Contributed by CARP Las Vegas
From September 20th to 21st, CARP Las Vegas held their first two day retreat for this semester. Twenty-three participants attended.
For the first time, instead of inviting a guest speaker, CARP members gave the presentations during the retreat. With Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon (Mother Moon), Founder of CARP, placing a strong emphasis on the education of youth, CARP Las Vegas’s Director, Mr. Akira Watanabe, felt it was time for the students to practice becoming educators and to achieve a level of proficiency by the time they graduate.
After an opening icebreaker, the emcee, Mr. Watanabe, shared the intention and heart behind the retreat and invited everyone to keep an open mind to experience the retreat to the fullest. The next morning, participants were guided through an internal activity reflecting on gratitude, forgiveness, and hope in their life to prepare for the day’s contents.
The first two presenters were Micheal Cordero and Kobe Neuhaus who were both have been in CARP for four and five years, respectively. The last lecturer was Chungbom Katayama who came from Japan to join CARP Las Vegas and has been a member for five years.
Each of the three presenters felt they learned so much more about the content by presenting and felt more confident in sharing their beliefs and how it relates to their own life.
As per CARP Las Vegas tradition, they closed with a bonfire. People performed songs and poetry together and shared testimonies about the retreat. One participant, George, shared “I never thought that you guys would accept a person like me.” He was happy to be proven wrong.
CARP Las Vegas is hosting their fifth Campus Talk on November 2nd! Register here. Find out and stay on top of all of their events on their website. Share your story to jennifer@carplife.org.