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 the team mother. There were many American sisters there, I was Mexican. Father wanted us to do home church, and the others were witnessing, so I wanted to accomplish something before Christmas.
I had to start 4 months ahead, because I had to go and get permits for visiting people. I had been on MFT before, and you need permits for everything, for being missionaries and everything. So I went and got the permits, then to the office where you get people you can help for Christmas.
Then I had to make the whole plan around our neighborhood. We had a beautiful two story home. Some members went out fundraising, some went out witnessing, I was going to do home church, because Father really wanted us to do that. And I figured, I’ll practice this because it might be successful before Christmas. I went to City Hall, and got the names of 6 people I could get gifts for, people that were on welfare and had children.
I went to meet the families and introduced myself as a missionary with Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and that we were doing this volunteer work, to help people in the neighborhood.
There was one American sister with me, and we went visiting homes, asking these well-off people for donations, whatever they could share for people on welfare; gifts, food, toys. As missionaries we’re gathering these things. So we did this for three months, and we gathered a lot of gifts. People gave a bag of food, or whatever extra they had.
We visited the six people, and took a lot of pictures after we gave the gifts. We reported everything to True Father, and the we heard he was was very satisfied. We were an example for members who were trying to do home church. So we were doing three things at once: fundraising for the gifts, witnessing, introducing True Father and as well helping people. We really enjoyed that because it turned out really nice, and we accomplished a lot at that time. And later I was able to practice that in other states. So hopefully members can get inspired that they can do home church.
Even though people were on welfare, they need counseling, some guidance to help them find a job. Most of our members have those kind of experiences, to be able to accomplish something in their lives when they’re young. So that is something I wanted to share.