“He is calling your name,” Will Graham told the crowd of more than 31,000 at Felix Capriles Stadium, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. “That’s why your heart is beating so fast. Your heart is longing for its Creator. Your heart is ready to be changed. You come right now.”
Will had just preached the Gospel during the main event of Esperanza Cochabamba (Hope Cochabamba), and people were already responding by the thousands to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some were so desperate for Christ that they ran across the stadium’s field. And people just kept coming—filling the area in front of the platform and far back into all the aisles.
Still, Will wanted to make sure that all who might be hesitating would step out in faith and commit their lives to the Lord.
“This is where you find hope,” he said. “This is where you find peace. This is where you find joy—that type of joy that never leaves.”
Cochabamba’s Christians were overjoyed at the opportunity to multiply their evangelistic efforts through a Will Graham Celebration—Christians like Silvia Veizaga, who served as a volunteer counselor for the event. She regularly talks to people about Jesus on the streets. “It is the love of God that makes me do that, and I feel joy when I do it,” she said. “It’s the Holy Spirit who works through me to work for God and help people to know Him.”
And Christians like prayer team member Yola Caceres, who walked through rows of plastic chairs on the field, praying over each one just before the start of the FestiKids children’s event at the stadium on the morning of the event. “We are weeping for the salvation of these children,” she said. “We want to see the powerful hand of God touching their hearts and lives. We want them to be set apart for the Lord and His purposes.”
The high-energy program was full of music, dancing and a drama that taught children about Jesus’ death and resurrection to save us from our sin. Many churches brought busloads of children to hear the Gospel. One schoolteacher said he paid his own money to rent a bus and bring children to FestiKids, and several in his group prayed to receive Christ. Standing nearby, a woman named Marcia was overjoyed to see her 8-year-old daughter, Eloisa, pray to receive Christ. “It’s a beautiful thing to be able to witness your children make a decision for themselves to follow the Lord. This reflects all the results that we as parents have been praying for. It’s such a beautiful thing to witness!”
Boris Vargas’ 7-year-old son, Jheremy, also put his faith in the Lord. “I think this is one of the most important decisions that he can make,” said Vargas, who was almost 23 when he trusted in Christ. He was grateful that his son has now made that decision at such a young age. “It’s a joy for me to be able to share the Savior with him,” Vargas said. “It’s priceless.”
That afternoon, as the stadium began to fill for the main event, Pastor Abel Molina Gonzales, president of the United Evangelical Churches of Cochabamba, spoke of the more than 800 churches that worked together for the Celebration. After the many months of prayer and preparation, he said, the churches will not go back to how they were before; they will continue holding events to proclaim the Gospel to the city. He said that on Easter Sunday, the evangelical churches would hold a unified resurrection service, after which believers would march throughout the city, praying and praising God in song.
Among the more than 7,900 people who made decisions for Christ during Esperanza Cochabamba was a young couple, Carla and Luis, who both prayed to turn from their sins and receive Christ. “For me,” Carla said, “it was the fact that God sent His only son for us in order to forgive us for everything that we have done wrong.”
A 25-year-old man named Brian said his sisters had been praying for him for a long time. One of those sisters, Tatiana, stood smiling as Brian spoke of the peace and joy he felt after receiving Christ. Tatiana added, “The fact that he was able to come here and make this decision for himself is a blessing and an answer to prayer. It’s beautiful.”
A young woman named Sonia prayed to rededicate her life to Christ. Afterward, through tears, she said, “I felt the calling of the Lord, saying, ‘Daughter, come here; I’m here to hold you.’”
And standing in the midst of thousands as they put their faith in Christ, Pastor José Luis Rivera—who brought the official Crusade invitation from Cochabamba’s churches to BGEA representatives in 2022—said he had never imagined such an enormous response. “We’re seeing the glory of God shining in Cochabamba,” he said. ©2025 BGEA
Photo: Logan Ryan / ©2025 BGEA