For thirty years the Argentinean evangelist Luis Palau -- often touted as Billy Graham's successor -- has been preaching the gospel to millions in Asia, Europe and Latin America. But with the close this week of a two-month crusade in Chicago, he has set his sights on the U.S. where he believes Latinos have a special mission to bring about the country's spiritual transformation. PNS associate editor Andres Tapia is a Chicago-based writer who writes regularly for Christianity Today, and author of "Haunted Marriage: Overcoming the Ghosts of Your Spouse's Childhood Abuse" (I.V.P., 1995).

CHICAGO -- "God has brought Latinos to this country to bring about its spiritual revival," Argentinean evangelist Luis Palau announced in Chicago's Grant Park at the Memorial Day close of his "Say Yes Chicago" crusade. The 61-year-old Palau himself, whose $4 million, two-month crusade drew some 150,000 participants, is Exhibit A of the fulfillment of his prophecy.

Often touted as Billy Graham's successor, Palau has preached the "gospel of Jesus Christ" to 11 million people in Asia, Europe and Latin America, converting nearly 750,000 to Christianity. Now after 30 years of a self imposed moratorium on preaching in what he called Graham's backyard, Palau has set his sights on the U.S.

"I have this burden for the U.S.A.," the high energy evangelist says in between sandwich bites and getting makeup applied for a live TV call-in talk show after an earlier rally at Chicago's UIC Pavilion. "This country needs spiritual guidance. If there is no revival in this nation, it will reap the seeds of its own destruction."

It's a message that more and more Latinos are embracing -- and one they feel a special responsibility to spread as an answer to America's anxieties over crime, downsizing and the breakdown of the family. "Hearing Palau, one of our own, preach the gospel in Chicago inspired me to keep sharing my faith with my friends," says Margarita Barrera, 17, after piling out of a beat-up Ford van crowded with relatives and school friends at the UIC pavilion. "I have a happiness in my life I want my friends to have."

"Latinos are in the best position to get this message out to this country because of our high commitment to the family and because we abandon ourselves to the gospel," explains Palau. "I just mention a Bible verse and people break out into applause." Hours earlier, at a rally aimed at Latinos, Palau led a call and response segment with the audience in which he threw out the first part of a favorite Bible verse and they roared back the rest of it.

Palau also believes that Latinos can be a bridge between the country's polarized racial and ethnic communities. "We have not isolated ourselves like the whites from the city's problems and we don't have the same historical hurts that the African American community has," he explains. In laying the groundwork for the "Say Yes Chicago" campaign, Palau visited numerous black and other ethnic churches for more than two years, prompting thousands of blacks, Asians, Middle Easterners and whites to attend. "I do not want to get categorized as the Spanish-speaking evangelist, the Billy Graham of Latinos," he declares. "I want to be the Billy Graham of the whole world."

Part of Palau's message is that conversion promises not only eternal life but economic prosperity in the here and now. This message is helping to fuel a dizzying conversion rate among Latinos to evangelicalism, making theirs the fastest growing segment in that Protestant movement. "Immigrants come to this country for a better life and they equate prosperity with the Protestant work ethic," explains Jesse Miranda, President of AMEN (the Spanish acronym for the Association of Hispanic Evangelical Ministries in North America).

Palau believes the Latino surge in evangelicalism will also change the evangelical church itself. "The mainstream evangelical church (read white) is dead. It has become too comfortable in this culture; it has lost its fire, its sense of conviction of right and wrong." Latinos evangelicals, on the other hand, feel they are players in a cosmic battle where the stakes are a matter of life and death. Palau predicts they will "bring the simple message of salvation from eternal damnation back to the church."

A graduate of Multnomah Biblical Seminary in Portland, Or., where his Evangelistic Association is also headquartered, Palau is bilingual and bicultural -- and the front man for millions of zealous Latinos anxious to save the lost. They understand references to the Virgin of Guadalupe and Michael Jordan. They worship God to the beat of salsa and rock 'n roll. And with Latinos projected to comprise one-quarter of the U.S. population during the first half of the 21st century, Palau and other evangelicals are betting that Latino spirituality will have a transformative effect on mainstream society.

As Palau takes the phone for the TV talk show, a 19-year-old Latina on the other end tearfully asks for help in disentangling herself from an affair with a married man. The night before a woman who had just had an abortion called, also in tears. Each time, Palau counsels for over 20 minutes, leading the caller to a prayer of repentance and a call for Jesus to enter the caller's heart. The call-in phone lines are so jammed that phone counselors field calls up to three in the morning, three hours after the show has gone off the air.