World Mission Society Church of God

The 1st New Jerusalem Festival for Families

Nation | 한국
Date | November 02, 2008

On November 2, as the autumn season was getting deeper, a meaningful event was held at the Okcheon Go&Come Institute covered with beautiful colored leaves. It was the “1st New Jerusalem Festival for Families” prepared by Mother to remind the members of the importance of family as a nest of comfort and a pillar of support for everyone. Over 13,000 people including the members and their families were invited, and the members of each family deepened their bonds of love and harmony.

From early in the morning, the pastoral families arrived at the Institute one after another. Around noon, they gathered together to have lunch around the Institute. After lunch they enjoyed the beautiful scenery of the Institute, looking around at places such as the lawn garden and the man-made waterfall. They also looked at the photo exhibit on display along the first floor corridor of the main building, which helped them track the history of the Church of God.

Around 1 p.m., the welcome ceremony started. Mother conveyed Her appreciation to the pastoral families for participating in the Festival, and explained the principle of the heavenly family through the earthly family. She asked them to build bonds with the spiritual family as well as with their physical family and to live together in joy, having hope for the beautiful and eternal kingdom of heaven, saying, “I believe that you all want to go to heaven together with your family whom you love the most.”

General Pastor Joo-Cheol Kim expressed his sincere gratitude to the participants for supporting their family members, who were conducting pastoral ministry, and praying for them, so that they could carry out the mission of preaching God’s will faithfully. Then he gave them an overview of the present status of the Church of God which is achieving remarkable growth of the gospel according to the prophecies. In addition, he asked them to have pride in the Church of God because it is the true Church that follows the Bible exactly and attracts attention from around the world. He also said he hoped that the members of each family would achieve beautiful harmony among themselves in God’s love through the event prepared by God.

Soon, the celebration event began with a powerful performance by the Brass Band, and it was followed by other various performances: a cheerful medley by the Children’s Choir, a magnificent performance by the Orchestra, and beautiful performances by the Men’s Vocal Ensemble and the United Choir. Especially, the 36th Overseas Visiting Group who flew to Korea like clouds, like doves to their nests, sang a song of praise to God. Their performance livened up the event and gave a deep impression to the participants. Lastly, there was a cute performance by the little angels. They performed traditional Korean dances such a fan dance and a floral coronet dance, which brought a big smile to everyone’s face.

After the performances, traditional Korean folk games were held at the outdoor sports area: the four-stick game, slap-match, shuttlecock kicking, rice-cake pounding, just to name a few. There were also other events such as face painting, balloon art, and making family photo buttons. The pastoral families, who had gathered together in a long time, made beautiful memories by participating positively in traditional Korean folk games, hand in hand with one another.

All the families shared heartfelt words such as “I love you,” and, “Thank you,” and big smiles bloomed on their faces. Their hearts were tinged with love and happiness like the beautifully colored autumn leaves.