The Words of the Dobrotka Family
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The Words of the Dobrotka Family |
Aerial
photograph of the campus and surroundings
The State of Maryland was established in 1634 as a colony free from religious persecution. Unlike other colonies, Maryland was also free from major religious conflicts.
The University of Maryland began in Baltimore in 1807 as a school of medicine. In 1856 the Maryland Agricultural College was established in College Park. In 1920 these two colleges merged to form the present University of Maryland. The University has since expanded and is one of the ten largest universities in the United States with overseas -- branches from Seoul, Korea to Munich, Germany.
College Park Campus is the main campus with 28,000 students enrolled; so there are always a great many students to witness to. This campus has been noted in the past as being conservative; however, this spring the campus erupted in students rioting. Students are talking of revolution and are searching into all ideas and groups for some spark of hope. There are campus groups of Buddhists, Christians, and Marxists, all of whom are trying to give meaning to the lives of the students. Because of this intense search for meaning, the students are responsive to Principle.
Our College Park Center is located in the southern portion of the state, very close to Washington, D.C. Our main stream of activity revolves around the campus which is surrounded by the town of College Park. College Park and surrounding towns are very small and depend for survival on the income from the University students. It seems as if this area is alive only between September and June when the students are in school. Because of the many people living in the towns we often witness door to door in the community. These communities are mainly fundamental Christian and have not responded openly or positively to Principle.
Unlike the communities, the University does have a main gathering place. This is a large mall surrounded by campus buildings with the library at one end. The library steps are the main speaking spot for all rallies and for anyone who has anything to say. For this reason this area is a prime witnessing spot.
For the past year our Center has been located in College Park in an apartment across the street from the University. We are now moving to a house in Hyattsville about three miles from the University.
We feel that it is significant that the University of Maryland is the first state school to build and maintain a chapel on its campus. The state was founded for religious freedom, and we are really working to turn this state university back to Father.
We are really grateful to be working in this area where we can see the Heart of America through the hearts of its students. With them, we are trying to make this country realize its ideals.
Carolyn Libertini
Contacting
students on campus
Spiritual activity in College Park! Because we are a campus -in the midst of a community our witnessing is directed toward both community and students. The students here are desperately searching for meaning.
They are struggling to peck their way out of the egg shells of their home environments. In anger at life beyond the edge of the shell, they strike at the egg shell which hasn't better equipped them to exist in this hostile environment and at the environment itself for having no discernible pattern. The students' anger and frustration finally erupted in rioting this spring.
Partially because of these recent riots, our witnessing in the community has not been successful. We have gone door to door witnessing in the neighborhoods of the University administration and professors and in the fundamental Christian neighborhoods. The University personnel are responsive to our desire for peaceful non-violent change, but their own deep pessimism and frustration make them hesitant to come to lectures. The Christians in their deep love of country are frightened by the threat of the student's riots, and so they fear us as possible radicals.
Our singing and street preaching in the various 'large shopping plazas nearby have brought more favorable response. After preaching, we witness in the stores, supermarkets, and put up our flyers in the windows of barbershops and bakeries. We go to the nearby churches and the coffee hours, speak to the ministers, and attend the young people's groups. Sunday morning in the drugstores of the community shopping plazas the people seem particularly relaxed and eager to hear about Principle.
One weekend we went to Rehobath Beach. We witnessed up and down the boardwalk for Saturday night and Sunday morning lectures. A total of 15 people heard Chapter One and one girl heard through Chapters Three and Four.
We are seeking prepared people where ever they are, but our greatest success has come from the campus witnessing. We speak to people on the library steps, interrupt their studies in the library stacks, talk to them on the malls and walkways between classrooms and in the snack bars. While summer school was in session, we had a daily Principle discussion at our lunch table in the cafeteria. Here Principle students had deep, give and take in a more informal atmosphere than our regular lectures. Several students have fulfilled course requirements by writing papers on Principle and on Sun Myung Moon as a contemporary religious philosopher. We have had book tables in front of the library and during orientation for the incoming freshmen door to door witnessing in the dormitories also brings good response. We've gone to the bowling allies and to the laundromats. One of the best spots is the parking lot of a nearby shopping center.
Always our efforts are directed towards that glorious moment of reunion when Father can welcome another returned child. With love in them as we all share in the work of restoration.
Carroll Ann Dobrotka
Greetings from College Park Center! What tremendous; developments are taking place, how we do need Father's; guidance at this time!
Travis Jones led a number of members of the Washington, D. C. Center in setting strong conditions of witnessing, teaching and fasting at the University of Maryland in the fall semester of 1968. The following spring, two new members, Barry and Marilyn Cohen, began a Center in an apartment near campus. Within four months, Father had collected four more children one girl, three boys. When classes resumed at the University in the fall, we found ourselves deluged with ideas and plans. Even though we could not carry out many of the ideas for improving the campus and community, Father found ways of inducing others to carry out those ideas. Through the past year, we have seen tremendous change on the campus. As Father is gaining His foothold, Satan has worked especially hard. University students are becoming more and more radical and anxious to change the old world. Many think destruction is the way! We eagerly look forward to development of the Freedom Leadership Foundation in our area.
Many of the patterns begun by Travis and the Cohens have continued even though they are new in the Washington D.C. Center. This summer there have been three meetings per week for the teaching of Divine Principle. Two of these have been held on campus (Tuesday and Wednesday evenings) and the- third one has been in the Center (Saturday afternoons). The format is generally: song, introductions, lecture, questions, and discussion. Even though the Center is conveniently located, meetings on campus have consistently attracted greater numbers of people. There has also been individually-arranged teaching of Principle. This has often been the most stimulating for us, teaching the courage to love others openly. Father has shown us different aspects of our potentials and our needs through these various teaching situations.
The majority of Center members are students. We find that this adds to variety in Center life. Studying, praying cooking, singing, teaching, witnessing, cleaning--all are parts of the joy we are finding.
We are repairing a house in preparation for moving this month. The location is excellent on major bus routes and only 3 miles from campus. Father is excited for new trends and expansion from this broadened base. The lot is small but there are about seven bedrooms, in addition to meeting rooms and work storage rooms. We began the restoration of the house with evening prayer meeting and celebration with Father. This was followed the next day by industrious physical restoration. Since we began, members from three other Center have joined us at times for repair and cleanup work -- Baltimore center, Rockville Center, and Washington, D.C. Center. Father always seems to find a way! We know the new Center quarters will help us to be more effective this coming school year. With prayers in Their Names for expansion and unification,
John Fitzpatrick