Challenging Times
The movement has always been controversial and challenged society’s beliefs and norms. We just did not do things the way others did them. We proclaimed True Father as the second advent, the Messiah, yet he was a man from Korea. Sometimes our challenges were from outside sources, such as; those who were kidnapped, usually with our own family members paying the kidnappers. And of course, our challenges were not just from kidnappings, but our own struggles, Cain and Abel, temptations, struggling with our faith. Some members have left and some have returned. Here we share our challenges, whether we were victorious in our struggles, or are still fighting the fight.
Hil Llanto challenges the climb to the Holy Trees
Hil Llanto recently went to Korea and walked to all the holy trees twice as a condition challenging with his stroke and disability. Hil sees Cheon Pyong as a spiritually magical place where miracles...
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The Lion’s Den
Sam Harley attends a Christian church group called the Lion’s Den where they grilled him about being in the Unification Church. They tried to show that Rev. Moon doesn’t believe in God and in the divinity of Jesus by taking a quote of Father out of...
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Hil Llanto, going through therapy can see who will recover
Hil Llanto had a severe stoke and now going through physical therapy can see who is going to be successful in rehabilitation because of their attitudes. He could see his own son who is in the autism spectrum persevere to make it on GPA. The secret you have to do...
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Jose Fragosa, prayer at World Trade Center
Jose Fragosa used to go on top of one of the World Trade Center buildings and walk one way around the top praying than reverse course and walk the other way to symbolize making a change in his life. After he got Blessed he did the same, explaining to his wife the...
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Caroline Cecile, we walked around Brussels
We set a strong condition of walking around Brussels, while praying for the city. We marched like soldiers, like Jericho. I was getting tired and complained in my heart. Later I found one sister was praying for me because she knew I was...
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Sam Harley, messy prayer
Have you ever had a messy prayer, a showdown prayer with God? Sam shares about resentment building against his MFT captain. He started to see his captain like he saw his own father, a good man but strict and...
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Elsa from Nicaragua, joined at 14 years old
(due to technical difficulties, not all her testimony was videotaped) Elsa’s family worked closely with the three missionaries to Nicaragua, and Elsa joined at 14 years old. She moved into the center along with her sister. Twelve years later she was to go to the...
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Grandmother Hong – Daemonim
by Joe Kinney Stories continued Grandmother: her humility, working in the kitchen, working in the garden These days we hear testimonies from the members who attended the Chung Pyung Lake workshop. The central person in these workshops is known as Daemonim. The...
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Nancy’s parents disowned her, she needed True Parents
Nancy Makowski shares how she came from her home country of Ecuador to New York in 1976 at the request of her parents who were already in the country. She met a Japanese sister and started hearing the lectures. Soon she quit her job and college which made her parents...
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Experience what True Mother is with her own son
Nancy Makowski shares a struggle with one of her sons who struggles with the church and with True Parents. She feels her struggle is the same as True Mother with her own...
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The challenges of getting reBlessed
Sam had the challenge of getting reBlessed after his first Blessing was dissolved. He is now Blessed to a wonderful woman from Nicaragua who so far only speaks Spanish. Sam has passable Spanish and is learning it more quickly from his wife, Marta....
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During massive stroke, Hil hears God, Father and Jesus
Hil Llanto had a massive stroke that he is still recovering from. God told him you know how to survive this, you know the formula. "I don't know the Divine Principle that well, what formula? Live for the sake of others?" Yes, that is the formula and it doesn't matter...
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Uruguay BC wants to go to Canada
Corina Mendez, a second generation from Uruguay, came to Los Angeles to sell knitted key chains she made. Her goal was to be able to make money then go to Canada as an exchange student, who also participates in church...
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Struggling time on Saeilo, move to NY Church
Robert Brown shares about the year on Saeilo Machinery, 1983, pioneering several Mid-West towns, but struggling, needing spiritual food. Then for the first time in the church he leaves a mission. It works out for the best...
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Blessing candidates at MSG by 6am to avoid protests
Sam Harley shares about his participation in the MSG Blessing, but this first Blessing did not last, and then later his Blessing in Korea. Part 2: Sam shares about the second Blessing in the McCol factory, sleeping on 6 foot high stacks of soy...
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Chris Bihary sings about 45 years at flower stands
Chris Bihary at a flower stand shares what we have all gone through. Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/chris.bihary1/videos/10206659481105635/
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Teacher, looking for room with garden
by Sam Harley March 4, 2018 Did you ever have an experience like this? Where you could only do one thing, but somehow it was enough? Six years ago, when my blessing broke up and we lost our house, I had to find a room to stay in. A blessed couple who lived in the same...
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Spent several days in jail, foreigner past her visa
by Caroline Cecile February 25, 2018 Caroline shares how she was caught as a foreigner here past her visa of two weeks and went to jail. She share her stew with another jail mate and felt Father's heart. She was almost deported several times but remained to this day,...
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Nice coat you have there
by Jose Fragosa February 25, 2018 Jose shares how he was sent to deliver something to Boston, but on arriving there, is told he is staying here and joining a fundraising team. He is told his stuff will be sent later, only to later see his former coat on a new...
