From 3rd October (Thu) to 5th October (Sun), I delivered the word of God five times at the youth retreat of Hanmaum Church, Frankfurt, Germany and finally at their Sunday service. I shared the famous ‘Sermon on the Mount’ from Matthew 5-7 within the six sermons. Although I had prepared the main points to deliver beforehand, God continuously enlightened me with his Words through my time in Frankfurt and it has stayed with me until now.
On the first day of arrival, I had dinner with Pastor Chan-Kyu Lee and attended their Wednesday service. Pastor Lee expressed his excitement for the youth retreat many times and said that he hoped that more than 400 people would attend the church’s big event the following week, the special dawn prayer meeting and that he hoped that more than half of them would be baptized by the Holy Spirit and be given the gift of speaking in tongues.
Hanmaum Church is famous for its discipleship training, and it has invited Korean pastors all over Europe several times to hold discipleship seminars. Not only does the church seek the Holy Spirit but the church holds a strong system with its daily bible studies, one to one training, discipleship training etc. Despite my faith in the Holy Spirit and how he works through us, I felt a burden from their high expectations but eventually started the retreat with great hope and anticipation that God would provide.
Around 110 youths attended the retreat. I was told the number of youths have increased immensely during the past 2 years. It was a busy start with only 1 hour to prepare as we ate as soon as we arrived, and the service began straight after. By the time it was the evening service of the first day, I felt free when preaching the word of God. A service included 50 minutes of praise, 1 hour of sermon, and then 30 minutes of prayer. I was therefore only able to give ordination prayers to half the youths on the first night and the rest the day after. As I do in our Wednesday services, I prayed for each youth with the heart of God but with the Holy Spirit’s presence, I was able to pray more boldly.
I was told that the youths that I prayed for were surprised that the pastor, whom they met for the first time, prayed for them as if I knew all about their lives. The youths shared the grace of God until dawn through small group meetings and I could also feel that the living God loves me so. At the end of the last service, youths who did not receive prayers lined up to get prayers which I was not able to give due to the busy schedule after. Although it was not my intention, I felt the prayer times allowed God to pour his love and confirmation of the Words that were shared during the sermons.
Although it was not scheduled initially, Pastor Lee called late Saturday night after the retreat and asked me to preach again on Sunday to the church. There again I felt the grace of God. Although I went as the speaker, I personally received a lot of encouragement and love through the retreat. I was also grateful to God as he allowed me to build faith on my external ministry. Thanks to all the prayers from our church, which made this all possible.
