The Words of the Werner Family
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The Words of the Werner Family |
University
Nanterre France, Nov, 1969
Dear Mr. [Hyo Won] Eu,
As we stop and think about last month's activities our hearts are so thankful to Father for all His blessings. What a deep joy we feel to embrace more and more of Father's children here in Germany as they come into the family. How can we really express our feelings deep down in our hearts? We can only say, Thank you, Father, for the nine (9) new members joining ours family this month, the first one accepting the Truth and our True parents on the very first day of November. Seven of them already moved into headquarters. 31 members are living at the center now. Especially in the evening it is like a beehive with principle being taught in every corner of the house. Six new girls moved in and the quarters are getting so crowded, that even floor space is getting scarce.
On November 4, we established our new center (the fourth one in Germany) in the university city of Bochum, and our work with the students there is already in full swing. Three of our Essen members, one boy and two girls, moved into the center even before all the painting and cleaning was done, to start witnessing right away. A most pleasant surprise for us was to find out, that Bochum has an all-pedestrian street like Kettwiger Strasse in Essen, so the same strategy of witnessing can be used there. We officially dedicated the new center over the Children's Day weekend as to give all our members from far and near the opportunity to share our joy about Father's new foothold. The day before... on Saturday morning, despite heavy rain, the whole German family went on a witnessing campaign in downtown Bochum to make a condition for the work there. It was really like an invasion. People we contacted were friendly and responded very well. That same evening we had our first girl from Bochum at the center. Last week we concentrated on campus-work. Since we had a holiday on Wednesday our three members started out in the morning and went from door to door in one of the student's dormitories taking the principle right into the rooms. They made very good contacts and one of the students came to Essen last Sunday to meet the family.
For Children's Day all our members from Frankfurt, Hamburg and Bochum to Essen. What a crowd it was. It wasn't easy to accommodate 40 members but somehow we managed. The nights were short anyway. It is so wonderful to be united as one big family under our True parents, to pray, share, sing and witness together. Our longing to be with our parents was so strong. The atmosphere was high all through the weekend and each one left on Sunday night or Monday morning for their respective mission fields with new zeal and energy to find Father's children everywhere in Germany.
One of our newest members is a trombonist at the orchestra of the city theater. He also plays the piano and the guitar. Quite a few others play instruments and as soon as we find a suitable large center, we will have a nice family orchestra.
On November 15, we repeated our poster-march in downtown Essen with 25 members participating. The street was just packed with people and we had a hard time getting through the crowd and keeping together. Some people fought their way thru from the back to the front in order to read every poster.
The whole family was happy about our newest acquisitions; another VW-Bus and a VW-Truck to haul furniture etc.
Our money-raising campaign is still under way. Each week on Friday night and Saturday afternoon our family swarms out into the designated districts of the city to go from door to door asking for their support of our new youth center in the form of money.
Last week this campaign proved to be effective in collecting a new member as well. One of our girls knocked at the door of a Dutch girl, living alone here in Essen, and was invited into the room. This girl wanted to know the purpose of our campaign and became very interested in principle and accompanied our member to the center right away. She was very impressed by the atmosphere and our family life and began to study principle in German and Dutch. Within a few days she accepted and didn't want to leave the center any more. What a wonderful addition to the family.
Enclosed are a few pictures showing our family at the Bochum center and at the Holy Ground in Essen.
We are always with you. The whole family is joining us in sending our deepest love to Father, Mother, the Children, Mrs. Choi, you and all our brothers and sisters in our Home land.
In the name of our True parents,
Paul and Christel Werner