[New York] Come and join us! The Bible Crusade finally began.

“Hello! We are having a Bible Crusade from April 11th to 14th. Please, come and join us!!”

The USA Good News Corp. members 7 weeks promotion activities came to a near start.

The Bible Crusade in Brooklyn which will be the turning point of the work of the gospel in New York began its first session on April 11th at 10:00a.m. with the excitement to see how God will work.

As usual on the first day of the seminar at 8:30a.m., the short term missionaries put on their blue t-shirts and began handing out booklets to the souls that God has prepared near the conference center. During the short witnessing hours, the short term missionaries sought the grace of God from time to time as they handed-out the booklets and rather than feeling as they were laboring they were filled with excitement to see how God will work. During the short witnessing hours, God sent new people to the seminar and added much joy for us.

The seminar attendants were guided to the location of the seminar by the short-term missionaries who were wearing the blue t-shirts to the Calvary Cathedral of Praise. The seminar began at 10:30 a.m. by the hosting of Pastor Terry of the Good News New York church. The Gracias choir beautiful performances softened the hearts of the attendants and the lyrics of the praises filled with the love of God touched the hearts of the attendants.

The guest speaker Pastor Ock Soo Park preached about us standing before God and true spiritual life through the words in Genesis chapter 27 of Esau, Jacob and Isaac

As he compared the spiritual life of Esau who went before his father with the things he had prepared and trusting in himself and ended up being cursed, versus Jacob who was in the position where he could not do anything so he threw away his thoughts and relied solely in his mother Rebecca and went before his father and was blessed, Pastor Park said we cannot receive blessing with our own conditions. Through the spiritual lives of Esau and Jacob we were able to know that by relying and not throwing away our deeds and good things we cannot meet the heart of God and we were able to repent from our own ways from that moment on.

Furthermore, just light a plan to be piloted safely the control has to be in the hands of the pilot, likewise so does the handle of our spiritual life must be in the hands of Jesus for us to not get lost and by listening to that message we were able to give the control of our hearts to Jesus.

After the first morning seminar service was over, new comers and many other attendants were able to have individual spiritual fellowship with many pastors. During the spiritual fellowship time the word was established in the hearts of the people and it was a very precious time.

After eating lunch, the short-term missionaries headed back to the streets. By receiving the loving heart of God towards the citizens of Brooklyn, they continued to witness right-up to the time for the night service. Although they were despised and insulted from time to time while witnessing, when they thought of Jesus who died for their sins they were able to have mercy for those people and smiled at them and we were able to see their precious hearts.

As the night seminar began, the Gracias choir praises comforted our souls and filled joy and gratefulness in the hearts of the new attendants. Specially, when the duet “How Great Thou Art” of soprano Jinyoung Park and tenor Taejik Woo ended, the hall was filled with applause and cheer from the citizens of Brooklyn.

During the evening service, Pastor Ock Soo Park spoke about the world of spiritual life through the story of Esau and Jacob. Pastor asked if there’s a thistle that bear figs in America and they attendants laughed at his non-sense question, but just like nowhere in the world there’s a thistle that bears figs likewise we were able to reflect through the bible that good fruits cannot come from our evil selves.

Until now, while having turned our back on God we were trying to go before God with our righteousness and good deeds. However, God only wants one thing from us which is our hearts becoming one with God. Jacob was able to receive blessing from Isaac because he put down his own ways and followed the ways that Rebecca and went before Isaac as Esau although he was a smooth man. Now, we want to put down our thoughts and ways and go before God with what He has prepared for us and be blessed.

Pastor Young-guk Park from the Good News New York church said, “This Brooklyn seminar will be a turning point of the work of the gospel in America and when I think of the great will of God with the start of the Crusade, the New York world camp in August and the establishment of 500 churches in America I am happy and grateful”.

We believe that the loving heart of God towards America will be revealed through the Bible Crusade.