How Witnessing Reignited My Faith

My name is Jinny (Jinil) Fleischman. I’m a second-generation Unificationist, originally from California. I’ve been living in Las Vegas for two-and-a-half years. When I was in high school, I was in a similar situation as many second-generation youth in our movement: I was ready to leave the movement. I actually remember sitting down with my parents in the living room one day and telling them, “I don’t believe in True Parents, I don’t know about God, but I need my space.”

Kind of by a miracle, I joined Generation Peace Academy (GPA). I don’t know why or how, but I did, and through that I really found my faith, and I found that this is the community and the movement that I really am proud of, and I feel like this is mine. I really feel like this is where I belong.

But, I can tell you from my own personal testimony, it was only through witnessing that I could really solidify who I am to True Parents; that I could really say not only that this is my movement but that I belong to True Parents and that True Parents are the subject of my life.

I think for many second-generation Unificationists, we have very positive experiences in this movement with our friends and our community and we really value our faith. We value growing closer to God. We value the teachings, the love, the lifestyle, but for many second-generation youth, it’s hard for us to really feel this sense of living for True Parents, of making True Parents the subject of our lives and finding joy in bringing joy to True Parents.

I remember, even watching True Mother’s speeches, I would listen and think, “Really? She’s saying that? I don’t know if that applies to me.” Kind of this, “I’ll take what I like and leave what I don’t like”—that

sort of mentality and heart. It was only through witnessing that I discovered that, absolutely, True Parents are my personal Messiah and that they are absolutely what’s needed in this world.

Because I would go out witnessing and I would meet people with such difficult backgrounds: people with no parents, people who were born drug-addicted and going through withdrawal because their mother was drug-addicted; people in such horrible situations. And I realized when I look in my own self and in my own heart, I have nothing to offer to this world. I have no answers and no solutions. I can do so little compared to what’s needed in this world. That really made me turn to True Parents and discover that True Parents are the source of love and the healing that this world needs.

So, as a second-generation Unificationist, I 100-percent believe that second-generation Unificationists need to experience witnessing. It revives us, it heals us. When I look at my fellow GPA graduates who did three years along with me, or one or two years, and I see where they are at in their own lives of faith, and I can understand what they’re going through. It’s hard for them to feel this fire and this passion and this desire to contribute. It’s very easy to feel stuck. I look at my family as well.

But I really believe second-generation Unificationists need to experience witnessing. So, in CARP Las Vegas, we’ve really been blessed to have opportunities and feel it’s our blessing to share with our American movement, our community here. At the end of this semester, we are holding a seven-day Divine Principle workshop. It’s not only for the first-generation that come but us as second-generation to be revived. We’d love to extend that invitation to other young people in our movement who really want to feel the fire of witnessing and really see and experience firsthand how the Divine Principle can revive young people.

This summer we’re also planning a new initiative of a 40-days actionizing and fundraising trip across the country. This is another initiative where we really feel, working together with CARP America and the FFWPU USA Headquarters team in New York, who are doing such amazing things, that we want to create and provide an opportunity for young people in our movement to really feel the fire of witnessing—to really experience, not just that this is my community or this is what I belong to, but this is really the salvation for this world.