CityFest coming to Yakima

YAKIMA, Wash. -- The Luis Palau Association -- with the help of more than 55 local congregations -- will host the first Yakima Valley CityFest this summer.

The free, two-day event will be held at Yakima's State Fair Park July 17 and 18. But the festival is only part of the project. Community service activities, featuring hundreds of volunteers from local churches, will start in May.

The activities are part of the association's Season of Service campaign, which was launched during the Portland CityFest last year. Reader's Digest has since named the effort the "Best Group Service Project" in America.

The Season of Service projects -- which focus on homelessness, the environment, schools, hunger and health -- will culminate with the festival, which will include concerts, children's activities, action sports demonstrations, and messages from internationally known evangelist Luis Palau and his son, Andrew.

The Christian messages will be delivered in English as well as Spanish. Argentine-born Luis Palau will deliver the Spanish address.

A similar CityFest event -- held in Central Arkansas in October -- drew a crowd of about 55,000 during its two-day run, according to the association's Web site. More than 4,500 volunteers participated in more than 175 service projects in the months leading up to the fest. Performers includes top names in contemporary Christian music -- from TobyMac to the Newsboys.

Yakima's lineup hasn't yet been confirmed, according to fest spokesman Randy Burtis. But, he said, "We'll use well-known artists, and they'll be both English-speaking, or singing, as well as Spanish."

The local event is being organized by a committee co-chaired by physician Dan Doornink and the Rev. Rick Harpel, pastor of West Side Church. About 20 people are part of the committee so far.

"It's still forming," Burtis said, adding, "We hope to make a real difference in the community."

Service projects are still being organized. In addition to homelessness, gang prevention and outreach activities are likely to be a focus, Burtis said.

Members of the organizing committee will be meeting with city officials in the coming months to plan the projects.

"All of it's being done with an eye toward the future," Burtis said. "Our real focus is to enable churches so they can continue long after (the event)."

Burtis, who lives in Olympia, is part of the Luis Palau Association's Portland-based staff. He spends eight or nine days each month in Yakima.

Author and evangelist Luis Palau and his wife, Pat, live in Portland and have 11 grandchildren and four sons, three of whom are involved with the ministry. His association has been around for more than 40 years.

During that time, Luis Palau has spoken to more than 25 million people in 72 countries -- from Rwanda and Romania to Mexico, Fiji and Turkey as well as throughout the United States, according to his Web site, www.palau.org.

His latest book, "A Friendly Dialogue Between an Atheist and a Christian," was released in the U.S. in 2008.

In addition to Yakima, other upcoming CityFest events are slated for Kingston, Jamaica; San Diego; Kampala, Uganda; Santiago, Chile; and Phoenix.

"We are coming together across denominational and ecclesiastical lines to conduct this Season of Service because we know that God cares about the people of the Yakima Valley," Harpel -- one of the Yakima organizers -- said in a news release announcing the event. "And we do, too. We hope to be used by God to serve others."

For more information about Yakima's event, visit www.yakimavalleycityfest.com.