Since last December in conjunction with the age of the Cheon IL Gook, my husband Johnny and I wanted to have a meeting for our neighbors at our house. Finally, on March 30th it became a reality. It was for Spanish people. We had support from my sisters group that even though without speaking any Spanish the following persons came: Mrs. Ilse Sutchar. Mrs. Barbara Vincenz, Mrs. Hiroko Scheffer, Mrs. Noriko Cooper, Mrs. Maria Ogden, Mrs. Maria Quintanilla with her Japanese husband and my brother and sister in law Yan and Gwen Porter. We had 3 guests at the first meeting. We invited Rev Jon Acevedo and his wife Marina to be the speakers. They are responsible for our Hispanic community in Chicago and they have quite a bit of success and experience.

We sang holy songs, prayed together and Rev. Acevedo gave a short lecture talking about family. The atmosphere was great and we gave them holy wine.

My intention in the beginning was to have the 1st experience and to know our neighbors better, but Rev. Acevedo asked if we could meet the following week and promptly a guest offered her house for the next meeting.. Since that time, we are meeting at different houses each week. Our guests have the opportunity to have their families involved. When we have new guests we toast with holy wine. Each time we have different experiences.

Some times not so many people can come, but we keep going.

Our last meeting was the most amazing experience. We had a total of 16 people, 6 new guests. The host prepared delicious food. We sang typical songs from different countries. We had people from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Philippines, Austria and Guyana. We could see our differences in traditions, customs and beliefs, but in spite of our differences we could feel one thing in common - we are all God's children. We concluded that this is the meaning of our meeting, to bring people together as one family.

Each person had the opportunity to pray. We felt repentance, gratitude and love in each prayer. We prayed for each other, for unity, love and peace. We embraced each other and celebrated our families with cheers and holy wine. Certainly each individual went back home a different person.

My husband and I would like to thank to Bishop Kim, Rev. and Mrs. Acevedo and our sister group for their support.

Thanks to God and True Parents for the beautiful experience with our neighbors.

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