As the Greater New York Billy Graham Crusade is coming in June, the Oversea Chinese Mission (OCM) is busy preparing, organizing, and promoting the event for the benefit of Chinese Christian communities. OCM expressed hopes that their efforts would get the Chinese Christian communities involved.
The Greater New York Crusade, scheduled for June 20 is reportedly the seventh and final New York area crusade for Billy Graham. The last time New Yorkers got a glimpse of the famed evangelist in their hometown was in 1990 -- 15 years ago.
The promotion for this crusade in Chinese-American Christian communities started in the beginning of this year. According to Pastor Ephod Shang, pastor of Youth & Students and IT co-administrator of OCM, said that the organization is now currently "assisting the Billy Graham Crusade office to organize a committee...of Chinese churches to address this particular matter of reaching the Chinese community".
A conference, he says, will hopefully be held this Friday with the participation of top Chinese Christian leaders in the area.
In addition, OCM plans to create ways from which to address "issues of translation and interpretation brought to the table to address."
In the following month, a series of pre-crusade events will be held, such as a Pastor's training, Youth and Children Sunday School Teachers' training, and Christian Life and Witness Course. All the courses will be offered in Mandarin and Cantonese.
According to urban-demographics analysts, New York City currently boast the largest population of Chinese in the continental United States. Some sources say that New York Chinatown is currently the largest of all United States' Chinatowns.
Pastor Shang said that they are trying to bring more Chinese American churches to participate in the crusade. "The goal is to have a group of churches take part instead of just one church," he said.
