21Mar21 Christian News Bulletin

LUIS PALAUReligion News Service reports that Luis Palau, a Christian evangelist known for his smile and hearty laugh and described by some as “the Latino Billy Graham,” died on Thursday March 11th at his Portland, Oregon, home. He was 86. Over the past 50 years, the Luis Palau Association, based in Beaverton, Oregon, estimates that it has reached 30 million people in 75 countries.WORLD VISIONNot long after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, World Vision, an interdenominational aid organization that operates in nearly 100 countries, launched the largest global response in its 70-year history. Erica Van Deren, a senior program manager on World Vision’s emergency response team, told The Christian Post that as the world was shutting down, World Vision kept working since that is the purpose God has bestowed on the organization and its staff. “COVID-19 has been our largest both domestic response and international response that we’ve ever organized” Van Deren said. “It’s been a remarkable amount of work and really just a wonderful opportunity to be the hands and feet of Jesus in this really, really challenging time.”KELLY ROWLANDIn an interview with Gospel singer Kirk Franklin, Kelly Rowland came out strongly about her faith in Christ. According to The Christian Post, Rowland declared, "I believe in God, I believe in Jesus, I believe in faith more than I do religion. It's such a personal walk." Rowland is best known as a member of the popular music group Destiny's Child. She told Kirk Franklin that her faith has "carried her," and made her the woman she is today. "It's made me the woman that I am. It's making me the mother that I am. It's continuing to make me the woman that I am. It's teaching me how to be a wife. It's continuously stretching me."