‘Spanish Billy Graham’ paying midweek visit to Sin City

Stacy J. Willis

Monday, March 22, 1999 | 10:57 a.m.

Puerto Rican evangelist Yiye Avila, billed as the "Spanish Billy Graham," will be preaching in a tent made to seat 8,000 tonight through Wednesday night on the grounds of the Sahara hotel-casino.

Avila, 70, has filled Central American stadiums with as many as 200,000 seats, according to the Rev. Angelo Rodriguez, pastor of Iglesia Casa De Oracion (House of Prayer) in North Las Vegas.

Rodriguez and the pastors of a dozen other local Hispanic Christian churches are sponsoring the appearance, which will be free and simultaneously translated from Spanish to English.

The event will be broadcast live to Christian television channels in all 50 U.S. states via satellite, Rodriguez said.

"The main focus of his preaching is Jesus Christ and salvation, healing and deliverance, but he will focus on the needs of Las Vegas as God directs him," Rodriguez said. Specifically, Avila will address the problems of youth gangs, substance abuse and divorce in Las Vegas. Several guest speakers also will preach, including a former member of the Colombian drug cartel who has "been delivered," Rodriguez said.

"We are focusing on the people who are not in the churches," Rodriguez said. "That's where the problems are. We're aiming this at the people on the street who do not know about Jesus Christ."

Each night will include an altar call at which "miraculous healings" will be performed, Rodriguez said. The tent, set up in the Sahara's parking lot, will open at 6 p.m. Services start at 7.