GPA Leadership Team Has Unforgettable Experience in Korea
The Generation Peace Academy (GPA) leadership team, composed of 27 second and third year participants and staff, returned from Korea inspired and ready to begin a new year.
GPA had the honor of performing on the stage of the World Peace Center at the opening ceremony of the Second Anniversary of True Father’s Universal Seunghwa, and described it as the highlight of the trip. “The hours of practice helped us to cultivate a desire to give our best and offer all our support for True Mother,” Said Roland Platt, GPA Director. Kosuke Enami, a participant, commented, “Performing something for True Mother was a very precious experience. It was really hard to smile over and over again in practices, but it all came out on stage: I think all of us just wanted to do the best for Mother and Father.”
Through this pilgrimage to Korea, the team was able to experience a deep understanding of True Parents. After the festivities of the previous day, the team was able to spend time at many of the Unification Church historical places including the early CheonPaDong Church, SoDawMun, where True Father was put in prison, the Rock of Tears, and the “cardboard Church” where True Father completed the writing of the Divine Principle. Roland said, “True Parents lives and the difficulties of their courses became very real, by actually going to and seeing the places that we had previously heard about through lectures or study.”
The team was invited up to the Cheong Jeong Museum to offer their respects at the True Father’s WonJeon or final resting place on earth, and were asked once again to offer a song, which they sang for True Mother.
Outside of Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, the GPA team was able to see some of the other places in Korea that hold special significance to Unificationists. After touring the Demilitarization Zone (DMZ) and visiting the Korean War museum, the team gained a sense of the tragic and painful division of North and South Korea. At a visit to the UN Memorial Park in Busan, GPA was greeted as team representing America and were welcomed with a banner and a full tour. A deep respect was felt by the Korean people who hold fallen soldiers of foreign nations who came to liberate them from Communism highly. “Everything that happened throughout the trip somehow connected so seamlessly that it gave me a clear vision of what True Parents went through in Korea. And now, their story is so real to me,” said Sunkook Iwasaki.
The trip was a great success, giving the team a chance to learn, reflect, and gain a new understanding. Many had their eyes opened by the foundation and influence the Unification Church has in Korea, and can now see how this can make an actual impact on society and the world.
As Shiori Ohki said, “After this trip, I have the desire to seek True Parents in my own life, to make my relationship with them more personal so that I can confidently share my faith with others; I want to be able to spread True Parents’ love to others. Just as True Mother said we should be like pure water spreading God’s love to the polluted world and purifying it. From this trip I was definitely able to understand how important True Parents are to us, as well as see them from God’s perspective. We need them, we must follow them, and we have to support them.”
The GPA staff would like to thank all those who supported and helped in numerous ways to make this trip amazing.