News
This past month, CARP USA teamed up with Peace Starts With Me for the April 6th Peace Starts With Me event at the City of Refuge in Los Angeles. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, co-founder of CARP, was the keynote speaker, and she invited 500 of the youth to join her in this event.
On Thursday, March 28th, CARP Grand Rapids held their second Campus Talk on Campus with the theme, Healing the Heart of America, with guest speaker, Dr. Frank Kaufmann.
He emphasized that in order to start healing the divisions in our country, we need to have conversations with a foundation of respect and love because “as soon as you shut down conversation, you stop learning.”
Last month, CARP Las Vegas held their final two day Divine Principle retreat of the semester. Students took time out of their busy lives to rejuvenate their spirits and get back on their feet to finish the semester strong. In attendance were five guests (two new, three returning), ten community members, and eleven CARP members - a total of 26 people. Out of the 26, three participants drove a total of 18 hours from Oregon to attend the workshop.
This past March, we focused on the ‘Marriage and Family’ presentation from the National CARP Curriculum both in our weekly club meetings and our bi-weekly Ignite evening events.
“It [kind of] made me think of old times with my family, like how we [used] to do family trips and how happy I was as a child.” — Jonathan Jiang
On March 9, CARP Grand Rapids, CARP Chicago, and CARP Indianapolis came together to host a Youth and Students for Peace (YSP) seminar for youth and CARP members at the Chicago Family Church.
Naria Gaarder, the Program Coordinator YSP, and also the main speaker of the event, started the event off by explaining YSP as an organization and its goals towards creating a world of peace. She explained the importance of creating peace on three different levels; starting from within the individual, peace could be spread to the community and to the environment. The participants were able to take the time to reflect on their own lives and develop action plans towards generate peace in their own lives. Naria informed the audience that peace could only be developed when we were able to envision it in our own lives.
On Presidents’ Day weekend, the Las Vegas chapters of CARP hosted a 3-day Divine Principle workshop for students.
Presenter Noah Ross conveyed a simple but consistent message: all change begins with oneself. Change yourself to change the world. Mr. Ross stressed how important it is both to give truth and to create an environment where people can share their lives with each other and truly feel cared for.
He encouraged everyone to remember the essential purposes of the Unification movement: to seek, to find, and to love our long-lost brothers and sisters, and in so doing, to grow together and become people who can create a good world in which God feels truly welcome, loved, and free.
There is no denying the experience of heart that was shared between all the brothers and sisters who joined this workshop. It was clear that the future of everyone remains as closely connected to CARP as possible, a place that has become home for all.
“Unification Thought’s point of view on the Divine Principle gave me insight about my pursuit on education… things make a lot more sense to put God in it.” - Denzel
From January 12-13, we invited student leaders, CARP mentors, volunteers, National Staff, and the National Board of Directors to join us in a Curriculum Intensive. We went in depth into new educational material for the new year!
“I originally came here to learn a lot and not make many friends, but I met the coolest people I’ve ever met in a long time. It’s a big deal for me personally. It’s insane how one organization can bring so many people together with so many different backgrounds around a core set of values. It’s an incredible and unexplainable thing.” - Andrew Hunt, CARP Grand Rapids, MI
On December 28th and 29th, the CARP and HARP chapters in Salt Lake City, Utah, hosted a two-day retreat focusing on the theme, Living a Principled Life.
The retreat included college, high school, and middle school aged participants with activities like ice skating, team sports, and a song session encompassing the spirit of CARP’s founders, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon.
From December 26 to January 1 (2019!), CARP LA hosted their annual Turning Point Workshop at the International Peace Education Center (IPEC) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
About 100 high school and college students attended this week-long deep dive into Unification Principle. While most attendees were from Los Angeles, few came from New Jersey, Indiana, Las Vegas, and Bay Area.
“The Turning Point for me was me asking God what is it that He wants for me. And He said Love. Love was the one thing He had throughout it all. I realized throughout my life I felt so much love, but how many times did I really give that love to people and express gratitude toward God and Jesus? My determination going back home is to share God’s love. I want to be a vessel for God’s love. I always want to think about God.” - Keisetsu Nakamura, CARP NJIT
