Greetings from Las Vegas!

Matthew Huish
July 22, 2011

Rev Yu in his element

I'm updating my blog while sitting in the lobby of the South Point Hotel (the only place, I've discovered, with a free Wi-Fi connection) at the end of the 2nd day (1st full day) of the ODP special education workshop. The schedule has been quite intense so far, with lectures starting at 5 am and ending at 9 pm, interrupted only by meal and refreshment breaks. (No afternoon sports on this workshop, and quite rightly so when the dry desert climate has peak temperatures of around 43°C!) Nevertheless I'd like to update my blog at least a few times while I'm out here to share with you what I have the privilege of experiencing.

Were it not for this Original Divine Principle (ODP) workshop, I would never think of visiting Las Vegas. Nevertheless I somehow felt called when I first read the letter inviting members to attend this workshop. With a lot of recent encouragement for our communities to focus on education, I feel the need to quickly become well-versed in this content so that I may utilize it in my own teaching. Perhaps attending this workshop will spur me to deliver more lectures. I've felt quite passionate just listening to some of the lectures so far – sometimes I haven't been able to write fast enough to capture all the precious words being spoken – so I hope to convey a similar degree of passion when sharing this truth back in London.

After a fairly uneventful flight (ignoring the 50 minutes spent roasting on an airplane as we waited to take off with only hot air blowing through the air conditioning system) the workshop started last night after dinner. Las Vegas is 8 hours behind London right now, so when we went to bed just after 10 pm, most of London was probably waking up at 6 am. A little jet lag was to be expected, and indeed many of the participants of the workshop today appeared to be nodding in vehement agreement with the content of the lectures, albeit with eyes closed and followed by sudden jolting.

I joined in this particular ritual of transcendence a few times, but on the whole I was too engaged by the depth of the lectures to feel drowsy. Rev Yu, who I've heard speak once before in Korea last year, is an incredible man who can speak all day long with commanding passion. Equally impressive has been the indefatigable translator, Tossa Cromwell, whose simultaneous translation has been thorough and coherent. It's not easy to move the heart during a translated lecture, but on several occasions today my tear ducts moistened the corneas of my eyes.

I'm here with 2 other Brits (Ron German and Tim Miller) plus another 30+ Europeans. There are participants here from all around the world, even as far as Argentina, Australia and New Zealand. There's a large group of Koreans and Japanese, so the feeling here is very international, and even though there are many strangers here we all feel like one big extended family.

I'm looking forward to learning new things during the next few days. Sitting on a chair all day long isn't easy. That, coupled with the fact that there are copious amounts of good quality food in the buffet hall each mealtime, means that I'm tempted to use the small gym that the hotel has on the ground floor. I was thinking of going for a run outside, but there are no pavements here (only roads with lots of cars driving on them) and the arid heat isn't very favorable. There isn't much free time – except the hours between closing the day and starting the next day in which I'm meant to get some much needed rest – but I'll try to utilize the opportunities I can grab to share some more experiences from here in Nevada.