All Stories
You can look under specific sections under Missions or Special Times or at this page where all stories and testimonies are gathered in the order they were submitted. Here you find the whole jar of jelly beans mixed together. Enjoy the different flavors, and then share yours!
You choose, Father
by Jose Fragosa Before the Blessing, I was working for the Washington Times. I was one of the very first people to come to the Washington Times. Actually, before that I was working for the News World Press, in New York. We used to print the News World communications....
read more“Wait! You’re a Moonie??!!?”
by Sam Harley May 7, 2017 I went back to college, to get my bachelor's so I could attend the seminary. Told God I wasn't going to advertise my church membership, but I'd be absolutely straight about it when it came up. After several quiet months, a young woman got up...
read moreTesting….testing…..
by Sam Harley February 25, 2017 At the end of my MFT career, somewhere in Minnesota, in the middle of winter....I was experiencing what for me were routine fundraising issues, getting overloaded (emotionally constipated, as one team mother put it) and knowing that no...
read moreOmigod, I talked to a Moonie
by Sam Harley February 28, 2017 It's an interesting experience, talking to someone who is convinced you're a mindless zombie with the strange power to hypnotize them. But it doesn't make for great conversation. I was fundraising a small town in Tennessee, on a...
read more
We listened to Father
by Sam Harley April 26, 2016 After walking through the metal detector at security and showing your ID, you took your shoes off before entering the main room. In the WMC (World Mission Center, aka the New Yorker), you went through the terrace room. Left your shoes by...
read moreTell the world the good news
by Raymond Lopera March 2, 2017 OUR MISSION: Dear Brothers and Sisters. For those who still out there, and sat on the floor at Belvedere or anywhere around the world, for the same purpose, every Sunday, for almost 7 years, day after day eating peanut butter...
read more
Hippie joins the church
by Robert Brown August 30, 2016 A couple weeks after turning 19 years old in Oxnard, California in September, 1974, my brother, my girlfriend and I left home in my brother’s old 1956 bread-truck style camper that had a bed, stove and ice box. We left while my...
read moreGangs running wild at Yankee Stadium
By Robert Brown Yankee Stadium Rally, June 1, 1976 Many of us MFTers spent the night inside the Yankee Stadium hallways the night before True Father’s Yankee Stadium rally. Our job was to secure the place so no one came in planting bombs or to prepare an ambush. We...
read more
Yankee Stadium, God loves all America
by Gary Abrahams August 31 After spending a year in Japan and Korea all of the American's on the First Global Team were sent back to America in order to prepare a foundation for The Yankee Stadium "God Bless America Rally". We were sent to Barrytown and to an...
read more
21 City Tour in Atlanta, Georgia
by Trevor Brown August 21, 2016 As young members, we went to campaign in Atlanta before the 21 city tour event in 1973. We went witnessing in the city center before the IOWC members arrived, and it was really tough. We had to sell the tickets for all three nights. We...
read more
Father’s enduring legacy
by Michael Downey My most enduring image of Rev. Moon in Alaska is him sitting cross-legged, back straight on the engine cover of an open boat. No matter what the weather or sea conditions he always sat staring out to sea, unchanging. When I remember him on the ocean,...
read more
Welcome to Belvedere, a Visitor’s Collage
This is a video created by Derek Denaro in 1994 interviewing the Belvedere staff.
read more
I found my spiritual teacher
by Malinda Vogel (reprinted from familyfed.org) I feel grateful to have been able to (be) introduced to the Unification Movement in 1979. I was raised Catholic, but I wanted someone to teach me how to put my faith into practice. After meandering through different...
read more
From one of my MFT journals, “Reflections for 1979”
by Robert Brown July 9, 2017 (This is written directly from my journal and is posted to show the attitude of so many members at that time: dedication, faith, full effort, wanting to do the best for God and True Parents.) This year was full of challenges, deep...
read more
Memories of the Blessing
by Sam Harley July 1, 2017 We Were There salutes the 2075 couples. Happy Anniversary! Here are some random memories of that time. Our MFT region had one brother who used to work in a tailor's shop, so he altered our suits. Mine still has a slightly wobbly stitch up...
