An Interview with Reverend Choi (Fasting Prayer Mountain of the World in Santa Cruz)
6:00pm Thursday April 7,2011
I had a privilege of having an interview with Reverend Choi, the overseer of the Fasting Prayer Mountain of the World that has been there for twenty-seven years, when I was up in the mountains for a time by myself. She is an honorable woman of God who looks much younger than her age and has much life and strength in her. When I look at her, I think of Mary who broke the very expensive perfume bottle that is worth a years’ wages before Jesus to offer Him her extravagant love. Mary and Reverend Choi are woman that really have dedicated their whole life to God and given themselves in total surrender. I hope you will be encouraged by her story and be strengthened in your faith.
Before I get into the interview, I would like to share a short history about what I heard about the Fasting Prayer Mountain from Ji (misspelled?), one of the staffs there. She was only about 33 years old when her husband died, leaving her with two children. Reverend Choi was called to be a servant of the Lord and do a prayer mountain when she was in her mid-40s. God told her to give Him everything, and the one thing that she had was the house that she was left with. She sold it and used the money to buy the small piece of land where God had directed her to purchase. (That house is the present-day restroom near the public kitchen.) She went through a lot of financial challenges throughout the early years and only ate ramen for one year. It was difficult and her faith was challenged many times. After that, God called her to buy another piece of land, which is the present-day administration building and main sanctuary where the services are being held. Eventually, it grew to 50 acres of beautiful scenery filled with wooden-benches and hundreds of hand-cut wooden seats with podiums and approximately over three dozens of cabins. But she also still has the vision to see it becoming 100 acres. She is presently 72 years old, and she said that she didn’t regret dedicating her life to it at all last year. She shared in a sermon that she would joyfully do it all over again if there was a second-life.
What are some of the craziest miracles that God has done in your life or for the people here at this Prayer Mountain?
- Cause I’m in here it is a miracle. If God did not help me or give me the vision, I wouldn’t be here. (Listen to the history and also the whole interview and you will understand this later on.)
What keeps you going from one day to the next? You have been doing this for 27 years, what keeps you on going?
- First thing, we’re waiting for Jesus Christ to come back to this world. This is going on in our mind all the time but every day we have to… do what we could do and then what man cannot do but what God can do, that is a miracle. We expect a miracle every day doing what we could do and what we couldn’t do, God will do it. We also prepare people to be ready for Jesus Christ. We equip and arm by the Word of God through prayer.
What were some of your most difficult times and how did you overcome them?
- With the Word of God. Depend on the Holy Spirit! We cannot overcome without Him! Everything is simple. We cannot overcome it by ourselves so ALL the time depend on the Holy Spirit. That is what we are training in every day and every moment. Ya!
What do you want to leave off for the next generation?
- With more Bible & prayer. Come back to the Word of God. Read more Bible and come back to the Word of God without using computer but with the Bible.
What is the vision for the people after you and the youths of this generation?
- The vision for the next generation is to be empowered by the anointing of the Holy Spirit more than DOUBLE of what [I] have now. We need the double anointing of the Holy Spirit because the next generation is more evil than this generation that we are living. Before Elijah was taken to heaven, Elisha asked Elijah to pray for me the double portion of the Spirit of Elijah. And God answered him and gave the double portion of the anointing to Elisha.
People long for the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They want the gifts of healing, prophecy, tongues but more important than the gifts of the Holy Spirit is God the Holy Spirit who gives these gifts to people.
Rebecca (younger sister and translator), “First time when she came to the prayer mountain, she doesn’t know what is a hole but now I told her, ‘Reverend Choi, you are a gardener, cooker, engineer…” The whole mountain, you see, the chairs are her job; deck is very expensive to hire some engineer for foundation but as she worked, God gave her wisdom. With that she has even built deck, even tile, she even built the kitchen with the electricity… everything…”
Reverend Choi, “You have to surrender you whole life, your strength, your time, nothing is yours. You must give everything to God and you will experience and can expect miracles when you surrender your life to God. You will see miracles, wonders, that you cannot even phantom. Ok! God bless you! “
A recent miracle story: They had a big storm last week in the beginning of April. There are four of the cabins right in the very bottom. Reverend Choi wanted a view so she can see better. So there were two storms that came in. These big red wood trees came down. The big trees went down right between them all without destroying the cabins. The power lines were not hit by them at all. They have been paying a lot of money to take the trees down but they just went down.