Ocean Challenge Testimony

Nathan Breland
January 2010

Thank God, True Parent, and all staff for putting together this program. I appreciated Sugiyama-san's lectures that not only gave us basic boating instructions but mostly gave me deep and personal experiences of True Father's attitude and mindset in the ocean providence. This testimony set the tone for our actual fishing experience. Hoon Dok Hae content was good but the method could be improved. From next year, we should emphasize the team structure and the importance of teams. Teams should do Hoon Dok Hae together and discuss content. Teams should have morning and evening sharing times consistently on a daily basis.

Though some participants commented that they would have preferred less ocean fishing and more camping trips, I liked the schedule we had and think we should keep basically the same schedule. The time period of daily ocean fishing was very valuable to me in terns of being able to challenge my limitations through fishing and with my relationship with team members. River fishing was also valuable because I could see the life cycle of the incredible salmon. I personally had the chance to walk further upstream to see the salmon spawning and then dying to feed their offspring. Recalling Father's words about the exemplary life of true love that salmon exhibit, this was moving experience. I hope we can make this a part of next year's program. The service project allowed us to interact with the local community more personally and was very successful. Listening to the anthropologist speaking and visiting local museums was a valuable experience. Visiting the local Orthodox Church was very insightful.

I liked how we had to write on essay about what we think about True Father's vision for ocean providence. This helped us set the right value system of not just coming to have fun fishing and enjoying scenery but also, more importantly, to understand God's providence behind the ocean and True Father's vision of Ocean Church. Setting internal and external goals for the program and publicly stating them helped me take ownership of my experience and especially to not just passively participate but to challenge myself externally and internally. It also helped me to check my value system to seek for God rather than just external excitement.

I like the three-day trip to Chiniak because we could see True Father's vision for a training program for people from all over the world. The Divine Principle lectures were great and I liked how I was given ways to practice the principle during fishing and in everyday life. I was glad we had an award ceremony at the end to recognize leaders and especially these who made extraordinary effort and standard during the program. I feel this helps raise the standard of the group as a whole and to recognize good role models in hopes that others will emulate them.

I like how the second generation team captains were given responsibility and guided by the elder first generation members. It was great that by the end of the program, three captains were raised that could each lead a crew on their own.

It was good we did daily reflections. I hope that we can add more internal reflection s, either in a group sharing or on a reflection sheet, asking about how I could practice my internal goal in fishing or in daily life. This way, participants can meet God and experience spirit would more through fishing, which I think is the main goal.

Overall, the educational component of the program could have been simplified, focused, and improved. I felt the main education components were Ocean Providence through testimonies and Hoon Dok Hae and Divine Principle through lectures. Rev. Hu gave a nice presentation on true father's intention for ocean providence. I think this simple content could have been the central education. He stated True Father's education motto for 2nd generation, "Love God, love people, love nation. These refer to the Three Great Blessings. He said what is important is to first love God, then love people, then love all things. He said ocean providence is related mostly to the 3rd Blessing (Feeding world population energy resources) but first we must work on loving God which is mind-body unity.

The ocean is a great place to set good conditions and love God. I think it is exactly parallel to fundraising training except that fundraising has a more restoration background while fishing is better suited for the completion age. For the 2nd Blessing, the ocean fishing boat is very much a family setting where you cannot get more than 26 feet from other people, so it is a great place to practice teamwork and love people centered on God. The 3rd Blessing is accomplished by dominating the creation through the fish we catch and love by offering the 1st fish, filleting fish, cleaning the boat. I think it is important to have this kind of central education theme. Putting these three Blessing in the right order is good training to develop the right value system.

Uncle Greg Odlin's lectures were good because they encouraged us to challenge ourselves not only to our external limitations but to our internal limitations as well. It is important to challenge us internally, so that throughout the day how much can we not just be happy if we catch fish or unhappy if we don't catch fish, but rather remember that God's love is never changing and try to think about God more and more than the day before.

I believe that though our movement is moving away from restoration era activities like fundraising and street witnessing our 2nd generation still need to develop the internal value system and life of faith components of 1st generation and surpass them though external activities are not as extreme. I feel the Ocean Challenge program is providentially significant to bring all our life of faith educational components into a completion era activity. After all, we cannot fundraise and witness in Cheon Il Guk, so this program is a model training program for a Cheon Il Guk nation. If we can successfully inherit these internal components, this program can expend greatly.

I think we should keep exactly the same schedule next year but focus on raising the internal standard of the program so we get more testimonies of meeting God and True Parents on the ocean and improving the culture in the boat and a the center as well. Next year, we should raise admission fee. Announce early and people can fundraise for it.

I will definitely come next year. Thanks!

Also, I liked having some free time to visit the downtown. I suggest we also do a service project with local indigenous peoples. It is good to have option for people that want to do hunting or other activities to stay longer after the program. Also, for testimonies, it is good to have an M.C. We should keep Divine Principle lectures. The fishing competition was good because the team captains were not just motivated to win but wanted everyone to meet God & have a good experience. It is good we had daily team captain meetings and discussed and reflected with staff and team mothers. I wish we had more consistent experience in filleting and preparing fish. The talk from the professor was good but should have been more extensive. I think if he talked extensively about fish farming and fish processing it would be good. We should have him speak about how we can realize True Father's vision for fish farming and fish powder.