There’s something special about a father’s love.
Juan Fernandez knows that. He brought his 11-year-old daughter, Sara, to the Festival de la Esperanza (Festival of Hope) in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday night.
You could see in his eyes that he loves her very much.
So when he noticed her connecting with the Gospel message on a deeper level, it got his attention.
“At the start of the Festival, my daughter said she was starting to feel emotions about the songs and the lyrics,” Juan said.
And she wasn’t the only one.
A 400-member choir made up of believers across Catalonia worshiped in a way that stirred souls.
Musicians including Marcos Vidal, The Afters, Kike Pavón and Michael W. Smith declared God’s glory.
And Franklin Graham’s Gospel message gave the crowd of more than 13,000 a chance to understand God’s true character—that He is, all at once, a God of righteousness, justice and love.
“God loves you,” Franklin Graham preached inside the former Olympic arena Palau Sant Jordi, on a hill overlooking the stunning city of Barcelona.
He told the story of the Prodigal Son from Luke chapter 15, about the young man who left his father in the dust and wasted his life partying until he was flat broke and working in a pigpen.
“This young man had a choice,” Franklin said. “He could stay in the pigpen or he could come home to his father.”
The story has a joyful ending. The son comes to his senses, humbles himself and returns to his father, admitting his sins and turning away from them.
And the father? Instead of rejecting his son, he throws his arms around him and forgives him.
“Many of you have been running from God,” Franklin said. “Many of you have wasted your life. It’s not too late. God’s got a plan for your life. He’s got a purpose.”
As Franklin shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he invited the people to abandon their proverbial pigpens and come home to their heavenly Father.
Sara was listening. She looked at her dad, knowing she had a choice to make.
“I told her if Jesus is calling, you have to go,” Juan said. “But don’t go because it’s my will. Go for God’s will.”
Sara bravely stood up and walked down to the stadium floor with her dad.
“I felt the Lord’s calling,” she said later. “And I became a Christian.”
When asked how she felt about her new decision, she thought for a few seconds and simply said, “I feel clean.”
Sara was one of more than 1,000 people who made a first-time decision for Christ during the two-night Festival. Many more accepted Jesus in the long, prayer-soaked run-up to the event. Catalonia’s Christians pray that it’s just the beginning.
“I think that this is a big step for Barcelona,” said 22-year-old Álvaro Pérez, who volunteered as an interpreter at the Festival. “I felt like it was incredible, because I never imagined all of the stadium packed and people outside.”
Local pastor Ruben Sanchez talked about how the Festival experience extended far beyond the walls of the arena.
“One of the things the Festival created here is unity of the churches in Barcelona,” he said. “If from now on all the churches are unified, it will be the start of something new in Barcelona.”
Soon the follow-up process will begin, as Catalonia’s believers work to strengthen and disciple the new Christ followers.
In the meantime, the Fernandez family, and so many others, are overflowing with joy.
“This is the best news a father can have,” Juan said, “that my daughter became a Christian.”
