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(Photo : Christianity Daily)

On Tuesday night, Korea Campus Crusade for Christ’s annual “Higher Calling” Conference had its fifth main plenary session. The overall purpose for this year’s conference was to motivate the youth and college students to be a light to their world.

In this particular session, the national director of Korea Campus Crusade for Christ (KCCC) USA, Dong Whan Kim, spoke and preached from John 9:1-12 as his son, David Kim—who is also serving as a full-time KCCC staff—translated. The passage was on Jesus healing a man who was born blind.

A common question people often raise is why a certain event of suffering or tragedy occur in people's lives. In the passage, Jesus’ disciples have a similar question, and ask Jesus if the man had been born blind due to his own sins, or the sins of his parents. Kim argued from the text that the man’s blindness was actually “so that the work of God would be displayed in this person’s life.”

Kim’s contention is that through the blind man, Jesus declared himself to be the light of the world. By this light of the world, God is trying to reveal something hidden since the creation of the world. That is the kingdom of God. Kim went on to say, “God is trying to open our spiritual eyes to see that the Kingdom of God is coming and advancing forth throughout the world.” He encouraged the attendees to ask to be used by God and as a result, their hearts will change and they will be able to realize that Jesus becomes the power to overcome all circumstances.

In an interview, Kim shared that he hopes that through this conference, everyone will see the light of the world found in Jesus and have a kingdom perspective to go out and be a reflection of that light in the world. He continued, “No matter what challenges lie ahead, the Kingdom of God will stand. So I hope that each and every student will hold firmly in the truth of God and stand firm with Christ.”

After Kim ended his message, there was a special extended time of worship and celebration. Traditionally this praise night would be the main event that people looked the most forward to. Compared to the atmosphere of other worship periods from previous sessions, people were more inclined to feel free and expressive to worship in this particular session.

Joanne Park, a junior who attended the conference through Global Mission Church, described the experience and said, “It was my first time that I was able to praise so freely. It was exciting to see people so passionate and go all out for God. It was in those moments I realized the truth that God loved me and that Jesus died for me.”

The plenary session also included a time in which attendees were challenged to make faith commitments before God. Joseph Seung, a first year UC Riverside student, made his commitment for short-term missions during the session.

“I thought the last session was beautiful,” Seung said. “When I was worshipping, I believe the Holy Spirit was in the room and moved the congregation. I saw people praising on their knees and with hands lifted high. It was beautiful… The last session was just an amazing and memorable experience. Higher Calling has truly given me an experience which I will never forget.”

The night was ended by a special encore performance by this year’s Higher Calling CCM contest winner, Shannon Bae, who sang Whitney Houston’s “I Look to You.”

Korea Campus Crusade for Christ hosts Higher Calling Conference every year to inspire and motivate the younger generation of Christians to be mission-minded and partake in the Great Commission. For more information go to http://gohighercalling.org/

Sam Moon is a volunteer student writer from California State University, Fullerton.