ⓒ 2007 WATV

On March 18, “2007 General Assem-bly Awards Ceremony” for the fruits of the gospel for the past one year and also for new plans for the gospel in 2007 was magnificently held at the Okcheon Go&Come Training Institute.
The event consisted of three parts: Part 1 was a worship service, part 2 awards ceremony, and part 3 celebration performances. Before the main event, the participants watched videos—“Proclamation Ceremony for the Jerusalem Preaching Festival” and “Jerusalem Festival for Foreigners in Korea.” The videos reminded them of Mother’s instruction to love their neighbors by saving their lives.

Around noon, the worship service began. Mother thanked Father for allowing Her children to hold the Preaching Festival so that they might become united in love and lead many souls to Zion, and also for granting them precious awards. She also prayed that the fire of the gospel would blaze up even hotter, and that all of the heavenly family members throughout the world would be saved in the new year. Mother complimented Her children on their efforts to save souls with one mind for the past one year, and taught them that greater rewards were prepared for them in heaven. She said, “Like Moses and the Apostle Paul who ran towards heavenly rewards alone, run the race of faith set before you eagerly till the end, so that you will all receive heavenly treasures and eternal life.”

Chief Pastor Joo-Cheol Kim told the members about what kind of faith they should have in the age of prophecy, quoting the following words from the Bible, “Everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 9:23). He emphasized, “Since God allows everything to be done according to our faith, we have been able to achieve wonderful miracles of the gospel by saving so many souls for the past one year. Let us have a greater faith so that we can fulfill our great goal of saving all people around the world.”

After the worship service, the awards ceremony was held. Since a lot of fruits had been borne for the past year, the awards ceremony was held in a very grand style. There were nine categories containing individual awards and group awards. First, the Gideon Medal Awards were granted to 300 people in each age group selected from the members who bore much fruit by preaching the gospel with unyielding spirit like the warriors of Gideon. And then the awards for outstanding short-term mission and self-supporting mission were respectively granted to the campus mission association and the local Churches that contributed to the growth of the overseas Churches by spreading their great enthusiasm for preaching abroad, keeping in step with prophecy. Also, the awards for outstanding education, training gospel workers, cultivating prophets (theological students), branching out and so on were successively granted to the Churches that continued to firmly lay the foundation of the gospel in obedience to God’s will.

ⓒ 2007 WATV

There were also the awards for the fruits that had been borne during the Jerusalem Preaching Festival; 55 Churches were selected to be awarded for bearing much fruit. Lastly, the awards for excellent evangelism were granted to the Churches in each scale (large, middle, small) all whose members had become united in mind and produced good outcomes in every aspect. When 72 Churches received the honor of the awards with great joy, party poppers added to the excitement and colorful ribbons beautifully embroidered the hall.

When each award was given, all the members gave a big round of applause to the awardees. Seeing the overseas Churches receiving awards by achieving rapid growth in every aspect, the participants realized anew that the whole world is the field of the gospel. They gave a hearty round of applause and encouragement to the overseas members who achieved great results by depending only on God even in difficult situations. Also, they confirmed their determination for the gospel, looking forward to the awards ceremony in heaven full of greater joy and thankfulness.

Following the awards ceremony that was held for about an hour, the celebration per-formances began with the Choir’s grand song that proclaims the salvation of the heavenly Mother to all nations. The members watched two videos; one of them showed some amazing scenes where the members were fulfilling the gospel by boldly proclaiming the heavenly Mother in this age according to Father’s will, and the other video contained the tearful realizations of the overseas mem-bers who had heard about Mother’s love and flown into the arms of Jerusalem Mother.

ⓒ 2007 WATV

This was followed by the marching band’s powerful performance on stage, containing the enthusiasm for the gospel spreading throughout the whole world. Next, a delightful song “Forward” was performed by the Children’s Choir. The finale was a Biblical drama titled “Esther” performed with magnificient stage settings and props.

Esther, the queen of King Xerxes in the Persian Empire, goes before the king to inform him about Haman’s plot to kill all the Jews, her people, at the risk of endangering her own life, and saves the lives of all the Jewish people. The story of Esther is a prophecy that we, spiritual Jews, will be saved by our heavenly Mother’s great love that transcends death. Being overwhelmed with deep emotions and realizations through the Biblical drama, the members were determined to arise like a fire to save their heavenly brothers and sisters.

After all the performances, Mother en-couraged Her children to “find and save all of the spiritual Jews dispersed throughout the whole world, believing in the power of God who leads more souls to Zion in spite of all obstructions, as was shown in the prophecy of Esther.” She repeatedly complimented all Her children of Zion throughout the whole world on their efforts to bear much fruit and blessed them with heavenly blessings.

The awardees gave all glory to God, saying, “We are truly thankful to God for allowing us to become united as one through the Preaching Festival and giving us more strength and gifts of grace as well. Since we have achieved all things by depending on Mother alone, we will produce greater results by obeying Mother’s words this year, too.” On their way back home, the members showed their strong determination by saying, “There were regrettable moments when we did not boldly preach the salvation of our heavenly Mother and failed to set a great goal because of our lack of faith. Now, we will save all six billion people around the world, believing 100% that God is with us, as Mother’s faithful children.”

The race of faith toward heaven is not over yet. All the members, who have run the race with all their strength, preaching the glory of the heavenly Mother with one mind, are running the race of the gospel much harder and faster to save all people around the world by continuing the festival of salvation in greater unity.