A Year of Rebirth and Revival
Letter from Rev. Dunkley, Regional President
FFWPU-USA
Dear Family,
Wow. It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since I returned to America. I flew straight from Korea to New York in late May of 2023 as the newly appointed Regional President. Even though America is my home, I felt like a missionary in a foreign country. Yumiko and I had already settled with our whole family in Asia, with no expectation to return so quickly.
The movement in America stands on decades of investment directly from True Parents, as well as the countless sacrifices of great leaders and members who have already given everything. Nonetheless, True Mother emphasized that major changes were needed and encouraged me to find the answers directly from Heavenly Parent at the Cheonshim Won. That is why I ran straight to Las Vegas to pray before doing anything else.
In prayer, I envisioned a pregnant mother with a beautiful baby, but the umbilical cord was detached. Heaven impressed upon my heart the need for not just a revival, but a rebirth. Starting with our own leaders and members, America needs to be reborn through a deeper understanding of True Mother’s unique status. This was the motivation behind my inaugural statement that we are not here to turn a new chapter — we are here to write a whole new book.
Together with the senior pastors, we immersed ourselves in prayer, reflecting on True Mother’s words from May 2023. In reconnecting our hearts, we were ready to lead America together under her guidance.
This meeting with the senior pastors was the first of many workshops, ultimately known as the Rebirth Experience. These gatherings started small for a few key leaders, then grew to include local pastors, ministry leaders, and young leaders. Eventually, we traveled to each subregion to share this content with all members who could attend.
We also invested in establishing Cheonshim Won prayer halls across the country so our families could meet Heavenly Parent directly in the place True Parents had prepared. Through Mother’s words and prayers at the Cheonshim Won, many members began to testify about Mother’s position, her mission, and her unique essence beyond their previous understanding.
Yumiko and I want to thank all those who supported and attended these initiatives in the first few months. Despite the challenges we faced as a movement, which required constant attention and still persist, I believe those months of sincere prayer and reflection were a condition of unity that allowed us to steer the ship in a better direction.
Shortly after the Rebirth tour concluded, we welcomed Rev. Dong Mo Shin and Dr. Jin Choon Kim, sent by True Mother. Yumiko and I traveled the country with them to offer our unity as the American movement. By early October, with the successful completion of the first six months, we were blessed to welcome God’s Only Begotten Daughter back to America for her first public appearance since December 2019.
We had two wonderful events during True Mother’s visit: Raise the Flag with ACLC ministers, and Resurgence where True Mother met with more than 1,200 young people. To both the Christian ministers and our youth, True Mother encouraged us to lead in our own spheres of influence with the identity as children of True Parents.
True Mother has high hopes for our young people. With her blessing, Denthew Learey was appointed as the new director for the Next Generation Department and Regional Vice President. A whole new department of young leaders is being resurrected.
We started 2024 with new energy to bring substantial results. We welcomed Heavenly Top Gun missionaries from Korea and Japan and chose ten strategic communities to work with the missionaries and their own youth to build an environment of hyojeong that many new young people will love.
Denthew and I traveled with a small group of youth leaders from the ten strategic communities to Korea in February. We attended True Mother’s speech to the Heavenly Top Gun missionaries as she prepared them for their international missions.
In February, upon our return, we kicked off the Blue Dragon Tour and Blue Dragon Pilgrimage to Korea in April. We traveled to the strategic communities to share the essence of the providence and conduct special great works, building up to the pilgrimage to Korea.
The Blue Dragon Pilgrimage to Korea was an incredible success. 420 young people and 80 Christian ministers traveled to Korea to experience the heavenly environment True Mother is creating and attend the HJ Cosmic Blessing of 2024. We sang together in front of True Mother, encouraging her with our youthful enthusiasm and deep commitment. We returned rejuvenated and determined to grow our movement in America.
I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to our senior pastors and leaders, to all our communities and members for their unwavering support and dedication. Your hard work and commitment have been instrumental in the progress we’ve made and the revival we are witnessing across America. It is through your efforts that we have been able to achieve so much in such a short time.
In the last few months, as I traveled to various communities, witnessing the revival taking place, we have been working on improving many aspects of our organization. To mention a few: we are building a new model for GPA; restructuring ACLC; revamping our media department (we have some exciting projects that you will hear about very soon); and we are also going to be announcing some major changes and initiatives in the way we support the matching and Blessing of our young people.
With the conclusion of the Blue Dragon Tour and Pilgrimage, and with less than a year until the Entrance Ceremony to Cheon Won Gung, we set significant goals for the Blessing in April 2025, as well as substantial goals for new members. This is a time to step out of our shell, both small and large communities alike. We have heard Mother’s message. Once we understand the truth of the providence, it is time to share it widely, to witness to new people who are waiting to meet True Parents, meet the Only Begotten Daughter, and relate to God as their Heavenly Parent.
Let us use the days, weeks, and months until the Entrance Ceremony to collect the beautiful fruit Heavenly Parent has already prepared and bring them with us to Korea in 2025 to enter the Cheon Won Gung together with True Mother.
Heavenly Parent bless you all,
Rev. Demian Dunkley
Regional President