Announcement of New Pastoral Appointments Including a number of 2nd Generation

In just a couple of days, we will start a fresh new year, 2016. As we close the year 2015, and prepare to welcome the New Year, we are pleased to announce two new appointments for district leadership positions, as well as some recent appointments of new local pastors.

New District Appointments

District 4 (New England) District Pastor:

Rev. Krzysztof (Chris) Hempowicz, who previously served as the pastor of the Bridgeport Family Church for 17 years, and has been appointed as the District Pastor for District 4 covering the New England region. We are grateful for Rev. Mark Beaudoin, who has served faithfully in that role for the last two years. Rev. Beaudoin will continue to serve as the Rhode Island state leader.

District 7 (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan) District Pastor:

Rev. Jeffrey (Jeff) Schmidt has represented District 7, covering part of the Midwest region, on the National Council for the past year, and is now taking responsibility as the new District Pastor. The previous District Pastor, Rev. Kazuo Takami was reassigned as the district pastor for Hawaii in July. We’d like to offer our thanks and appreciation to Mrs. Margaret Figueroa who served as District Representative during this interim period.

New Community Pastor Appointments

WestRock (Belvedere, NY) Family Church: Pastor Drissa Kone is the new pastor of the WestRock Family Church, representing the Westchester and Rockland communities in New York. He took this new role in September after Rev. Andy Compton was assigned to be the Education Director of IPEC in Las Vegas.

Bridgeport (CT) Family Church: Abraham and Mika Deshotel have recently been confirmed as the new co-pastors of the Bridgeport Family Church in Connecticut. We offer our appreciation and thanks to Rev. Greg Breland who served as interim pastor in 2015.

Miami (South Florida) Family Church: Pastor Simone Doroski-Miyazaki was appointed pastor for the South Florida Family Church in August 2015, after the previous pastor, Rev. Mari Curry was appointed as National Vice President.

Minneapolis (MN) Family Church: Hyungtae Ha, Denise Vang-To, and Jatoma Gavin were recently confirmed as the new co-pastors of the Minneapolis Family Church in November. Our thanks and appreciation to Pastor Rosemary Yokoi who served for more than three years.

We wish them all good fortune in their new missions as leaders in our districts and communities. We hope that pastors and families in each district and community can work together to successfully develop our church as we move forward into 2016.

We wish all members and families a Happy New Year and victorious 2016.

Dr. Ki Hoon Kim Continental Chairman

Dr. Michael Balcomb President

Rev. Krzysztof (Chris) Hempowicz

Rev. Hempowicz is a 1984 graduate of Unification Theological Seminary and holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from Poznan Polytechnic Institute, Poznan, Poland. He speaks fluent Polish, English, Russian and some Spanish. Born in 1951 and raised in Poland, Rev. Hempowicz immigrated to the United States in 1977. Two years later, he joined the Unification Church, and has served as a full-time volunteer and pastor for the past 38 years. In 1982 he was introduced and Blessed to his wife, Christine, by True Parents in Madison Square Garden, New York City. They have four children, ages 28 to 19, and reside in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Rev. Hempowicz pastored the Family Church of Connecticut and served as the state director from 1998 to early 2015. During that time he also completed four units of Clinical Pastoral Education at Yale- New Haven Hospital and Bridgeport Hospital. Rev. Hempowicz coordinated Connecticut’s ACLC chapter for a number of years, and participated in the Middle East Peace Initiative pilgrimages to Israel and Palestine, in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Prior to his work in Connecticut, Rev. Hempowicz, his wife and children served as missionaries/ national representatives for the Unification movement in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 1991 to 1994.

Jeffrey (Jeff) Schmidt

Jeff joined the IOWC in 1979 and spent a few months traveling with that team until True father called everyone to join MFT. He spent seven years as a member and captain in MFT. He then spent a few years learning the fish business, and worked as a Japanese restaurant manager while being involved in the church community where he joined.

True Father then asked everyone to return to their hometowns, so in 1991 Jeff and his wife Toyoko with their three children at the time moved to his hometown in Wisconsin. There he opened his own business of art and framing with the skills learnt by operating an art gallery on MFT. He kept volunteering on a local, district and national level when feeling God’s calling, culminating in closing the business when he felt called to assist the U.S. headquarters in the Middle East Peace Initiative international programs.

Another business opportunity came along when that mission completed. Jeff also served as assistant state leader for seven years as well as having served on the local, district and national councils.

All four of Jeff and Toyoko’s children are blessed by True Parents.

Pastor Drissa Kone

Pastor Drissa Kone was born and raised in a small village in the Northern side of Ivory Coast in West Africa. When civil war broke out in 2002, a military coup divided the Ivory Coast into two parts, the North with a Muslim majority and the South with a Christian majority. Through a series of events, Pastor Kone, was mistakenly arrested and detained in a military camp. He saw other people beaten and tortured and suffered persecution himself. On the third night, Pastor Kone had a spiritual experience with Jesus, who said to him “Follow me and you’ll be saved.”

