By Juan Cooper, Elena González / Telemundo Investiga News
From his pulpit as pastor of La Luz del Mundo, Hector Vera encouraged his faithful for 18 years to donate every day, dollar to dollar, offering after offering. The money from the offerings came in envelopes marked “for the servant of God” that he himself transported to Mexico, as he explains in conversation with Noticias Telemundo Investiga.
Parishioners didn’t care take their children’s bread to give it to the church. “The simplest are the ones that give more,” says the expander.
– How big is your love for the servant of God? I asked them.
“The most,” replied the parishioners.
– Then, you have to collaborate. It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Héctor Vera is the first former member of the Church of his rank to access an interview.
He is Mexican, is 58 years old and has spent half of his life in La Luz del Mundo. He worked in Mexico and the United States buying houses, selling sweets and asking for offerings; Anything that will contribute to enhance the heritage of the Church.
They married him “with a very pretty girl” as a reward for his effort, he says. “I did not know what was happening. Then I realized. Is a round business“, it states. According to his account, the faith of the parishioners moves mountains of money: “It is a completely blind faith. I understand them, but the time comes when you tell yourself that this is not right. Right now the only ones who win are the Joaquines ”, in reference to the family that runs the Church since its foundation, at the beginning of the 20th century.
Private jet, temples like palaces and a “royal family”
“It is that it is the royal family, we have to strive to give them the best,” he recalls that they told Jemima Vera, one of Hector’s daughters, also a former member of La Luz del Mundo since November 2018.
Is Christian fundamentalist church It was founded in 1926 in Guadalajara, Mexico, by a soldier who fought in the Mexican Revolution, Eusebio Joaquín González, self-proclaimed “Apostle Aaron.” Gonzalez said he received a divine vision in which God called him to revive the church in the style of the first Christians.
The faithful dress conservatively and demurely. Men wear short hair and women wear a veil over their heads. According to their calculations, they have 5 million faithful Spread over 60 countries. Its presence is more numerous, in this order, in Mexico, the United States, El Salvador, Colombia, Costa Rica and Honduras.
The Light of the World has built lavish temples such as those in Guadalajara and Tapachula, in Mexico, organizes events at the height of large audiovisual super productions, has a communication agency and YouTube, radio and television channels.
The head of the Church is Naasón Joaquín García, heir to the titles of “Apostle of Christ on earth” and “servant of God” of his father, Samuel Joaquin. Since June 2019, Naason faces 26 criminal charges for trafficking and sexual abuse in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, California.
During the June 21, 2019 hearing, the prosecution asked that his bail be raised from 25 to 50 million dollars, arguing that Naasón Joaquín’s personal fortune and the contributions of his church members would allow him to pay it. According to state deputy prosecutor Amanda Plisner, “the defendant recently spent $ 100,000 in a single day shopping at a Beverly Hills store. ” Plisner also warned the court of the risk of escape: “Travel very often by private jet“
In an interview with Noticias Telemundo Investiga, the spokesperson for La Luz del Mundo, Silem García Peña, did not comment on the origin of the Joaquín family’s heritage: “They have their own income. I can’t talk about his family. I ignore the income they receive, they are personal. ”
Bible quotes that raise thousands of dollars
Héctor Vera was a pastor with Samuel and Naasón. He retired in 2003, tired of asking: “I no longer forced them because it was a shameless. Offering and offering and offering. The brain is washed. Texts are taken from the Bible talking about the widow who gave the most, because she gave everything she had. And the mind is washed, the brain is washed. ”
Telemundo Investiga News found allusion to this type of bible texts during a ceremony in the church of Guadalajara, Mexico, in December 2019, where the parable of the rich man was read:
13 One of the crowd said to him: Master, tell my brother to split the inheritance with me.
14 But he said to him: Man, who has placed me upon you as a judge or partisan?
fifteen And he said to them: Look, and beware of all greed; because the life of man does not consist in the abundance of the goods he possesses.
16 He also told them a parable, saying: The inheritance of a rich man He had produced a lot.
17 And he thought within himself, saying: What will I do, because I have nowhere to keep my fruits?
18 And he said: This I will do: I will tear down my barns, and build them greater, and there I will keep all my fruits and my goods;
19 and I will say to my soul: Soul, many goods you have saved for many years; relax, eat, baby, rejoice.
twenty But God said to him, Fool, tonight they come to ask for your soul; and what you have provided, who will it be?
twenty-one So is he who makes treasure for himself, and he is not rich with God.
Luke, -12: 13-21
With the help of five former members of the Light of the World interviewed individually, it has been calculated how much a parishioner who lives in the United States and earns $ 1,200 biweekly can contribute each year.
—-
- Members attend church daily and leave at least one dollar = 365 dollars a year.
- Tithing, that is, 10% of your salary = $ 2,880 each year.
- The birthday of the Apostle, Naasón Joaquín = about 1,000 dollars.
- The sacrament, the most important celebration of the year = about 1,000 dollars.
- There are other minor offerings throughout the year, such as the birthday of the leader’s wife, the construction of new temples or international missions. This can add up to 800 dollars more per year.
- In total, a donation of about $ 5,600 each year.
But others contribute more. Jemima recalls that he managed to raise $ 5,000 for a single offering for the purpose of “Please the servant of God.”
For the sacrament (February) and the Apostle’s birthday (May 7), some faithful save throughout the year or sell some of their belongings. Who had hardly anything, provided the stamps to buy food granted by the United States government as aid. “If I give, God will bless me” is the common belief, the five interviewees report.
