The Words of the Iversen Family

HARP News from Ireland, Britain, Norway, Germany, Austria and Spain

Vicky Iversen
March 2003

Ireland

Hello!!! Brothers and Sisters! All over Europe!!

Well, this month of April has been good for us.

I wanted to prepare some fun activity as well as some community service. We are a small group and we are hardly together.

On the 6th after Sunday service we got our HARP IRELAND T-shirts and went to a hospital to lighten the people's hearts with some good songs. Even though we were unable to do every ward in the hospital, we did a few songs, and just seeing the smile on the faces of our older generation, and seeing them sing along, I tell you it's a great feeling. You feel you want to sing all day!

After the Hospital, we returned to the centre, ate our lunch and we were off again to a big swimming park that had just opened. There the HARP members enjoyed the rest of the day! Well, it was one full day, and I think as well that without the help of our 1st gen, it couldn't have really been a success.

I want to thank them for a full day! And for all the support.

Lots of love
imn
Irish HARP Leader
Vicky Iversen

Britain

  1. CARP /HARP Sunday Service, March 30th
    1. Attendance for this month: 100.
    2. Sermon given by Simon, followed after by lunch at the holy tree, regional discussions, and then sports in the park organised by Lizzy Moore and some CARP members
  2. CARP /HARP Witnessing Day, Saturday 22nd March
    1. 12 HARP (N & S London) 9 CARP, 8 parents, 6 guests
    2. in the afternoon the ETF members shared testimonies with the HARP members, very inspiring
  3. Trip to Paris, 13 - 17 March
    1. 10 went, 7 regional HARP leaders (Tim Franklin, Theresa Earle, Yoshiko Chellew, Sarah Hanna, Kyung Il La Rocca and Rebecca Coombs) and 3 CARP staff. (Chris Chasseaud, Isabel Robertson and Miriam Z). Purpose was for French and UK HARP to meet, inspire, share and learn from each other, also to bond as a group of British HARP leaders. We held one long British reporting and sharing session met Hoon Sook Nim and saw the Universal Ballet performance, French and UK staff gave a joint Sunday Service, there were games and sharing, and a free day in Euro Disney.
    2. Very good to have fun together in a principled environment, need to work now on encouraging responsibility with these leaders
  4. Oscars party
    1. Isabel, Miriam R and Lizzy Moore organised a girly evening for CARP, HARP and ETF sisters in Lancaster Gate to dress up and celebrate the Oscars. This was a good event for fun and bonding, and unity between the three groups. Especially good to be just sisters together. Talking continued long into the night, and was followed by Hoon Dok Hae from 5 am.
  5. HARP Membership forms sent out.
  6. To keep records updated and give members the chance to own their HARP membership. In the first week 4 were returned. Going to make ID cards when enough have come in.
  7. Preparing for SHUK Workshop (17- 21st April)
    1. Main staff met several times already, and doing a reading and studying condition together for 21 days.(Chris C, Isabel, Lizzy, Parmy, Miriam R and Z).
    2. Already 70 British applied and 38 European.
    3. Schedule will focus on understanding the ideals and responsibility of Cheon Il Guk
    4. Have received about 200 euros from WFWP to support transport from London to Cleeve House

Thanks

Miriam Zaccarelli

Trip to Paris by some British HARP Leaders

Theresa Earle

On first hearing that a trip was being organized for HARP representatives to France I was really excited to have such an opportunity to meet up with everyone as living in Birmingham these chances are few and far between. I agreed to come on the trip and when reflecting I really tried to think of what I could offer on behalf of everyone in Birmingham but also what I could learn from all the other regions. Looking back now on the weekend I learnt so much in so many ways I didn't expect.

The meeting for British HARP on the first day was really successful. It was so refreshing to hear all the wonderful activities that run regularly in every region. | picked up many ideas for ways to organize activities which will be fun but also educational for the younger harpies. It was also very useful to get an idea of how HARP is run and its position within the churches structure as a whole. I think we managed to come away with a set of clear and achievable goals to work on for improving the future of British Harp. One point that really struck me was the fact that we need to volunteer ourselves to give help and ideas rather than leaving the burden on leaders to chase us up. I also realized the importance of parental support in the running of HARP and the need to establish this in each region.

As well as meeting together as British representatives it was such a great experience to be able to meet up with lots of French Harp on the Sunday. It was such a great feeling to feel so welcomed in another country knowing the current relationship between the countries' governments. The French had such great spirit it was amazing to see the power youth can create. Unfortunately I couldn't find out much about the running of Harp in France due to an early departure but I still learnt quite a bit about the French approach from the National Harp leader. We were extremely lucky to be able to lodge in the French Carp house. The hospitality we received was amazing being provided with such wonderful food and guides for taking us to our required destinations around France. I learnt a lot from the amazing sacrificial life these brothers and sisters live by and their wonderful heart always willing to help.

Another reason for going all the way to France was to see the Universal Ballet perform while they were touring in France. I hadn't been to a ballet before so it was a completely new experience. The performance was outstanding and I was overwhelmed by the tremendous grace and beauty portrayed by every member of the troop. More importantly going to see the ballet was an opportunity to see Hoon Sook Nim. Although I couldn't stay to see her personally we managed to sneak backstage to catch a glimpse of her beauty. This experience was very educational for me as I could learn more about her suffering course as a true child and about the background to the ballet. It was really well planned that on Sunday the service explored aspects of Art and it's importance in the providence. I learnt so much about this topic which I had never seriously considered before. It was amazing to see the huge way art is affecting society today and the potential positive impact we could make in so many ways.

