IN THE BEGINNING

How the Good News Mission was founded

The Good News Mission sprouted from the faith of the forgiveness of sins that Pastor Ock Soo Park received by the grace of God.

When he was still young, Pastor Ock Soo Park felt that he could do nothing but give himself to the Lord, so he decided to walk the path of a gospel preacher. Although he faced poverty, coldness, and hunger, he received the great dream and the promise of preaching gospel all around the world.

“Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” (Psalm 2:8)

Now, through tremendous faith and grace, we can see the many fruits of the gospel across the globe.

THE QUESTION

“Did you receive salvation?”
“What? Salvation?”
“How can you evangelize to others when you are not even saved?”
“……”

Ock Soo Park, a student at Seonsan Middle School at the time, was shocked by the surprising question from missionary Kays Glass.

The missionary was the first missionary to Korea from WEC International (England), an organization that had already sent thousands of missionaries worldwide.

This question made young Ock Soo think about his current spiritual life and it became a milestone that guided him to find the path of being born again.

SALVATION

At that moment, the faith that “all of my sins are washed as white as snow by the blood of Jesus” came into my heart.

“My mother started to go to church ever since she was single. Thus, I grew up in a Presbyterian church. I tried hard to keep the law and dedicated myself to live as a good person. However, I struggled to get out of sin, and the sin would overcome me all the time. Whenever I committed a sin, I felt so much pain and shame. I would confess and repent for my sins and ask for forgiveness every early morning, however, I continued to commit sin and would wind up repenting once again. God was pouring his special grace to such a person like me and He blocked all of my attempts to save myself. Amazingly, when I no longer had any way, Jesus became my way and salvation.

In the early morning of October 7th, 1962, I was in deep despair. I went in front of God and started to pray for my sins. At that moment, the faith that ‘all of my sins are washed as white as snow by the blood of Jesus‘ came into my heart. That day, the Holy Spirit worked in me – I was freed from the sins that tortured me for so long and received true peace in my heart.“

DEDICATION

“Lord, please accept my body”

“After I received salvation, I was so thankful and wanted to give an offering to God but I had no money. Since I had nothing else to give, I decided to give my body to the Lord. But then I thought, ‘What can I possibly do? I am such a useless person.’

I thought about it and I realized that I could at least organize shoes for the kids at Sunday School, clean their runny noses, take care of the church garden, and help the widows in my village by fixing their broken heaters, roofs and windows of their houses. I thought that I would be so happy if I can at least do those things for the God. ‘I cannot repay the grace that I have received, even with my tears. I have nothing but my body but I dedicate it to you.'”