[Benin] Putting Away Our Eyes and Seeing with the Eyes Given by Jesus

IYF Multi-purpose Youth Center Completion Celebration Concert

Today is the day to appreciate the sweat of 6 months. Despite the hot weather of sensory temperature 40 degrees (Celsius), the participants’ hearts seem to be merry. The IYF Multi-purpose Youth Center (IYF Benin Center) in Calavi, Benin that began since last year in August was finally complete on the 21st of February and a completion celebration concert was held.

The concert was held with Pastor Young Guk Park of Good News New York Church as host and a French interpreter. Pastor Young Guk Park commenced the event with introductory words saying, “The citizens of Benin will be healed of illness, become literate through leaning, and receive salvation by being freed by sins through the Youth Center.”

The Gracias Choir that was preparing for the Easter Cantata in the US flew all the way to Africa and presented the audience with animation OST, Opera, Hymns, etc. various kinds of music.

After the Gracias Choir’s performance, Youth & Sports Minister, Idrissou Affo came to the stage to deliver a congratulatory message.

“Our President Yani Boni and Pastor Ock Soo Park share a chose friendship. By the joint work of the two, we were able to build such an amazing Youth Center. I thank Pastor Ock Soo Park for giving his precious time of one week to visit Benin. The IYF Benin Center will become bigger in the future and, I look forward to it becoming the center of IYF activities in Central and Western Africa.”

Following the congratulatory message, the Gracias Choir’s performance continued. Among their performance, French hymns such as ‘Quand je regarde’ and ‘Je suis dans la joie’ made the participants stand up from their seats and send big applause and cheers.

When the performance ended, IYF Chairman Pastor Ock Soo Park delivered a message under the theme ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,’ revealing his hopes for the future of the Youth Center.

“A lady I know suffered problems in her kidneys and lived a painful life because her organs could not filter the wastes in her body into urine. But, she was able to urinate and live a healthy life after transplanting another lady’s kidney.

As the lady who was able to live a new life when she abandoned her kidneys and received transplantation for a healthy one, I want to teach the youths of Benin now to abandon my heart and accept the heart of Jesus. If you accept the heart of Jesus, our lives become bright and wise.  Hope that all of you can also abandon your hearts and live life by accepting the heart of Jesus.

I want for the youths of Benin to be happy. We plan to begin an architecture school to provide information on how to build a good building in an easy and awesome way. I want to establish a music school and make a Gracias Choir in Benin. We will also invite Korean doctors to work with the local doctors for the citizens of Benin.”

Although there stands a splendid red-bricked building, there was nothing was empty land 6 months ago. However, people of faith had already seen the completed Youth Center. IYF Benin Branch Manager, Missionary Gwang Un Kim says, ‘A year from now we plan to build an exclusive football field and every weekend there will be an international football competition and also invite the president to award trophies.’ The site where the stadium will be constructed has only begun to be dug up but, when we abandon our eyes and see with the eyes of faith given by Jesus, we can see the promise already having been fulfilled.