Prince Tambi came to the Seminary from Sierra Leone in August, 1995. He met the U.C. in 1983 when he had just completed one year of his undergraduate study of geology, but did not begin active service until 1993. He continued in school and completed his degree in 1987. He studied the Principle and attended services during his years at college but lost touch with the center after that.
After graduation, Prince worked for the Peace Corps as a language and cross cultural coordinator. He trained the trainers and taught them local languages as well as cultural relativity; how to appreciate other cultures and how to adjust to a new cultural setting. He did this work for five years during which time he also traveled to Kenya and Tanzania to teach ESL and language learning strategies. He is fluent in Mende, Kono and Krio, which are local African languages, as well as in English and French. While he was in the Peace Corps, Prince was introduced to Science of Mind by one of his students. It is a strict rule in the Peace Corps that one cannot teach any kind of religious philosophy but this student felt compelled to teach Prince anyway and he was very moved by what she taught him and it changed his life.
He was known as a good teacher who made many innovations in the program and was well liked by his superiors and peers. However, gradually he began to have doubts about what he was teaching and he began to feel tongue tied when he stood up to teach because he realized that what he had been teaching was not correct in light of his past study of the Divine Principle and his study and experience with Science of Mind. At the same time he began to have visions for an international highway and other projects to help to unite people. He began to fast and pray and decided that he would begin his own new spiritual movement and resigned from the Peace Corps.
After he resigned, Prince went back to visit his old co-workers to have lunch with them in the courtyard behind their building. He turned around and saw his spiritual father whom he had not seen in many years and realized that the building backing theirs was the Unification Church. He went to visit and when he began to study again he saw that the visions he was having were already being realized by Reverend Moon and that he did not have to begin something new.
Prince moved into the center and felt that God was suffering because Father had such big dreams and goals and yet there were only four people in the center and there was no Sunday Service and no witnessing. He did a 7 day fast and they began to have Sunday Services to which he invited all of his former students. The center grew so much that they had to relocate and Prince was made the president of the church.
Prince’s goal is not limited to his country and he hopes to use his experience with cross cultural teaching to help people to see the manifestation of God’s diversity and beauty as a blessing not as a means for division. He would like to see more interaction among the different nationalities at UTS and says that language should not be a barrier or an excuse. He believes that Seminarians should grow faster, that they have a greater mission to reach out to the world and must first integrate and unite here and then they will have the power to move out. As Junior class president, his goal was to enliven and lead his class to serve others.
As Student Body President, Prince wants to bring new life and spiritual vitality to the seminary in order to achieve Father’s vision. He would like to gain a doctorate in the future and hopes to someday teach at UTS which he believes is a wonderful place with great potential to be used by God.

Debbie Truin