DP Outreach

I am still working desperately with deadlines regarding DP-Outreach materials. It seems the materials are always being updated. This time, I am updating the materials because I am preparing to work with our church headquarters in Seoul for the translation of the DP-Outreach videos into another language. They will pay me for this work.

DP-Outreach.com was set up in August 2013. That was a big deal for me and part of a dream begun in 2009. Prior to that, I had worked with Reverend Phillip Schanker at the Education Dept. in Washington D.C. for several years after graduating from UTS in June 2004.

When my work at FFWPU-HQ ended, I was still not satisfied with the finished work Reverend Schanker and I did to create the Illustrated Divine Principle PowerPoints. At the time, I wanted to ‘update’ chapter 1 with the same depth of content as later chapters.

I wanted to continue to work for the providence and still make an income to support my family through serving the providence. Initially, I thought I could do this through translating the ‘updated’ version of Illustrated Divine Principle PowerPoint into other languages. I began the vimeo.com/unification site in 2009 with the intention of offering something to God and the providence (whole purpose) with an unconditional offering (i.e. a free online educational tool). But I also needed to sustain my family (individual purpose) with a source of income. My hope to that end was a website to sell the PowerPoint version of those videos in their larger chapter versions. Four years later, DP-Outreach.com became a reality.

But how did I support the ‘individual purpose’ (i.e. my family) in those four years? I didn’t. I worked full time creating the videos and my wife sold flowers. I helped her on the holidays. We lived very frugally and, unfortunately, did acquire some debt along the way. But we were happy and strengthened in ways that only the spirit of God could accomplish in us.

DP-Outreach videos were a joy to create. My motto was “It will be done when it will be done.” I thought the endeavor would initially take only a few months but it ended up being five years! I was constantly amazed every day how extended the intended work had become. It was not like an artist who looked at a block of marble and knew exactly how to chisel his preconceived image into reality. Instead, I went by feeling and intuition to create something that felt right and it went through several stages of revision. Along the way, my standard of “acceptable” would increase and I had to remove old standards of image-

making and replace them with new ones. For example, I worked initially a lot with paintings. Later, I made my own images of Jesus and John the Baptist.

If you go to the DP-Outreach website, you will see a link that compares the strengths and weaknesses of both the DP-Outreach videos and the DP-Outreach PowerPoints. Both versions have been set up to allow a greater reflection and absorption of singular sentences from the Exposition of the Divine Principle book and the Bible. Often times, Unificationists will read several pages of the book (or True Father’s speeches). We read continuously from one sentence into the next and this can move quickly into the ever-changing flow of idea and concepts. This constant flux of images moves quickly through our minds and sometimes, we miss a deeper realization or ‘wholeness’ to be found in one solid sentence of truth. One sentence (or even a piece of it) may contain a deep comprehensive truth that permeates the whole of reality. Today, I was working with a scripture quotation from Isaiah 9:6-7 (found in video 61). Like the video version, the PowerPoint divides the quote up into five segments. As a PowerPoint presentation, we can control the flow of content with a mouse-click. We can pause to reflect and discuss each of the five parts of Isaiah 9 that talk about what the Messiah Jesus hoped to accomplish in his earthly life.

Since DP-Outreach.com has appeared online, I have had some new opportunities opened to me. One of my staunchest supporters, Mr. Yoon from Moldova wrote,

“Personally I want to purchase your works even 10 times or 100 times more expensive price because it has unlimited values for the fallen people to understand more easily the New truth and it is ultimately powerful weapon.”

Mr. Yoon worked to get our church headquarters in Korea to become aware of my work. Now they are funding me to create a Russian version of the DP-Outreach videos. They have understood my needs as well and I can sell the PowerPoint version of this project as income to pay off my debts. I have been very moved by the Korean HQ’s interest to work for mutual benefit.

Available at DP-Outreach are other products I have created, such as posters and jigsaw puzzles. I personally love jigsaw puzzles and want to create more with images created for the videos and PowerPoints.

I thank UTS and especially Dr. Tyler Hendricks who recognized the skills I had with PowerPoint. He asked me to teach PowerPoint while I was a student at UTS. It became a class for credit which students enrolled in. I taught both the software skills and the design skills for presentations; also some of the ‘tips’ on how to use PowerPoint presentations and keep audiences awake and attentive. That meant I increased my personal education in these areas as well. I raised the bar in my own ability to design in PowerPoint by studying professional authors.

Because of Dr. Hendricks, I was accepted by Dr. [Chang Shik] Yang as an employee at FFWPU-HQ upon completion of my UTS MDiv in 2004. Without UTS, I don’t believe I would ever have had such opportunities to work with church leaders for the sake of the providence.

The Callahan family