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The Search’s End

Multitudes Find Jesus at Jubilee 2000 and World Youth Day Gathering

On the immense university campus of Tor Vergata, east of Rome, more than 2 million young people from all over the world came together to celebrate the 15th World Youth Day. (To help you appreciate the magnitude of this event, about half a million attended the famous
Woodstock rock festival of 1969.) The August 20, 2000, happening
was actually just the climax of a weeklong event that was sponsored
by the Catholic Church, and thus attracted many young people from all corners of the earth and various religious backgrounds who were searching for truth and wanted to know God.

In the face of such numbers, we wondered how we young members of the Family could effectively contribute. The answer was simple: By sharing the happiness and purpose we have found in Jesus, we could bring at least some of the participants the message of our Savior’s love and seal it in their hearts. This is what motivated us to go day and night to the squares of Rome.

Our greatest joy was seeing happiness on the faces of those who discovered the love of Jesus and His free gift of salvation through our songs and personal explanations of how Jesus had changed our lives. When talking with these teenagers and young adults, we realized that many were confused about life and were searching for the truth. Even some of those who had been raised in Christian faiths had been unable to find the answers to their problems and existential questions, and were turning to oriental religions or alternative philosophies.

Thus says the Lord God: “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day”.(Ezekiel 34:11–12)

We prayed for the Lord to help us find those who were confused, and to be able to help them understand that Jesus and the Bible have the answers they were seeking. We also prayed to be living examples of His love.

After that, we walked down the streets and into the squares with the confidence that the Holy Spirit would speak to the people through God’s Word.

Throughout the week, we went to Piazza di Spagna with guitars and sandwich boards bearing Bible verses, and joined the immense crowds there. We sang in English and Italian, danced, praised the Lord, and brought thousands a message that was both alive and worth living for.

Each of us had the opportunity to tell many others about the happiness and peace that God gave us when we opened the door of our hearts to Jesus. We also showed those we talked with verses in the Bible that specifically answered their questions.

We found that many of them had never opened a Bible, and that’s why they didn’t have answers to life’s big questions. They didn’t know that God had given the Bible for them, for that very purpose.

Through verses like, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16); “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); and “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5),
we helped people understand that everlasting life is a free gift of God, made possible to us by Jesus, and that they didn’t have to try to earn it by good works, which is impossible anyway.

Many were surprised to learn that the prophet Amos foretold thousands of years ago that one day many young people would search for spirituality and a path to God through eastern religions, but not find it there. “‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord God, ‘that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall
wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the Word of the Lord, but shall not find it. In that day the fair virgins and strong young men shall faint from thirst’” (Amos 8:11–13).

This spiritual thirst can only be satisfied by Jesus, as He explained to the Samaritan woman at the well: “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water. … Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but … the water
that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10,13–14). Jesus’ words are life (John 6:63). Those we talked with were very thankful to find the answers they sought in God’s Word. More than 2,000 people prayed with us to receive Jesus’ gift of eternal life. When each one received the Lord, we realized that the Lord had singled them out of the vast multitude and led us to them in order to further His plan in their lives.

Within a few minutes of our arrival on the final evening, a crowd had gathered around us, singing, dancing,
and clapping their hands. That attracted the attention of a film crew from the national TV channel, Tg2. A news clip featuring our songs and smiles was aired the next day, and was seen by millions of viewers.

The vast majority of the people there had just finished listening to a speech by Pope John Paul II, in which he challenged them to not just go home and forget it all, but to have the courage to do something concrete for Jesus with their lives. It was thrilling to be able to talk with a few of these young Christians who wanted to do something more for Jesus.

We continued to meet many others who were still sincerely searching for the true meaning of life. We stayed up the whole night, witnessing to individuals and small groups, and praying with people to receive Jesus and His gift of salvation. How many people were we able to reach? How many found what they had been searching for? We’ll never know in this life. What counts now is that a changed life can help change hundreds of others.

We offered our address to those who wanted to stay in touch, and have already started to receive letters telling us how their lives have changed for the better. Others have written that they are also now sowing the seed of God’s Word. Through them, the effects of our sharing God’s Word at the Jubilee celebrations are now being multiplied
around the world.

Please continue to pray with us that the seeds sown during Jubilee2000 and World Youth Day may blossom and bring fruit around the world.