Dear American Family,
May our Heavenly Parent continue to bless you so very, very much!
As you may have heard by now, my family has been reassigned to Asia. Yes, Asia!
It’s funny how every time there is a leadership change, the first question I hear is, “Did you know anything about this?”
My answer is always the same; “No!”
Again, we had no idea this was coming.
It has been a blessing for us to be able to work here for the past few years under Dr. Ki Hoon Kim. He has opened the door to True Mother’s heart and invited us all in. There is no greater achievement possible.
Dr. Kim has guided us through an incredible journey over the last eight years. No matter the storm, his hand was always steady on the rudder. Just three years ago, we could only recognize a small handful of active Tribal Messiah families. We now stand on the incredible foundation of 308 victorious Cheonbo families in North America, on top of all the other great work our American membership has accomplished. Eternal gratitude to you, Dr. Kim and Mrs. Kim.
Of course, Yumiko and I wanted to stay here and continue to learn how to better serve you. After such an intense year of rallies throughout 2019, we would have loved to be able to physically tour the country this year had our travel not been hampered by COVID-19. However, no matter the challenges, our Heavenly Parent has an unstoppable plan for the USA, and you are at the heart of that. True Mother loves you so much. I recently heard it directly on the phone when she said, “I love American Blessed families so much.” I mean, that was the entirety of the conversation.
Brothers and sisters, you are truly blessed. You are destined not only to lead America, but you will lead the world.
Our own family now moves on to Asia. We are deeply humbled by True Mother’s trust in us to stand on the incredible foundation that was built there, most recently under the leadership of Dr. Chung-Sik Yong, who will now come here to lead North America and the USA. I have only heard kind words of love and respect for him, and I look forward to witnessing what you will do here together with him to take our movement to the next level. He has such a deep and filial heart towards True Parents, a kind and parental love for members, and a passion for educating and leading from the frontline. I can see from this new shift that True Mother is asking America to strengthen the heart of our movement and grow the foundation of all the dedication that has been offered until now.
As I write this letter my mind travels back over the last decade. It has been an interesting journey. Many of you may not know this, but for over 10 years my dream job was to work for the media team. All I wanted was to work with Koichi and Toshi and their team and use the media to spread True Parents to the world, but for some reason I could never get that job!
Back then, Yumiko and I were having a fun time working with Pastor Walter Frank in San Diego, who was kind enough to allow us to serve as youth pastors there. I had no idea what I was doing, but I remember Pastor Frank always encouraging activities and opportunities for the youth to be together. The “Ice Cream with a Twist” event was probably the most memorable for me. But let’s face it, doing anything in San Diego can be a great time. The community and blessed children there were so fun to be with. Surf Camp anyone?
From there, somehow our family ended up in Las Vegas as a result of True Father’s autobiography campaign. I was told that I might be able to serve as an extra photographer for True Parents when they were in town, but nope! Shortly after we got there we were asked to serve as the pastors!
That whole Las Vegas chapter was so dynamic and so much fun working together with my big brother Rev. Staffan Berg and the Las Vegas community when True Parents were visiting so frequently.
After pastoring for two or three years, I tried again to see if I could work with the media department. I remember being on the phone with Rev. David Rendel and asking if I could help set up some media support in the west. He said, “Sure, that sounds like an interesting idea. Why don’t you come out to NYC and meet the team and we’ll discuss it?”
I excitedly got on the next plane to New York to meet the team and discuss plans, but I was soon called into Dr. Michael Balcomb’s office. I thought I was just going to greet the president, which I did, but without missing a beat, he said, “Will you help set up the Evangelism department at HQ?”
To which I responded, “Uhhh… what is that exactly?”
Within a month we were living on the East Coast working at National Headquarters. Aside from some pretty impressive office banter with Karlsun Allen, I really had no idea what I was doing. That’s when we were working on DPlife.info and trying to come up with more “Create a Life You Love” videos, but I knew we’d have to figure out how to stimulate the ever elusive mission of Tribal Messiahship.
To tell you the truth, we were working on some witnessing and education systems that I actually put on hold because I was concerned about trying to implement something from the top at a time in our movement when “grassroots” was the most (or only) popular term. But also because I know that you need the right mix of vision and support, clarity and freedom in America to tap into that American creative spirit.
However, we had this seemingly impossible mission. A common expression I heard at the time was, “I don’t think we can do it here. America is not the same, it’s not going to work.”
That’s why we started the ‘We Can Do It’ workshops. We continually experimented with various approaches, looking for ways to ignite that American “can do” spirit. These workshops were a way for entire communities to reawaken their sense of value and purpose, and rethink how we might work together to figure out Tribal Messiahship. After working with several communities around the country, and multiple international workshops, we knew we had to take it straight to the family.
40 days before True Mother came to Madison Square Garden in 2017, we launched a special 40-Day Witnessing and Blessing condition anchored in a weekly Tuesday meeting. We called it TribeNet. I think we started with about six people on the call. By the end of the condition, we were up to 40 members. This was like America’s altar upon which all the fledgling Tribal Messiahs could bring their offering. It was also like a village square where we could share inspiring stories and learn from one another.
I think my job adjusted another two or three times before being appointed as the Northeast Subregional Director (in my Apple Heaven uniform at East Garden), and then only just recently appointed as the president. It was January of 2019! A few rallies and a COVID pandemic later, and now we are going to Asia. All very exciting. All totally unexpected.
What I do know is that it has been a total honor to work together with Dr. Kim, Dr. Balcomb, Rev. and Mrs. Buessing, all of the incredible people that have worked at headquarters over the years, my dear subregional brothers and all the leaders and blessed families across this great nation. Such an incredible joy! Thank you all so very much.
So what’s going on now?
True Mother is implementing a major restructuring of the worldwide movement. True Mother is desperate to establish a foundation of leadership that can embark on the next seven-year journey and beyond. She has resolved to immediately appoint and raise new young leaders that will be able to guide the movement into the future, and she has resolved to reach one third of the population by 2027. We’ve reached 2020 victoriously, and now we must chart a new course.
Along with many others, both Dr. Kim and I have been asked to make a radical shift, and we are all totally united with True Mother. When True Parents make these types of changes, I feel that they are also signaling a major upgrade and a change of mindset for us all. This is an exciting time. We are getting ready for a big shift, and I hope that you can feel it (I know I can).
Brothers and sisters, we are now ready to leap forward! It is time to strengthen our resolve, totally unite with True Mother, educate ourselves continually, offer our devotions even more sincerely, and create a spiritual fire so hot and so bright that we burst at the seams with new life and new growth. We have God backing us. We have Heaven backing us. We have True Parents right here with us. We are wide awake in America and our young leaders are stepping up! America’s destiny is bright, and you will all be amazed with what God has in store for this country.
Please be comforted, please feel encouraged. Let us unite with our True Mother 1000% (it is so much easier than trying to outsmart the Messiah!)
Please get ready to welcome and unite with Dr. Chung Sik Yong, our new Regional President for North America. He has spent over a decade in Asia and, under his watch, we’ve seen incredible revival and growth there. America is ready for that, too. Let’s do this.
As you might have guessed, I’ll do what I can to share our adventures online. In the meantime – and I never thought I would say this – please look us up if you’re ever in Thailand. Or Cambodia. Or Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Pakistan, China, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, or Mongolia!
We actually don’t even know how or when it will be possible to travel there. But until we meet again, we offer you our love.
Demian, Yumiko, Timothy, Hanna, Jonathan, and Dallas Dunkley
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