Making History: Laymen from China, Mongolia attend Lay Congress
November 15, 2009, Cheonan, South KoreaFor the first time in the history of the NSD delegates from China and Mongolia attended the NSD Lay Congress, a quinquennial event. This years’ Congress, at the National Youth Center in Cheonan, Korea from November 11-15, 2009, welcomed 120 Japanese laymen, 29 Mongolians, 40 Chinese, 29 from Hong Kong and Macao, 17 from Taiwan, and around 500 from Korea. “The aim of the event was to satisfy the three elements of Christianity: Mission (our purpose), Holy Spirit (our power) and Prayer (our key),” said Pastor DaeSung Kim, Coordinator for the Congress and NSD Sabbath School and Personal Ministries director.
Pastor Ted Wilson, GC Vice-President, spoke about the power of the Holy Spirit, referring to the early rain and latter rain. Pastor Jonathan Kuntaraf, GC SS-PM director reminded the laymen, “prayer is the breath of life and a spiritually essential factor of the Christian life” when expounding on the power of prayer.
Dr. Jairyong Lee, NSD President emphasized Mission Spirit highlighting the evangelistic mission of Adventists. He gave a detailed account of the mission of the Adventist church in these last days and introduced various mission movements operated by the NSD such as the PMM, 1000MM, and HHMM.
Moreover, Dr. Lee said “the reason God promised to give us the power of the Holy Spirit is to promptly spread the gospel” and he appealed to each individual to positively work through prayer and the Holy Spirit with a passion for mission.
His Excellency Bienvenido Tejano, Philippine Ambassador to New Zealand and Seventh-day Adventist pastor was invited to give testimony on the mission of the Adventist church. He told about his experiences as Ambassador and said “we were called to be Ambassadors of Christ in order to testify of God’s plan and spread the gospel”.
Each Union presented reports on the mission work in their territory followed by a ceremony of awards for best evangelists in the individual and group category, fully devoted to soul-winning.
In addition, a variety of programs, including a parade of nations introducing the cultures of each country, a Golden Angels concert, a mini concert by the Wind Ensemble of Sahmyook University, a special song by Michael Choir, and a musical performance by Sulammi, touched attendees’ hearts. A number of booths introducing the various mission movements of the NSD, such as the Golden Angels, HisHands Mission Movement, and Pioneer Mission Movement kept participants busy between meetings. They also prayed for the mission and missionaries’ in their territory every night. The event was filled with opportunities for prayer, the word of God, and inspiring messages from speakers to deeply moved participants’ hearts to commit themselves to evangelism.
