A special Sunday service on purity, godliness, and AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases electrified and moved the New Hope Family Church on Sunday, March 25. The Washington AIDS International Teens performance group transformed the regular Sunday service into a multimedia extravaganza and cauldron of inspiration.

The main message for young people was to hold off on sexual intimacy until making a marriage commitment to a lifelong partner. The main message for older adults was to model purity and keep channels of communication open for younger people. And the message for everyone was to be a beacon of godliness for all around us, by remembering that we are absolutely precious in God’s sight, and that we hold God’s heart, not to mention our own happiness, in our hands.

"A lot of the youth in the audience at our WAIT performance in [the Caribbean island of] Trinidad and Tobago thought I looked just like one of the characters in the movie High School Musical," said 19-year-old WAIT member Triton Marks. "When they heard I’ve made the choice to be sexually abstinent, they were blown away." The first reaction of the fascinated girls in the audience, Triton said, was to try to get as close to him as possible to check out if he was the genuine article. Needless to say, he kept things on the level of simple friendship and purity, inculcating the WAIT message even more strongly.

WAIT team adult coordinator Kate Tsubata started off the March 25 service with a hard-hitting PowerPoint presentation on the impact of AIDS worldwide and close to home.

And after that, the WAIT team never stopped pouring it on. They proceeded to tell the story of the threat of AIDS – and of the hope offered by God-centered self-esteem – through songs, break dancing, testimonies, rap, and modern dance.

WAIT’s philosophy is that the performing arts are an effective means of communication to today’s audiences, especially younger ones. Listeners retain information presented in lectures very poorly. But when that same information is dramatically presented in song, poetry, video, and so forth, it’s retained much better, because multiple levels of the human person are stimulated – the emotional and the aesthetic, as well as the intellectual.
-- Bob Selle

As the pastor, I was thrilled to see that there are young BCs as well as non-BCs working together and putting the Divine Principle into action. Their personal testimonies as they related to the Sunday service topic were stirring and showed how each presenter had found his or her own personal God-given gift, be it poetry, dance, song, etc., and used it to express truth and save lives. After all, this was not just a presentation to educate about AIDS, but also a testimony about how the truth, when applied, transforms lives – and also that we need to share that and touch others with it, even one person at a time.

In line with our monthly theme of "Growth on All Levels," it demonstrated that if one takes personal responsibility from the heart, growth occurs on all levels.

The whole service touched and challenged First and Second Generation alike and especially demonstrated to our young people that life can be meaningful and exciting in service to the world.

The WAIT team put on the entire service with some of our regular elements such as offertory and readings, singing one Holy Song partially in French. Kazuo Tsubata poured out his heart at the offertory prayer in tears about the preciousness of our children. Also Kate Tsubata expressed at the beginning their ABSOLUTE commitment to saving lives from AIDS. During the entire service, the Spirit of God was a powerful presence in the room, and all left inspired, edified and challenged to save ourselves and save the world.

There is no doubt in my mind that it takes a committed couple, committed young people and a clear vision to make this kind of ministry successful. I expressed my hope to our congregation that more and more committed couples (First Generation) will feel the call to develop programs like this in other areas such as sports, outdoor survival, etc., TOGETHER with our next generation, to save ourselves and the world.

I highly recommend inviting the WAIT team to other Sunday services around the country to inspire our youth as well as adults and guests. It is a great example and testimony of God in this Cheon Il Guk Era.

Videotapes are available from Nick Kernan: nkernan@ washingtontimes,com. The WAIT team is open to travel. For more details, call Kate Tsubata at 301-395-4998. Attached are some photos as well as the lyrics of a song that was sung and expressed in a beautiful dance choreographed by Christella Hardman.

With love

Pastor Angelika Selle
New Hope Family Church and Community

The lights go out all around me
One last candle to keep out the night
And then the darkness surrounds me
I know I'm alive
But I feel like I've died

And all that's left is to accept that it's over
My dreams ran like sand through the fists that I made
I try to keep warm but I just grow colder
I feel like I'm slipping away

Chorus:

After all this has passed
I still will remain
After I've cried my last
There'll be beauty from pain
Though it won't be today
Someday I'll hope again
And there'll be beauty from pain
You will bring beauty from my pain

My whole world is the pain inside me
The best I can do is just get through the day
When life before is only a memory
I wonder why God let's me walk through this place

And though I can't understand why this happened
I know that I will when I look back someday
And see how You've brought beauty from ashes
And made me as gold purified through these flames

(Chorus)

Here and I am at the end of me (at the end of me)
Trying to hold to what I can't see
I forgot how to hope
This night's been so long
I cling to your promise there will be a dawn

(Chorus)