I came, I saw and I immediately wanted to go home!! But, then I realized that I paid for this – it was my chance to attend such a workshop without the expense of travelling to Chung Pyung Lake, and if I could endure almost 30 years of "the Family", then I should be able to endure 3 weeks of a workshop! So, I stayed and at the end was very grateful for the experience.

The Workshop center was originally bought and built by Austrian missionaries who had come to Poland before Communism ended. They worked "underground" to seek members and to find a center. Finally after incredible conditions were made (I don’t know what they were), this piece of land was found. It is located in a small valley with steep hills on each side about 40 kms north of Krakow. Reminds me of pictures of Austria There was a house on the land, but very run down. So the missionaries bought it and started transferring it into a workshop center. With the help of Austrian brothers and sisters, money was found to renovate the house and build a workshop house with kitchen, dining room, a large room for lectures, and a large room under the attic for sleeping. I forgot which year, but before the Wall came down, Rev. Kwak visited the center and dedicated a Holy Ground for Poland – complete with a huge stone in the middle. So, that is a little history about the place and the untiring efforts put forth by our Austrian brothers and sisters.

We here in Europe were given incredible grace by True Father, Dae Mo Nim, and the European leader to have this workshop. The only other Chung Pyung Lake Workshop which were held outside of Korea were in South America and in Russia. This was the first one in Europe. It normally should have been for the Eastern Europe members, but again with incredible grace, western members could also attend. When we arrived on June 1st, there were 120 sisters signed up for the workshop. Some had brought their children because of lack of care back home. This was another grace given and we enjoyed having the little ones around. The workshop house was not big enough for this seminar, of course, so European Headquarters had rented a huge tent for us. The staff members had made amazing efforts to make things ready in time (with about 1 months notice), but a few things still needed to be done while our workshop was going on. One major item was to make paths through the muddy fields from the tent to the workshop house for eating, sleeping, etc. Although the staff were few in number, they worked very hard to make everything as nice as possible. I also want to put in a good word for the one sister who carried the load of the office. She never got angry, or complained, but did her work with the highest efficiency. What a girl!! Any outside office would pay her good money for the efficient work she did.

So, our workshop started. We had the usual routine of Ansoo (sp?), Hook Dok Hae and DP readings and lectures. Dae Mo Nim could not be there for the whole 21 day program as she was needed in Korea, so she sent a Rev. Jeong from Chung Pyung Lake who supervised our Ansoo sessions and gave lectures. Also, the Korean NM for Bulgaria, Mr. Kim, gave some lectures. He had a great sense of humor. One of his lectures was titled "How to have True Love for your ‘Terrible Guy’!! I was given permission to sit on a chair for the workshop because of health problems. So, I made sure that I didn’t abuse this grace by being on time for everything or early if possible. On the first day, I thought, "I’m not going to get through this". But then I said to myself, "It’s only for 3 weeks – you can do anything for 3 weeks. And this is so little to ask of us after the suffering of True Parents and Dae Mo Nim". So, I let my "good old American spirit" shine forth – put a smile on my face and lo and behold, enjoyed the whole experience! Later some sisters came to me and said that I gave them courage to keep on going (if a gray-haired lady can do it with a smile, I can too!).

In the first Ansoo sessions, my mind kept wandering – worries, problems, etc. But, then each day, I tried to concentrate on one thing to change in my life and that helped. I am not spiritually open, but in the first 2 weeks, after completing Ansoo, I would see evil or frightened faces when my eyes were closed and knew that these spirits were being removed from me. One thing I must comment to Benedict’s post about the workshop: she said that she saw a brother with 2 blessing rings on his hand. Most likely he hadn’t been blessed twice, but that he was wearing his wife’s ring. We were told to take off all our rings, because our hands would swell from the clapping and the ring could cut off the circulation. One sister hadn’t done it and she had to be taken into Krakow quickly to get her ring cut off.

