Hong Kong's God Bless America 1976 Program was in English and Cantonese

We observed June 1 with a special “God Bless America 1976” program sponsored by the International New Hope Association. It was held in the chapel and the adjacent Bradbury Room at the YMCA where we meet weekly.

Between 6 and 7 p. m. we were supposed to have a prayer meeting and from 7 to 9 p. m. we were to have a film and discussion. It did not quite happen that way. What was originally meant to be 20 minutes of speaking turned into one and a half hours of strong Divine Principle on historical parallels, emphasizing the importance of unity between state and religion. Part of the reason was that my English was being translated into Cantonese, but I believe mainly that Heavenly Father wanted to have us speak out more. He took responsibility for the timing to the tee despite our original schedule. We almost lost our film projector to a Christian group at the YMCA because one of their two projectors was broken. We changed our schedule at the last minute so that they could use the projector first.

Less than 12 people started the prayer meeting at 6 p.m. I said to them, “I know that we are few here, but I know that God is so much with us. I feel as if I were speaking to many, many more.” But by the time the talk was halfway through, the chapel was filled to capacity with 38 people because the speaking spilled over to the hour for the film. I had meant to be careful with the Christians and mild on the non-Christians. Apparently that was not what God wanted, and everyone heard Divine Principle regardless of our plans.

Thirty-eight is a small number, but I thought it was successful considering our short planning and we received heavy rain the entire day. Just about everyone invited came, plus a few extra friends, and the response was good.