read more
Searching for God
by Robert Beebe July 3, 2017 Times have changed, but God’s work is the same. I know God was able to reach me on the foundation of the blood, sweat, and tears of our True Parents. When I was in college I began to experience a spiritual yearning to find God. As part of...
read moreJapanese Missionary to U.S. in 1973
by Yoshi Ichijo June 16, 2017 I arrived in the US 44 years ago yesterday with the third group of Japanese missionaries. Somehow I wanted to come to the US as I was growing up. Of course, I didn't know that I would come here as a missionary then. From day one on this...
read more
Hunter joins in Montana
by Robert Sayre July 1, 2017 September 18, 1973 was my first day as part of the Unified Family in Missoula, Montana. It was in inauspicious beginning. I had met Pat Hickey a few months earlier and they had left Lorenzo Gaztanaga there to kind of tend me and three...
read moreMatching in 1982 before the Blessing
https://www.facebook.com/emmanuel.gballou/videos/971576982937821/
read moreFatherhood is forever
by Sam Harley June 16, 2017 Christmas, 1997. Brandon, a year and a half old, is standing barefoot and diapered staring up at the Christmas tree with an awe struck look on his face. We just finished decorating it, and he is taking in the twinkling lights and the...
read moreThrough a stranger my dad holds my son
by Sam Harley June 16, 2017 I remember when our first child was born, I broke down for a minute or two. Partly because I had been waiting so long for that moment, but also that's when it hit me: this is forever. Once you are a father (or a mother) that relationship...
read moreA dream about a prepared group, Sahaj Marg Meditation group
by Peter Dean Nordquist January 29, 2017 Had the dream one early morning that I had just attended Sunday Service at Belvedere in Tarrytown, NY, and decided to take a walk on the grounds behind Belvedere. As I walked I came to the house of a Blessed Couple Family and...
read moreMy experience at the Matching, (part 3) Resurrection
by Sam Harley April 16, 2017 Some names are left out. Though it may be obvious to some who these people are, it is their story to tell if and when they choose to. I will tell you mine. When the next matching and blessing came around, Dr Ang asked me if I thought I was...
read moreMy experience at the Matching (part 2)
by Sam Harley April 14, 2017 Many people have victorious testimonies of being matched by True Father. This is not one of them. In telling what I remember of my second matching, I do not use the names of the others involved. Their side of the story is theirs to tell,...
read moreMy Matching (part 1)
by Sam Harley April 7, 2017 This week's theme is one of the highlights of following True Parents: the matching. Please write or record your experience of the matching. My experience is more varied than some, so I will present it in three parts. Here is part 1: I...
read moreYou’re a Moonie!
by Sam Harley April 28, 2017 It may be hard to understand now what it was like. Walking from door to door in a small town, being watched from behind curtains as if you were green and eight feet tall with one eye in your forehead. People would stare at us as we ate...
read moreUnity made all the difference
by Sam Harley June 11, 2017 Once I was in the kitchen at Hearst Street house, three months in the church and struggling. Noah Ross was there. “So Sam, how's it going?” he asked. I had really been wanting to talk to somebody about what I was going through, and Noah was...
read more
Cold lake condition
Many times when on MFT in Pennsylvania, we would camp out under the stars in a park with a lake.
read more
Joining the Church, becoming Father’s security
by Derek Denaro June 4, 2017
read more
Experiences with Father in Alaska
by Jules Hack June 4, 2017
read more
Condition for spiritual breakthrough
by Sam Harley June 2, 2017 Oakland family, where I joined, did lots of fasting. We ate a liquid breakfast (“Put it in the blender!” was a common shout when we didn't know what to do with leftovers). I remember having spaghetti sauce for breakfast. We also fasted every...
read more
Spiritual growth at the Seminary
by Herb Myer June 3, 2017 This is an abridged version of Herb's story. For the full report please go to Book on Following SMM. I am incredibly grateful for the two years I spent at the seminary. In some ways they were two of the best two years of my life. It was a...
read more
The ocean is a challenge
by Herb Myer From Book of Following SMM page June 1, 2017 This is back-breaking work. You sit on a small box and, with rubber gloves on, you start digging through hundreds of pounds of fish, shrimp, crabs, and debris. (Its unbelievable how many beer cans are on...
