Contributed by Tomomi Fukuda
CARP DMV (D.C., Maryland, Virginia) recently hosted the Southeastern region CARP workshop at the Concord Retreat Center in West Virginia from May 21st to 27th. Twenty-five people participated in the workshop. The theme for the workshop was "Rising Strong; Reaching Beyond Ourselves." The aim was for participants to leave feeling loved, empowered, and excited to grow, knowing that there's a better version of themselves. They were also inspired to serve something bigger than themselves.
The first five days consisted of presentations from CARP leaders about the Divine Principle, purity education, and the life course of Father and Mother Moon. These presentations were coupled with intentional activities related to the content, as well as fun sports and other activities. The last two days featured an actionizing program, allowing participants to put into practice what they had learned through outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, and fundraising.
All lectures were covered by CARP leaders. On the last day of content, lectures about Father and Mother Moons' life course and purity education were given, emphasizing that CARP is one of their movements for realizing God's ideal. Participants were given books such as Rev. Moon's autobiography "Peace Global Citizen" and Mrs. Moon's memoir "Mother of Peace" to further explore and understand their lives.
After fundraising guidance, participants experienced a life of faith training through outdoor activities and fundraising. They fundraised for three hours and successfully reached their goal. As the final program, a CARP leader spoke about the importance of life of faith habits such as prayer, reporting, and studying holy scriptures. Even though the workshop has ended, we emphasized the need to stay connected with CARP in order to continue their spiritual growth and suggested involvement in CARP campus programs next semester.
Some of the guests shared their life testimonies about faith and their CARP experiences at the workshop. By joining CARP, their journeys of faith are guided, resulting in positive impacts on their lives, relationships with God, and spiritual transformation.
CARP DMV aims to continuously provide opportunities for students to discover their own faith, support spiritual growth, and lead a principled culture on campus.
Reflection from participants:
“I realized that I've been slowly losing my faith in god and the workshop reinvigorated my faith. I also realized that I've become a lot more courageous in the last year and I'm capable of a lot more than I previously thought”
- Ilia
“[My highlight was] the unity between everyone who came to the workshop. It seems we all got along fairly well together which is great for building morale and makes us feel like a family. [And also] the activities we did and especially the team skits. I was CRYING LAUGHING through all of them including my team's skit. It was a really fun way to let loose and build stronger bonds”
“I did not know as much about the actual history of CARP or the founders that started the movement so it was nice to learn the history. I enjoyed talking and reflecting with my team and I also enjoyed starting the day or presentations with music and I think that shaped how the actual presentations were going to go and they all went well in my opinion. I also enjoyed doing discussions after each presentation with questions because even if I have heard some of these presentations before, each person who presents has a different way of explaining and with each discussion I feel like I understand more and more from different points of view”
- Sarah