Che Ahn: The Call

Nov 19, 2003 10:57 AM EST

The founder and president of Harvest International Ministries recalls his delinquent youth and the experience of changed life.



When Che was a child, his father, a Baptist minister from South Korea, would punish him for failing to earn good grades. Soon he confronted his parents rebelliously, living life without God, getting into drugs and alcohol. It was at the age of 17 when he came back to the Lord at a rock concert. He was cynical as he witnessed the manifestation of the Holy Spirit looking at people shaking, trembling, laughing, and weeping. Che simply thought they were responding as a mass hysteria at the meeting until the Holy Spirit came to him.



He was surrounded by the amazing power of the Holy Spirit which helped him to remove bitterness he had against his father He found himself laughing with no depression lingering in his heart.



He was excited about ministry again and was in love with Jesus. In 1996 he came back to his parents asking for forgiveness.



Several years ago, Che felt the Lord tell him after the 1997 Promise Keepers event in Washington, D.C., to organize a solemn assembly.



"The main focus was not to be just another event," says Che. The speakers and artists participating in the event were not advertised. "This was not a concert," he says. The first event was held in the nation’s capital, and the youth who attended were called to fast and pray to create a violent shift in the destiny of America.



"When people pray and fast, God moves," says Che. "The mandate comes from Joel 2 that two generations fast and pray." What Che is seeing around the world is an underground version of the Jesus movement.



"Prayer is taking off in schools, and we are hearing about a tremendous number of conversions," says Che.



In The Call School, Che says that of the 52 full-time students, 17 were on drugs and lost. "Today, each one has a sovereign testimony."



Ché Ahn is senior pastor of Harvest Rock church in Pasadena, California, a multi-ethnic congregation, hosting international conferences each year. Ché is also founder and president of Harvest International Ministries, a worldwide network of over 600 churches and ministries with a common vision to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.



Additionally, Ché serves as CEO and Chairman of the Board for The Call, a movement calling young people and parents throughout our Nation and the world to prayer, consecration and righteousness, believing for a global revival.



Ché received his M.Div. and D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary and has played a key role in many strategic local, national and international outreaches. Author of numerous books, he travels extensively throughout the U.S, Asia, Europe and Mexico bringing apostolic insight with an impartation of renewal, healing and evangelism.