The Words of the Doroski Family
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The Words of the Doroski Family |
It has been a custom of the 1800 Blessed Couples of America to celebrate their marriage anniversary with a shared dinner party and giving a gift of appreciation to True Parents. In 2006 Nanette and I organized the celebration for the 1800 couples and thus had the privilege to bring the annual gift to True Parents. We attended a Sunday gathering of many members in True Father's home in East Garden, New York with the purpose to present the gift after his speech but Father was whisked away after the speech. Even the drive to East Garden from my home was over seven hours round trip, Nanette and I decided to drive back the next morning the make another attempt to give the 1800 couple gift; along the way we bought the most breathtaking bouquet of long stem fresh roses from a local farm stand, pink with their edges lined with white tips.
When we explained our purpose, we were brought into Father Moon's breakfast room and seated around a large table were about twelve leaders of America having a breakfast meeting; Rev. Jenkins and Dr. Yang were there. At that moment Father Moon turned to us to receive the flowers and shared from the depth of his heart appreciation and stared at the roses for a few minutes remarking of their exquisite beauty. He then told the leaders to move down a bit and for his staff to make a place for Nanette and me, but then he apologized that the breakfast was over and also than he had nothing to give back to us, that he felt so sorry. However in the next minute he took his dessert and cut it in half putting half on a nearby plate and handed his desert to the both of us. As we ate he started talking to us, one on one and it was as if the other twelve national leaders in the room no longer existed to True Father. He first wanted a review of the missions we had served in and he took special awareness to our work in the Philippines; Rev. Jenkins explaining as our John the Baptist. I did speak with him and Father Moon surprised me with strong words out of the blue in English to me that, "No one can take away the foundation that you and Nanette built in the Philippines" but then True Father especially gave Nanette attention, fifteen solid minutes as a very personal dad talking with his beloved daughter.
When we receive the announcement that anyone in the Metro New York area were invited to come to East Garden and share watching an important soccer match with Father and Mother Moon my ears perked up and I immediately said to Nanette let us go even though it would be over a three hour drive. Wow, an opportunity to be in a small intimate gathering with our family and True Parents. Why would this be a small gathering, well there was one hitch, we were instructed to arrive at 2 AM in the morning because the match would be broadcasted from Korea. This meant starting to drive from Greenport at 11 PM. I had a hunch most members would not respond to this invitation because of the time and especially because it was on a week work day.
We made really good time driving and arrived a half hour early and found the parking area inside East Garden only had a couple of cars. I hasten my family out of our car and briskly walked to the entrance, anticipating a unique opportunity to sit up front close to True Parents. Inside we found we were nearly the first to arrive and I marched up to the front, dead center, but careful to leave enough room in front of us for True Parents to sit, you see the screen was up on stage and it meant they would be sitting in the crowd with us surrounding them. I position my daughters on my left and son on the right, expecting such a division in the group. Members started pouring in, they were ninety percent Korean and Japanese and I started worrying my plan was not going to work and we would end of in the back. Slowly the room was getting so filled my family started getting pushed forward into the area where I anticipated True Parents would actually sit; to my relief, Father and Mother Moon then walked in and sat directly in front of us and that established no more forward motion.
Soon the screen started displaying the soccer match and I experience something I never have in my 43 years in our movement and many times of being around our True Parents; they started acting like 14 year old teenagers. True Father and especially True Mother at 3 AM in the morning were screaming, throwing their arms into the air, even jumping up as the match proceeded rooting for their team. This loosen up the entire group of Unificationists in the room and all Korean, Japanese and Americans became screaming teenagers for about two hours; the energy was electrifying. Myself, I was sitting exactly between and behind True Parents and I must confess my legs got tired being squashed up under me and eventually I let first one and then the other slide out between Father and Mother. I knew this must be really wrong from an experience in Kuwait when an Arab hit me once for doing something similar telling me there I could get killed for such an action. In this instance either True Parents didn't notice or everything was so informal they didn't care.
It was such a rare, blessed opportunity for my three youngest children to experience the True Parents and hundreds of adult Unificationists enjoying themselves acting liking teens, for normally most adults members and especially Father and Mother Moon are so serious with the weight of the world on their shoulders. Driving home I had no problem staying awake, nor functioning the next day without any sleep all night because my battery was fully charged by the Father and Mother of the world.
After being back in America for a few weeks after serving as a 1800 couple foreign missionary and in National and Regional Leadership positions in South-East Asia (Philippines) and Oceania (Australia) I was struggling with my rejection of Rev. Kwak's request for me to lead Canada and then to lead up the World Mission Department; wondering did I make a providential mistake? I had told Rev. Kwak, "no, I want to return to America and work at the grassroots level", perhaps doing Tribal Messiahship which True Father so many time has mentioned in his speeches as being so important. To be honest, on another level I was worn out a bit from never taking even a day's vacation in 12 years, but intensely driving myself to help others as if the world would end if I didn't constantly deal with member's needs. Also I had been an absent dad, with Nanette raising and providing love for me four children. I was currently in my birth hometown of Greenport, New York and doing my best to find a way to support my family while relying on the help of my extend family.
One Sunday I drove from Greenport to Belvedere to hear Father Moons Sunday service. There were about six hundred members, or more covering the Holy Ground all around the special rock where I had laughed at Nanette's martial art punches during training under David Kim thirteen years earlier. Arriving a bit late the only spot I could find close to Rev. Moon was under a bush on the back side of the rock in the direction of the Estate's Main House; Father Moon was facing the opposite direction speaking to the sea of members intently listening to his every word. I was not listening very closely but more into self-reflection of responsibilities to my growing family and my doubts about taking on another national level leadership position. Of course times when Father Moon raised his voice in his messages I paid more attention and it was during one of those times when I was closely listening and watching the back of his head that all of a sudden he spun around to face my direction and he walked a few steps across the rock to its edge and looked down into my face and stared into my eyes and spoke clear and strong, "you should do Tribal Messiahship in your hometown" and then he spun around to face the opposite direction, took a few steps and started speaking in broad subjects to the mass of members. Wow, he "felt" my struggles or God spoke through him "knowing my struggle" and gave me a quick personal message.
Then I had an ah hah experience of realizing why in so many of his speeches that we listen to or read they are so scattered all over in subject topic, not following a development of the subject or themes. That when Rev. Moon speaks he is acting as a channel for Heavenly Father to talk to so many different members with personal messages or answers to questions in their minds. This is why True Father only speaks a few sentences on each subject and then jumps to another subject while walking around and looking at different members. I thereafter knew I was right to reject Rev. Kwak's leadership requests and focus my energy at the grassroots level.