The Words of the Lepelletier Family
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The Words of the Lepelletier Family |
I am very grateful for this wonderful and exciting experience.
I would like to share a little bit about the background why we were able to do this challenging activity, there in front of the Cathedral of Sao Paulo.
A few months ago we started a small group with three blessed families living in the same building, fifteen minutes walking distance from the Cathedral. Learning from the Christian small groups, I knew that the purpose of our weekly meeting will be to inspire each other to go out and witness. When I cross the square in front of the Cathedral, I always admire some preachers with their Bible. I thought some day I want to be able to preach the breaking news of the Second Coming of Christ.
Few months ago, I was preparing also to participate in an inter-faith fair organized by the UNI-LUZ inter-religious group that I have been frequenting for several years. I was preparing to make some banners to display in our exhibition tent. For some reason the fair was canceled, due to the proximity of the election. But I kept the idea of the banners and we will use them for our proclamation rally.
We were inspired by "Shout from the Rooftops" and the proclamation event at the London Peace Embassy.
Our main source of inspiration, as Derrick Davis said in his testimony, comes from watching Hyung Jin Nim's videos online in our family, we really are very inspired and encouraged from his sermons.
Last year was the second millennium anniversary of Saint Paul apostle that gave his name to the city, and a statue was placed in the middle in the square in front of the Cathedral. When I walk there, I am thinking that God surely prepared a new Saint Paul in our age in this great city, that will continue his mission to go to all Christian churches and proclaim that the Second Coming of the Messiah has already happened.
St Paul said in his epistle to the Romans chapter 10, verse 17 "that faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ."
The proclamation rallies are so important for us to build up our faith, to resurrect ourselves, proclaiming that the Messiah is on earth.
I proclaimed to the people, the most important and greatest news of whole history of mankind, the D-day that Father mentioned in the "New Future of Christianity" speech and the "World Assemblies" that were made this year.
We hope that we can be a spark that will spread like wild fire to all the corners of the earth.
I participated the Proclamation of the Messiah together with the Liberdade home group members Saturday, October 30, 2010. It was so special for me because never I experienced doing witnessing under a heavy rain and the sensation that I was having was of so much gratitude.
I felt deep in my heart that every day is very precious to proclaim that the Messiah is already on earth. I observed that the people stopped, became so curious and were wanting to know more.
It was a fantastic experience, so when I arrived to the place with my wife, son and 4 more people from my church area, you could feel profoundly the spiritual environment outside the cathedral. Few minutes after, Rev. Christian, his family and the families from their home group arrived. Immediately the three big banners were displayed which had the statement CHRIST HAS RETURNED and another banner with a cover photo of the True Father of his Autobiography book and the third banner with the summary of key points of the Divine Principle.
Leaflets with addresses and phone contacts were distributed to people who came to pass by the area where we were. Sister Dolor with her guitar started to lead the singing. Our church songs and religious songs were sang and people began to approach, read what were written on the banner and asked what they were. At the place, there were many tourists and students having a sightseeing tour and business shops around the plaza. Then, people started taking pictures, reading what were written on the banners, asking questions and listening to the different speeches being presented by members proclaiming boldly the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent, the True Parents of mankind.
Among the people, there was an old man who even with the difficulty of reading what's on the leaflets, used a magnifying glass and read the entire content of the leaflet. Another young evangelist approached and started to ask questions to me. He asked: "Does this movement has Christian origin"? I said, "Yes, we have the Christian foundation". He asked again: "But do you believe in Jesus, is it based on the bible?" I replied, "Yes, we believe in Jesus because he is the Messiah and our philosophy is based on the bible and the words of Jesus Christ." He continued asking: "And who is he?" (Referring to the photo of True Father). I said: He is the Lord of the Second Advent of Christ, the Messiah, who comes to continue the mission of Jesus Christ on earth, to restore families and restore world unity."
When I started to speak about the main activity of True Father, suddenly it began to rain. I handed out flyers to him and said, "I'm sorry to finish our talk now but please look for us, here are our address and contact numbers" and he said: "I want to know more, for sure, I will contact you." When it started to rain, everyone in the plaza ran to look for a shelter except us, Unificationists. We remained on the same spot and the rain became much stronger. The umbrellas were used, then we continued our proclamation of the Messiah, unmoved by the stormy weather. The people who sheltered themselves in the shops and some places couldn't believe seeing us, a group of lunatics giving speeches under the heavy rain. We could see them pointing to us, speaking to one another. I took a sudden turn and saw people staring at us.
We began to sing the holy song the Spring of Life and in certain lyrics: "Living water that flows from the spring, we'll live forever in glory there, being in the country of the holy spring, we will live there forever" the people were clapping their hands together with us. One old woman passing by where we were, despite of the rain, she stopped and listened to the speeches that were given. We spoke also about the family that needs to be an ideal one and principles to follow. She became so interested and took with her the leaflets.
Another situation was one mother with a daughter that also passed by the place while still it was raining. The daughter got closer to the mother and asked, "Mother what's this, what's happening?" The mother responded: "Leave these people, they're crazy. Leave these lunatics on their own and let's go."
Even with the heavy rain, all of us were so happy and strongly motivated. We felt that with the rain God was blessing and purifying our lives. We are so grateful to God and our True Parents to have the opportunity to testify and proclaim the Messiah. I am sure that the greatest experience that a person could have is certainly to proclaim the returning Messiah and boldly say it.
I am honored to have this opportunity to proclaim: THE MESSIAH HAS RETURNED -- THE MESSIAH IS ON EARTH AND HE IS THE REV. SUN MYUNG MOON! The man who loves peace. Aju! Thank you so much!
