A great work that began in December in 2013 is completed in this February 12th,
which took 5 years and 2 months
Buildings are designed in a modern style both as a church and a school, a shelter
There are some churches that extended itself with the rising number of people

<Captions> Haiti. Mosaic shows 200 churches The first construction began in December, 2013 and it ended after 5 years with 200 churches completed.

<Captions> It shows the number of regional church in Haiti. The churches are spread in 8 states out of 10.

The project called ‘Planting 1,000 world-wide churches’ is completed taking 5 years and 2 months. A missionary Lee, Jong-gook said, “We’re planning to have service in December 12th for giving thanks God that we’ve finished the 200thchurch construction.” The construction of 1st church in Haiti began in December, 2013(City Soleil, 11x17m, 200 capacities). The 200th church(Saut d’eau, 8x13m, 80 capacities) was also completed with many supplies. Out of 200 churches, 141 churches are distributed in Ouest where it has the capital city, Port-au-Prince, 16 in Grand’Anse, 15 in Artibonite, 11 in Sud-Est, 5 in Sud, 1 each in Nippes and Nord-Ouest. Every church is drawing attention as it’s constructed in modern style and being used as school at the day time, which it helps the community prosper. The church where it’s used as school, about 30 to 200 students are currently attending. They’re educated with general education and the Bible as well.

From every church that has completed the construction, messages about the revival keep being reported. One church in Port-au-Prince has revived from 80 people to 120 people in just several months after the construction finished in July, 2014. When Pastor Yoon was invited to the country for the second time in October, about 200 people were gathered to the churches. Once the church became so cramped, they built an extension to the church by themselves. 16th church in Port-au-Prince has also double its size. The 36th and the 42nd churches made extension as the number of people coming to church keeps increasing.  

<Captions> 1. This is a 154th church where our church has built in Jacmel. About 470 people were gathered the church where it locates at the top of the mountain to attend an opening worship service. 

<Captions> 2. People attended to have opening worship service in 166th church in Jacmel, in June 17, 2018.  People attended to have opening worship service in 166th church in Jacmel, in June 17, 2018. 

<Captions> 3. A 107th church in Cabare.

<Captions> In January, 2015. Yonsei Central Baptist Church members and a missionary team members took a photo, giving thanks God of completing the church construction. A man in the blue t-shirts(center) is missionary, Lee, Gook-jong.

In Haiti, the construction period was about 4 months for a church and expense was $7,000 per church.

Missionary Lee, Jong-Kook purchased materials with the cheapest price as possible by legwork getting around from place to place right after he was sent out. He even improved the construction method to decrease the expense for materials. Beside the part that should be done by advanced technology with such as reinforced concrete, pastor and the Lord’s people worked together for their church helping engineering work and carrying materials, so they helped to save construction expenses and labor cost.

For selecting a church to be built on, Missionary Lee certainly chose pastors’ church where the senior pastor attended prayer meeting for 2-3 hours on every Tuesdays. He explained about the purpose of Yonsei Central Baptist Church building 200 churches as constructing the house of God in Haiti. He also explained about need of church members’ volunteering from chosen church and prayed for 2 hours together. Pastors, who attended prayer meeting for 3 months steadily, took priority of new churches in order.

In Haiti, where there was no connection, we rely on the the Lord only and started to build 200 churches

Haiti is the starting point of Yonsei Central Baptist Church’s ‘Project for building 1,000 churches all over the world.’ At the Haiti Conference in May 2013, Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon declared by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that he would build 15 churches in Haiti. Then, on September 18, 2013, he sent a deacon, Lee, Jong-Kook, who was a businessman in the USA and Yonsei Central Baptist Church, to Haiti as a missionary. Lee, Jong-Kook, a US citizen, went to New York 30 years ago from South Korea and was doing business in the country. His family received God’s grace listening to the preaching of Pastor Yoon’s sermon through internet brodcasting. He also attended the conference in Hindolsan Retreat Center and received grace. He attended the conference in Haiti in May 2013 to receive God’s grace. The missionary Lee, Jong-Koo, who devoted himself to the construction of the church for five years in Haiti without any connection, listened to the sermon of the pastor Yoon’s Lord’s day sermon and the unpaid evangelism school and attended the Lord’s day service through internet broadcasting in order to keep the grace in Haiti. He attended the early morning prayer meeting alone and prayed for the completion of the 200 churches in Haiti, praying for two hours each day in accordance with the schedule of faith in Yonsei Central Baptist Church. He also read the Bible and held on to the Word of God. Missionary, Jong-kook Lee made a steay progress on a schedule in the guidance of the Holy Spirit day by day, beyond human limitations. After the early morning prayer meeting, he surpervised the church construction from 7 am to 5 pm. It was planed to build 15 churches at the same time in various regions, so he visited the area from time to time and checked the current situation of construction and understood the process. He ate mainly local food on the streets and ate local Korean restaurants occasionally. Haiti is a country with a water shortage. He purchased domestic water in trucks or captured rainwater in rainwater storage tank. He bought drinking water separately. He previously lived in Boeufo. He had been robbed several times, had been stolen, and relocates to the Del Mar, where it is now relatively safe. He has been robbed several times, has been robbed, so he moved to Delmar, where it is now relatively safe. In the Boeufo area, electricity has been on for only 4 hours once every 2-3 days. The electricity in Delma area is supplied almost every night from 12 to 5 hours. He pay the phone and the Internet fee for the communication, but the speed is so slow that it is difficult to transfer one picture.

