The Words of the Burton Family

Personal Note on In Jin Nim in Sao Paolo

Douglas Burton
June 7, 2010

Hey guys,

Greetings from sunny, breezy Sao Paolo!

We are near the close of the first day of In Jin nim's stealth invasion of Brazil. (At least it was supposed to be stealth). I am typing this from my room in the Mercure hotel. In Jin nim was the featured speaker at the Hoon Dok Hae at 5 a.m. and later at the Legacy of Peace service, which lasted for 4 and a half hours. The church sanctuary on the 2nd floor was packed, even more folks than last week, about 1,000 people.

The video of Father writing the proclamation AND explaining it to True Mother.

No disruptions at all, and two leaders who cooperated to assist Hyun Jin last Sunday have repented and returned to the fold. The Brazilian members seemed to love her and shouted an enthusiastic "Si!" to her question: "Should I bring Lovin Life to Brazil?" After the service, In Jin greeted every single member who wanted to shake her hand and posed for pictures with all who wanted them, this went on for at least an hour. Charm offensive at max level.

An advance party arrived early Saturday morning, and In Jin with some members of LLM band (Ben, Il Hwa, and Josh Cotter) arrived late Sat night. We had planning meetings until 12;30 a.m. to discuss the schedule of following days. Rev. Ferabolli recapped what had happened last Sunday. The takeover of the stage was completely unexpected. Hoon Dok Hae at 5 had a big crowd, about 150 whereas reportedly there are usually about 25. In Jin nim explained the meaning of the names of all 14 children, and clarified that True Father had chosen the youngest son to be the authority for a good reason. She praised Simon Ferabolli for outstanding leadership and Rev. Shin as well and pointed out that the whole world was watching the Brazilian church right now, that this was a cause for all the members to be proud of their church. Quite a few of those present were shedding tears to hear this.

The good news is that Father's proclamation appears to have served as the Riot Act for Waldir Cypriani and Mauricios Baldini, the two guys who were translating for Hyun last Sunday. Both of these guys have apologized to Rev. Shin, and resigned their positions in the 5 member Supreme Council that Hyun Jin set up in January of last year to act as a board of directors for the Brazilian church. The three remaining members are Rick Perrea, Thomas Field and John Morris -- all Americans I'm told. Both Cypriani and Baldini were the targets of intense lobbying Saturday by the local Korean national leader, Heun Tae Kim, and both were present at the Legacy of Peace service and greeted In Jin nim and posed with her for pictures.

Is all sweetness and light? No, not necessarily. The Supreme Council had previously called for a precipitous meeting of the General assembly of members next Saturday, June 12, to vote on whether to change the national leader. Apparently, they can't remove Simon unilaterally. Mauricio, who now appears to be on the side of the angels, says that the call for a vote has been notarized, and can't be reversed. "We must now talk to the lawyers," he tells me.

I did get some confirmation from one of the Brazilian regional leaders that there has been an understory of resentment among several of the members regarding the management errors of some of the Korean national leaders. Among other things, the leaders have ignored building codes and zoning restrictions for certain buildings and improvements resulting in major fines, some of which were ignored, so some fines are over a million dollars. Also, farmers adjacent to Jardim complain that it's unfair for them to have to pay taxes, whereas the church-owned farms pay no taxes, even though they operated like profit making businesses. So the government authorities have made efforts to seize the Jardim holdings. Apparently, Hyun's faction has played into this resentment against Korean upper-level management. However, I think there has been a major movement in opinion changing as a result of the services held today. We'll see. It may be argued that a pre-condition for getting a Korean leader gid in South America would be a certificate of passing a civics class at a decent community College. Maybe the tide has changed, or maybe not.

Yet, on this anniversary day marking the 66th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Europe, it is fair to say that In Jin nim and her team have established a very secure and promising beachhead in Sao Paolo.

Hope this helps!

Doug 

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