A Revolution of Love-How Richard Luna came from Ecuador to America and now takes the message of Christ back to Latin America
by Dan Wooding
July 27, 2007
MIAMI, FL (ANS) -- I had just arrived in Southern California with my family in 1982, when I began working on a book called "Prophets of Revolution" with Mexican Christian, Peter Gonzales. I had hours of transcripts and suddenly a young man called Richard Luna joined Open Doors Latin America, then based in Orange, California, and began the arduous task of transcribing the interviews I had done with Gonzales and his family all over Latin America. Little did I realize that Richard, who had moved there from his native Ecuador, would become a respected leader in the Latin World let alone become the president of the Evangelical Alliance of Latin America and also the Latin American director of Book of Hope, based in Pompano, Florida.
I caught up with Richard recently on a visit to Miami and so I sat him down to catch up with his fascinating story for an interview for my Front Page Radio show on KWVE 107.9 in Southern California.
Luna began by telling me how his life changed after his father suffered a huge setback in Ecuador.
"My father had some businesses there and the last one was a trucking business," he said. "Two of the trucks got into accidents at the same time and so he lost all his businesses and he decided he would come to the States to just get financially stable.
"Within a year, he had his green card; something that would never happen today, and so he decided to stay here and bring the family over and, like a good son two years later -- it took him that long to save up for pay for my air fare -- I followed him to the States. So it was out of obedience to my father that I ended up here."
Richard Luna revealed that it was reading the Scriptures that transformed his life - but not right away.
"I had read the New Testament three times in my life," he said. "The first time I said, 'Good book,' and put it right next to all of my good books. The second time, I said, 'Jesus, a good revolutionary,' and I put it next to all my books about revolutionaries. The third time, I read it all the way through and it was then that I said, 'God if you are behind this book, I want to know You,' and on November 1st, 1977, I came to the Lord. That's when He received me into His Kingdom. I had no idea at that time that He would send me to some 45 countries to serve Him."
Luna continued, "The 'revolution of love' that you wrote about in 'Prophets of Revolution' was already part of my DNA and, when I saw that title, I wondered where you had got it from. That was exactly what I've been seeing and feeling and I felt a real call to be part of God's 'revolution of love' in a world where there is so much hate.
"Today, we need an 'invasion of love' into Latin America and also into the rest of the world. The 'invasion of love' is a passion of mine. After all, God took my sinful nature, which I battle with every day, and He perfects and forgives it and He has now given me an opportunity to be part of His 'revolution of love.'"
Richard Luna was mentored by Dr. Dale W. Kietzman, who was then the Latin America director of Open Doors. Dr. Kietzman, former US Director of Wycliffe Bible Translators and the man who helped to begin Brother Andrew's Open Doors ministry in the USA and also that of Corrie ten Boom, took Luna under his wings and trained him.
"Dr. Kietzman was an inspiration to me," said Luna. "He has founded more ministries in Latin America than anybody I know." (Kietzman now heads up Latin American Indian Ministries - www.laim.org.
Richard, who eventually himself became the Latin America director for Open Doors, finally left and then Dr. Kietzman helped him start a new ministry called Oasis Life International -- www.oasis1.org.
"Dale Kietzman is a man that God just gave a vision and a passion and a beautiful love for Latin America," he said. "He is a man that we love and has given so much to me."
Richard Luna now makes his home in Pompano, Florida, and is the Latin American director of Book of Hope. He lives there with his wife, Fanny, and their three children, Daniel, Tanya and Jessica.
"Book of Hope was founded some twenty years ago by Bob Hoskins who came out of Light Publishers," he explained. "Book of Hope is the illustrated Gospel in chronological order. We have distributed millions of copies around the world, including Latin America, through schools and other venues.
Affecting the destiny of the world's young people
"Our goal is to reach every child and youth in the world and thereby affect their destiny by providing them with the Word of God. Now twenty years on, we have distributed some 440 million copies.
"This is a miracle that only God could do. Our goal is to reach every child in the world and so we need to reach a 150 million children every year to reach our goal by 2030.
"In Latin America, we plug into this vision by wanting to work towards the transformation of Latin America in two generations. Towards that end, we're reaching 20 million children and youth right now all over Latin America. We teach principles and values through the life of Jesus in a way that's dynamic, relevant, timely, and efficient and we integrate it with the church.
"We want to do this in two generations and if two generations are not won over, you will have the name 'post-Christian' come up in your country. In Latin America, the Lord has burdened us that we need to reach our generations for Christ and then they need to transform Latin America. The Lord has given us an awakening; he's healed our personal and our historical traumas, and this has seen an incredible growth of the evangelical church in Latin America."
He went on to say, "Less than one percent were evangelical in 1900, and today it's between 12 and 14 percent. The Spirit of God is moving in a wonderful way in Latin America, but we see that it's only the beginning."
GodMan video
Luna said they are also using a video called GodMan which has become a huge hit with the children.
"In Peru alone we had over 200,000 children come to the Lord just watching this movie," he said. "Our heart is for the children and it encourages us when we see how they respond to the life of Jesus."
Richard Luna has now become the president of La Confraternidad Evangelica Latinoamericana (CONELA), which in English means the Evangelical Alliance of Latin America.
"The Alliance was born twenty-five years ago at a time when we evangelical Christians in Latin America wanted to press the things that united us like a personal faith in Jesus Christ and also the importance of the proclamation of the Gospel," he said. "The members include the Evangelical Alliances of each of the different countries; those that truly represent the thought and life of the evangelical church in Latin America."
Finally I asked Richard Lune how people could pray for the evangelicals of Latin America.
"That is a good question," he said. "There are three enemies that we have in Latin America; one is Satan, the other is the world and the final one is ourselves. Please pray that we can be empty of self so that God can fill us and then fill what He wants to do through us.
Four hundred Colombian pastors have been murdered
"Also please pray that the Lord will protect us from the fiery darts of the enemy. Colombia, for instance, has had 400 ministers killed and, just recently, another two were murdered. As the Evangelical Alliance of Latin America, we are concerned for the plight of those who suffer.
"It's harvest time in Latin America. With the Evangelical Alliance, Book of Hope, and with the various Pastoral Alliances, we are launching a vision of reaching Latin America in two generations."
For more information on CONELA go to www.conela.com and for Book of Hope, the website is www.bookofhope.net.
Note: I would like to thank Robin Frost for transcribing this interview.
© 2007 ASSIST News Service, used with permission.
