The Words of the Ablong Family |
Dear Blessed Families,
Happy New Solar Year to all of you!! Thank you so much for all your hard work and sacrifice for God's Providence!
Two big events are happening this month of January. One is the Interfaith Peace Conference that will be held at the UM Headquarters in Quezon City on Friday and Saturday, January 10-11, 2014. The second one is the Interfaith Peace Family Blessing on Saturday, January 11th, that will be held at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City, Rizal Province. These are two big events that require absolute faith, indomitable spirit, unconditional love and unrelenting, united effort. We seriously need to work positively together with our Philippine-based leaders, brothers and sisters.
All of us are still in Japan because God has continued to shower his blessing of love and forgiveness upon us. He has absolutely guided us and protected us every step of the way. Wherever we are or whatever we experience at the moment, we all have the same value and importance to God and True Parents. We all contribute to the success of our overall goal through indemnity, hard work and sacrifice as our common offering to the nation and the world.
Our national leader has emphasized recently, "we need to find value in the things we experience." Whether one family is successful and another is not; whether one is producing enough and another is producing less or none at all, even how hard they try; whether a few of us are successful and the others are not. Everything has a reason for being. Think about it, for a few people to succeed in the providence, more have to suffer in silence due to their limitations and distance. There is a balance of indemnity. Just as for one to succeed, he has to exert strong effort. As one body, we are in this kind of situation.
We need to put our experiences together in the same crucible of faith and determination in order to succeed or survive. Being a God of love, our experience will have the same weight and value in the eyes of the Lord in the providence of restoration as His children.
Each one of us has a role to play in the building of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Literally, some of us are overall construction leaders, project managers, engineers, suppliers, surveyors, masons, plumbers, welders, painters, interior decorators, and more. Symbolically, these roles correspond to each one of us who can teach or apply the Principle in a certain way while performing our specific responsibilities so we can all accomplish a common task.
It is hard to keep this lifestyle especially for those of us that prioritize our missionary goals over other goals that pertain to our health, savings and general worthiness in the future. We truly appreciate those of us who have continued to contribute financially, physically, and spiritually without saying any negative word of complaint and resentment even when others do. We need to reflect upon our individual situations and capabilities and think about how we can "extend" ourselves for the needs of the future. After all, Cheon Il Guk may not be literally and totally visible during our lifetime on earth.
Let us continue to do our best. We have to continue to perceive and engage reality positively with faith, Divine Principle and substantial work. With true love, we can dominate everything. Let us accept whatever we cannot do when we have tried hard enough and challenge ourselves to overcome the obstacles that preclude us from truly achieving our self-worth whenever we find ourselves lacking of effort and result, whatever that means to us before Heaven and Earth.
We need to prepare our children, as we look into the future. As parents, it is our duty to educate and train them to succeed our path when we are not as useful and productive anymore. This is the missionary spirit of the true sons and daughters of True Parents. Our mission does not stop when we grow old or when we pass away. It continues through the people who have inherited our heart and tradition of true love and living for the sake others.
As True Father said, "What we should stress from now in the field of education is tradition, education and practice." (Sun Myung Moon's Philosophy of Education, p. 45) Our children have the right to live as members of the movement like us. It is painful to imagine that only parents remain as members because the children are not properly educated. It is hurtful to see parents able to do all or some of the ten traditions while their children cannot. Just as potty training starts at an early age, so is education of tradition. Our responsibility is to educate and train them; present them with good options for the future so they have a wider area of good things to choose from. Our duty is to guide and provide them with choices with the goal of supporting heavenly providence. Their responsibility is to choose whatever is best for them to serve God and True Parents.
Unlike other people, our blessing and marriage have a clear purpose. This purpose will disappear if we do not do the traditions of our faith. This may be hard to understand by those who have not experienced "full-time missionary" work. Even those who have done full-time missions may take time to remember and understand the very essence of missionary spirit. So doing Hoon Dok Hae everyday is extremely important.
Even when we already have our families, we can still keep the fire of our missionary spirit burning with love and passion for God and True Parents, peace and happiness. Let us do our mission of supporting Philippine providential activities financially, even when it is very difficult. This is the internal reason why we are in Japan. The value of what we give increases with the "heartistic" intensity of our effort and internal conditions to offer it. This is how the best offering is made. Let us do our best to donate per family. Let us stay positive, we can make it.
Please remember all the deadlines for our respective donations for Special Donation for January 2014 Events and Donation to Express Gratitude for the 1st Anniversary of Foundation Day. Please contact your respective District Leaders for details.
For the greater glory of God and True Parents, Heaven, Earth and Humankind!
Rafael E. Ablong
FFWPU-FilJap, West Japan
c.c.
Arnold Heramis
FFWPU-FilJap, East Japan
Jun Jumawan
FFWPU-FilJap, Central Japan
Noted by:
Kuya Dante Negre
Philippine FFWPU
Japan Region