I felt so good upon hearing my wife's and other brothers´ and sisters´ sharing after the first proclamation rally that they had last September 17, 2010. On their faces were shown the smile and the joy of having made something so important and valuable for God, testifying to our True Parents in the public area, getting liberated themselves in the process!
On October 30, 2010, the day of our Proclamation Rally, it started to rain so heavily after breakfast, but nobody gave up to go to the proclamation rally venue. Even though I had no sleep having worked the whole night, I went to the place and there were already my wife and daughter together with other brothers and sisters.
At first we sang worship songs and prayed, then everyone proclaimed the arrival of the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent, in the persons of our True Parents. Without stopping, everyone, one after another, did his/her part under the heavy rain with much joy and without giving up!
When my turn to speak came, I exclaimed so loudly and strongly the name of the Messiah, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon! Through this experience, I felt that I was being liberated internally and externally because I was helping our True Parents to be known to the people, as the foundation for the building of Cheon Il Guk on earth.
Our 2nd proclamation rally happened October 30, 2010 (Saturday) from 10:00 am. That morning it was raining so heavily. At 9:00 am we started rehearsing the songs to be sung in our proclamation rally. It was a gloomy morning. But we said that God is good, that the rain will stop by 10.00 am, even if it is just for the start. And it was true, the rain stopped for a while, just right for us to start exactly at 10:00 am!
I thought that it would be only us again (the twelve members of our home group) who would do the rally but when we arrived at the place, in front of St. Paul's Cathedral, downtown, already there were many other members waiting, including the brother missionary of one church center with his members joining us. Also my BFD director and her husband were there. We were so inspired to see them!
We started with our worship songs. We sang them with a loud voice, and gradually many people came closer and started to look at the three banners being displayed by us. On the banners there was True Father's picture and big letters proclaiming him as the Messiah and the Lord of the Second Advent.
We prayed in unison after the songs. Then Rev. Christian gave a strong proclamation speech. I was the next and explained that Jesus didn't come to die on the cross, but that he died on the cross because of the ignorance of the people at that time. I was in tears while giving the speech, feeling the heart of Jesus, rejected and crucified 2000 years ago, but these tears turned to tears of joy as everyone under the stormy weather proclaimed the Messiah, the True Parents, and their greatness. For sure Jesus was in great joy, too!
In our first proclamation rally some weeks ago we were 12 but in this 2nd rally we increased to 27 (and that includes 7 second generation)! Glory to God and to our True Parents! The stormy weather didn't stop our brothers and sisters from proclaiming to the public their great love for our True Parents. Everyone was so wet by the rain but so vibrant in their hearts, alive in spirit with great joy. The by-standing people were so curious, maybe wondering," Who are these people and what's motivating them to do this crazy thing, to be under the heavy rain, not being moved by the rain and strong wind, proclaiming strongly from the heart and singing songs ?"
The fire of heaven's love was filling up the hearts of everyone, and this fire will continue as more brothers and sisters are getting inspired to do proclamation rallies in their own places. We advised them to start having their own home groups and to work in a group consistently.
This made me deeply reflect that the best gift we can give to our True Parents is our great love for them, making them known to everyone, proclaiming to the whole world how great they are, how proud we are of them, and doing all this while True Parents are still living on earth!!
Thank you so much, dear God, our True Parents and brothers and sisters for your prayers and good wishes to make our second proclamation rally a victorious one!
I had participated in the first proclamation rally. When my mum called me surprisingly to take photos of the first rally in that public area in front of the big St. Paul cathedral downtown, where everyday many people (from all places including foreigners) are passing by in that place, that scared me.
Sincerely, in the beginning, I felt a little bit troubled, thinking, "Hmmnn…it seems that will be boring. Maybe only me from my age will be there and all those who will be passing by and see us will think of us as very strange…". I didn't want to go!
But on the day of the rally, mum had asked me to take photos with them walking on the street, going to the rally place. But arriving at the place, already the banners were put up with the big photo of the True Father where it's written that Christ has already come!
They started to sing our church songs and other religious songs which made the people approach them quickly, curious. I started to take various pictures and laughed quietly, seeing some people passing by, being so curious, some scared, some with funny expressions. Others, even though not knowing the Korean language, when the Korean song was sung, these people sang along, and there were tourists, too, taking pictures and videos of us there.
When arriving home, I felt so light, thinking that my experience in that first rally was so much a fun!
So with the second rally, I was already more inspired and not anymore minding what people will think of us. But then the heavy rain came. I became discouraged, thinking for us to go back home early. But we went through until the end of the time set for the proclamation rally. We continued with umbrellas, proclaiming God and our True Parents and shouting loudly (so inspired), "Aju!"
My sneakers that I liked so much to wear , got wet and it was so cold but I thought it's a fun to be the "only crazy people" under the very heavy rain while other people were sheltering themselves in the shops around and the cathedral next to us. They were pointing out to us and asking, "Why they aren't leaving the place with the heavy rain pouring out continuously, what are they doing which is so important?!"
I thanked so much God for the members that left the comfort of their houses with their families in the weekend in order to come to the rally. It's so interesting how God was preparing people that got near to the rally location, curious and asking about the church.
I couldn't feel so much these profound spiritual things but truly I felt that the good spiritual world was there in our midst.
I want to participate more and more times with the upcoming rallies. Unconsciously, I was so proud and I was liking so much the experience. If someone wants an official photograph, you can contact me. Aju!
Thank you for the opportunity to participate the mission work to introduce the True Parents´ achievements to many people. When I was reading True Father's speech, it was the emotional zenith of whole event (the proclamation rally). I felt something surging inside of me. I got beautiful impression of members of Unification Church in Brazil. That day, we became One in the rain. We became One in the True Parents´ and God's grace.