The Words of the Flores Family
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The Words of the Flores Family |
As I look back from a week ago of the recent Convention of brothers and sisters here in Japan, I thought it was the beginning of something big and beautiful that is to come. As the old adage says, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step". We have made that one bold step when we decided to convene ourselves from as far as Kyushu in the South and Yamagata in the North and decided to meet half way in Shizuoka where the highest peak in Japan is located -- the Mt. Fuji considered a sacred symbol of Japan with the rising sun. We set our focus and defined our Vision, our mission, our goals and renewed our spiritual strength as Blessed Central Families here in Japan to tackle a providential work that has so much to do with Japan as Eve Nation and Philippines as the second daughter nation.
By coincidence, 43 years ago, 700 Japanese brothers and sisters from different parts of Japan walked on foot for three days and three nights as a condition to receive the WORD and convened together in the same place of Shizuoka to celebrate the launching of the first Japanese edition of Divine Principle under the leadership of the late Rev. Kobuki. According to Joseph Cernardo who hosted the convention event, it was in this place where the first early disciples of Father Moon were witnessed and one of them is a woman whom they called "Mama Matsumoto" who owned a big track of mountain strips overlooking Fujinomiya City and a very good view of Mt. Fuji. Words says that Father spend some precious moments delivering his message in this mountain to his early followers. Some of our members are saying jokingly that it took them three hours to drive from their respective places to the convention place but still it is a significant number in relation to providential time identity. There are also 44 delegates' brothers and sisters to the convention which is a significant number to say the least that it was all coincidence.
After reading Father's words during Hon Dok Hae, some selected members from the delegation shared their testimonies in their witnessing experiences here in Japan that set the momentum of the spirit of the house to an all time high. Sister Josie Kawanishi challenged the whole congregation saying that there is a potential and fertile witnessing ground out there untapped through the Filipino trainee program. Through her witnessing efforts, she found young Filipinas prepared by heaven. She shared her knowledge of Divine Principle with them and all the helpful materials she can find on the internet to educate her guests. She said that it is not by her power or ability but if these people are really prepared by heaven and it is their time, all that is needed is our portion of responsibility to share the WORDS and declare the Messiah straight forward. Now her guests wanted to participate in the blessing. She realized as well that a lot of these people are thirsty spiritually being away from home and loved ones and their time are being preoccupied with long grind work during most of their days. They are seeking Filipino communities where they can socialize and the churches are the usual places where they can find their refuge.
Brother Eddie Panuncia through Brother Allan Cadano shared their wonderful experience of being able to educate and raised three Filipino trainees who were able to join the blessing last 1995 despite the absence of a formal Philippine church organization here in Japan. He also paused the challenge before the whole delegation that if they have done it before in their own limited terms, how much more power we can do now that we have the right structure and organizational set up of a national ministry committed to our cause of discipleship that will administer to our social and spiritual needs?
Another sister Jean Arai testified that she always carry with her a witnessing brochure even while on the train, on the bus or plainly on foot when the given opportunity to witness arise, she take chances whether it's a Filipino or a Japanese. One of her guests is a Japanese lawyer who is negative about the church but she decided to give him the book on True Father's biography. His negative concept about the church has not changed dramatically since then but Jean said her guest has a change of heart after reading the book and she is looking forward that one day this lawyer will come to sit in one of the church sponsored seminars. She encourages everyone then to take time to share and distribute True Father's autobiography.
Sister Jenjen Yamaguchi on the other hand expressed her desire to learn from this convention. She too has several Filipina friends and circles and she is cautious how to educate them about Divine Principle and how to be able to share about the Messiah without the benefit of negative repercussions on her part from her guests. After all, at some point in our life of faith, we were overzealous and too enthusiastic about our new found faith and boldly declared it to the world before we knew and realized the rush of persecution that has drawn us back and our movement as a whole. It is but right to consider planning and strategies that fits our individual situation as we advance the cause of heaven. But on the other hand, we are now living in a new era of Heavenly Calendar and Rev. Hyung Jin Nim advised us to take the lead and reaffirm our Faith in our belief that the True Parents are the Messiah and the second coming and that we need to make the difference by declaring our faith boldly without hiding our identity. Here in Japan, it is a whole new world for witnessing and opportunity pauses itself. The possibilities are immense and we can only imagine. We may never know the outcome of our efforts unless we put our hearts and minds together as we dip our hands and feet on the earth and take our plowshare in the restoration work as we seek and discover how far we can go.
During the convention, we had a secret ballot to choose who will stand as the overall national executive minister here in Japan among the three regional ministers namely, Raffy Ablong of Western Region, Roy Carumba of Central Region and Edgar Nacorda of Eastern Region. Raffy Ablong garnered the highest number of votes followed by Edgar Nacorda. We duplicated the selection process of National Leadership in Philippines so between the two, we decided to have a raffle draw who will stand as the National Minister and Vice-National Minister. We are fortunate to have with us Rev. Eric Niduasa during the occasion and we ask him to pray and ask God for intervention in the selection process. After all the thrills and breathtaking moments, Raffy Ablong was announced as the new Vice-National Minister and Edgar Nacorda the new National Minister. It was a resounding affirmation from the whole congregation because we thought that we have exercised our part in the selection process and yet heaven made its final mandate that no one can question. Everyone resolved to support the new leadership and such is the beginning of a ONE STEP towards a thousand miles of journey.
One of the many aspects of this unique convention that caught the interest and attention of the participants is the question and sharing portion of the different experiences of brothers and sisters, the problems we encounter in raising our Blessed Children, the foresight and programs that we need to draw to address the challenges of some couples in their difficult relationships and some families who are going astray in their life of faith. At one point, the conversation became very emotional because before us, we realized that there are just so much problems confronting us that are very real and unless we deal and face squarely our common denominations as matured brothers and sisters under the guidance of True Parents, we could hardly get out of our box and empower ourselves to take the mission from our True Parents. It could be an arduous task, a heart to heart talk among brothers and sisters but I know it is a great learning experience for many of us who are fortunate to be there. Kuya Eric on the sideline commented that this discussion is such a beautiful opportunity to see brothers and sisters opening up their hearts in public and we should encourage in the future to have this kind of seminar, "A Marriage Encounter" where we can share our deepest heart and realizations in raising our families and the kind of support that we can give and share with each other. We look forward that we can have such a seminar for this purpose in the near future.
There is so much content for such a very short one day convention that much of the planned program has to be said and done. We wrestled with the precious time and I believe we have done a lot for so little. Much of the refining will be done in the field in our respective areas and as much as many of us felt that the convention is far from over, the members from the central region are hoping for a repeat performance, a part 2 of the convention that will offer us the opportunity and avenue to evaluate our overall performance as a team here in Japan in four months time. As for now, let the journey of a thousand miles begin….