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Cain is our savior
by Jose Fragosa February 25, 2018 Jose shares some experiences that show that Cain and Abel is most challenging and that we are saved, not by the Messiah, but rather by Cain.
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Selling frozen roses
by Sam Harley, Robert Brown, Caroline Cecile and Jose Fragosa February 25, 2018 The group discusses selling frozen roses out on flower stands, perhaps a new Olympic winter sport.
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Indemnity or Indumbnity
by Sam Harley February 2, 2018 Indemnity is a word that is familiar to most of us old Moonies, ahem scuse me, Unificationists. Usually it means something like paying sincerely to make up for past sins or failings, whether it's our own, our ancestors' or just...
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Protecting Father and his newspaper
Shared by Susana Ginze December 31, 2017 Susana shares about working for Noticious del Mundo in New York. One Cuban man who was the Director of Advertising tried to take over the newspaper so that he could target news against Castro in Cuba. Susana reported this...
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Sam Harley’s first Blessing to a Welsh sister
Shared by Sam Harley December 31, 2017 Sam shares about his first Blessing to a Welsh sister in the 1982 Madison Square Garden Blessing. She left the church but he was ready to stay with her and welcome her back until he was Blessed again.
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Meeting family, fear of being kidnapped
by Sam Harley December 2, 2017 Nowadays we go to church, dressed up nicely. If anyone doesn't like our church, they might give us a look. How different that is from the early days. The week that I joined the church, my spiritual father was kidnapped by deprogrammers...
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Apples received by Heaven
by Sam Harley October 20, 2017 In the early 90s, when I was state leader of South Carolina, I got a phone call from a church sister. She told me about her younger sister Rebecca, who had joined the church, struggled a lot and left. Since then she had been married and...
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Kidnapped, but in a dream, “It’s time to come back”
by Solange Weiss August 8, 2017 I was only a few months in the church and we lived in a nice center. Father’s poster for Washington Monument was so huge. I joined and I didn’t communicate with my sister and I didn’t communicate with anyone because I had a job. But...
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Found a box to sleep in
Susan Felsenthal shares how her captain left her and a brother out all night though their pick up was 9pm. They each found a box to sleep in outside the Piggly Wiggly until the captain finally pulled up at 5am. He had fallen asleep.
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Saeilo for a year
by Robert Brown September 26, 2017 When I graduated from MFT in 1982 I was given a choice and chose to go for a business mission so I was sent to Saeilo in Chicago under David Rendall. Our church believes in on the job training, because I didn’t receive any training...
read moreMusic was my Isaac
by Gregory Davis September 12, 2017 Well, here goes. We've all heard about "the Isaac". Something we love so much that it is like "killing a part of our soul" to "offer it up". For me, first it was my music. During college I had "discovered" the guitar and devoted...
read moreOnly gratitude saved me
by Sam Harley September 3, 2017 In the worst days of Sam's life he had to think of what he was grateful for.
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Resisting evil impulses
by Sam Harley September 3, 2017 Sam helps a blessed child resist evil impulses with a story how he resisted.
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Where are you Ebony?
by Ebony Davis August 20, 2017 Ebony shares how her life was full of problems and she hit rock bottom, but she had a dream of True Parents and later a vision of Father and Mother in a mirror behind her telling her to go to San Bernardino, California.
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Two German Shepherds approached
by Danielle Voelker August 20, 2017 Danielle shares how in Italy selling church pamphlets she had experiences of being spiritually protected from dogs while going door to door.
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One month in prison in Iran
by Masoud Saberan August 20, 2017 Masoud shares about being arrested in Iran for distributing church books, New Hope and Principle of Creation, in 1980 one year after the Islamic revolution. He and other church members were put in prison along with other religious...
read moreThere he is, lock him up!
by Walter G. Lowe August 12, 2017 When I was on my own in 1977 selling IL Hwa wholesale during the day and fundraising in the evening to cover expenses. I ended up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey a little after 5 pm. It was too late to try to find any health food stores...
read moreIn cold New York, team leader offers ice cream bar
by Paulette K Wiesinger Out in the cold New York weather for weeks selling frozen roses, team leader drives up in the van with a huge coat on and the heat turned up high and offers me an ice cream bar... In 1976 I was with The New Hope singers International in Japan....
read moreMany bad MFT experiences came from one region
by Paul Carlson I did 7 years on national MFT, the last two with OWP. We always went out on Christmas, not door to door though, and for a short day. I did not have any particular trouble making a goal. My memory is a bit fuzzy, I'd think we did celebrate one way or...
read moreFrozen roses
by Jennifer Espendola I was on IOWC in the states in the 80´s. We were Atlanta Georgia in one of the coldest winters. The bucket of ice in our motel room never melted. One Christmas day a Japanese sister and I were selling roses just near a 7/11.The wind chill factor...
read moreBad day… Christmas eve
by Brandh Gaarder I remember eating snow on a fast, selling chocolate and stuffed animals... I felt bad when I tasted pine needles and wild onion... So I ate all the chocolate and stuffed the animals in my shirt and pants to keep warm... Bad day... Christmas...
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