” to everyone, everywhere.
They did this quietly. The point wasn't to boast about what they were doing. They committed to making a real investment of time, effort, resources, even money, using their personal resources to help build up other ministries, other leaders, not just their own. And, they did this with the "least of these". Not, as some might expect, focused on just "flashy" or "famous", they've made a point to come behind the often overlooked and disregarded would-be "missionaries" attempting to answer The Call.
People like me. Ministries like the one I am part of.
I'll never forget the day I answered the call, from the unfamiliar number, on my cell phone. It was Kevin Palau, and he wanted to introduce himself on behalf of his dad and the Palau organization (I certainly knew who he was), wanted to encourage me and my team, and wanted to know how they could help.
I didn't know how he got my number, how they knew who we were, or why such a legendary ministry like theirs would want to help the relatively puny thing we were doing (in comparison). That was my thinking at the time.
Over the past 16 years, Luis, Kevin, their family, and the organization have proven their sincerity and commitment to raise up the next generation. They've stood beside us unwavering since that phone call so long ago. Mentoring us, providing critical advice, valuable in-depth training, financial support to help us meet needs we've encountered as we grew, emergency assistance for our teams on the road, and a sincere deep abiding friendship all along the way.
As just a few specific examples: When I lost most of my family in the course of just one year, the Palau family personally reached out with compassion and comfort. When the engine unexpectedly blew for one of the team vans on the road, it was David Jones, their CFO, who rallied the folks at HQ to help us immediately secure another vehicle to keep things moving. When we established the Objective, it was the Palau team that stood with us, lending their influence, their expertise, and even Keith Cook and several other leaders to help execute the event and develop the vision. In countless ways, and at countless times, for going on two decades, Luis, his family, his team have been more than friends. They've welcomed us as family.
It seemed so vitally important to recognize and honor that right now, in this moment. And I am certain that Luis would point all that honor back to the One who called him, who established him, his family, his team. Who shaped them to be the reflection of God's Love that they are. We truly thank God for the blessing that Luis and the Palau family and team have been to us and to so so many all across the world.
I know that Luis also had a major impact, for the Kingdom of God, on many others reading this.
I would invite you to join me and the rest of our team here and abroad as we pray God blesses these precious moments Luis and his family are sharing together. We pray God gives them Peace, and that he comforts them as they celebrate a life well-lived, a life laid down.
God bless you, Luis. God bless your family and your team. We love you.