The Words of the Basuil Family
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The Words of the Basuil Family |
Our new Philippine National Leader Engr. Jun Basuil accompanied by the PR man Vice President Celestino "Joseph" Navalta Jr. visited Japan last February 1st and toured neighboring cities of Tokyo, Nagoya, and Mie Ken to meet our brothers and sisters. During the week long duration of their stay, they had the opportunity meeting family members in public forums as well as private and intimate moments with some families who hosted them for the night stay.
Their visit provided fruitful result as it gave our new national leader the opportunity to reach out to our members and share with them his vision of a new Philippines under his care. He outlined to the members that his leadership will tackle the pressing problem of self-reliance particularly on financial matters. Philippine church operations is heavily dependent from donations and funding coming from members abroad and that they needed to initiate business ventures that will take care of the matter.
Secondly, his leadership will push with management transparency in all levels of organization down to regional and center structure. In lieu with this, they are initiating a Unification Central Committee (UCC) composed of leaders and even representatives from the regions or even abroad to be a part of the group to charter the activities of the whole system so ideas and directions solely will not be coming from the president but a consensus of the whole. A proposal was made that a representative of OFW Japan be a part in this committee to represent the interest of us members living in Japan and the idea was welcomed.
Thirdly, to focus on education and training in building future leaders of the Unification Movement and equip them with the skills and qualifications needed with the changing times. He emphasized programs on pro-active leadership that are deemed necessary, a training program that allows them to grow over the ladder in rank and position based on skills, achievements, knowledge and spiritual growth and overall results. He said that as a movement, position wise, no one will be nestling over their authority and power but every leader should be looking forward for their protégé to pass the leadership. Furthermore, he said, our ultimate goal in our leadership position is our Tribal Messiah mission and no one will take it away from us.
Apart from their official duties, our two leaders spend private time at the respective homes of some members and casually discussed about the many issues surrounding our church, the many problems confronting blessed families abroad, their challenges and difficulties. It offered them a window of perspective into their reality and at the same time received valuable inputs how the Unification Church Philippines should act their role in guiding and leading the extended ministry here in Japan. These intimate moments provided the room for no hold bar discussion about the latest event on the GPC in Philippines with open mind and mature attitude which is very fruitful and enlightening. Needless to say, when old buddies come together after a long absence, time will always stand as a factor to kill the joy but even in this very short and hectic schedule, it was a precious visit worth the cause.
During the gathering of our members, vice-president Navalta talked the issues surrounding the Global Peace Conference (GPC) and what transpired. There was no animosity whatsoever and he explained how it was so important to follow the direction of True Parents not to take part in the GPC event. I will not dwell on the long story and prior events leading to this direction of True Parents to the members as I don't have the authority but based from the explanation of our VP Navalta, Father has nothing against Global Peace Festival (GPF) and in fact very supportive of its ideals and accomplishments all through the years but the spirit of GPF before is different from the spirit of GPC now with Hyun Jin Nim as the main player.
True Father's hope is for Hyun Jin Nim to demonstrate true loyalty and Filial Piety and be able to overcome his emotions over leadership matters and finally get again the blessing from True Parents to proceed with his projects. But against all odds, he defiled orders and went ahead to prove himself. With such spirit surrounding the GPC, it was already a departure from the original conception of the GPF with him carrying a different spirit. Much of the details regarding this speech of our VP Navalta were unofficially compiled by some of our members from Mie Ken and as much as I don't want to misquote and take the words out of context from the speaker, I hope other interested members could have the chance to watch the video instead. The lecture presentation was followed by a question and answer portion and the discussion not only clarified issues but became a productive avenue for ideas that could help shape the future of our faith community here in Japan in relation to our faith based community there in Philippines.
The meeting in Nagoya and Mie Ken that was held on a marathon finally ended at around 10:30 pm. We treated ourselves to a sumptuous dinner in a nearby restaurant and continued the remaining wee hour in a family and informal talks about anything. Our group closed the curtain of the day for the restaurant and we then proceeded to a hot spring public bath with the snow raining from the sky and gradually covering the dark night into white snow, the first drop for this year. It was a sign of blessing as they say but unmindful of everything, we kept our rank warm through each other's company as we dipped our naked bodies in the hot pool and steam bath until 2:00 am trying to beat the cold of the night. As early as the bird, we drove the snowy road to send off our guests to their next leg of speaking tour, the Tokyo area. It was a farewell to a new start as we send our new national leader with all the best wishes and assurances that we members from Japan are with him as he leads our country to a new level of national providence. Only be Strong and of good courage!