[PERÚ] WORLD CAMP PERÚ 2011: DAY 2

OPENING CEREMONY OF THE IYF WORLD CAMP PERÚ 2011

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2011

Tuesday night kicked off the official opening of the IYF World Camp in Peru. With the arrival of the founder of IYF, Pastor Ock Soo Park, the students were very happy. This time we had about 1,600 participants who arrived through various means such as TV, radio, flyers and posters.

In the mornings, we had various language academies, such as Korean, Chinese, English, and Thai, as well as workshops on Taekwondo, dance, acupuncture, Good News Corps and music. A young woman told us, “What I liked the most was that language was not a barrier when learning because the students (from Lincoln) gave much of themselves to be understood. The Acupuncture Workshop was one of the busiest but at the end there was a demonstration given with a young woman who was suffering from stress.

While some enjoyed these academies, another thirty people were in the Gospel Class in order to discover the heart of God through Pastor Gregorio who directs the church in La Paz, Bolivia. All were anxious to find out the secret of forgiveness of sins and how to be born again. The majority of them were new but we could also find brothers who wished to expand their hearts and learn how to share the gospel with people from their own countries. For example, we had Brother Marco from Ecuador, who used to direct a different church but now, with a different heart, he was in this classroom.

For the opening of the World Camp, we had special guests who gave welcome speeches. Among them were the former mayor of Lima and current presidential candidate Dr. Luis Castañeda Lossio, who expressed satisfaction with the work that IYF has done, not only in Peru but throughout the world. We also had Dr. César Zumaeta (current president of the Congress), who mentioned that we have to work for our country and that he was grateful for the social work that IYF participates in.

As we listened to the words of Pastor Ock Soo Park, we heard about Luke 16:19. He shared with us about true happiness and about the man with a truly wise heart. Someone who can live for others is the most valuable person of all but to do so we need to be able to control our hearts and learn to deny ourselves. With these words, the hearts of the participants rejoiced waited anxiously to see the change in their hearts that Pastor Park promised that each one of them would find.

——————————————————— Reported by Berenice Camargo Diaz