It was one of those perfect Sundays. The sky bedecked with small white wisps of clouds, the giant elms and oaks shading us from the otherwise sun-drenched slope where we had gathered by the Milwaukee River for Sunday service to celebrate the first anniversary of the 360,000- couple Blessing.

In true Unification style, the Sunday service was not just your usual sermon, but the "trimmings" took longer than the sermon. Aug. 25 this year was not as sultry and hot as 1995, and it was a joy to listen in comfort to the reports from Chung Pyung Lake and those who attended the True Family Values seminar and most of all to those Blessed last year as they reflected on what the Blessing has meant in their lives.

Testimony from Ron and Delois Grotzinger was such that she was moved to tears and many of her listeners too. Nowhere else has she found such love as that in the small rainbow collection that we are here, she said. Ron spoke succinctly and eloquently about how the Blessing has made them feel more married and more in the realm of God's love. What a change the ceremonies of the Blessing made in their life, how it has deepened their love for each other.

Fresh from the True Family Values seminar in Washington, D.C., Rev. and Mrs. John Witherspoon were able to connect the two experiences of Blessing and the study of family. Mrs. Witherspoon said she had been truly moved by the study in D.C. and the profound exposition of the centrality to God's purpose of the husband-wife relationship. It clarified the Blessing that their couple had hosted and partaken of last year and presented many challenges and insights through biblical instruction. It was marvelous, something to be recommended to anybody, Mrs. Witherspoon said.

As Mrs. Ikeno shared some reflections of her attendance at CPL, the same point of the central responsibility to be a loving husband and wife emerged.

My husband had attended the TFV seminar with our Wisconsin delegates and had a profound experience of the fact that God has so many things set up according to our attendance. An African bishop establishing churches in the United States told my husband that their congregation has been praying for some church that they should connect with here and that when he saw Glenn, he knew that was the person they had been praying to meet. Glenn had noticed this person when he first arrived at the hotel and as he finished thinking "There are some people that I would never speak to," he heard a voice very clearly tell him that he should speak with that person!

Maurice and Vikki Lawrence, also Blessed last year, had prepared a barbecue, and amid short ribs and Wisconsin bratwursts and a large celebration cake, we stayed and ate and talked together as only summer picnics allow. Amid the last of the watermelon, another minister and his wife, Rev. and Mrs. James Anderson (Blessed in New York) strolled over. They had been delayed because of his preaching engagement that morning.

With the few seeds from the previous Blessing flowering-so beautifully that there is a great incentive to bring the love of God through our True Parents to all whom we can. The Blessing of 3.6 million is just the beginning of where God wants His love to flow.

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