The Words of the Lajda Family
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The Words of the Lajda Family |
The history of the Unification Movement in Czechoslovakia was taught in a university course in the second largest city in the Czech Republic. In December 2009, I had the opportunity to give three lectures on the Unification Movement's history in Czechoslovakia, Divine Principle and True Father's life at Masaryk University in Brno. I also gave a personal testimony about my life of faith and my faith in God and True Parents. I testified about the time in the 1970s and 1980s when members of the Unification Church in Czechoslovakia were persecuted and almost all of them were sent to prison.
These lectures were the result of an invitation by a Religious Studies professor at Masaryk University. In January 2009, he had attended an International Leadership Conference in Korea, and in March, he gave a speech at a UPF conference in Brno. He allotted us a lot of time to present our movement -- the whole semester.
After the lectures, some of the students were interested to attend our Sunday service. Most of the students are studying religious science.
People in the audience listened attentively. They were shocked to hear about the persecution and that the first members of our church in what was then Czechoslovakia were imprisoned.
The final lecture was about True Father's life. The students had the opportunity to see the video A Determined Man, with subtitles in Czech.
After the lecture, there was an interesting discussion, especially about the blessing. After we finished the series of lectures one student wrote to me:
I would like to devote my seminary work to the Unification Church, on which you were lecturing. I would like to dedicate this work to your life and to your conviction. In this way, I would like to pay respect to you as someone who was ready to go even to prison because of your belief.
This event is the more significant because twenty years ago, shortly after the fall of communism, we had been unable to receive permission to lecture there. Times have changed.
By Dr. Juraj Lajda, UPF–Slovakia