On August 28, the grand opening ceremony of the 2013 NSD International Mission Congress was held at the International Convention Center (ICC) on Jeju Island, South Korea. This is the 1st International Mission Congress to be held in the NSD territory.
About 3,500 people from more than 22 countries including China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, USA, India, Russia, Philippines, and other countries attended this historic event.
The wonderful, amazing opening ceremony was held in the Tamna Grand Hall in the ICC, Jeju. Beautiful music, videos, spectacular traditional performances and parades brightened the convocation. The participants were invited to reflect on the calling and mission of the ‘Remnant People.’ In describing the presentation, one participant said, “I heard the voice of God calling me to renewed outreach mission for the Jesus!”
The opening ceremony was full of beautiful contents such as ‘Opening of a Way’, Drum and Flag Performance, Golden Angels’ music, and Tenor Lyu JaeKwang’s praise, and more.
The highlight of the program was the parade. Each union or country was represented by its people dressed in beautiful traditional costumes. Each one shared their heritage through a graceful and powerful cultural performance. The parade was followed by the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD), Korean Union Conference (KUC), Chinese Union Mission(CHUM), Japan Union Conference (JUC), Mongolian Mission (MM), and Taiwan Conference (TWC) presidents voicing a renewed commitment to God’s mission calling in their territory.
Following the opening Drum and Flag Performance, the Korean delegation shared a traditional Fan Dance. A Mongolian group presented a native dance, and the Chinese delegation sang a Miao minority people’s song. Pastors from the JUC sang a beautiful song and the Taiwan performers also received big applause when they shared their powerful traditional dance.
After the parade and the cultural performances, Dr. Ted N. C. Wilson, GC president and Dr. Jairyong Lee, NSD president, gave congratulatory remarks and a welcome. During the sermon, G. T. Ng, General Conference secretary stressed that “If you want to know how precious each person is to God, you can look at Jesus on the cross. He sacrificed everything for every human being on earth. When we meet people, we need to have the heart of Jesus!”
All the participants were renewed in their understanding of the importance of embracing the mission of preaching the gospel to the ends of the earth. This is our God-given mission to save souls in our NSD territory and around the world.
This was the first day of the 4 day International Mission Congress.
There will be more meaningful, well-prepared programs, performances, reports, seminars, sermons, tours, and booth activities. All the Mission Congress programs will be broadcast live. To watch the event sessions, please visit the IMC website(www.goimc.org) or NSD website(www.nsdadventist.org)
To view more pictures of IMC, please visit our Flicker(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nsdadventist).