The next day, he was allowed to leave the camp, it was a miracle. On the same day, he met a young woman who invited him to a Unification Church center to study the Divine Principle. In studying the Divine Principle, he found the answer to the meaning of life and joined the Unification Movement in March 2003.

In 2007, Pastor Kone received a BA in Education with a Minor in English. In November 2008, he immigrated to the U.S. where he began studying at the Unification Theological Seminary. Pastor Kone received his Master of Divinity in Pastoral Counseling in May 2012 and a Master of Diplomacy in Conflict Management and Negotiation from Norwich University, VT in June 2014. He is currently enrolled at UTS and will receive a Doctorate of Ministry in Peace and Justice upon graduation.

In July 2009, he was matched to Tsedvee Suren Batsuren and they received the Marriage Blessing in February 2010. Tsedvee joined the Church in Mongolia in 2000 and came to America as a missionary in 2003. They have two daughters, Miae, 4, and Yah-Michelle, one year old. His family is eternally grateful to God and True Parents for the Blessing they have received.

Abraham and Mika Deshotel

Abraham and Mika Deshotel will start serving as co-pastors of the CT Family Church in Bridgeport, CT on January 1.

Abraham has lived in Bridgeport for 17 years. He is 28 years old. He and Mika were blessed in Korea in 2005 as part of the 210- 2nd generation couples. They have three children ages 4, 2, and 1.

Abraham has been involved in many workshops as support staff in general affairs or as team leader. He has worked with middle school, high school, and college-age ministries. Together with his wife Mika they served as the Young Adult Ministers from 2009- 2011. He has also been involved in reviving the music ministry at the Bridgeport church community.

Mika has joined Abraham in Bridgeport in 2009. She has been very active in her hometown of Worcester, MA with youth ministry, Service for Peace, and CARP on campus. She worked for CARP headquarters from 2008- 2009, and then became the church administrative assistant in Bridgeport from 2010- 2013. Before stepping up to the pastor position, she has served on the Local Council.

Both Abraham and Mika are teachers at the Bridgeport Hope School and Bridgeport International Academy, and both currently working on their Master of Education degrees at the University of Bridgeport. Abraham also volunteers as a firefighter at the Fire Dept. in Fairfield, CT.

Pastor Simone Doroski-Miyazaki

Pastor Simone Miyazaki has a BA in Communications from Bridgeport University. She finds that with good communication skills you can reach the hearts and minds of first and second generation and also new members.

She has attended the 120 day World Leaders Training in Korea, and was one of the 10 Americans who attended. They had to read and be tested on the 8 Great Books and do 25,000 bows. Simone also attended three, 40 day workshops in Cheong Pyeong.

Simone feels that her training in the church has been extensive and desires to use this to help in her local community. She currently resides in Florida with her husband and two daughters and pastors the South Florida Family Church community in Miami.

Hyungtae Ha (Right), Denise Vang-To (Middle), and Jatoma Gavin (Left)

Hyungtae Ha was born in Jinju, South Korea as the eldest son of a 777 couple who served as pastors and national messiahs for his entire life.

Since he moved to Minneapolis in 2002, he has been actively supporting and leading Minneapolis church as a youth pastor, HoonDok church leader, church council and district council.

In Korea, he also served as a district youth pastor in Choong-nam district in 1993 for 3 years. As the oldest 2nd generation in his local church, Hyungtae has always been supporting youth, and acting as a bridge between the first and the younger generations.

Hyungtae graduated with a BS from Sun Moon University and a MS from University of Bridgeport studying Computer Science, and has been working for software companies as a software developer, quality manager, and project manager for last 15 years. Hyungtae and his wife Jinsun were blessed in 1995 at the 300 2nd Generation Couples, and have 4 children, ages 15, 11, 8 and 4.

Denise Vang-To

Denise met the Unification Church when she was 19 years old. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota when her parents came to America as refugees from the country of Laos after the Vietnam War. She received the Holy Marriage Blessing in 2004 and has one son Jorell, who is 4 years old, and a stepdaughter Chrissy, 18 years old. She comes from the Hmong heritage while her husband comes from Vietnamese heritage.

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Early Childhood Education and a Bachelor of Art in Fine Arts. She takes prides in being an entrepreneur as a real estate investor and owner. For the past 10 years, she was a teacher, caregiver, and educator for infants and toddlers at local Head Start. Currently she serves as Chair of WFWP Minnesota, and has recently graduated from the Global Top Gun workshop this past summer of 2015.

Jatoma Gavin

Jatoma Gavin is a 2nd generation Unificationist, husband, and father of three. He and his family live in Minnesota and have been active in ministry activities for the last 15 years. He served as pastor in Los

Angeles from 2010 to 2011 and raised up a core ministry team before leaving LA to return to the East Coast. He resumed his culinary career, and continued to support ministry activities by leading the culinary team at 43rd street, feeding GPA participants and Leadership College students from 2011 to 2013. In 2013, he and his wife joined a grassroots ministry of young couples in New Jersey, The Sunday Brunch Club, and served as core volunteers. He is working as a chef and has stepped up to support the local Minneapolis church as part of a pastor trinity.