Many people don’t know that when I was only 10 years old my father contracted pneumonia and died. It was 1944, during World War II, and there was little or no penicillin in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was at a British boarding school, and couldn’t return home in time to see my dad.

What transfixed and transformed me was the story of how my father spent his final minutes. Not like a neighbor who died the previous summer. Latins are more expressive than Anglo Saxons, we could hear this neighbor screaming loudly from 30 yards down the road: “I'm dying! I'm dying! I'm going to hell and no one can save me!” he shouted.

My father’s story was just the opposite. He sat up in bed and sang an old Salvation Army Christian song, promising everyone he was destined for Heaven, the Father’s house, before collapsing on his pillow. Right then and there, I thought, “I'm going to tell people how to die happy and go to heaven, not screaming like my neighbor, lost and hopeless.”

My whole life has been dedicated to this subject: Go to heaven through Jesus Christ. Don’t be stubborn. God wants everyone to be saved. That’s why Jesus Christ went to the cross. That’s why He died for our sins, was buried, and rose again the third day. Believe the Good News and receive eternal life as the free gift of God. That is the message to share with your neighbors.

This is Luis Palau.