Brotherhood and Sisterhood Across Oceans
“Your youth and spirit will become the foundation and pillars for the settlement of Cheon Il Guk. Please act diligently and uphold the vows and pledges you’ve made. Then True Parents will always be with you. You will shine. Through you, this dark world will become brighter.”
- Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon (03/04/13)
These were the words that our True Mother gave to students of the Universal Peace Academy in 2013 when it was first established. It is the first military academy that serves to raise youth as soldiers for Heavenly Parent and True Parents. For the last 10 years, it’s been flourishing itself as a place for young Unificationists to gather and cultivate in this 7 year long commitment of devotion and attendance towards their mission.
So you may not believe it, but we actually got to meet some of these students in person at Sunmoon University in the province of Asan! Our hearts were beating out of nervousness about how this meeting would go. But the moment we got off of the bus, we were greeted with such warm smiles and waves as they were all waiting for us at the front entrance!
Once we got inside of the main lecture hall, Mr. Park, the Vice President of the Universal Peace Academy gave a brief overview of UPA as a program as well as how it was created. Afterwards, we received a testimony from our very own media staff, Nobuaki Iwamoto. Being on GPA for his sixth year now, he shared his experience of doing one full year of fundraising, two years as a fundraising captain, and the last two years as a Group Leader. Usually seen behind a camera, all of us GPA members were also inspired to hear our older brother’s experience and his transformation during the last 6 years here. We were all drawn into the story of how God guided him towards Mother and Father Moon.
Later, a UPA student, Kayun Hiraki shared her personal experiences being in Sun Moon UPA. She’s actually from Los Angeles, California, the same community as me! Being part of the third class cadets, she had some precious moments with Mother Moon that has helped her cultivate her faith to what it is today. Through setting conditions she was able to find faith in her mission, being able to overcome the blocks that she’s been feeling in the beginning of her time in Korea.
Afterwards, we were able to spend time together as teams mixed up with the two programs. Although they were students in Korea, many were already fluent in English which made it a lot easier to communicate with each other. We got to visit the Cheongshim Won inside of their school campus and offer a prayer there.
With filled up stomachs from the lunch, we all gathered at the sports fields and split up into volleyball and soccer teams to play off as GPA versus UPA. Both sides being serious to bring victory for their program, the games were intense yet still supportive of each other, creating a heavenly competitive spirit. At the end of it all, we enjoyed each other’s company with some ice cream and final goodbyes.
We hope to see the relationship between GPA and UPA flourish even more and unite to become the youth moving forward into the future together! The time with the UPA students was most of our day but we then had a 4 hour bus ride to Busan which was filled with some games, karaoke, and even a rap battle! Stay tuned to hear what we’ll be doing in this new city!
Rie Horii
Korea Blogger, Generation Peace Academy
