Our New Years Celebration began at 10:30 p.m. the night of December 31st at the All Nations Christina Fellowship Church. Friends and ACLC members sponsored the annual midnight service at their church. Even with a cold night and snow falling, so many turned out for this annual ecumenical fellowship.

We had a wonderful gathering of young and old who came out on the cold winter night to be with our other Christian friends. This included our youth playing some beautiful musical offerings Rev. Dr. Johnson led us in worship. Pastor Mike shared about his gratitude for the year of working together with everyone there. At one point, the elders of the All Nations and Rev. Johnson gave special oil anointing to our two high school seniors and prayed over them for wisdom and God’s guidance. With much fellowship, songs and worship, we paused at midnight; in a circle holding hands for a heartfelt prayer given by Evangelist Eunice Terry with gratitude for 06 and new hope into 07.

The next morning we gathered at the Family Church for a prayer and pledge service at 7 a.m. It was so nice to see the Felig and Woods family gather with us since they had to travel over five hours (from Great Falls) to be with us. The elders lead the service with Paul DiLorenzo leading us in the Korean Family Pledge and Chad Martin offering a deep, inspirational prayer. Two youth read a passage on the importance of this day by Father Moon and Pastor Mike share briefly on the motto and the value of this important day.

Our annual community wide True God’s Day Celebration began at Noon on Jan. 1st. We had a fantastic array of potluck foods from chicken to cranberries, ham and sushi with so many delicacies, delicious dishes of salads, side dishes and deserts. Yukiko Yakawich, Fusako Martin, Kimiko DiLoranzo, Junko Thiessen, Marguriete Felig, Astrid Woods and so many others helped make this physical offering be so delicious and delightful.

We even had members traveling as far away as Havre, MT (6 hours away) to be with us. It was so wonderful to see so many of them here in Billings all together. We even had eight LDS missionaries and two Christian ministers spend time with us. The missionaries and one of the ministers even sang to us with much joy and inspiration.

The day included other musical performances by our youth and adults. Also, a pinnate that involved a whole line of youth smashing the paper soccer ball into bits and candy and toys exploding out to everyone’s enjoyment was had. We also had a magic show and many party poppers for the community to enjoy.

We had a Blessing as well for all participants. With the new Holy Wine and Sparkling Apple Cider we had a special prayer and ask all to make a new determination for true love and loyalty to God and each other. Tiny and Chris Heaps from our home church were our representative couple as Pastor Mike lead in the Blessing and Elder Paul offered a Blessing prayer.

We took a group photo upstairs before our banquet began. That alone is a wonderful picture. However, we had more people join us throughout the afternoon stopping by, visiting, eating and sharing with us. At one point in our entertainment, Junko Thiessen lead three other young ladies (Holly 21, Elissa 9 and Anna 5) dressed in their Japanese Kimonos performing some very professional Okinawa Dances.

In the end, the spirit was so high and joyful. Pastor Mike’s 90 year old Aunt shared, "It was well done, very organized and over the 3 hours I was not bored at all!" The basement was full and overflowing as many of the youth played cards, foosball, hackey sack and other board games in and outside of the church. Other couples who could not make it due to a car accident or other situations still called and wished us good cheer. It was the best True God’s Day we ever celebrated.

We had dozens of poinsettia plants donated to us from a local florist exchange. Every person who came could take one home after the event. We then proceeded to take extra poinsettias and our good cheer to many of our home church people who were sick, shut in or otherwise could not make it. They were so grateful.

Overall, we felt the love of God and the special fellowship of our church members, home church community, family and friends. I was especially inspired by our Blessed families who gave so much of themselves in taking time and visiting with all our guests and home church families. Everyone pitched in, helped set up and stayed afterwards to do clean up. The next day, many gathered again for a prayer breakfast honoring True Day of Victory of Love.

We are very thankful for our District Director, Rev. Krishnek’s inspiration, guidance and prayers. We are very inspired for the spirit of God’s Day and all the Holy Days that True Family teaches us by example and the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit that filled all our hearts. We anticipate a great year of 2007!

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