After being reborn through devotions and repenting I set off to witness

Since 2015, the Iwamizawa Family Church has continuously been holding special forty-day devotional periods and one-hundred-day educational workshops to create a foundation for victory as heavenly tribal messiahs and for national and global restoration. Each week on Monday, our church leader, Jyobu Toshikazu also gives Divine Principle lectures. I did Hoon Dok Hae with the Divine Principle and studied it as well. Often, when I reflected after learning something new, I realized my faith had been conceptual only.

After being reborn through the devotions and repenting, the participants of the workshop set off to witness. During the forty-day devotional Mrs. Mikami (left) and Naomi Kondo period, each person would read forty-three names aloud and work out the best way to approach and guide each person when witnessing to them. Every day we would meet and check our progress. We could separate ourselves from our fallen natures during the one-hundred-day workshop. Through bows and prayer we would reflect internally, make inquiries of our conscience and learn how to unite with God.

Before the one-hundred-day workshop, for a period, I wondered why I had not been able to meet someone whom I could bring to hear lectures. My pessimistic heart grew heavy and I felt drained. After that, I heard True Mother’s message that the four years remaining until 2020 are years of hope. This resonated deeply within me, causing me to realize that witnessing is not something I do alone.

Witnessing succeeds upon the foundation of True Mother’s three years of devoted mourning. If I unite with True Parents, I will be victorious. My heart began to feel lighter and my witnessing tasks began to organizing themselves.

In our church, we have made a practice of inviting people we meet from house-to-house witnessing to our homes and connecting them to family gatherings. One day at a meeting, our witnessing director came up to me and asked if I had someone we could visit together. I remembered Mrs. Mikami, whom I had visited earlier. I had offered her True Father’s autobiography but she had rejected it.

Together with the witnessing director, we went to visit Mrs. Mikami’s home. As soon as Mrs. Mikami saw me, her face took on an unhappy expression, but as she spoke to the witnessing director, she began to lower her barriers.

She then invited us into her home. Since her husband’s death fourteen years ago, Mrs. Mikami had been living with her husband’s sister-in-law. It had been her husband’s last wish for her to take care of his sister-in- law. Mrs. Mikami said, “In truth, when Mrs. Kondo said she was from the Family Federation, I remembered seeing them on television and thought of mass weddings. I was interested but I was wary so I took a step back.” She was an optimistic and curious person and asked many questions. We could see her interest growing as we resolved her misunderstandings about the church one by one. Right now, because Mrs. Mikami is taking care of her husband’s sister-in-law, she is unable to come to the church but she is learning through home church and expressed her wish to receive the spiritual blessing with her husband. As I continued to witness, I feel that God is always waiting and preparing people for us to meet.