National ‘Family Ministry’ Debuts at Virtual Summit
Fukuya Sano (FFWPU-USA)
Two powerful ministries of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) USA have joined forces to create the new Family Ministry.
Leaders of the Blessing and Family Ministry (BFM) and Youth and Young Adult Ministry (YAYAM) unveiled the new ministry department on March 20 during the virtual Family Summit event.
“It’s exciting because this is about being a family,” said BFM National Director Yun-A Johnson. “We have this idea of ‘womb to tomb’ that we want to develop… as we try to bring in more young families in the BFM realm. YAYAM is working more closely with the focus of Marriage Blessing preparation while BFM advisors can really help in developing the area of parents’ education and family education within this new ministry.”
The goal is simple: to efficiently streamline the help, guidance, and advice shared with Unificationists and their families as they pursue the Marriage Blessing and a Blessed family lifestyle. But, it also goes further than that.
More than 370 Unificationist leaders from across the U.S. and Canada joined the Family Summit, which equipped them with new skills from best-practice sessions shared by professionals in various fields. Divided into “think tank” groups, participants also brainstormed new ideas and projects.
“We definitely stole ideas from each other, which was the whole purpose,” said YAYAM National Director Kaeleigh Moffitt. “It’s a great feeling to walk out of a program feeling like you have some tools you can implement readily.”
Participants from the UK and other parts of Europe joined online as well, tuning in to the top master classes on “Making Space for Disengaged Youth” and “Heavenly Parent’s Heart and Same-Sex Attraction.” Heavenly Parent refers to God as the parent of humanity.
Co-pastors Jario and Leena Vincenz-Gavin of South Alabama Church shared ways to create a family-friendly environment and develop the role of grandparents in the community, while Unificationist Wendy Fiala, a California school district counselor, discussed mental health, psychology and therapy.
“Some of these topics are not easy to talk about, but I think the summit helped provide a space where a lot of people appreciated the discussions,” said Johnson.
Tips on stress relief, meditation, and exercise were also shared with participants.
“After attending the summit session about self care, I committed to making exercise and meditation a priority in my life,” said Justin Okamoto of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP). “Now I go for walks while attending virtual meetings.”
“The summit was a wonderful growth in helping us to see a bigger vision and the new ministry teams,” added Pastor Donna Avey of Anchorage Family Church.
Five new regional teams of the Family Ministry were announced during the summit, each with a BFM representative, BFM advisor, YAYAM coordinator, and matching supporter coordinator. And in just two weeks, Unificationist Katherine Anglin of Nebraska will be succeeding Moffitt as the new YAYAM national director.
“I’m really grateful for this opportunity to be able to reach out to people and really try to help them feel God’s love in our communities,” said Anglin.
“The new Family Ministry will help all of us with where we want to go with our programs, which are geared toward helping families with the Marriage Blessing,” added Johnson. “I think there’s a lot of creativity that’s going to come out of this.”
Stay tuned for more information about the new Family Ministry programs. You can learn more about the Marriage Blessing movement here.
