Operacion Luz- Operation Light
It started on Halloween night in 2006 when Operacion Luz’s founder, Pastor Cuco Gonzalez invited the kids from his congregation to come to church to give them a bag of candy and to have a night of worship and prayer. To his surprise only 10 people arrived that night, none of them kids. He then remembered a story in the Bible that said,
A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ‘I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Another said, ‘I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ Still another said, ‘I just got married, so I can’t come.’ The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’ ‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Then the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.’ Luke 14:16-23
Cuco grabbed a bag of candy and started inviting people from the streets, and after one hour people started to come into the church. It started with 20, then 15 more arrived and finally, to his surprise, the seats started to fill. By the time the service ended there were 44 kids and 43 adults, a total of 87 persons. All were non-believers, and all 87 people accepted Christ in their hearts.
After that, Pastor Cuco started planning and thinking about Halloween 2007. He planned to do a special service with puppets, music, sketches, videos, a short and direct message of the Word of God, and, of course, lots of candy for the kids. God spoke to Cuco’s heart, and confirmed to him that this project was what God wanted him to do. At that moment, Pastor Cuco asked God for a name for the project, for structure, and for funds. God answered Cuco and promised to provide and give him what he needed to develop the project. So God give the project a name and a scripture base….
Operacion Luz (Operation Light)
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Mathew 5:14-16
And that is how Operacion Luz began.
At first it wasn’t easy to get the project going, but every time Pastor Cuco was in a pastor’s meeting, he had a chance to share the project, the vision, and the scripture base. He challenged them to fill their churches with new people like he did. Pastor Cuco and his staff had meetings with many different churches and pastoral alliances from January to October, and as a result we had 80 churches ready to carry out Operation Luz in their communities.
Operacion Luz staff printed a booklet directed towards the youth and adults and included information about who Jesus is and why the church is here. They created a comic booklet directed towards kids full of different stories that illustrate that the only solution to our problems is Jesus Christ. On the night of the event, each bag of candy had a booklet.
There were 5 events that October 31, 2007. The following Sunday Pastor Cuco’s church had 130 visitors, 60 of whom became permanent members of the congregation. There were many similar testimonies all over town. As a result of the work of 80 churches, a total of 50,000 people heard the Word of God. In 2008, the third year of Operacion Luz, 110 churches participated in reaching more than 50,000 people. This year Pastor Cuco and his Operacion Luz staff are hoping to reach even more.
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