HJ Youth Academy Europe and the Middle East: EMPOWER x UPA Cadets in Tirana, Albania with Shin-chul Moon and his wife

The EMPOWER program (if you didn’t know already) is EUME’s year-long missionary and faith development program for young adults ages 18-30 designed to help participants find and live their life of faith in the Unificationist community through fundraising training, witnessing, participating in service projects, and going on a pilgrimage in South Korea to grow their hearts and character towards Heavenly Parents, True Parents, and others.

EMPOWER has completed 40 days of the witnessing portion of the program. We have one team in Fier, Albania, and another in Pristina, Kosovo. Participants have had the chance to get accustomed to their country, reach to people on the streets with “Anketës” (surveys), host exciting cultural and language courses (in Spanish and Korean!), and teach the Divine Principle. It has been a busy 40 days and a very meaningful time learning to work together as a team to support one another.

We gathered together for a midterm witnessing workshop in Mullet, Albania, to take a breather and assess how we are doing. We spent time reflecting, debriefing our witnessing experiences, having heart-to-heart sharings with one another, receiving inspirational witnessing guidance from Martine Masner, and even hosting our vigil prayer in the evenings! Vigil prayers were a core component of our workshop, where we heard testimonies from each other, sang our hearts out, and prayed together as we launched into the next 40 days of our witnessing program.

Upon a sudden turn of events, EMPOWER went to Tirana to attend the Sunday service and welcome the Albania UPA team! EMPOWER performed the song ‘No Matter Where You Are’ (which sounded amazing, by the way for the community.

EMPOWER participants Kristian and Alena shared their testimonies about their witnessing experience in Fier, Albania. Here is Kristian’s part of the testimony:

“In witnessing, whenever I honestly and sincerely wished for my witnessing partner to achieve great results, they could approach people who would come to our center and receive the lectures and, in some cases, even keep coming back. I would like to share an experience while witnessing with Alena [my witnessing partner]. It was right after a long night of True Parent’s birthday and Holy Day celebrations online. Alena and I felt incredibly grateful and joyful on that day for connecting with True Parents because of their birthday and the celebrations.

That day, I could feel a sincere desire for Alena to bring a guest back to the center who could be maybe even her spiritual child. At the beginning of that session, we set a clear intention to bring one person back

to the center. One of the first people we approached was a girl named Estrela and her friend- and they came to the center! And I was given the opportunity by Alena to give the Introduction to her, which was an extremely nice experience. In one moment, she also taught me about the Divine Principle in some ways, which was amazing. I’m very grateful for this experience.”

We felt energized and honored to greet the 6 UPA missionaries, including Shin-chul Moon and his wife, who will be doing a mission in Tirana for two years! Together, we will be a wellspring of pure flowing water: inspiration and hope for our True Mother, who has so much hope for the upcoming generation. Now, EMPOWER is off to its final 40 days in Fier and Pristina.

If you or someone you know is interested in participating in EMPOWER 2024-2025, our application is now LIVE!

Check out our social media @ Empower Program on Facebook or our website for more information: empower-eume,org

Stay tuned for more updates!

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8 TESTIMONIES PROGRAM ABOUT SPONSOR

WELCOME TO EMPOWER EMPOWER is a missionary and faith-based development program for young adults ages 18-30 to help them find and live their faith by growing their hearts and love for God, True Parents, and others. EMPOWER offers opportunit ies for participants to have strong and mature characters through fundraising training, witnessing training, participating in service projects, and going on a pi lgrimage in Korea to experience the history and heart of True Parents and the Unificationist movement. EMPOWER encourages its participants to become active in their communities and grow their hearts to become global citizens.

E p rienti I Faith D ,elopment Pr ram

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“ I remember before go i ng i nto EMP that I was a b it ne rvous about the a m ount of t i me I wo u l d be spend ing away from home, w it h a ve ry new group of people and very d if ferent circumstances. A t the same t i me I had such a strong fee ling that I had to do th is and I’m so gratefu l I d id. [ … ]

EMP rea l ly deepened my connect ion to our movement, the core of it and my love for true pa ren ts. [ … ]

In Ko r ea I cou ld rea l ly f i nd m y answers a nd m y peace. My co nn ect ion to pra ye r has i mp roved tremendous ly i n Leba n on but w hen we d id v i g il p ray e r here for the f i rst t i me and we started chanting “abeoji “ and “eo meoni “ it ma de me so emotio na l because for a sp lit seco nd I fe lt t he desperate hearts of everyone and t h e reaching hand of tr u e parents t owards u s as the i r chi l dren. From that moment on I fel t l i ke I could be t r uly one w ith m y p raye r every ti me I prayed . I can s i nce r e ly say t ha t t h e Shi n ae sta rt i ng EMP and now standing here at t h e e nd a r e not th e same p eop le and I’m so happy to say th a t.[ … ]”

Shinae M. N ETHERLA NDS

“ I a l so learnt how to expand m y hea rt to try to love anyone. I f ee l l i ke it is easy to say t hat yo u love everyone w he n you bare ly have to see t he peop le that yo u st r ugg le w ith. But w ith EMP we we re a sma l l team so we co u ldn’t j ust avo id peop le t h a t w e ha d strugg les w ith. I rea ll y struggled at t i mes w ith ce rt a i n me mbe rs, not because they were necessa r i ly do i n g a n y thing wro ng , but we just had su ch d if ferent p e r sona lities and ways of go i ng about things. But w e had an emphasis to invest and love the peop le t h at w e strugg led wi th . [ …]

Be i ng i n Lebanon a lso rea lly h e l ped me to deve l op my f aith. Th is was th a nks to th e i nfl u ence of so ma ny

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f i gu res i n Le ban on an d t a k i ng part i n V ig i l Praye r every week . I am now at th e most stab le po i nt I have eve r f e lt i n my l ife of fai t h, even t h o u g h , o f co u r se, t h ere is st i l l a lot t o wo rk on.[ … ]

A l l th ese th in gs h elped me t o th i nk abo ut how I wan t t o p repare for the M a tc hi ng a n d B lessi ng. I a l so f ee l l i ke I am ,in t ernal ly, i n a much b e t t er place t o go t o universi t y th an I was at t h is t i me last yea r, whe n I wasn’ t p l ann i ng t o ta ke a g a p yea r.”

Sophia N. UNITED KINGDOM

Being a t ea m leader made me f ee l God’s h eart m o r e i n different mo m e nts. It was not a lways easy fo r me to re late t o or reach everyone, but st i l l a lw ays trying to do so an d praying for t h em and wa tc h i ng them an d how m uch they w ere investi n g in d if f erent situati o n s, and t ry i ng to encourage them and so met i mes h av i n g a g l i m pse of how God sees t hem was a ve ry prec i o us and movi ng expe ri ence, now t ha t I l ook bac k on it. I remem ber many moments w hen I was very moved by each member o f the team and could rea l ize that rea l ly everyone h as suc h a prec i ous core, an d th a t God loves everyone so m uch. I’m ve ry grateful for my t eam and t h e i r e f for ts and hea rt.

Talia P. GERMANY