Ocean Community Holds Youth Workshop
The Ocean Community Family Church in North Carolina held an annual Youth Summer Workshop on July 28. The small community recruited six adults to create a 1-Day youth Workshop which welcomed 11 participants ranging from 4th grade to college grade levels. The main purpose for this workshop was to study the Bible and chapters one and two in the Divine Principle. Of course, there were also plenty of fun activities.
Instead of having a pastor or lecturer, the workshop used Dr. Tyler Hendricks’ Divine Principle lecture video series to teach participants. They also used a Divine Principle Quiz from the Youth and Young Adult Ministry (YAYAM) website to test the participants’ understanding of the Divine Principle.
The volunteer staff did a wonderful job; Yukiyo Takeda gave participants a motivational speech at the beginning of the workshop, and provided a meaningful and fun water balloon toss game. Kazuyo Watanabe took care of the Bible class for one young participant while the others were receiving the Divine Principle Chapter 2 lecture. Yoshimi Tazawa led a creative snack activity it called “Mini-Aquarium” where participants used Gatorade, gelatin, gummy fish and gummy bears to build an aquarium. Yumiko Kitajo took charge of the kitchen and made a delicious meal for the entire workshop.
Workshop participants exhibited Living For the Sake of Others; Satsuki Tazawa took on the role of an elder sister and led the group in taking funny pictures and created a short slide show by the end of the workshop, and Taiyo Hasebe, who has a second rank black belt in Tang Soo Do Karate, brought a punching pad as an activity.
At the end of the workshop, participants filled out a survey about which part of the lectures they liked most, how they would like to show their appreciation to God and True Parents, and how they liked the workshop overall. Most participants said learning about the Human Fall inspired them the most. “[The Human Fall] showed awareness of our responsibilities and to grow and reconnect with God,” one participant said.