88852 Miracle
Praise the Lord, His thoughts are always higher than ours; His providence and provision are always beyond what we can imagine and ask for!
The beach baptism for a thousand had been scheduled on the 16th September, but was postponed due to the typhoon. After some twists and turns, we submitted to the leading of God and held the 8 performances of “The Light” Musical and 8 baptisms at the same time from the 28th September to 1st October. In the end 852 people were baptized within our church. Including those baptized in the branch churches, a total of 1258 people were baptized within two weeks.
“8 performances, 8 baptisms and 852 people baptized”, we put these numbers together and name it as “88852 miracle”. “88852 Miracle” is entirely God’s wonderful deed because we made the decision to hold baptisms with the Sukkot celebrations, simultaneously, only three days ahead. Had it been our original plan, we would have held beach baptism and Sukkot celebration on separate days. As the result, the meaning of the baptism together with Sukkot as the ingathering offered to God would not stand out remarkably. In that case, the 10th beach baptism would have been just another baptism.
1000-people Baptism is a great testimony of the church to the public about the gospel, “Look, how desperate is man’s heart for Jesus.” Thankfully, this year, “1000-people Baptism” was reported on Christian newspapers and media as well as local newspapers, what a wonderful work of our Father God. Because of this, “The Light” musical which spoke about the good news of “Christ was born on Sukkot” was spread throughout the land alongside the news of “1000-people Baptism”.
During the staff meeting last Wednesday, thanksgiving from co-workers including both the new recruits and those co-workers, MG leaders who had participated in many large-scaled meetings lingered. As they witnessed many friends and family members receiving the salvation of Christ and being baptized on the spot, they were largely grateful and overjoyed with the Presence of God.
During the whole Sukkot celebration and Baptism, the baptizers and assistants, preachers, testimony-givers, on and off stage translators, prophetic intercessor team, administration and support team, newcomer welcoming team, the cast and crew members, directors and actors, costume and pops team, sound system team, PPR and field team, network and PR team, interview handling team etc., I see all of them as the elite army of the Kingdom of Heaven, fighting for the Lord with their best. For such a faithful, devoted and united co-worker team given by Father God, we have to be extremely thankful because all these are God’s Grace!
“Through the praise of children and infants You have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger.” (Psalm 8:2)
Dear brothers and sisters, as long as we acknowledge our weaknesses and that we are merely lowly created beings, willing to trust and follow God, striving to accomplish what He has entrusted us and offering the ingathering to God; we shall surely experience wonderful miracles and the bounty in observing biblical festivals. God’s perfect will over our lives shall definitely come to pass. • [2018.10.07]