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“Confession of the Witness” Musical
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Chapter 31 - “Confession of the Witness” Musical
After moving up to San Jose I had attended American churches, but several members of the YoungNak Presbyterian church from Korea had lived in this area. Several church friends had introduced me young adults, because they knew I had wanted to train young adults who wanted to grow for God. While I was worried about finding a place to meet, an elder who came before me had a house. The garage was large enough to fit 3 cars. The Elder had furbished the house for the young adults to gather. I had briefly stayed in the elder’s house while I was from Los Angeles. Several young adults met up with me to find a suitable time to have a bible study. The only time that was workable was only during evening times. I also wished I had met after work but for the young adults I had to find another time. About 4 of us met.
Many of the young adults worked in gas stations or worked at convenient stores like 7 Eleven as part time. Several of the members would work when it was a great time to gather, so it was hard for the students to gather. One student who finished the latest was at 1AM in the morning. So we decided to gather around 2~4AM in the morning to have a bible study. I had to go to factory to work around 6AM, but there was no other time. We studied on the book of Philippians. This was a bible study book I had made when I was coming from Korea for the YBA Mission Ministry. All 4 students had studied diligently and had finished the bible study. The young adult’s bible study meeting started to grow in size because the 4 original young adults had passion for it. After short time with the evangelizing of the importance of bible study the number of students had grown to over 20 students, even thought it was a meeting only once a week. At this time I had decided to start not a USA version of the YBA but to raise a new leader for the group. I knew two of the most faithful people who helped me when I opened the San Jose Bible Church.
The newly planted church had many young adults. Every Saturday young adults from around the area would gather to the church to have a bible study meeting, or to have a fellowship. 8 of the young adults from that time had become a minister or become a missionary. I give thanks to all those who had put their faith in God. Some of the people whom I presided for marriage who shared their happiness still have contact with me.
In the year 1984 a family of 5 members had visited for the Sunday worship on the 2nd week after Easter Sunday. It was a great blessing that a whole family would come to a newly planted church which was considered very rare. They were interested in faith even though they had just arrived in United States a short time ago. After about a year the whole family was baptized. It was the first family to be baptized in this new church. The father and the mother had become elders in the church. They had retired but still attend the same church.
A lot of people like to avoid newly opened churches. There’s only a small amount of members, and to have a new church requires a lot of spiritual, physical, time and materials to support it. Also having to evangelize new members is not a simple task, nor is it easy to teach them and baptizing them. Immigration life was already difficult enough. Having not enough time is also another factor. After a short time later many members wished that I take my full time as a pastor and quit my job in the factory. But that also was not easy as it was a newly planted churches my salary would be low. But I deiced to go full time ministry even if my salary was about half of what I used to have from the factory.
The family mentioned ahead helped the church by supporting. First the two daughters played piano so the pianist for praise was solved. Their son helped organize the choir team. For a small church a pastor singing hymns in a loud voice alone looked difficult. The deacon helped also by becoming the choir team leader and helped in diligence. Current elder helped by taking the position of treasury. They were extremely helpful and faithful. I still see them occasionally to share love and grace with them. It was a blessing for my family that such a family would be met to help and be able to live with them. When the elder had bought a car she had her license plate named ‘GAMSA’. The car was used to bring guests or to help with church events. They still help and support the CHA ministry. I can only be ‘GAMSA’ (thankful) to the elders.
The church started to grow. The best part was the choir team was growing and in 1987 our church had our first “Praise Night” as a start and to 1990 had 4 “Praise Night”. In 1990 the pastor that helped our church choir who moved from Texas was appointed as the senior pastor in September. I resigned my position in church and stared the YBA American Branch
People who had helped form the choir team was Daniel (SeungBae) Park (Currently a missionary) who was the first conductor and after was Sunny (SunHee) Choi (currently a deaconess of San Jose Baptist Church)
I give my best of gratitude and thanks to them. It was still a graceful night even thought the “Praise Night” still lacked many things the choir instructor and the conductors and all the members all did their best. Especially on the 4th “Praise Night” had a musical called “The Confession of a Witness”? This was possible with God’s grace. Even now day’s some of the old members still says “I miss the old church we had” and tells me they still remember. I give thanks to all the members of the choir, pianist / organist, the conductors, and the choir lead deacon (now elder) who had helped faithfully.
(January 2011)
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Epilogue 
“Confession of the Witness” Musical