The Words of the Brann Family |
4th World Peace Tour - Spain
Mark Brann
November 5, 2006
Europe Region 1
Sunday, November 5, we had in Spain 23 events as part of the 4th World Tour. This was a formidable challenge for the 40 families across the nation and an incredible opportunity for growth and getting to know new friends.
Madrid
We scheduled four events in the city of Madrid and seven events in the nearby towns. In the end, two of those events had to be cancelled due to the enormous delay of the planes coming from Paris.
The main event with Archbishop George Stallings took place in the Hotel Jardin Metropolitano. It was a fantastic trip into the realms of the spirit. The audience was rapture by the emotional power of the event. The 180 people attending were deeply enjoying and responding aloud to the spiritual rhythm of Bishops Stallings words. I was looking to the nuns and priests in the audience to see if they will faint at some point. But the Holy Spirit does wonders and they seem to enjoy.
Since two ministers could not give their speech due to the airplane delay, they used the main event for giving their heart out. At the end of the program we had a testimony by Rev. Andre Jackson and by Rev. Damon Roach. The spirit was getting higher and warmer so it was just natural to ask Bishop Stallings to come to the stage and sing us a song as a finale. He has a powerful and beautiful voice. Then Rev. Alain LeRoy also came to the front and sung a traditional Christian hymn, "We have a story to tell to the nations". We were in a church and we were the family of God gathered under the wings of True Parents.
In the city we had two events before the main one. The one we called "the Jewish event" in the Hotel Zurbano and the one called "the Hispanic event" in our IIFWP headquarters. Rabbi Mordehi Waldman and Rev. Victor Sanchez were the speakers. Both programs were scheduled to start at 17:00 but the speakers appeared in the locations at 18:20.
I asked Rabbi David Elzami (cantor or hazzan of the synagogue) to sing all what he wants at the beginning of the program so that we can make time. But even that was not enough. We had to read the speech ourselves. And finally Rabbi Waldman came. Even though the group was small (about 30 people) some of the ladies of the synagogue were the first time to come to our events. One of them was very touched that Rabbi Waldman praised in his speech one of the members of her family without knowing she was related. He gave a beautiful testimony about his blessing and his wife found through the mediation of True Parents. He prayed and blew the shofar. The audience was very touched by his sincerity.
In the Hispanic event, a similar situation took place. Members had prepared enough food to feed the entire neighborhood. There was a feeling of "fiesta", a celebration of the Latin community in the city. We had a Peruvian singer. The room in our HQ was full (around 50 people). We had everything but not the speaker. The organizers were calling me desperately to the airport to check what to do. Finally Rev. Sanchez appeared one and a half hours late. But I was told that his testimony was so beautiful that people were crying and really inspired.
The only event in the city that went on schedule was the 12:00 o’clock one with Rev. Debra Lajimodiere in our HQ. About 40 people came. We had some of our nuns attending plus other friends of the Federation. Rev. Lajimodiere was very sincere and she explained how he got to know us and what moved her to work with us. She has difficulties to walk and carries a wheel chair with her. It’s amazing the faith of these ministers. The members had prepared Paella (typical Spanish rice meal) for everyone and they stay for a long time after the event talking and sharing.
I felt sorry for Rev. Lajimodiere to ask to please do a second event in the afternoon since the appointed minister was coming too late. She accepted and off she went to the historical town of Chinchon. There a city council woman friend of ours had given to us the meeting place of the city hall. We could not let this opportunity pass by. About 30 people gathered, mostly guests.
We had one event in the Hotel Galaico, the city of Collado Villalba, with Princess Julia Mae Horton, organized by Osamu & Mercedes Tomita. It was a very happy event with the participation of 15 university students, members of a "Tuna" (medieval tradition of male university student’s choir in traditional costumes) who sung typical songs. Among the participants there were leaders of three organizations: AIESEC International (for University students), the National President came and two local presidents.
VOMADE – ONG of women from Dominican Republic, the Vice-president and Secretary General attended. The Vice-president from a University Symphony Orquestra also participated. Ambassadors for Peace Awards were given to 22 participants. Princess Horton testimony was very moving and deep. Specially, the Vice-president of the Women's´ ONG was very impressed.
In Madrid area we had three more events:
In Colmenar, the town where the ginseng company is located, we had 26 people. The main speaker was Rev. Damon Roach. The event took place in a new age center. The director of the center was present as well as a local politician from the United Left Party, what a contrast!
In Guadalix we had the event in the Cultural center of the city. The main speaker was Rev. Carolyn Lincoln. In this town, due to the long friendship of our members with local politicians, the Family Federation for World Peace has been granted officially a meeting room in the cultural center to organize programs. A circular letter was passed days before the event by the United Left politicians open up the whole issue of the "Moon threat" in town. The controversy was good. Many of our friends defended us.
In Aravaca the event took place in the home of one family. The main pastor was Rev. Richard Sapp. .
