The bright new year of 2020, filled with hope for the Kingdom of Heaven, has arrived. In the New Year, 20 churches from the U.S. Southeastern Church Association united to go on a 21-day short-term mission to Newport News, Virginia. It is said that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. When we reflect on Mother’s will, it seems that Mother granted this short-term preaching to us as a gift so that we could leave our lacking and sad hearts behind with the year 2019 and have the right habits and correct gospel mindset for the new year of 2020. I truly give thanks to God Elohim for always giving us much joy and happiness.
It wasn’t easy for the first two days. On the third day, we heard Heavenly Mother’s word through the Assembly Opening Ceremony for 2020. Heavenly Mother urged us to deliver the seal of God quickly, and Her words penetrated our hearts. From that time on, our preaching became very exciting. In obedience to Heavenly Mother’s word, we immediately went out to open the mind of the people. Whenever they gave ears to the Gospel, we quickly delivered the seal of God, which is Father’s teaching, to them with a burning heart.
About an hour after I began preaching, my phone rang. “We met someone who wants to receive the seal of God!” “Yes, I will be there, soon.” Even while I was on my way to a house for delivering the bread of life and wine, my phone rang once again. Mother opened the way, and as a result, the number of people who wanted to receive God increased from 1 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 6, and 8 to 10. Like spiritual UberEats (food delivery driver), I was running from town to town and speeding from city to city, delivering the seal of God. As I delivered the food of life as fast as I could, the phone rang again.
It was such a beautiful thing to see so many souls being saved. As our gospel soldiers constantly went out into the field and rescued one soul after another, I was reminded of a movie based on a true story. As the main hero in the movie continued to risk his life and go out into the dangerous battlefield to seek and save more of his people, he just kept asking God, “One more, Lord. Just give me one more.” After all, without a gun and without taking a life, during the bloodiest battle of World War II, he saved 75 people!
Seeing the souls get saved one by one from the spiritual war of death through our preaching, we also prayed to God, “One more, Father and Mother. Just give me one more.” Then, after saving one soul, we would go back out to seek and save others. Just as the hero in the movie was able to save many by only focusing on saving just one soldier at a time, we made earnest effort to save just one soul at a time.
Another amazing thing happened too. One morning before we went out to preach during the short-term mission, we were told that there is a reason why God is sending us to a particular neighborhood. It is because God’s child is in that neighborhood waiting to receive the seal and behind one of those doors, God prepared a diamond for us; so we had to keep knocking on every door and not stop until we found the diamond.
An hour later, a team called.
“We found a woman who would like to receive God. Her name is Diamond!”
Right after that, we found Sister Sapphire! The name of the sister who led her to the truth is Crystal! Our God is indeed the “One who created humor!” We thought, ‘God is allowing us to find precious gemstones to complete the Jerusalem temple!’ It was no longer preaching, but it was a treasure hunt! One by one, Father and Mother allowed us to put the seal on their foreheads and the joy we experienced together in unity and harmony was truly a special gift from Mother. Joy and Harmony are sisters, by the way!
The three weeks of short-term preaching flew by like a dream from which you don’t want to wake up. I can give only thanks to our Heavenly Father and Mother who are sacrificing behind the scenes, making everything possible. Though I am not worthy of God’s sacrifice and suffering on this earth, God’s patience is truly a mercy for this sinner to be reborn inwardly and prepare for Heaven in the year 2020. At the end of the short-term mission when the smoke cleared, we counted the number of souls who were able to be saved. It was 76 souls. “One more, Father and Mother. Just one more.”