HOW HEALING GRACE STARTED
“I feel like a slave who has been set free”
Healing Grace Ministries was founded by Peter and Sunny Choi.
Married in 1997, early on in their marriage, the Lord led Peter into a time of self-evaluation, and he started to pray out, "God, I am sick and tired of being spiritually sick and spiritually tired." The Lord used this prayer to direct Peter on a journey toward a deeper encounter with the Holy Spirit, because he ended up praying that out for the next 10 years. In the 10 years of crying out to the Lord for saving, the Holy Spirit was very gently and lovingly revealing to Peter that his past had a significant impact on who he was in the present and also on all of his relationships -- as a Christian, a husband, a father to three children, etc. -- because he had grown up in a very abusive, dysfunctional and violent home. Perhaps somewhere in there was the root.
In the summer of 2008, Peter was down in Jacksonville, Florida, and in what was nothing less than God's sovereignty and divine appointment in a series of events and circumstances, the Lord connected Peter with Christian Healing Ministries, the ministry of Dr. Francis and Judith MacNutt. Peter, at this point desperate to try anything, went to a walk-in session to receive prayer in the hopes that God would answer his cry that he had wrestled with for 10 years. He was desperate for healing, renewal and hope. In the prayer session, Jesus showed up, and in the beautiful and powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit, God set Peter free from the wounds of his past. Afterwards, he checked himself, and his response was, "I feel like a slave who has been set free."
Returning back home to the Northern Virginia area, the radical transforming power of the Holy Spirit was significantly recognized, as people commented that Peter even looked different. One of the most notable changes came in his relationship with his parents. Peter was able to meet with his parents whom he hadn't seen in years and say to each of them, "I choose to forgive you, I choose to love you."
Soaking in the presence of the Holy Spirit over a period of time, both Peter and Sunny felt a strong calling to go into this healing prayer ministry. They felt God's deep desire to bring the healing message of the gospel of Jesus Christ specifically to the shame-based Asian-American culture, but also to anyone hungry for God's healing, to anyone desperate to touch the hem of his garment in the hopes to be healed. So, over the course of one year, Peter and Sunny received their training at all four levels of Christian Healing Ministries' School of Healing Prayer. They continued to receive further healing and confirmation of their calling to this ministry.
In March 2009, Peter and Sunny were asked to share their testimonies in the middle of a sermon during Sunday worship at Open Door Presbyterian Church. It felt as though something "broke" (in a good way) in people's hearts. What the Asian-American culture told them was to hide the ugly parts of their lives by slipping it under the rug and to present a false self. However, their testimonies were raw and very real -- and instead of being filled with shame, it was filled with hope and joy because of what Jesus had done. Here was this reality that God was not only concerned about our after-life, but his desires are to save and transform our lives today so that we might live in freedom, having been made whole.
From this "breaking," the Lord led people to Peter and Sunny to receive prayer, and Jesus faithfully showed up to bring his healing as only he can bring. Peter and Sunny established a non-profit organization in September 2009, and this healing prayer ministry was officially born. This new venture was to be a ministry of praying for that life-changing grace through Jesus' healing and freedom. From this idea, the Lord led Peter and Sunny to set the name of this ministry as Healing Grace Ministries. Healing Grace's logo is an open prison door, an image that cries out freedom. The logo reminds Peter of his natural reaction as he said, "Wow, I feel like a slave who's been set free." And likewise, Healing Grace bears witness to countless similar reactions when the Holy Spirit touches the heart of the people who receive prayer. It's the healing power of Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Healing Grace is predominantly supported by the prayers and the financial donations of people who believe in this ministry and Jesus' healing and desire to partner with us in the call to spread the message of the healing gospel of Jesus Christ and the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
There are additional details of their story that weren't included in this section for the sake of length. Please feel free to ask Sunny and Peter to share the details of their story with you. They love sharing about what Jesus has done.