Las Vegas Family Church's Blessing Introduction and BBQ at Cheon Hwa Geong

‘Making the World a Better Place by Creating Happy Marriages” was the theme of the Las Vegas Family’s Blessing Introduction and BBQ held on Monday, July 30th at the former home of our beloved True Parents (Cheon Hwa Geong). The CHG Sanctuary was filled. More than 46 adult guests and members received a talk introducing the Marriage Blessing which was offered by Rev. Andy Compton.

His talk began with an explanation of God’s original plan for creation, especially focused on the Three Blessings, continued with a short discussion of the Fall of Man as the loss of True Love and concluded with a brief outline of the course of human history as the path by which mankind could come to reconnect with God’s family and through the Holy Marriage Blessing, rediscover True Love.

Following the lecture, two inspiring videos of recent local Blessings were shown. These connected the education about the Blessing which they had just received with the real life experience of being Blessed here in Las Vegas. After the videos, 25 children who had been playing soccer or swimming while their parents received the lecture, rejoined their families for a BBQ dinner that included the traditional hot dogs and hamburgers, chips and sodas, and watermelon offered by the church and potluck side dishes and desserts brought by attending guests and members.

During conversation over the meal, guests got to know each other and the members who had invited them. Several members without guests were also included in these conversations and helped make the atmosphere upbeat and jovial. Guests commented that their experience with the lectures was very good. Some commented that “ it looks like the Blessing will be a beautiful and spirit filled event”. Agreeing that the family is really very important and noting that the difficulties in today’s society “are often the result of broken families”, the table conversations also included testimonies about the guests own families and

stories about people they knew. Everyone was involved and interested throughout these conversations and left the event with hopeful hearts.

Las Vegas will host a Marriage Blessing Ceremony at IPEC on August 26th and it is expected that most of the BBQ guests will go on to participate in that event. Hopefully, they will also bring family and friends to observe and appreciate this special and holy ceremony.

Special thanks should be offered to Rev. and Mrs. Doo, and Rev. and Mrs. Compton, Mrs. Mimi Morse, Mrs. Kumae Jares, Mrs. Kyung Sook Okada, Mrs. Heidi Iseda, Mr. Dieudonne Nkwethat, June Hyeon Juma, Jeffrey Silerio, Baltazar Vazquez, Mr. and Mrs. Rigney, Mrs. Sang Moo Borneman, Ms. Katherine Duncan, and Mr. Steve Pierce, Mrs. Grendel Lyn Lorenzana, Mr. and Mrs. Liu for their efforts in bringing guests, setting up for the event, preparing and serving the food, offering tech support and providing child care. However, as one of the volunteers expressed, “I felt that by helping and even by just being there, I had made a real contribution to Las Vegas’ effort to fulfill True Mother’s desire to build Cheon Il Guk through Tribal Messiahship and the Blessing. I don’t need recognition for that”