CIG Missionary Trainees Offer a Taste of ‘Ohana’
During their second full week in Costa Rica, the Cheon Il Guk (CIG) Missionary Trainees connected with their local Unificationist peers, expanded their campus outreach efforts, and hosted a campus program inspired by the Hawaiian word ‘ohana,’ meaning family. Read an overview of their ongoing adventures below.
Contributed by Anick Muleki
On Sunday, February 26, we had a youth event called “Héroes,” where all of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) members and the second-generation Unificationist youth of Costa Rica came together for a fun day at the park. Together in groups we did a scavenger hunt, offered performances, and spent time bonding together.
Last week, we found a spot on campus which we can use as a campus center to guide our guests in Divine Principle studies. On Monday, when we arrived on campus, we took time to clean up the area, sang holy songs, offered a prayer, and sanctified our new space with holy salt.
On Tuesday, February 28, we held a Divine Principle study session among just the Cheon Il Guk (CIG) Missionary Trainees, where we went over key points that we need to understand so that we can best educate our guests when we study with them, engaged in discussion, and also prepared our own seven-minute lectures on the Divine Principle.
One of the many highlights of this week was having three new people come for Divine Principle study at our campus center.
“We had an on-the-spot study session with Andrea. We read the introduction; she was very interested and had lots of questions. She is religious and believes that people should know God and his heart and that doing so will make them happier.” –Anick Muleki
“Had Divine Principle study with Andrés today. He is interested in religion and science! He has questioned his faith in God before. ‘If God exists, why do good people die?’ And he is interested in meeting again next week.” –Yasunari Sakuma
“We read through the introduction to the Divine Principle. When I asked him if he has thought about God’s heart before he said that often his motivation for trying to be good is to not hurt Jesus’ heart. Through talking with him I learned more about his values and life. He is an inspiring brother.” -Robert Cunningham
On Saturday, March 4, we had our first event as American missionaries, and the theme of our event was “Ohana Signifca Familia” (Ohana means family). We wanted to create a heavenly cultural atmosphere where people from different backgrounds can come together and feel free to share their ideas and be themselves in a family setting.
“At a table dedicated to discussing the First Blessing, we talked about what happiness is and if we can truly be 100% happy. We read quotes from the Divine Principle, True Father and other famous figures who talked about what happiness was. Then we had everyone write a phrase of what happiness means to them, and share it. Then we created origami heart boxes for them to write their quote on and an action step for them to achieve their happiness in a small and simple way.” –Junyo Nakamura
“One of our discussion tables had a focus on the Second Blessing, creating true relationships. With our Hawaiian theme, we talked about the spirit of Aloha, the value of unconditional love. We read quotes about the give and take of love from different religious scriptures as well as the Divine Principle and True Father’s words. We had a discussion and did an activity where we shared what words of love we felt we needed to receive and the words of love we wanted to give to others. Everyone was able to really experience the power of give and take of love to create any bond.” –Erika Gordon
“The theme of my table was the Hawaiian word Malama meaning “to take care of.” In essence, it was covering the Third Blessing. We read quotes from various sources and had discussions based on them. This was split into three topics: the reality–our negative impact on the world and the root of this problem; the right perspective–seeing the world as a gift and imagining a world with this collective perspective; and our personal contribution–what we can do to help the world no matter how small. We concluded with writing gratitude points and a goal of how to contribute this week on a leaf and flower, respectively, and then placed them all on a tree together.” –Robert Cunningham
We made delicious Hawaiian foods to go along with our theme. We served spam musubi, macaroni pasta, pineapple fried rice, and, of course, delicious tropical fruits.
Over all it was a beautiful event, we had nine new people come and in total there we 26 participants! It was so inspiring to see the fruits of our investments here. This being our very first event, we can now see how we can accomplish so much more, and together with our Heavenly Parent we are determined to do just that.
Stay tuned for more updates from our CIG Missionary Trainees here at familyfed.org.