As well as all the events and meetings during the weekend even traveling was a wonderful new encounter. It gave us the time to get to know everyone better and also to discuss thought provoking issues. Through all the traveling I realized how important our behavior in public is. This particularly struck me during one journey when we were all reading Hoon Dok Hae on the train. We remained genuinely sincere and tried to put in 100% despite the unusual circumstances. It was really uplifting to see some people showing an interest and listening in to our reading. Through all the traveling I became aware of how we can even make use of the time spent on transport to try and reach out to people.

Being able to visit areas in France was also exciting as I could really grasp an idea of the true French culture and mentality. On the whole I think every minute of my time in France was a learning experience which I feel has helped me to develop my character and broaden my perceptions endlessly. I hope now this enthusiasm can be maintained as we try hard to pioneer more for the HARP members across Britain. Thank you again to Chris and Jago and Estelle and Laurent Le Duce and all the French Harp and Carp who made our weekend memorable.

Theresa Earle

Norway

Hey! How are you all doing? I hope you all are doing well, and that your work is running smoothly. I must say that things in the Norwegian HARP seem to have come to a temporary stop. We were supposed to have done FR already, but somehow we didn't go through with it. But what we've done in the two last meetings is to prepare ourselves even more for FR. Just so that we are ready for any challenge that may try to hinder us. There's no such a thing as being 100% ready for anything, because you never know what'll happen next. But what you can be, is a 100% sure that you'll face all challenges with nothing else than joy and determination to turn it into something good.

Also, having only two meetings a month can be very risky, especially thinking of how difficult it is for everybody to come. Well, I guess that as we every second are one second closer to summer our activities will surely blossom. One thing is for sure, no one has given up. After our minor stop we'll be ready to rock and roll.

That's all for now from the far north. "There is always hope." Take care now, bye bye then...

With many greetings from Irene and Thomas

Norwegian HARP leaders

Germany

March was a month without any national HARP activities, since we had no long weekends. We just met as the committee and planned workshops coming up within the next few months, since we will have Easter vacation and several "long weekends".

We are planning to have one big national Easter DP-workshop in the CARP house in Berlin for a week, a three to four day workshop for the elder BCs from ages 16 and up and separate boys and girls workshops, also for three to four days.

Yeah. Those are our plans and we hope that though we provide quantity we can also guarantee high quality.

I wish you all the best.

Greetings from Germany

For the German HARP committee: J. Noguchi

Austria

Hello Europe!

Things that were happening this month were...

The Viennese HARP organised a 2 day Carnival Meeting on the 1st and 2nd of March. All Austrian HARPies were invited, so it became more like a national meeting. HARPies from Upper Austria and Styria joined in, and some brought friends along. They played team-games and competitions, watched some movies, had step-dancing sessions (which one friend started) and didnt sleep much. Sunday morning, our HARP President gave the sermon and closed the meeting with words about showing honest gratitude.

That weekend the last year's committee was reunited. It was just nice to get together again and share about how everyone is doing, some are still active in HARP, others concentrating more on finishing school.

In Vienna, other activities were the monthly soccer game on the 15th of March, and also a new project started on the 12th of this month-DP studies. They are held every second Wednesday evening. P. Haider is organising that, together with Reinhard Bauer, our former HARP President. It's a small group and it's good like that, because each person gets attention and answers to questions, which is essential for serious studies.

On the 4th of March the Committee met to plan the Easter WS and divide up the responsibilities to cover all the preparation work. Since then we are all very busy.

On the 21st till the 23rd of March Andreas and I went on another tour to visit HARPies and their parents. This time we went to Carinthia and Styria. And again, it was a good thing to talk to the parents to clear up some points and to spend time with the HARPies. They were happy that we came, and had good ideas of how to contribute to HARP. Now we visited every region to discover the different situations of each family.

Another project of the Committee was a day of FR. I had planned to take out a team of older HARPies for FR long before, but we never had a clear goal. Now one brother had the idea to create a fund to support HARPies who can't afford WS. We already supported those HARPies, but now we save money especially for that purpose. The reason to go FR was to have a good and new experience and we agreed to support this fund with our monetary results. We achieved both of those goals.

In Tyrol they also had a brilliant idea. The older HARPies gave a sermon where each one shared their thoughts on the topic "2nd Generation: their mission and destiny". The parents enjoyed it very much. The sign of appreciation is that those HARPies will go to watch a movie together.

So, that's an overview of our activities. Soon we will have our Easter WS for Senior HARP and most of you probably as well. Wish you all the best!

Elisabeth Riehl - Austrian HARP leader

Spain

Greetings from Spain

This month we had our very first national workshop organized by HARPies. People came from all over the country and also those who usually dont come to our activities. It was a new experience for us to make a workshop without the support of the 1st Generation. It has been a real challenge for us since we started in January until the end. We had a lot of health problems like headache. Also the weather wasnt well, it was raining everyday. But after all, the workshop was really inspiring and everybody liked it. Of course there were a lot of mistakes, but essentially we could make a good atmosphere and we did a great workshop.

This workshop had changed the minds of lots of people (including myself), and I think that things will be different from now on. We are going to re-organize the HARPies and we are going to give more responsibilities to everybody, because we want everyone to have a chance to give something for God and HARP.

Anyway, my only hope now is that well be able to keep on inspired and do as well as we can, because for the moment we are the elder brothers of Spanish 2nd Generation.

Carlos Badosa, Spanish HARP Committee

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