2017 International Easter Banquet in Herndon

Pastor James & Faith Cha provide the good news...

Sunday March 26, International Easter Banquet at Open Door Presbyterian Church, 3001 Centreville Road, Herndon, VA

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

Isaiah 56:6,7 - 6 "And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve Him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship Him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to My covenant-- 7 these I will bring to My holy mountain and give them joy in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."

Revelations 7:9 - After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.

It was truly a wonderful evening of celebrating the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Over 350 people from nations all over the world came together to worship, dance, eat and pray for and with one another. It was a glimpse of what heaven would be like.

The highlight of the evening was the time of prayer for peace and blessing over the Middle East in different languages.

Pastor Eric Teitelman (from Israel) prayed in Hebrew to bless Arabs and Persians (Iranians).
Pastor Bardiya Amiri (from Iran) prayed in Farsi to bless the Arabs and the Jews.
Pastor Reda Narouz (from Egypt) prayed in Arabic to bless the Jews and the Persians.
Pastor Chip Giessler (from USA) prayed in English to bless the Middle East nations.

We are so thankful that people from other faiths were able to witness what the Lord Jesus has accomplished through His sacrifice on the CROSS. Without Christ the nations and factions in the Middle East are killing one another. But this past Sunday, they were unified in lifting up the name of Jesus Christ with joy and love for one another.

One guest commented: "It was worshipful, uplifting, unifying, encouraging and full of joy. The Holy Spirit was present in a powerful way."

Another guest said: “…hearing from people who had come to know Christ and were following him from countries ALL OVER the world reassured me that we do not offer an American Jesus."

We want to express special thanks to the following individuals or churches:

Open Door Presbyterian Church (ODPC) –

• Thank you Pastor Paul Kim (Korean congregation lead pastor) and Pastor John Cha (English congregation lead pastor) for allowing us to hold this banquet on the church campus.
• Thank you Pastor Paul Kim for the message on the significance and relevance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ in each of our lives.
• Thank you Pastor John Cha for the closing prayer.
• Thank you Pastor Jang, Elder Kim, Deacon Shin, Deacon Hwang and others in the missions committee who made this banquet possible at ODPC. Thank you for putting up and taking down the stage…it was well used! Thank you for the beautiful banner (Deacon Min), and taking photos of the event and video recording as well.
• Thank you Deacon Choi and Shane Kim for your help with A/V needs. Thank you for your patience with the last minute changes/needs.
• Special thanks to Deacon Hwang and all the childcare volunteers from ODPC. You did an awesome job with an army of children. They were so happy.
• Thank you ODPC women’s prayer ministry team for the delicious Korean food. They not only prepared food, they also served with a warm smile, and cleaned up afterwards. We had so many guests who came at different times, but there was still enough food! And the table decorations were beautiful!

Churches that participated in presenting worship, dance or prayer – thank you all for worshiping the Lord Jesus in your own language, for teaching us a few phrases, and for giving us a foretaste of what heaven will be like.

• English & Indian/Tamil – Raj Daniel & band - rdaniel.oracle@gmail.com
• Chinese – Chinese Christian Church of Germantown – http://www.cccgermantown.org/
• Cameroon – Bread of Life Parish – Pastor Veronica - verayuk@yahoo.com
• Arabic - Arabic Ministry (Baltimore) - Pastor Reda - alnajy71@hotmail.com
• Farsi – The Way Church – Pastor Bardiya Amiri – Rev.amiri@gmail.com
• Hebrew – Pastor Eric Teitelman - eteitelman@live.com
• English (prayer) - Pastor Chip Giessler – Evergreen Church in Leesburg - https://evergreenchurch.net/
• Urdu – Word of God Church and Prayer Center – Pastor Christopher Kay – riverindesert@gmail.com
• Mongolian – Washington Mongolian Church – Pastor Hwang - pnhwang@hotmail.com
• Korean – Open Door Presbyterian Church – Pastor Paul Kim - Korean) http://opendoorpc.org/ (English) http://odpcec.org/

Huge thanks to Kelly Yang and her family and small group from Reston Bible Church for preparing Easter eggs and coordinating the egg hunt. They have been faithfully doing this for the past 3 years!

Special thanks also to all the ESOL directors who came to help, and also brought their ESL student families. May God bless each of your ESOL ministries!

• Susan Morinaga, ESOL Director at Reston Bible Church (14 years)
• Faith Cha, ESOL Director at HOPE-ILC in Leesburg (4 years)
• Bob Wilson, ESOL Director at Ekklesia-USA in Reston (3 years)
• Kelly Kang, ESOL Director at New Covenant Fellowship Church (2 years)
• Helen Hong, ESOL Director at Open Door Presbyterian Church (1 year)

Many thanks to others who served in the background to help setup, serve and cleanup…especially those from the HOPE-International Learning Center in Leesburg, and PAN (Prayer for All Nations) in Leesburg. Special thanks to our own children for their help: Joniel with cajon, Josiah with photos, and Karis with banner!

We also want to thank those individuals/groups that gave generously to help towards the event.

Over 350 adults and 50 children joined us for the banquet. (It was hard to keep the total numbers because several groups/families came early and left, and others came later into the program.)

Our guests came from 48 countries:

Afghanistan
Bolivia, Brazil
Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea
Guatemala
Haiti, Honduras
India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel
Jordan
Korea
Lebanon
Madagascar, Malaysia, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco
Nepal, Nicauraga, Nigeria
Pakistan, Peru, Philippines
Russia
Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Syria
Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey
Venezuela, Vietnam
Zambia

In closing, we want to share our deepest gratitude and praise to Our Lord Jesus Christ for making this amazing event possible…it was His death and resurrection that has brought people from different nations to worship and fellowship together.

Celebrating and proclaiming our Lord’s resurrection with you,
Pastor James & Faith Cha