In the rest of Spain we had five events in Barcelona, three events in Malaga and one each in Valencia, Zaragoza, Sevilla and Pamplona.
In Barcelona the event we thought it was going to be the smallest turned out to be the largest one. 35 people came to hear Rev. Greg Odlin at 12:00 in the metropolitan town of Sant Cugat. It’s interesting that Rev. Odlin’s wife is from Barcelona. Among the guests, were eight members of a family invited by one relative that is in our movement.
We had two events in the Hotel Universitat, in Barcelona’s downtown, one at 17:00 and the other at 19:30. We had many problems to find locations and finally the local community organized it in this way. At 17:00 we had as speaker Elder Kay Anderson. At 19:30 we had Rev. Fermín Bocanegra. We felt sorry for them to have a small audience but they showed a great attitude and witness to our True Parents with a sincere heart.
In our IIFWP HQ in Barcelona we also organized two events, one at 17:00 and the other at 19:30. In the first event we had Mrs. Margaret Bocanegra. Among the guests were 7 nuns. In the second event we had Rev. Marylin Kotulek. We were altogether 10 members. We didn’t have guests in this event.
In Valencia, we had the event in a centrally located hotel. We have few members in the city but they organize beautifully. We had as our main speaker Rev. Moses de la Rosa. In this event, very important people came: The head of the Central Mosque of Valencia together with prominent leaders of the mosque, a famous journalist and university professor, the head for Ananda Marga for Spain, France and Portugal, the head an important NGO. All of them received the Ambassador of Peace award. The members there were very happy since for several years we never had any public program in the city.
In Pamplona we have only one family of our movement but he is doing a wonderful job with the Catholic Church there. The event therefore was done in a meeting hall of the Catholic parish next to the home of this family. Interestingly enough, in the preparations for the event, Pedro Muruzabal met with several evangelical ministers with the idea to connect them to Rev. Nagi Yousef, our speaker of the tour. Finally these ministers invited Rev. Yousef to have lunch with them at a local evangelical church. Two ministers came to evening program.
I’m attaching here the report by Marisa Boldova about Zaragoza event. The event was done by two sisters in a cultural center.
Pastor David Scholet arrived at Zaragoza later than we expected due to his airplane delay.
27 guests came, apart from pastor David and the staff members Paquita and me. 4 guests came from Huesca, a nearby city, another 4 belonged to the Bahai’s and 2 others were evangelists from a gypsy community church. We found that the most simple, open-hearted people we met were not activists of any particular religion. Paquita did the presentation, and then I sung "The peace train" with the guitar, continuing with Paquita giving to the audience an inspiring piece of her mind and also Father's speech.
After that David gave his personal testimony while I translated. He couldn't have been more honest and at the same time, so supportive of Father's contribution to World Peace. At the end we all sung "Universal Love" in Spanish of course, and invited the guests to coffee and cakes garnished with holy wine while we had a social gathering.
Thank God that, even though I didn't know how to break through in this city of Zaragoza, He already had His plan made. I thank Paquita for her passionate hard work and I thank pastor David for being so pure-hearted.
Sevilla is the birth place of our Spanish church. We have few members there. And this was the opportunity to do something public after quite a few years. Our speaker was Rev. Carolyn Parker. The meeting was a gathering for the local community. Rev. Parker imposed her hands on several people and prayed for their spiritual and physical health. All of them were very moved by her humble and serving spirit.
In Malaga we had 3 events scheduled. In the area we had 2 national records of the tour, the record disaster and the longest event.
Rev. Carlos Torres was scheduled to speak in Torremolinos at 18:00. It was clear that the plane was delayed, but the person to pick him up at the airport gave up after several hours waiting. He left a contact telephone in the information desk just in case the Reverend appeared. And he did. At 10 o’clock in the evening, he called miraculously from the airport. To make things worst he had lost his luggage and, of course, he had to leave early in the morning. Everybody felt sorry about the situation. The people had already left the meeting which was conducted without him, but he showed a great spirit with the members left at the house.
In Estepona, a beautiful town in Costa del Sol, we had the minister Harvey Kendricks. The event was done in a local cultural center. .
In the city of Malaga we had the event in the home of one blessed couple, Jose Manuel Zuñiga and Catherine Noël. This event was the longest one. Mrs. Sharyn Bebeau arrived earlier than scheduled and spent the whole day with this family and their friends. It was a big one day family reunion. At 17:15 started the "official event". We had a singer from Paraguay offering some religious songs. We showed the video of the previous tour and Mrs. Bebeau read the speech in English. The translation was done by volunteers of the audience. Mrs. Bebeau was thrilled by this new method. The guests participated a lot. The event ended officially at 21:00 but over ten guests stayed talking with Mrs. Bebeau until eleven at night.
Overall it was a great opportunity for our Spanish brothers and sisters to take care of all these faithful ministers and connect their foundation to the large providence of True Parents. It was a moving experience filled with the spirit of God.
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