Report On Sunday Service In Omaha

Sammi Fleisher
October 18, 2005

Hi everyone.

Yes, thank you everyone so much for this past Sunday with the Omaha Family Church! For the past 3 weeks we have been looking forward to visiting and so when our 3 teams finally arrived late last night I think that there was even more spirit present. There were 3 STF teams visiting today- Amerika's, Adonia's, and Vasily's-at the church. We were all very touched, especially as the Omaha community had invited all of us (20 people) to stay the previous night with a Church family. The 2 sister teams stayed with the Tsubaki family- a Blessed Central Family whose parents did 7 years MFT and now have 4 children. Pretty much it felt like 12 long lost sisters showed up at their family house. The phrase "What's mine is yours" sums it up pretty well because we were astonished at all the love given to us there.

So this Sunday we woke up and after doing pledge and Hoon Dok Hae and receiving a beautiful breakfast crammed in the family kitchen, we went to the church and began a service project of Church beautification. So the well-dressed STFers went about trying to remove weeds and pick up trash. One very cool thing was the prevailing family spirit in Omaha when the next door Church family's little kids came and wanted to help us. After that and the elder kids Sunday school, studying True Father's Early Years, the church service began.

The actual service started with STF testimonies by Elisa Hack, who is a1st Year member, followed by Ken Hernandez, a 2nd Year, and finally Adonia Bratti, a 3rd Year Captain. Elisa shared some of her inspirations of realizing God on a more profound level, and how she's experienced what True Father shared in his recent speech that we could call on him whenever we needed him. Ken talked about realizing a purpose and reason in his past, present, and future in this Church; Adonia shared how she really could experience all her dreams through going to STF, doing something great, having a good experience, and finding a higher purpose and sense of responsibility.

To me, the highlight though, of the service was the main sermon given by the regional director, Sang Soon Park, who drove from Denver to speak and show his appreciation for the Nebraska Church's help with True Father's speech in Denver on September 27th. Personally, I was deeply moved by Rev. Park because of his heart to really take responsibility for the entire region; which is very awesome responsibility. His sermon focus was how the spirit world was also with us supporting God's Providence and how to gain their help. He was saying how we have actually a lot of help with us, that the money or other things don't matter, but to be confident, proud, active, and keep a never give up spirit. He finished with a determination that even if things might be challenging, that we should go forward with great courage and confidence to develop our church and that spirit world would support us.

I think that being on STF shows us not only the actual challenge of living a life of faith, but also the very real challenge we can face with creating an ideal community, state, nation, and world. Especially being on my 2nd year, I see the strength it requires to witness in a home Church environment. So after the powerful church service, the warm family environment continued with a potluck lunch and more fellowship. One testimony to the beauty of the culture there was that the community was grateful for STF to be there and in return the spirit was very open and warm, with many people discovering long-lost connections to our parents or little kids jumping on our backs. We finished our time there with a game of soccer in a nearby park after everyone introduced themselves and STF performed their little presentations.

In the end, the Omaha Sunday service was a very beautiful experience, I believe for everyone present. We hope to return sometime, but until then we wish everyone there the best wishes and biggest hugs. Eok Mansei!

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