read more
God spoke through me
By Magda Ozono It is amazing when God uses us and speaks through us to give guidance to someone
read more
Witnessing on a Cold Day
Testimony from Hil Llanto on witnessing for CARP with a Japanese brother.
read more
A kidnapping in Liege, Belgium 1977
by Caroline Cecile April 27, 2017 Belgium, December 17 1977 At that time I was just a young member. I had joined the Unification Church May 1 St of that year. My parents were very worried because they had heard so many bad things about the Unification church and...
read more
Father said I should be like your mother
by Linda Nagai September 1979 When I was matched, my husband lived in Queens and worked at the News World in Manhattan and I was living in the Bronx Center, fundraising for New York Church. He would take the train from Queens into Manhattan, then switch to the...
read more
My favorite food, He must be the Messiah
By Susana Ginze April 11, 2017 My name is Susana Ginze and I joined the church in October 3, 1975. I fundraised, I witnessed for one month and then for another month on the third month I met Father. I was in Kentucky, I was a fundraiser and I was in Kentucky. ...
read more
The day the police bought from me
by Robert Brown April 23, 2017 I got arrested in a small town in Texas and the policeman put me in the back of his police car with my hands handcuffed behind my back. As we were driving away he reported in by radio that he had caught the guy selling cookies. Then I...
read more
This gift Father gave me
By Jose Fragosa January 29, 2017 Before the Blessing, I was working for the Washington Times. I was one of the very first people to come to the Washington Times. Actually, before that I was working for the Noticius del Mundo in New York. We used to print the...
read more
Meeting the church in downtown Los Angeles
by Jose Fragosa 1/29/17 I wasn’t really interested in another church. I joined in 1974, and the first time I met the movement, there was this van in downtown LA, with speakers, speaking about the future of Christianity. At that time, in downtown LA there was lots of...
read more
Alaska!
by Robert Brown October 5, 2016 In 1976 after the Yankee Stadium rally I was a MFT captain and had my team in Utah. One morning as I was about to put the team out our Japanese team mother, Naka-san, said that I had to call Commander Yono before I put the team out for...
read more
Love is just a memory
by Michael Downey February 4, 2013 I first saw Father in Washington D.C. in October of 1973. He spoke at Lisner Auditorium as a part of the Day of Hope Tour. I bought a ticket from a young lady that knocked on my door in Alexandria Virginia. I told her at first that I...
read moreHome Church in Minneapolis
by Susana Ginze I was 30 years old, in Minneapolis in 1978. Father wanted us to do home church. I was in New York at the time, in Queens, but then from Queens they sent me to Minneapolis. There were many members there, and I was the oldest sister there so I was always...
read more
Coimbatore, India
by Robert Brown In 1990 the church held a computer generated placement of where members should go for 40 days. These were larger cities all over the world. I was selected to go to Coimbatore, India, deep down in the southern part of India. I was excited to go and...
read more
Skinny vegetarian joins Creative Community Project
by Sam Harley When I joined the Creative Community Project in 1978, I was a skinny (148 lbs, 6'1”) vegetarian, almost vegan. In addition, I was so spiritually sensitive that someone becoming angry around me was like a very loud noise or a punch in the gut. After the...
read more
Sent to South Carolina
by Jose Fragosa It was a time when I was working at Washington Times. We had a big meeting at Capitol gardens in Washington, DC. Bo Hi Pak asked us “Does anybody want to back to the main mission, to witness and fundraise?” IOWC was a good condition, we’d just come...
read more
When I saw True Father for the first time
by Carole Cecile Lancaster Gate, London May 26, 1978 They were coming from all over Europe, brothers and sisters we were all, having joined in our own country the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity; in short, the Unification Church,...
read more
My first day on MFT
by Robert Brown I had been on IOWC for five months when I volunteered to go to MFT. In March of 1975, there was a seven day workshop at Barrytown for members ready to join MFT. It so happened this was also the time those chosen to be sent out as missionaries to 120...
read more
Blog Post Title
What goes into a blog post? Helpful, industry-specific content that: 1) gives readers a useful takeaway, and 2) shows you're an industry expert. Use your company's blog posts to opine on current industry topics, humanize your company, and show how your products and...
read more