Idaho Church Sunday Project

Erwan Burtzlaff
October 14, 2005

Dear brothers and sisters,

On October 9 two STF teams were gathered in the small Idaho Family Church to give our best presentation of STF and to reach out to the Idaho community.

After lecture practice and a brief breakfast, we slipped into our Sunday best clothes. On the way to Service I was thinking to myself "What kind of attitude it was important to have?" At this point I remembered my team captain's words about making sure that we give with a sincere heart. I made sure to remember this throughout the day.

Idaho's community is composed of 3 families and there was a total of 14 STFers visiting. After introductions we created an atmosphere to receive Sunday Service from Idaho's interim state leader, Mr. Coryell. His sermon was titled "If it were only about catching they wouldn't call it fishing". It detailed his experience at the World King Cup Fishing tournament in Yeosu, Korea. We learned about how important it is to have a clear motivation and a strong determination in our life of faith. With this kind of attitude you can attack your difficulties with more capability.

After Service both teams offered a musical presentation. Jin's team sang a rendition of "Love is born anew" and Satoshi's team performed their STF rap. The deep voices of my brothers resonated through the house and I could feel the spirit that had been created. Testimonies came next...1st year Jacob McCarthy explained his motivation to join STF and his realizations about how selfish he was if he didn't come to STF and how selfless Heavenly Father, True Parents and his parents were. He shared this realization with tears, that essentially he does not want to let them down. Jin Mitchem gave the second testimony and he talked about his quest to live for the sake of others and the path he has walked to understand the real meaning of Living for the sake of Others. He shared that to embody this attitude of sacrifice we have to invest our heart and energy in each step of our life of faith.

After sharing, we all sat down for lunch. We felt so much love from them, and desire to help us feel at home. After lunch, we spent the afternoon working and cleaning up the church grounds. The project was not only to beautify the church but to help develop a lasting friendship with this community. During just this one day I feel that we could create the foundation for a long friendship.

Thank you,

Erwan Burtzlaff