Offerings are voluntary. With tithing, one could not fail, recalls Jemima: “Tithing is very important for our salvation. I gave it with all my heart. I thought that if I did not give my tithe I would go wrong in my marriage. There were even lists, which they put there to see who gave their tithe and who didn’t ”
Where does all the money go?
Track the properties and money of “The Royal Family“, As the members of the Church call their apostle Naasón Joaquín, his brothers, children and nephews it is not easy because” they use prestanombre not to leave a legal mark of their wealth, “says a former member who belonged to the finance committee of his local church and worked for Berea International, the official medium of La Luz del Mundo.
One of the few properties in the name of the Joaquín family is the Silver wolf ranch, located on the side of Interstate 10 in Seguin, Texas, and was acquired by Samuel Joaquin Flores, Naason’s father, in the late 1990s. Hector Vera recalls that at that time he was a church deacon in Bowling Green, Kentucky and its supervisor, the jurisdictional pastor, I demanded that he ask for special offerings in their daily services, more continuously, to be able to pay the ranch.
“I was even sending siblings to work at the Texas ranch, they were not paid, they were not helped,” Vera recalls.
Currently the ranch is in the name of Benjamín Joaquín, elder brother of Naasón, and is composed of five lands whose current value totals a little more than 4 million dollars, according to public records of Guadalupe County in Texas. The property has an animal sanctuary, and is mainly used for private family gatherings with senior members of La Luz del Mundo.
Sochil Martin was Naasón Joaquín’s assistant and the first woman who reported him for sexual abuse. In addition to telling his story in public for the first time, today he also spoke of the enormous resources of the Church and the “coercion” to the faithful to donate: “They believe that it will be used for God’s work on earth, but all the money earned with your hard work goes to make Naason and his richest facilitators ”
The spokesman, García Peña says that the Church is not for profit: “Here it is not sought to enrich absolutely nobody. It’s about developing the projects that the Church has. ”
One of those projects is to build “The city of Light of the World”In Flowery Branch, Georgia. There are nine lands that the Light of the World acquired for 10.5 million dollars.
According to Hall County public records, this acquisition was made in 2017 by LDM Central USA Evangelical Ministries, the legal name of The Light of the World in Houston, Texas. “
When consulting with the city of Flowery Branch about this project, the municipality’s spokeswoman, Melissa McCain responded in an email: “The city has not yet reviewed or approved any construction plans for The City of Light City because we have not received any official proposal for said project, therefore, so far there is nothing to consider. ”
The Light of the World says it is waiting for the corresponding permits to start the project, “we are adjusting to the times that the municipal and state authorities themselves are establishing, and it is being respected,” said García Peña.
Money envelopes marked “for the servant of God”
Each church in La Luz del Mundo has a finance commission that collects tithe money and offerings and manages them for the acquisition of land or the construction of a temple. A portion of these donations arrive in envelopes where “for the servant of God” is specified, Vera says. According to his account, by order of the jurisdictional pastor of each geographic area, those envelopes were destroyed and the money they contained was sent to Guadalajara without going through customs or the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
“Tithes go straight to Naason, and there are quite a few churches, a tremendous money. From San Antonio I took $ 70,000 from my church alone, of about a thousand members. ” The law does not allow a person to transport more than 10,000 dollars by plane, so Vera distributed the money between several brothers. When they arrived in Guadalajara, they gave it to him and he delivered it to the Casa Jericó, where Samuel Joaquín lived: “I had so much confidence that any boy or secretary who was there and asked them to deliver it”.
Jemima also lived it closely: “My husband was entrusted with large amounts of money that he was hiding between the suitcases for Guadalajara. “
Two former members of The Light of the World that belonged to the finance committees of two different cities in the United States, close to the dome of the Church, coincide with the story of the expander and his daughter. Under condition of anonymity to protect their identity, they have described the procedure to Noticias Telemundo Investiga:
The cash that is collected in each church is collected in Houston and Los Angeles and then transferred to Guadalajara, Mexico in small amounts, distributed among several people. “They are billionaires,” Vera sentence.
One of Naason’s nephews, Adoniram Joaquín Aboganem, frequently posts on social media about his private jet trips, his cars and his shopping days.
“He is a young architect who is part of the elite of Guadalajara. He maintains high-level relationships and is one of the people indicated in the family to be able to do business and move the money without falling into accusations because he keeps out of church activities, ”said a source who does not want to be identified. It only allows us to say that he is an active member of La Luz del Mundo, close to the Joaquín family.
One of Adoniram Joaquín’s companies, Aboganem Matinez S.A de CV signed in 2017 a contract with the firm Hotel Histórico IG S.A de CV to lease two floors of commercial premises in the Rock Mall of Guadalajara for 50 thousand dollars a month. “The purpose of the business was to sublet these stores to different restaurants,” according to the same source from which Noticias Telemundo Investiga obtained the contract. This project is part of the Hard Rock hotel complex in Guadalajara.
The luxurious life of the apostle’s family made Jemima proud: “I thought that God’s servant was someone exclusive. We gave glory to God for his life and the luxuries he had. Blessed is the servant of God who has everything because he deserves everything. ”
His father, the expander Héctor Vera, summarizes his experience of two decades working for The Light of the World with words from another apostle: Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inside are raptors. Matthew, 7:15.
See also:
Telemundo News Podcast: The Secrets of The Light of the World
–
