The Words of the Willett Family
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The Words of the Willett Family |
Growing up on the front line. Sunder learned the meaning of mobilizing early. When Father directed us to do tribal messiah work Sunder was one year old. Sun, his mother, received a stroller from our grandmother when she got an inspiration. "Why am I washing the stroller?" Then she felt, "Tomorrow! You must go out witnessing right away!" Through rain, snow or sunshine, every day Sunder went with mom to talk to students, teacher's, town's people, and the mayor. This went on for months till Father redirected us to concentrate on ministers.
When Sunder was 4 and we were doing door to door blessings he would play a part in the blessing ceremony. Sunder was very large at this age so that stroller was a big blessing because Mom wanted to go up and down those hills and bless old and new contacts in town as well as in Lexington. When he was a little order he would always be quiet and observant and helpful at blessing ceremonies.
We chose to home school Sunder because it allowed us more time for front line work and mobilizations. We were very blessed because he was very eager to learn. We found very good curriculums that inspired him and us. When True Parents heard about our blessing efforts, they decided we should go on a speaking tour to cities in the east and Midwest United States on how to do the blessing. Home schooling allowed Sunder to come with us and still study.
One sister we had met on the tour who was struggling with how to give the blessing. She used some of our advice to restart her efforts. When we came back home from the tour we faced a very difficult financial situation. Just as we were coming in the door of our bleak little apartment this same sister called and told us of her successful results in doing the blessing. She told us about her floral business that was doing very well. She advised us on how to start this business and this turned our situation around.
We were able to support parts of our mobilization efforts to send guest to Fathers Speeches in different cities. Sunder would help serve the guest on these bus trips when he was old enough. We were also saving money to buy a home sometime in the future. After a year and a half we decided to give all the money we had to the total living offering. After that the spiritual world helped us so much in growing the floral business that the results were dramatically different. We soon had enough money for a down payment for a home that would allow room for the floral business. We found one that had a Rose of Sharon Tree in the back yard. (The National Flower of Korea) We felt that God was leading us to this home.
Sunder seemed pretty mature for his age and showed some dedication to his studies but he had to do his home work around the working schedule of our business. He was and is a great help in preparing the flowers.
When he was old enough he would stay at home and study. It was not an ideal situation for us. Many days of the week we had to be gone 18 hours a day for the business. Sunder learned how to prepare meals for himself. He even learned how to cook full meals out of cook books. On our day off we were so tired he would cook us full meals. He has even learned some French dishes from our friend and brother, Steve Vogel, who was a professional cook.
For anyone who has a child who loves to learn we strongly recommend home schooling. It frees you to opportunities to do church work and your child receives help from spiritual world in his studies. Some years we had Sunder do two curriculums instead of one. We did this because each curriculum had strong emphasis in different areas and they seem to complement each other. We felt he could handle this because he was a strong reader. He even discovered mistakes in the historical dates in one curriculum because he remembered the date of the event in another curriculum a couple of years back.
We had no idea that you had to prepare for Sats an Acts test for college in junior year or even earlier. Age wise Sunder was a junior but he was finishing Senior Year 1 year early. He had to take the test without any preparation. Teachers in the Home School Association said he was smart but this seemed to be the small fish in the small bowl. We were deeply worried about how he would compare to public school students in test designed for public school curriculums.
I was very disappointed with his first Act test. I know he had no preparation but to get a 30 out of 36 seemed to me that he was not focused. I scolded him a little about his effort. He said, "Actually that is considered a good score." But he couldn't tell me exactly what it meant and I didn't believe him. We asked another person who said that was a pretty good score.
I didn't believe her. I called a school counselor and I was shocked at what she said, but I still couldn't quite believe her either. I finally called the act people and they said he scored in the top 1% in country his first try. I was moving from the realm of disbelief to shock to embarrassment to the realm of wow! I realized I had to eat my words with a sheepish grin in front of my son, but I was eating them with a silver spoon! We also told him sternly he should improve his score by at least 4 points. He did.
The most important subjects for his life and faith are Hoon Dok Hae and Divine Principle. Sunder has read Divine Principle 6 times strait through so far. His readings in Hoon Dok Hae have inspired him and are helping him grow. There have been many times when I felt crushed and destroyed by events and challenges in my life. It is only because of Father's words that we were able to overcome. Father words are never boring if you live a life of faith. His words can pull you through any situation.
Willett's Eagle Scout Project was to build erosion bars/stairs and hand railing on the steep and difficult part of the Great Crossings trail behind Western Elementary School to make it safer for trail walkers. Special thanks go to 84 Lumber's manager Mr. Todd York who donated most the wood for the project and Mr. Ken Sturgill of Spade Corporation who gave a generous financial donation for the project. The project's success is greatly indebted to Mr. Mike Parker who donated the use of heavy power tools to the project. Mr. Parker also lent his professional expertise to the project and spent five hours drilling post holes for the railing uprights. Thanks to the hard work of volunteers from Troop 177 and Troop 421, this project succeeded.
Willett has been on two ten day, seventy mile backpacking trips at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico; he served as crew leader during one trip.
In the Order of the Arrow, Scouting's honor society, he is a lodge officer of Kawida Lodge in the Blue Grass Council of Kentucky, and his position, Vice-Chief of Brotherhood, is responsible for induction ceremonies in Order of the Arrow. He also serves the Kentucky-Tennessee Southern Region section as Section Promoter of Indian Summer 2011.
Willett has also attended the National Youth Leadership Training program as well as two Lodge Leadership Development seminars.
Under his leadership in 2008 and 2009 his chapter of Order of the Arrow received the Quality Chapter Award two years strait. In both years 2008 and 2009 he received the Chapter Chief Award and the Chief Citation Award. He also served as Assistant Chaplin responsible for leading prayer in scout meetings.
Currently, he is serving as the Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 177.
In addition to his scouting activities, Willett serves on the Scott County Public Library's Teen Advisory Board where he enjoys assisting with the library's many teen programs.
Willett has been home schooled since the 1st grade. He just finished his senior year early with a GPA of 4.0.
He has been nominated to be a National Scholar by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. Members of Congress sit on its advisory board. Students nominated are considered in the top one percent in the Country.