The Words of the Cotter Family |
One Family Under God: "A Global Peace Festival from the Family and Community to the World"
Joshua Cotter
November 12, 2007
Marriott San Francisco Airport Hotel
As Dr. Hyun Jin Moon put it in his address and introduction to True Mother, "A heavenly earthquake is about to hit the San Francisco Bay Area!" An excited and diverse crowd of 1200 filled the beautiful Grand Ballroom at the Marriott San Francisco Airport Hotel Monday evening. People came by the busload from throughout the Bay Area and as far away as Sacramento, San Jose and Reno, Nevada to see and hear our True Mother, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.
Bishops, pastors, ministers, deacons and congregation members from over 50 churches came, as well as 30 monks and members of the Purple Lotus Buddhist Temple in Union City, leaders and members of the Amidiyyah Muslims and many more. This time 120 college age youth leaders came to welcome True Mother and Hyun Jin Nim and many of those were appointed as Youth Ambassadors for Peace. In all, over 200 new Ambassadors for Peace were appointed.
The afternoon began with a "Summit for Peace" conference, where over 100 youth and senior ambassadors for peace and guests attended. Mr. and Mrs. Carl Hagen organized the conference, with the help of a great team of brothers and sisters. Rev. Bento Leal gave the educational presentation on the 5 principles of ambassadors for peace. We heard from several local ambassadors for peace and there were lively discussions among the participants about how we can work together to bring peace in our communities and in our world.
The pre-program began with a slide presentation featuring "Youth Serving from the Community to the World", accompanied by our 2nd Generation band. This was followed by a moving tribute honoring our veterans on Veterans Day. Ambassador Phillip Sanchez and Captain Jim Herndon led the audience in the honoring of the veterans on stage and in the audience, as the Boy Scout Troop 818 posted the colors on stage. Our pre-program MC’s, Jove Meyer and Meagan Simonds did an incredible job!
Next the Youth Ambassadors for Peace were recognized and we gave thanks to the veterans, for it is their sacrifice for freedom and peace which has made it possible for this younger generation to work for peace. Rev. Jesse Edwards brought the Holy Spirit through his remarks and the program just continued to build momentum.
Rev. Jenkins took the stage for the main program and brought the Inter-religious Prayers of Peace, featuring Archbishop Stallings, Dr. Hanif Koya (Amidiyyah Muslims) and Master Samantha Chou of the Purple Lotus Temple, accompanied on stage by a dozen of her monks. Dr. Amos Brown, pastor of the 3rd Baptist Church of San Francisco and ACLC co-chairman, gave powerful remarks for peace in our community and in the world and brought to the stage young Kofi Vordjogbe, a 14 year old child prodigy from Ghana, who enthralled the audience with his original piano composition. Then Dr. Brown truly brought the spirit to a peak as he called for us to work for peace for all of God’s children in a prophetic voice.
This truly set the stage for Dr. Hyun Jin Moon who was electrifying in his emphatic call for "One Family Under God!" He testified so deeply to the work of his father and then introduced True Mother to the standing ovation of everyone in the room. The spirit was so high and united as Mother came to the stage.
She read God’s message with such passion and beauty that many were moved to tears. Mother was so beautiful and she was the embodiment of true love and the image of peace. Mr. and Mrs. Jean-Jacques Vitrac, ambassadors for peace, were so moved by her speech as they prepared to present the flowers backstage to Mother and Hyun Jin Nim. A beautiful trophy was presented to Mother by Bishop and Mrs. Andre Jackson, Ms. Wafaa Aboreshaad and Mr. Dwight Sterling.
We thank all of our brothers and sisters who prayed and worked so hard to bring this victory and take our foundation to a new level; and all of our ambassadors for peace, clergy, interfaith leaders, women leaders and youth leaders who joined together in welcoming True Parents and True Family and determined to join hands in truly building peace in our families, communities and our world.
Aju and thank you God and True Parents!
Rev. Joshua Cotter
San Francisco Event
Monday, November 12, 2007
Testimonies From Guests
1. Mr. Jean-Jacques Vitrac (Ambassador for Peace): Tonight was an extremely powerful, well-balanced and very impressive program. It was better than the ILC program I attended in Hawaii! Mother Moon’s speech was so powerful and her delivery was so captivating!
2. Mr. Khadim Shah (Amidiyyah Muslim): It was a beautiful, fantastic program!
3. Dr. Christine Nandi, PhD: The conference was wonderful and very educational and I will definitely come back. I deeply respect Mother Moon for her leadership and her efforts for peace throughout the world.
4. Bishop Myrna Fuller: It was a wonderful program. I really enjoyed the talk on True Family Values and Mrs. Moon’s speech. It was very family-oriented.
5. Deacon Earl Jacobs (Market St. 7th Day Adventist): It was a Holy Spirit filled program; I really enjoyed worshipping together. I am looking forward to building this One Family Under God together!
6. Bill Ritchie (Service for Peace leader): It is very inspiring to be part of an international movement for peace. You don’t often see people coming together to build peace centered on spirituality.
7. Minister Brenda Fountaine: It was so inspiring and rejuvenating to see so many young people ready and willing to carry the torch of world peace on into the future! To God be the glory in the rebuilding of world peace and His Kingdom!
8. Ms. Freda Mitchell (international gospel singer): I am so blessed to be here and to be a part of this! Glory be to God! This is a work of God and I want to be part of the national and the world tour. God bless Mother Moon!
9. David Hernandez (UC Berkeley grad student): I was deeply moved by the prayer of St. Francis, in both Dr. Brown’s remarks and Dr. Hyun Jin Moon’s remarks. I remembered that it was the understanding of the suffering heart of God that touched me so deeply about the Unification Church before. I was grateful to be there tonight.
10. Wendy Liang (San Francisco State Univ. student; spiritual child of 2nd gen): I was tearful and repentful; I felt Mother’s beautiful, sincere and loving heart. I was also moved so deeply by the quality of Father Moon’s life, and the 8 areas that he championed in his life. I was also moved to tears by the inter-religious prayers and by the ambassador for peace conference.
11. Dwight Sterling (publisher of Sunday Morning News): I am so glad that I came; I really wanted to have my picture taken with Mother Moon. Thank you for inviting me.
12. Dr. Hanif Koya: I felt God in this program. I was moved by the building up of God’s spirit during the program.
13. Dr. Christine Nandi brought a high school senior from Castro Valley, who became a Youth Ambassador for Peace. This young lady is part of Youth for Social Change. She is trained in youth leadership and conflict mediation. She was so excited to become and ambassador for peace. She wants to do a follow-up in their high school. She invited WFWP to their campus to work on the issue of race. She was so inspired by the whole program.
Vice Mayor O’Mahony of the city of Burlingame: Our city is so honored to have the opportunity to welcome Rev. and Mrs. Moon.