Mission 1 News - DONE Mission One, 2016 newsletter

Our dearest Parents & Families, Yesterday marked our official conclusion of DONE Mission One, 2016. We wanted to share with you a short insight into our 3 month journey, beginning February 2nd and lasting until May 5th. Following our kick off workshop in February, we spent 7 weeks in fundraising training, experiencing a variety of countries, teams and meeting people of all backgrounds, as well as discovering new realisations. After that, the entire group travelled together to Prague to conclude the fundraising period and enjoyed some well-deserved time together as well as moments for sharing and personal reflection. The DONE house garden April 1st saw us return to the ‘DONE house’ in Slovakia for 2 weeks of educational content, presented by one of our close friends, William Haines (from the U.K.), Armando Lozano (from Madrid) & our ESGD staff Yebuny Hanna ran a leadership group; Julius, Patrick & Yebuny. William explored the existence of God’s training seminar from April 9th-10th, Providence throughout history, showing us a memorable video from 1976 where we could learn valuable of the events that took place that year, including the Washington approaches to leadership, develop Monument and Yankee Stadium events. With the spirit of inheriting our our public speaking skills and reflect blessed families’ traditions, we celebrated True Parents Day, with a holy on our attitude to become influential ceremony, some words on the value of investing into our relationships people in our friendships, families with our parents and a celebratory breakfast in the garden. and communities. A big emphasis was placed on our potential to be impactful people in life, regardless of holding any official leadership position. The weekend was incredibly rich in content, activities & fruitful.

The Mission One group with William Haines

Celebrating True Parents Day

Deeply rooted in the culture of Mission One, is the overall sense of responsibility & ownership encouraged within each of us as participants. Realising our potential “The best leaders are more through our clarity & experience, each one of us volunteered to give a those who people morning service throughout the month of April. These services have centred upon don’t know exist. our personal relationship to the educational content we had been hearing. Second best is those who are loved and From 15th-20th April, we participated in various service projects, which included praised. Third best is presenting interactive cultural lessons to students in the local school, organising those who are feared sports for the children in the community and repairing the playground in a And worst are those kindergarten. A small group of us also visited a boy’s orphanage where we dug out the yard for a pond & later played games with them. We then organised Sunday who are despised” service for the high-school aged BC’s here, where Pierre Moreau, Pierre Kwala & —————————-- Elijah Lausberg gave sermons on ‘the Value of Investing into Relationships’.

“Leadership is about being aware of your impact & learning to control it well.”

Giving a cultural lesson at school Football organized after school The remaining 3 days we spent in the central Slovakian region of Hrinova. We were introduced to the mayor as being a part of the international youth group who visits annually and carries out service projects in the region. There we took part in repairing trail signs for tourists at a na- tional park, offered a few more lessons and sports at the local school, rubbish clearing, painting the roof of a public lodge and preserving an old, traditional Slovaki- an bell tower.

Upon returning to the DONE house, we participated and helped host the Educator’s Leadership Workshop run by ESGD. Leaders involved with educating high school aged BC’s (HARP) from across Europe, Russia & even Japan were invited, we held many discussions together, exploring what true spiritual leadership is and appropriate steps forward in educating the 2nd generation. Service Projects in Hrinova

Our schedule was packed, departing immediately after the workshop to Slovakia’s famous Mountain Range the High Tatras. There we spent 2 and a half days of hiking as part of our ‘Mountain Challenge’, whilst spending evenings together, singing songs and holding small activities in a nearby mountain lodge. Grateful for comfortable weather, we immersed ourselves in the wintry landscape, being careful to take time to reflect personally as well as striving for deeper friendships.

Still in the mountains, we began to prepare for the East European (HARP) Workshop we were to organise next. Each DONE participant was assigned a staff role; either team Day 1 of Mountain Challenge in the High Tatras leader, MC, sports coordinator or hospitality staff. The workshop ran over the final weekend of April, where approximately 50 BC’s attended, coming from Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia and Serbia. The theme of the workshop was “Change Now; Stepping Forward for Myself & Others”, focusing on the importance of taking action in your personal life and in your relationships. It was encouraging to see each staff member fulfil their responsibilities and more, making effort to connect to each participant, planning follow up strategies to stay in touch in the future and also taking the opportunity to create lectures and share testimonies with the entire group. The workshop ran incredibly smoothly and according to some of the feedback from the par- ticipants, it was very successful overall. We believe this clearly reflects the months of each individuals’ investment into the training and education offered on DONE, along with their growing desire to contribute and sense of responsibility.

This then led us directly into our graduation workshop, still full of education from Julius and Dr. Frank Kaufmann (from the U.S.) until the last day. Frank focused on actively creating our own genuine spiritual lives and also on the substantial way we can build our relationship to True Parents. These past few days saw attention to reflection once again, and concluded with celebrations and personal determinations we would like to offer beyond Mission One.

Overall, it has been an exceptional journey of self-growth and growth together as the Done Mission One group. We strongly believe the friendships formed here, will continue to flourish past our short time together, offering support and strength in our lives and futures ahead.

Challenge afternoon on the East European HARP workshop