The Witnessing Club at the Unification Theological Seminary has started its seven-city tour of the Hudson Valley region. To make a speech tour of the surrounding region about True Parents, the Completed Testament Age, and the Blessing, was a calling by Dr. Byrne and the desire of Pres. Kim. The Witnessing Club had its first rally in Kingston, and someone from the local radio came to tape the speech and talked to us about it. Making public relations with the city officials, fire chief and the media is an old strategy that Father had already mentioned, and that was a chief concern in this rally.

There was a rally on Wednesday, May 11, at Hudson, New York, a town 15 miles north of Red Hook. The Hudson rally was very inspiring. We already had press review with a reporter a couple of days before, and the reporter was very positive about the idea of promoting "God- centered families." America is infested with so many social and moral problems that they are glad when people are trying to promote solutions, regardless of denomination. At the rally, about 20 seminarians participated. But first, we cleaned up the park. Many of the people in Hudson are poor or lower middle class, and there is a terrible drug problem in Hudson. They said that people are even afraid to leave their back door open because of robbers. In that environment, we cleaned up the bad atmosphere and paved the way for the good spirit to come into Hudson. We were singing "Amazing Grace" and "When the Saints Go Marching In." That was how we felt. After cleaning the park, we felt that we could really take ownership of the park, and the people were very inspired, coming up to us and asking us why we are doing something good.

We then sang songs, after which Ted O'Grady and Dr. Byrne gave the speech proclaiming True Parents and the need for True Families, and then invited them to the Blessing. About 20 people from Hudson showed up, and they were all inspired. When we prayed at the end, three people from Hudson joined hand-in-hand in prayer for God's grace to Hudson. We then witnessed to people for about 40 minutes to promote the evening program the following night at Dr. Byrne's home on True Parents and the Completed Testament Age, and we also invited them to the Open House the following Sunday, May 15. Several people wanted to come, so we escorted them to and from the Seminary. Over all, we gained success at Hudson, and next week we will go to another town and speak about the need for True Parents and God-centered families.

We learned that a rally itself might not people in America at first, but doing a small clean-up or other service before the rally gets the spirit world inspired, and then witnessing after the speech becomes natural because we already have a base to build from. Doing service work along with speeches seems to be a good mix between the external and the internal. As the Divine Principle says, the process of restoration is first external, then internal. This method works and needs to be adapted in many creative ways in our witnessing endeavors.

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