Spring Tidings from Las Vegas

It’s finally spring, and with the arrival of this bright new season has come news of new beginnings and high spirits from the Las Vegas Family Church.

A Neighborhood Easter Celebration

The Las Vegas Family Church celebrated Easter Sunday on March 27 with an outdoor picnic and barbecue. At the picnic, Mr. Herbert Brown offered a homily about the true meaning of Easter and about how to grow in faith for the Messiah. After lunch, the local evangelism team hosted games for the young children and members of the Las Vegas chapter of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) organized activities for the middle school and high school students as well as the adults. The program ended with open mic entertainment by CARP and other community members.

The picnic and barbecue were a fun and friendly way to serve and interact with members of the local community. One elder woman brought her four grandchildren to the picnic, and while the children joined in the games and the Easter egg hunt, she got to know several of the Unificationists there. CARP also invited six University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) students to the event, some of whom volunteered to come early to set up and help organize the games for the children.

The Las Vegas Family Church intends to host several more of these picnics before the end of the year. Congregants were grateful for the opportunity to share the life-giving love they have received from both Jesus and True Parents with their neighbors on such a beautiful and important day.

Two-Day CARP Seminar Educates about Promise of the Blessing

During spring break, CARP Las Vegas hosted a seminar from March 21-22 to educate new and young Unificationists about True Parents and the Marriage Blessing Ceremony.

Akira and Makiko Watanabe, Directors of CARP Las Vegas, gave presentations during the day and Rev. Andrew Compton, Education Director at the International Peace Education Center, led a question and answer session on the second evening. For some of the participants, it would be the first time that they heard about True Parents’ lives and the significance of the Blessing in-depth.

The main lesson of the seminar was the importance of becoming responsible for one’s personal faith and for True Parents’ tradition because, according to the seminar staff, that is the best way for youth and young people to appreciate the value of both True Parents and the Blessing. Akira spoke passionately about the trials that True Parents had to endure to bequeath the Blessing Ceremony to the world. Makiko shared about the challenges that individuals face when they are in the process of meeting their eternal spouse. All of the seminar participants were able to walk away with new insights into and a deeper commitment to receiving the Blessing from True Parents.

The Las Vegas Family Church regularly holds half-day seminars on the Divine Principle and the Blessing. CARP organized this particular workshop in order to train young Unificationists who are already familiar with the Divine Principle to share its contents with others.

Town Hall Meeting Encourages Open Conversation

To address questions and concerns of the Las Vegas Unificationist community, Las Vegas Family Church Pastor Rev. Ken Doo called a town hall meeting on Thursday, March 24. Over 30 members of the community came together to voice their opinions and discuss church affairs.

Rev. Doo opened the meeting with a short report about True Mother’s recent activities as well as the significance of some of her recent organizational decisions in Korea. After these remarks, Council Treasurer Kooksun Kim presented the 2015 Financial Report before Rev. Doo opened up the floor for discussion.

Some of the major issues raised by community members were the possibility of building a new church, the concern of how to better educate middle school and high school students, and queries about how to use the church council as a means to create new programs and improve the local church. Rev. Doo and the church council members addressed these issues and recorded suggestions to discuss further.

Stay tuned for more news from the Las Vegas Family Church. If you would like to share your own community’s stories, you can submit them online here.