[Albuquerque, USA] The Jesus of the Christmas Cantata Born in the Racetrack

Pastor John Ortega who left the Johannesburg Airport a month ago encountered a life-changing event inside the plane headed to Maseru, Lesotho. Pastor John recollected the touching moment saying, “I met with God as I spoke for 45 minutes with Pastor Ock Soo Park from Korea.” Pastor John is Gideon International President of New Mexico state(where Albuquerque is located).

On hearing this news, Missionary Sung Deuk Park of Albuquerque Church visited Pastor John Ortega who had met with Pastor Ock Soo Park. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful in meeting with Pastor John. Instead, Missionary Park met with the Vice-President of Gideon International and told him of the story of Pastor John and invited him to the Christian Leader’s Meeting that was scheduled to take place in the afternoon of the day of the Christmas Cantata.

On the 18th of October, 5pm, the 17th Christian Leader’s Meeting was held at the Albuquerque Tingley Coliseum. In today’s meeting, Pastor Ock Soo Park preached, “If Hyundai Group CEO Ju Yung Chung tells one entry-level employee, ‘You are a Manager if I say you are a Manager!’ In the same way, God is saying that you are all righteous!” One of the participating pastors responded, “Yes! Jesus said we are righteous!”

On the other hand, Pastor John Ortega tells the journalist the story of ‘How an event on the other side of the earth became today’s fateful encounter.’

“Pastor Ock Soo Park made my heart cry. It was a marvelous fellowship that wholly connected me to God. Through the parables that in life, he showed Jesus having come to this earth and that story was a great blessing towards me.”

“Pastor also explained how our thoughts are different from God’s. The one way to understand God is to realize that God is different from us. God has plans for us and He shows it to us. That is God’s perfect plan and the Pastor testified the fact that Jesus redeemed all our sins on the cross. Now we must know what Jesus had done for us!”

Albuquerque is currently celebrating the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Albuquerque has been holding this festival from the year 1972 for 43 years. The floating population at this festival is as many as 80,000. There were 500 hot air balloons floating at dawn of this day and from 6pm, a special event was also prepared. So the citizens of Albuquerque were looking forward to it with great expectations and interest.

On the other hand, the Christmas Cantata opened from 7pm at the Tingley Coliseum, famous asa racetrack. Missionary Sung Deuk Park who prepared the Cantata event said, “We really look forward to where the footsteps of the citizens will go to in spite of it being the international festival of Albuquerque.”

Mrs. Ljruggero has attended the Christmas Cantata for the second time this year and she says she cried throughout the entire performance. She could not help but to be surprised at the Choir’s beauty and their volunteering minds.

“The 2nd stage changed from last year and it showed the true meaning of family. In the 1st stage, Jesus is explained in more detail. It was so touching when they expressed the gospel. Their voices were very clean and beautiful. Especially the message of the Pastor touched all the hearts of the people. He spoke sincerely about Jesus. He told us in detail about what God did for us and how God entered our hearts to become one. God finished everything for our sins. Now there is nothing I need to do anymore.”

After the 2nd stage was over, Pastor Ock Soo Park gave the parable, “Electricity flows through wires and water flows through pipes,” and emphasized “When our hearts become one with God, He works.” Brenda expressed her astonishment during the interview at those first words. She could not forget the evening message the most.

“He spoke about how we can connect to God through our hearts today. I was always under guilty conscience thinking that Jesus will never be with a person like me but that in itself was being unable to open my heart to Jesus. I am really grateful that they made me realize this fact and showed this Cantata performance for free.”

Yuki, who really wanted to be a Christmas Cantata volunteer, was in charge of VIP Ushering at this performance. As she stood as usher, she said she also felt happy when she saw the happy faces of the people. Yuki says she now wants to be a family with the event team and that she felt the audience become one with the Choir.

“I was really happy. Thank you!”

The Gracias Christmas Cantata shakes up the hearts of the US citizen. Amarillo, Texas is where the 18th Christmas Cantata will be held tomorrow. The Good News Mission church here has been established 9 months ago. We are even more hopeful of how God will work with the citizens through the Christmas Cantata tomorrow.