🇺🇸Jinil Fleischman

I've just come back from two weeks in Korea, where what was originally the leaders' assembly was transformed by True Mother into a special workshop. It was an incredible experience. It feels like a long time since I've been back.

My time in Korea started with the marriage blessing workshop. It was a really beautiful experience to see so many couples from all over the world. We came together for a workshop before the blessing, then the ceremony itself, and then more program afterwards. It was beautiful to see these couples coming together, because they wanted to honor God and True Parents, and make that the center of their relationship.

There were a lot of international couples, including spouses who couldn't communicate very well across different languages. My own spouse is from Japan. I'm half Korean, half Japanese, but she's pretty good at English, so we're fortunate. The ceremony itself was a really special experience. We were in the stadium with maybe ten thousand people. The whole floor was full of couples — a couple thousand couples — and the back was filled with people doing the ancestor blessing. It was a really holy atmosphere.

For me it was especially significant, because my spouse and I were chosen to be a representative couple. We were on stage, and we received our rings directly from True Mother. I was wearing glasses, and she was wearing a veil, so we didn't directly make skin contact with True Mother — but for me… it was overwhelming. The big stadium, the thousands of people, the lights of the stage; my knees were shaking. The ceremony is very formal, but actually being on stage with True Mother, I really felt she was deeply connected to each of the couples. She handed out the rings to the seven of us who received them on stage, and afterwards she just kind of whispered congratulations in Korean.

For me personally, it felt as if the whole audience vanished. I felt like there were only us seven couples and True Mother, and our stage was everything that existed in that moment. I really felt she has such a deep love for all the couples. My brother Casey, the first-generation brother living in Reno, told me we must be so grateful for the second-generation couples, and for everyone who chooses this path of the marriage blessing, honoring the tradition their parents have given. It was a really special moment for me and for my spouse.

The photo was taken at Cheongpyeong, right after the blessing. The day after the blessing, I was originally going to join the leaders' assembly. Everyone was talking about a special three-day workshop, but no one knew what was going on. It seemed like literally only True Mother knew. None of her staff knew anything. So everyone was in this state of confused anticipation, mixed with excitement.

We had a three-day workshop with all the leaders in the prayer hall at Cheongpyeong. It's really special to hold a workshop in Cheonsim-won; it never happens. Reverend Jackson will probably talk more about this, but for me personally, I really felt True Mother's seriousness. She really trusted the leaders to understand how deeply she feels about sharing the marriage blessings, and sharing True Parents with the world. I felt her urgency — her thinking about what she can do to connect to the hearts of the leaders, so we can really understand what she is feeling and go out to the world.

On Cheon Il Guk service this morning, True Mother emphasized how we need to empty ourselves of our individualism, our self-centeredness, our own concepts, and become one with her. On the third day of our workshop, after some Dragon Buns, True Mother addressed all the leaders. The first thing she said was that she doesn't recognize day or night for herself. For her there is no nighttime. She is always awake, always planning and thinking and preparing, never resting.

I cannot describe the atmosphere of that room with seventy or eighty people; it was completely silent. The air was crackling. When True Mother came in, I saw two different sides of her: True Mother's joy and happiness with the blessing, and her love for all the couples, and then her seriousness with the leaders. This is really True Mother's heart. While she has this love, she also has this urgency.

Another thing we did in the workshop was sign a resolution. I'm still kind of in denial, still letting it sink in. One of the points of the resolution was to commit to becoming a tribal messiah by 2020. I had always thought: "okay, that's my parents' responsibility. I'm not even a blessed couple, I don't know what the blessing is or how to give it." But I signed it, and I'm really taking to heart what that means.

I was talking afterwards with some of the African leaders, who are good friends with my parents. They shared something important. Sometimes we get so caught up in our position, in our mission and responsibility, that we feel: as long as I do well in my mission, that's all I need to worry about. I've had that mindset the past four years working with the Cardiff headquarters. But one of these African brothers said: "those are just our positions and our responsibilities. Our identity is to be a tribal messiah. That's really who we are. That's what True Parents have told us." In the end, our purpose, our identity, is to be a tribal messiah. I'm trying to take that to heart.

It was really a Holy Spirit atmosphere, with a lot of prayers, a lot of shouting, a lot of overwhelming spirit and love. I feel that's what True Mother wants to bring to each of us — to really come alive with the spirit of God, the spirit of the Principle. I'm really excited for the Cheongpyeong tour coming in October. This is True Mother's gift to us. We all want to be alive, we all want to be inspired. True Parents are here, and we can do something to restore this world. Sometimes we feel tired, overwhelmed: how are we going to do this? I felt True Mother is really giving us a gift with this Cheongpyeong tour — to revive the Holy Spirit within each of us. That was my experience.