Luis Cabral (evangelist)

Luis Cabral is a Portuguese Protestant evangelist. Born in Angola, c.1965. Cabral was raised in a nominally Catholic household, but was converted to Pentecostalism at the age of 18. After graduating from university with a law degree, Cabral worked for a time in television and in business. He felt his true calling was the ministry and was ordained in his early twenties. He then became as a pastor in the Portuguese branch of the Assemblies of God denomination. Taking over a congregation of just seventeen members, in five years he built it up to five thousand, becoming one of the largest Protestant congregations in a country that was overwhelmingly Catholic.

Cabral later moved to South Africa, where he worked as a crusade organizer for the evangelist Pieter Pretorius. While there, he believed he had heard from God to go "to the ends of the earth," and immigrated to New Zealand in 1997.

Still based in New Zealand, Cabral divides his time between Auckland's Takapuna Assembly of God, where he serves as Associate Pastor. His evangelistic ministry is principally in New Zealand, although he also held crusades in Portugal, Mozambique, Malaysia, and England in 2003. He has more international crusades scheduled for 2004.

An uncompromising fundamentalist, Luis Cabral holds to a literal interpretation of the Bible. He is a firm creationist and is a passionate believer that Biblical miracles are real and able to be duplicated in the present day. Praying for healing is an important part of his ministry. He is strongly opposed to abortion and pre-marital sex. He is a fervent believer in a literal hell.

In addition to his native Portuguese, Cabral is fluent in English, French, and Spanish, and speaks some Swahili. He is married to Alexandra, a musician, and has a daughter, Sofia (aged 8), and a son, Philip (aged 2).