Theme: Making the Change to a Culture of Heart

Motto : God is in charge and so am I through prayer and action.

-- True Father

At the beginning of this year, Rev. Lee asked me to develop a prayer ministry for the Washington, DC community.

We already had our small study group in place centering on prayer, and also regular prayer meetings at the Washington, DC Holy Ground, which continue every month.

Since at this time we are focusing on rekindling our prayer lives and developing an intimate relationship with God, we are not able - yet - to have an ongoing prayer group that is on call 24 hours a day to pray.

My personal vision of this prayer ministry is and has been to create a prayer fever in the city so that most, if not all, blessed central families get into the spirit and taste of prayer and pray for each other, rather than a small group of people praying for everything and everybody. There are several small independent prayer initiatives focusing on praying for our leaders or certain issues.

Still, the ultimate goal is to create such an "on call" prayer group.

As a vehicle to renew and revive our personal relationship with God and align ourselves with His will, I found the small group for personal change to be very effective and powerful. My insight has been: When I change and align myself with God, then everything else around me changes.

By the end of this year, our Prayer Website will be established, which will have inspirations for prayer, testimonies, and resources. Any input for building that website is welcome at bobangelika@yahoo.com.

a. To renew and strengthen our life of faith and very personal relationship with God in everyday life.

b. To study and discuss Father's words on prayer and other sources and get a blazing flame going in our prayer life.

c. To discover and believe in our God-given value and power as true sons and daughters of God and to act upon it.

d. To be able to receive answers from God through prayer and respond to them with absolute faith, love, and obedience (submission to God's will, or "Let go, let God"), and also to receive answers to problems through Father's words and the sharing in the group.

e. To help each other substantialize the DP in our lives (living for the sake of others), starting with myself, and to be accountable to each other.

f. To connect to and identify with the spirit and heart of the Coronation of God's Kingship and our new authority and anointing from God as blessed central families; to leave our baggage and old way of thinking behind as we enter the Settlement Age.

The core element of the Washington, DC prayer ministry at this time is the prayer and study small group, which meets on a weekly basis for cycles of about one month each. This group provides a vehicle to experience the power and the results of prayer in a group.

The content focuses on personal spiritual growth and personal change through prayer and action based on Father's words of the Completed Testament Age and the Bible.

Change is upon us since the Coronation of God's Kingship and the Age of Settlement that were ushered in by our True Parents. This small group was inspired initially last year around the new paradigm of God now being in charge and for us finding our true identity, aligning ourselves with God's will, and thus acquiring ownership through inheritance, leaving our old baggage behind. As True Mother reminds us in her recent speech: In order to fit in to the Kingdom, we need to be citizens who have the Kingdom (culture of heart and true love) within us.

The small group format provides an excellent setting for personal, honest sharing and reflection, feedback, challenge, and accountability, thus assisting and empowering each blessed central family representative in personal change.

Ground rules for the group are:

* Commitment to all four or five sessions.

* Mutual respect for one another.

* Confidentiality regarding what is shared in the group.

* Meeting limited to eight participants in order to keep the sharing as intimate as possible.

At the end of the discussion and sharing of insights, each person usually identifies two prayer points of special concern that everyone will pray for throughout the coming week. The meeting always ends with a 15- to 20-minute unison prayer.

The power of two or three gathering in Christ's name and praying is very real! Numerous times we could already see the result of our prayers the following week or a few weeks later. In any case, something always moves forward and things are never the same afterward.

"It was so good to pray for each other, because as I explained my situation and brothers and sisters prayed for me, I felt by the next week a lightening of my heart and an easing of my situation. I learned again that God wants me to listen to Him and to tell me and show me how He loves me. And this heals my heart and helps me to love."

"I found the prayer group extremely helpful. I participated for several months and am now taking a break. The participants' prayers for the various family and individual issues proved very effective. For example, my prayer request for greater financial independence was not answered for the whole time during my participation. But now, several weeks after the prayer cycle's end, a very positive change is happening. Of course, I continued to pray for financial independence even after my participation, but I consider the group prayer to be a foundation on which I can now go on by myself.

"A similar pattern seems to work also with other issues, although not as clear-cut. Changes in my relationship to my spouse are happening, although the focal point seems to be my own state of being in reference to my wife. Of course, both of us have to change, but one of us has to start. Still, a spiritual protection for my spouse is needed.

"All in all, the prayer group has been a tremendous source of spiritual support.

During this month of October, we have two remaining meetings: on Thursday the 17th and Thursday the 24th. The new November cycle dates (always on Thursdays) are: November 7, 14, 21, and 28. And the ones for the following month are December 5, 12, 19, and 26. Meeting place is the Selle home.

Testimony by Angelika

Throughout this year and last, I and others have been going rather regularly to the Holy Ground on the Ellipse to pray. I discovered a new depth and richness there in terms of the presence of the spirit world, especially since the Coronation of God's Kingship. Every time I step on the ground there, I feel the spirit world already awaiting me. I feel the presence of the Founding Fathers, Martin Luther King Jr., the soldiers who gave their lives for this country, Native American chiefs, and most of all Jesus, who has been assigned as the central figure for America, and the four major saints.

In this beautiful place of peace and serenity, it is very easy to connect with my inner self and with God. Most of the time, I receive new energy, clarity, insights, and spiritual empowerment there. Rev. Callendar, one of the ACLC ministers, who visited with us there several times, also testified that the Holy Ground is a place of spiritual healing.

There is no substitute for the experience of standing in front of the White House and praying for America, the President, our movement, as well as personal concerns.

True Father said several years ago that when more than 100 people pray at the Holy Ground on a regular basis, America will come back to God (be saved!). There's no question that whatever we pray for here at the nation's capital, which is also a Christian capital, affects the rest of the world.

This is truly OUR American Holy Ground, and we need to claim it!

Anyone can go there at any time. Last year and this, my husband Bob, together with Christoph Wilkening and Adruma Victoria, went there to pray every Sunday after Pledge as a spiritual condition for their trip to Chung Pyung and for this year's Blessings. They, too, had many deep experiences.

For the month of October, because of the beautiful weather, some of us will be there every Friday at 9:30 pm. I invite you to rediscover the beauty, the power, and the intimacy with spirit world at our Holy Ground here in DC.

As our famous ACLC Archbishop always says: "Don't meet me there - beat me there!"

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