[San Jose, USA] “It as the best Christmas performance I saw with my mom.”

The twelfth city is San Jose.

“A lot of people forget Christmas. Even my mom passes by Christmas without knowing it, but I was really happy in my heart and touched as I saw this performance!”

12 year-old Daniel was gifted an unforgettable Christmas tonight. Daniel’s eyes sparkled throughout the entire interview. Daniel glanced at his mother, Aly.

“I was asked to promote the Christmas Cantata at the store I’m running so I left the tickets. I gave them as a gift to the customers who came to my store but today I almost cried while watching the performance. It was a really beautiful performance.”

Mother Aly who was usually busy with work couldn’t spend much time with her son Daniel. Her wish came true today as she spent such time with her son for the first time. Aly spent happy, quality time with her son in a long time as they watched the Cantata performance. As soon as the performance ended, Daniel bought a coffee table book (Gracias Choir Photo Album). Daniel has one hope. Wanting to cherish the photo album for a long time and letting other people know about the Christmas Cantata, Little Daniel considered himself the little ambassador of the Cantata.

At the Christmas Cantata that opened at the San Jose City National Civic Theatre, many young audiences came holding hands with their parents to see the performance and happily chattered about it even after the performance was over. The journalist also shed tears five times while watching the performance. There was once a dream of happiness in everyone’s childhood, but in the rough world such happiness seemed too far away. The journalist was reminded of one’s foolishness of having misunderstood one’s father in childhood while watching Gracias’ Christmas Cantata performance in the US. Towards the end of the performance, the journalist’s heart was moved and filled with tears. That’s how the story of the musical characters Andrew, Jenny, Jim, and Della are no other but my story and the story of us all. After having watched the Christmas Cantata, different stories blossomed among the citizens of San Jose who came with family and friends.

“It was really wonderful. Especially the harmony of the Choir’s voice was fantastic. Their voices touched deep inside my heart in an extremely subtle way. It was a beautiful harmony never heard of before. The audience could not stay seated when ‘God Bless America’ was sung at the end. Throughout my whole life, I have never before heard of the message of sin offering that the pastor spoke about. It was a very important message. The story of Mr. John Choi also made my heart cry. Today was the best Christmas to me.”- Bill

“The 1st stage depicted the birth of Jesus and the message within the 1st stage was very magnificent. It was the Word of God. The Words of God has power and is also astonishing. The pastor delivering the message spoke about eternal redemption and I also will speak about eternal redemption to the people in the church I lead. Taking part in such work was my dream and today I was really happy.”-Pastor Edward

San Jose, where the performance was held today, is the capital of Silicon Valley (state of art technology research center) where America’s largest high-tech industry is concentrated. San Jose is also where headquarters of Apple, Google, e-bay, Yahoo, Facebook etc. are located.

Therefore, the citizens of San Jose which is famous as a rich city have strong pride. The citizens’ academic background and wage level is 1st place in America, and house prices are extremely high. To such San Jose citizens, telling them about the Christmas Cantata wasn’t easy. However, God loved the people of San Jose. To the people who have lost Christmas like Daniel and to the people in pain because of sins, this Christmas Cantata performance today has become a great unforgettable gift.

“While ministering in San Jose for 2 years, I always thought that the people were strongly individualistic and would not easily open their hearts. So I thought that Cantata preparation would be difficult and impossible. But as I had fellowship with Pastor Young Kook Park, the words in Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31, “Those who wait on the Lord” and the testimony of Missionary John Choi entered my heart. All of my rightness and wrongness disappeared. Especially as I prepared the performances, I was able to experience God helping in many ways. I really felt that the Christmas Cantata was being carried out because God loves the citizens of San Jose. I praise that God.”- Pastor Jeong Ho Park of San Jose

The 13th Christmas Cantata will be held the next day on the 4th of December in Los Angeles. What moved the hearts of San Jose will continue on tomorrow to Los Angeles.