Following Father’s Sacrificial Path for Seven Days

Having received the Holy Spirit of the latter rain on the Day of Pentecost, the Denver Zion formed a short-term mission team to participate in establishing God’s realm throughout the world. The brothers and sisters who volunteered for it prepared in a hurry to leave a week later.

The areas to preach were Duluth and Rochester in the state of Minnesota, where there aren’t many Zions yet. Duluth was about one day away from Denver, and Rochester was four hours further from Duluth.

Our schedule was going to be tight due to the distance. We planned to leave Sabbath day evening, arrive there Sunday evening, preach the gospel for two days from Monday till Tuesday afternoon, keep the Third-day service there, and then leave for Rochester Wednesday morning, preach there for two and a half days from Wednesday evening till Friday afternoon, keep the Sabbath on the last day of the trip, and come back.

During the one-week short-term mission which wasn’t a long time, the amazing work of God was displayed. All the short-term members definitely felt that Heavenly Father and Mother are accomplishing the gospel work quickly as the time has come, and that God is with us; the story of how we met each and every one of our heavenly family members was dramatic.

One rainy day, a man who listened to the word gave us a ride to a good preaching location as an appreciation for sharing the truth with him. And there, we met our heavenly family members.

Three young men understood the words of the Bible and wanted to be baptized, but they hesitated because they could not get rid of their doubts in us who were strangers to them. So we took out our phone to make an appointment for the next time, and happened to show some pictures saved in the phone—the pictures of the new brothers and sisters who received the truth through this short-term mission. Then one of them was surprised to see a picture, saying one of his relatives was in the picture. He also said his relative told him about us the day before. The three young men cleared up doubts and all received the truth immediately.

There were also many cases where people had more than one connecting ring. A man listened to the word and showed interest in it, so we made an appointment for the next day, but he didn’t show up. Instead of feeling disappointed, we preached to other people there. One of them gave us his address and told us to come back in the evening because he had to leave for work. However, when we went to the address at the time of the appointment, nobody was home. However, we found our heavenly family members at the next door.

Another similar thing happened. We had an appointment with someone in the morning, so we went to his house. However, it took him a little while to get ready and come out because he slept in. While waiting for him, we knocked on his neighbor’s door, and heavenly family members were born in two houses. The first person who made an appointment with us had to leave for work by the time he was ready, so we made an appointment to meet again the next day.

The next day, we went back there at the same time, but for some reason, no one was at home. So, we preached to his neighbors again, and two other neighbors were born as heavenly children. The first person we had an appointment with too was reborn as God’s child with his family of eight the next day.

The new brothers and sisters were happy to receive the truth that they’d never heard before. One member said he had never felt like he had found the truth though he went to church for seventy years, and showed his will to preach, saying he wanted to let people know this news as quickly as possible.

The precious souls gathered like this, and the total number of them reached 183. It was an amazing miracle that happened in one week. “All assemble and come to you [Jerusalem]” (Isa 60:4). These words were being fulfilled in front of our own eyes.

Whenever we found a soul, we keenly felt God’s sacrifice and we all asked God with tears for forgiveness. During the short-term mission, we had to fight the heat, walk in the rain, climb up the hill, and be humiliated; people slammed the door in the face just as we saw in the video about Heavenly Father’s sacrifice. While preaching the gospel, Father was rejected by people, sometimes had to take shelter from the rain under the eaves, and climb up the mountain with His heavy bag. We were so sorry and thankful to Father for walking such a painful path for thirty-seven years because of our sins. We felt the same toward Heavenly Mother who is living a sacrificial life for us even now.

The short-term preaching has ended, but our mission hasn’t ended yet. There are a lot of things to do to help all the 183 members walk with us to heaven. We will put all our heart and mind in taking care of the sheep, so that we can repay Heavenly Father and Mother even a little bit for Their holy sacrifice.