There was no easy task, but everything was done by the Lord
Missionary Lee, Jong-Koo recalled the past five years that he had “nothing easy to do” until he built 200 churches. It was because of difficulty in various aspects such as terrain, construction worker, local political situation and the national character of the people. Haiti is made up of rocky mountains, which are hard to find any trees except the north. People were living near the top of a remote mountain, so when they built a church there, cars could not get up to the place, so he had to go on a motorcycle and walk again. He suffered when he visited the church to carry the material for construction or to check the progress.

The climate of Haiti has high temperatures and high humidity oceanic climate with an average of around 30℃. Missionary Lee, Jong-Kook suffered from dengue and Zika virus several times in the tropical climate, biting on mosquitoes. The rainy season starts in April and ends in October. Every afternoon, heavy rain broke out and the construction was stalled. On a clean day, almost all of the very old cars on the unpaved roads ran, causing smoke and dust. The garbage was not well treated. They burn the garbage every day that it caused headaches and bronchitis. The corruption of the government caused frequent demonstrations, robbery, and murder so that the country was not very safe. Corruption became rampant that administrative affairs were delayed. Even after paying proper administrative costs such as vehicle registration, tax calculation, and building permission, the bureaucracy changed again, and it returned to its original state. In such an environment, the completion of the 200 churches is “the grace of the Lord,” Lee, Jong-Kook said. He made the statement, “I thank the Lord for using me from 2013, and I thank the saints and pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon for supporting me to finish the construction of the 200 churches without any accidents while I was building the church.”

The 1,000 church building project in the world
Currently 890 churches to be completed to select
This year 110 churches additionally selected
scheduled to be completely built until 2020

<Captions>
1. The number of the buildings targeted each region in Rupublic of South Africa.
2. 300 churches in Togo are actively being built.

<Captions> [Overview of churches construction project - 1,000 churches all over the world.] In <Haiti> of Southern America, 200 churches were completed. In <South Africa>, 40 churches were completed. Their target is 100 churches.  In <Togo>, 120 churches out of 300 churches were completed. 107 churches are in progress in there. <Kingdom of eSwatini> and <Côte d’Ivoire> set their target for 100 churches each.  Currently, 5 churches have been completed in Côte d’Ivoire. 1 church was completed in Kingdom of eSwatini. <Myanmar> was selected to join church construction countries at last year. There, 10 churches are being constructed. 1 church is being constructed in each country; <Mexico> <Ghana> <Zambia> <Cameroon>

‘The 1,000 church building project in the world’ of Yonsei Central Baptist is actively going on in 16 countries such as Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Republic of South Africa, Republic of Burundi, Republic of Benin, Kingdom of Eswatini, Gana, Myanmar and so on.
Out of those countries, in Togo, ‘the Assembly of God,’ which Dao, a dispatched local missionary in Togo, and 300 churches in Togo are united, is building up to 300 churches. 70 churches in Savanes located in the most Northern region of Togo, 70 churches in Kara where Pastor Yoon was invited to have the conference, 65 churches in Centrale, 55 churches in Plateaux, and 40 churches in Maritime where the capital Lomé is located are going to be built.

The missionary Joo-rim Kim takes a lead in South Africa. Last August, the places of 100 churches to be built and the person in charge of the construction of buildings were selected. 60 churches in North West in the north, 30 churches in Northern Cape, and 10 churches in Limpopo in the North-east will be built.

In Côte d’Ivoire, the dispatched local missionary Wattara takes a lead for the targeted 100 churches. Currently, 5 churches have been already built in Fromager and Marahoué and 10 churches are being on construction. The construction plan for districts of 100 churches will be made in detail.

Besides, 7 churches in Pakistan, 2 church in Nepal, 5 churches in India, 2 churches in Brazil and 1 church in K country have been already completed. Many countries from the world made a request for constructing 890 churches. The construction plan was made to build more 110 churches in other areas and since last year the construction site in other countries has been examined closely.

‘‘The 1,000 church building project in the world’ of Yonsei Central Baptist was recorded as a splendid achievement with all of attention focused by the world because God’s command “to be witness to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) came true on the earth. Not only were 200 churches completed to be built, but also the 1000 church building project in the world is running smoothly. All of these are enabled to happen because God did all things. Let us give glory, thanks, and praise to the Lord who have done all of things.

/by Mi-Aae Son

위 글은 교회신문 <613호> 기사입니다.