God Opened the Door to Publishing Ministry

God opened the path for us to preach the Gospel through broadcasting, but He also stopped it. Since God had let us begin it in the first place, I knew it had to be God, who was causing us stop doing it as well. As a result, my fellow workers and I began a prayer meeting to seek and ask God for His will, as we wondered what kind of a path God had prepared this time. God showed us His will to preach through written material. Following God’s will, we took our first steps forward by establishing Minister Wook Yong Kim as the leader of our publication ministry. All of our ministers around the world were joyful.

This was our first time doing such work. Things were very unfamiliar, and we did not know what we should or should not continue doing. However, we had no doubt that God would open a way. As our broadcasting sermons were discontinued in November of 1985, we began a monthly magazine called, “The Good News,” and the first issue was released in April of 1986. We were permitted to use some materials from a discontinued monthly magazine ten years ago, called, “Successful Lifestyle.” We added testimonies from brothers and sisters of the church, and sermons from missionaries overseas.

On one hand, I wanted to publish a series of sermons, but I didn’t know how to begin. That year in October, we rented the auditorium of the Isabel Girl’s High School, and held a Seminar for the citizens of Busan. Through this event, countless people received salvation. Even after the seminar was over, I heard that many people received salvation through the tapes of the recorded sermons that were purchased. In another missionary school, 30 senior students caused great disorder in their school after listening to the tapes and testifying that they were, “Now we’re saved.” When we heard that many people, who had grown sick of living a religious life for a long time, had received salvation, we were deeply moved and could not hide our joy. I could see God’s heart of wanting to organize the sermons into a book. Therefore, I had several brothers transcribe the tapes, and organize the manuscript for the sermon collection.

We needed the help of a publishing company, but the problem was finding a company that would accept our manuscript. It felt like Christian publishing companies, in particular, would not respond easily or positively, so I earnestly prayed before God, fasting for the day. In the midst of all this, someone introduced me to the Chairman of the Christian Literature Crusade (CLC), Professor Park. I testified about my spiritual life and showed him the manuscript. After hearing my testimony, he agreed to publish my book. However, the chief editor had the final decision on which books were published, so he contacted the chief editor to discuss the matter.

When I arrived, the chief editor greeted me very cheerfully, saying, “Pastor Park, what brings you here?” Not knowing why he greeted me in such a manner, I answered, “I’m not sure I know who you are. How do you know me?” He answered, “I attended your Bible Seminar and received so much grace. If this is about publishing your book, I’ll pour all my heart into it.” With that, he received the manuscript. I was able to see that God had already prepared in advance so that this book could be published. When the book, Forgiveness of Sins and Being Born Again, was first published, we prayed sincerely, imploring, “God, please save many people through this book.” More than expected, many people ended up reading the book and turned to the Lord.

However, there were people who opposed the publication of our book. Those people would call CLC and strongly protest, saying, “Why do you publish Pastor Ock Soo Park’s book?” Through these incidents, CLC was pressured into discontinuing the publishing of our books. We put together the necessary documents to submit a proposal to establish our own publishing company to City Hall, but we received the reply, “Due to conflicting issues against the Basic Press Act, we are unable to permit this registry.” CLC could not continue printing our book, and things became very difficult. CLC printed a large amount of books for the final print, and while all those books were being sold, God had to open up a new path for us.

At that time, President Taewoo Roh announced the, “June 29th Declaration,” which established the abolition of the Basic Press Act. Previously, it had been a complicated permit system, but now, it had changed to an application system, through which people could freely register to publishing works. We quickly gathered the documents needed to request a registration for a publishing house at City Hall. We were registered as a publishing house on December 29, 1987. That is how we were able to begin publishing the sermon collections of the book, The Secret of Forgiveness of Sins and Being Born Again under the name of Good News Publishing House. That book was the stepping stone to publishing the second and third sequels to The Secret of Forgiveness of Sins and Being Born Again. Many other spiritual books were published as well. Now, more than 100 issues of the first book, The Secret of Forgiveness of Sins and Being Born Again, has been printed, and more than 500,000 copies have been published and send to various parts of the word. It has even become more widely delivered as it has been translated and published into English, Spanish, and more than ten other languages. When I hear how people in other countries received grace through these books, I cannot help but to praise God, who worked so greatly.