The first night of the workshop, a sister ran up to me afterwards and shouted " I know you!!" I recognized her, but had forgotten her name. She was Beatrice Clyburn, a UTS graduate and now NM for Poland. She was also chosen to be coordinator for our workshop and was so dynamic and upbeat!! I was so proud of her being a UTS graduate. She would have made Pres. David S,C. Kim so proud!! Also I met others who had gone to UTS for a short while, but couldn’t for one reason or another finish. It was so nice to get reacquainted. Then there were older members from all over Europe that I met for the first time. But, they didn’t feel like strangers – many of them had stories to tell about their days on IOWC in America back in the 70’s, or MSG and Yankee Stadium times, or Camp K. Many of them confessed that they would never have joined in Europe, but because of taking a trip to America, they met the Church and joined. And we older members were in awe of all the young members from East Europe. Some had joined before Communism fell, and had been witnessed to by underground missionaries. And they didn’t join alone – they brought their brothers, sisters and whole families! One sister joined when very young, was blessed at 16 ½ and is now 18 ½ years of age. She was so enthusiastic! I met her husband at the Registration Blessing. The Eastern Europe sisters loved to listen to our stories about "the old days", so we made incredible unity of heart and spirit. Now I have many new email addresses from all over Europe.

At the end of our workshop, I was wondering how we could connect to the Revival Spirit that is in America now. In Europe there is a dark cloud of despair and depression hanging over the continent. It’s so incredibly difficult to witness, let alone talk about our Church as we are not considered one. We are a "sect" here and looked down upon. But, then I received a vision of the ACL coming to Europe and bringing the "spirit of revival" here. But, then I realized that we can’t depend on their efforts alone – we have to lay a foundation for them to come. So that is my one determination from this workshop – to lay a foundation for the ministers, who love True Parents, to come to Europe and bring the "Spirit". Many sisters felt the same way, so we have to make a "Providence of Start" and get going!

At the end of our 21 days, families arrived to attend the Registration Blessing Ceremony, Ancestor Liberation and Blessing, etc. with Dae Mo Nim. So we swelled in numbers to about 1,400 with about 500 children. What a heavenly chaos!! I wondered how the kitchen would feed us, but they had hired a caterer for the meals. And we had nice sunny days which was a blessing in itself. Dae Mo Nim arrived late on the 22nd, conducted the Blessing Ceremonies (both Blessing Reg. and Ancestor Blessing was held at the same time) on the 23rd, and then conducted the Ancestor Liberation Ansoo and Ceremony. Everything was finished by 2 PM of that day. She then went to visit Auchwitz (a Jewish death camp during WWII). That evening, the brother’s 8-day workshop started with 400 brothers in attendance. My husband stayed for that, while my son and I left for home on the 24th.

I hope that this gives you a little insight about this workshop in Europe. I’m so grateful for the experience and meeting so many new friends. I can hardly wait to get started!!

IMON, Marcia Lawton Schlichting

Last night I took the time to read your testimony still somewhat quickly just to see what you wrote. I will spend time to read slowly. Maybe I did not explain clearly at the mike about the history of Glanow. I do not have all dates right here in my mind. The Austrian missionaries did not do that much. Martha Krahl and her husband who came later, Kristof bought the land. That is all !!!! Everything else was done by Polish members, the early ones. Jurek was one. 2 teams went fundraising to Italy, all together 3 years and a half (only one team was out at one time), only for the purpose of building Glanow. At that time, you could not find bricks, they had to make conditions to find bricks... Polish brothers /sisters. They built everything with their own hands... They had hired some unemployed people to work on the building too. Often they had no money to pay them on time. Once one man was running around with a kitchen knife trying to kill the brother who was leading them. They have incredible stories about this long experience. It took some years to finish it.

So it was totally build and funded by Polish members. Of course, Martha and Kristof were in Krakow as leaders. You must have sent your testimony to other people, would you be so kind and explain to them the mistake. It is important. It is the blood, sweat and tears of many Polish members, of course with the starting money from the Austrian couple.

Also Mr Kim is not National Messiah, but national leader of Bosnia, not Bulgaria. He is also regional leader for Adria region, ie, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Slovenia. He came to Europe almost 10 years ago as missionary together with Mr Jang , vice president of Europe. Thanks again, for your love and constant support that I felt from you in the workshop, and I will never forget all the ansu together, with love, Beatrice

I am leaving soon for Glanow...

 Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Information
Tparents Home