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| CN PHOTO: Michael Chan |
David Yonggi Cho addressed 582 pastors from Chinese churches at a special private session on Thursday.
Dr. Paul Kim, executive director of CGI International, set a light mood for the room with an entertaining introduction. “Let me teach you a Korean word,” he said, through a Chinese interpreter. “When Dr. Cho comes up, raise your hand and say this word … The word is ‘Hallelujah!’”
As the pastors laughed, Dr. David Yonggi Cho came up to the stage. The audience stood up and shouted, “Hallelujah!”
Cho, speaking in Korean, told his audience that he discovered how much God loves the Chinese-speaking world, because “He sent me to Singapore to talk to you!” This won the hearts of the audience who burst into applause.
The senior pastor-emeritus from Yoido Full Gospel Church gave a powerful testimony of his salvation. At the age of 17, he found himself deathly ill with tuberculosis. Being just after the Korean War, there were no proper hospital facilities that enabled him to be treated. Cho’s doctors told him to go home and wait for death. While he was in hospital, a young lady came daily to pray for him. “What good does it do me to know Jesus?” the young Cho asked.
“I asked, ‘If You really are the son of God, heal me’,” Cho told the pastors. As Jesus met his challenge and healed him of tuberculosis, he in turn kept to his word to follow Christ. Cho revealed that he recently went to the doctor, and an X-ray revealed that his lungs still bore the scars of his teenage illness.
Being a bondservant of Jesus Christ comes with certain privileges. “There is a peace that transcends understanding,” said Cho. “We can bear all burdens because we have grace to endure.”
The legendary pastor came to the heart of his message—a reminder of the work of the Cross. “We can’t pay for our own sins,” he said, “but Christ bore all our sins and took them all away.”
At the end, Cho announced, “God told me to pray for you. Place your hand upon where you have a pain, or if you have an illness, lay hands on yourself.”
As all the pastors bowed their heads in prayer, Cho prayed a moving prayer of healing, prosperity and peace upon all. Though it was a mere 20-minute meeting, the presence Cho carried with him left an indelible imprint on the hearts of every pastor.
