The Words of the Mayo Family
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The Words of the Mayo Family |
To all:
I would like to congratulate you all for a job well done! This is the kind of activity that not only revitalize our energy but bring everyone together as members of the Blessed Family. Our goal is to bring success for Heavenly Father, True Parents and True Children. I am really happy to see brothers and sisters going back in the front line. This is the very reason that I let my wife go back in the Philippines and work as full time. I hope to see more of the same. Congratulations!!!
Last Sunday September 14, 2008, The United Filipinos for Peace and Advancement (UFPA) held a mini-Global Peace Festival in Nagoya. What seemed to be a simple gathering among few members and close friends in mind snowballed in a bigger event with the support of our UFPA brothers from Mie.
As the day's event came closer, we have to secure a wider venue to accommodate the growing response. During the main event, we filled up the 100 seating capacity of the hall and secure another room for the children to be used while the GPF is in session. It was a mini-GPF in a sense as we have an international audience representative from Brazil, Paraguay, Vietnam, Thailand, Two Filipinos from Canada, Japanese and Filipino audiences alike comprised the crowd. This mini-GPF became also a stage of triangular meet for Blessed Families with Lalaine Arieta and family coming all the way from Gifu; The families of Aichi Ken and Mie Ken showed their overwhelming support and of course, much credit goes to Lourdes Lee and Family who worked on the frontline to make this affair a success.
The main speaker for the event is no less than the President of UFPA Tokyo Chapter, Mr. Dante Negre. He expounded the vision of GPF using PowerPoint presentations and invited the audience for the GPF Tokyo in November. He also shared about the UFPA as a partner of GPF embodying the ideals and visions of a One United Family Under God and through the PowerPoint, he shared to the audience the vision and mission of UFPA drawing the global concept of GPF to fit in our local situation. He said that, "we need to think globally, yet act locally" to mean that although there is a great potential to reach out to other international members of the community, we needed to focus our energies on the Migrant Filipinos where we can do best considering our common base with them. He showed to the audience through visual aid the different projects and activities that UFPA organization is undertaking here in Japan in line with the overall purpose and direction of GPF and how it is trying to effect change in the lives of individuals and families.
After the lecture presentation, the audiences were wowed by the musical presentation of our 2nd generation kids. Playing different musical instruments, they rocked and brought down the house with their brand of music. One daughter of Alfred from Mie took the floor and showed her prowess in dancing the rap that truly captured the hearts of the crowd. These kids did not only brought colors to the affair but apart from that, they are now visibly becoming a living witness and active participant to the kind of vision and organization we wanted to project and portray both to the Filipino Migrants living here in Japan and the Japanese society in general.
One flavor of this mini-GPF that is very much a Filipino is the Fiesta. Each of our family members including our invited guests brought some foods of sort. The atmosphere was truly a big Family as we shared all the bounty in buffet style with a mixture of different cuisines to celebrate from. We invited on stage all September Celebrants and sang birthday song for them before finally partaking of the blessings on the table. It was a time then to mingle and get acquainted to our guests and plainly share our precious time with them celebrating the moment in the spirit of big Family under God.
During the entertainment portion, The Tong-il Moo Do under the leadership of Joelimar Juliano demonstrated their skills with their powerful performance of the Eye of the Tiger ballet. The 2nd gen TMD members also joined the show with their improved technique that has caught the admiration and applause of the audience. An impromptu Karaoke was set up and some participants challenged their guts to sing in public. It was truly an hour of joy and entertainment that could last indefinitely if not with our limited contract with the venue.
One part of the event that has kept the participants glued till the end of the program is the Bingo Game that we have conceived. We asked our members and our invited guests to bring a small item as prizes for the game. All participants including children enthusiastically joined the game as Joey Andaya with his wiz and sense of humor took the microphone and gave life to the game.
We wrapped the mini Festival full of spirit knowing that despite the many loopholes in the program and the seeming lack of program coordination, the event with all its meaning and purpose was put to light. We accomplished something within our means that served as affirmation that we can do it!
Hopefully, this event serves as precedent to some future activities bigger in scale in the coming days. We have proven that with a united effort of Blessed Families, great possibilities can come particularly how we can bring the Truth (DP and TP) to Filipino Migrants here in Japan. The mini-GPF offered us the opportunity to look closely within ourselves and finally open our doors for possible Ministry and witnessing on Japanese soil. We have the common notion that our mission particularly the brothers here in Japan "commando" is to support Philippine Providence financially but we can do more than just merely offering our tithes. The UFPA is pioneering the path towards that goal.
May this humble activity here in Nagoya gives us the inspiration and needed wisdom not only to create your own mini-GPF in your respective areas, but for us to think collectively how we can create a united front of Blessed Central Families and coordinate our efforts and activities as we advance the cause of God and True Parents' will here in Japan amongst the Filipino Community. May we find strength of the journey, and cultivate our commitment as we work together along the mainstream providence and share God's blessings to others. Good Luck to all of us! Aju!