On Saturday, August 15, 8 PM Eastern time (August 16, 9 AM, Korea and Japan time), CARP America teamed up with the youth of Korea and Japan to create the 2020 HyoJeong Conference! The theme of the conference was the reunification of the Korean peninsula, a central focus in Father and Mother Moon’s work for peace. Our two MC’s were students from Korea, Masaomi Yamaguchi and Katsuhiro Furukawa. In total, about 300 people joined the conference.
The conference endeavored to answer the question, how can the young people of three nations contribute to the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula? Therefore, part of our conference focused on the exchange between three nations, another part focused on the situation of Korea, and the final part talked about the role of youth.
For the exchange, we opened with a Kahoot! icebreaker with trivia questions about each of the three nations. Every participant had fun learning about the other countries and competing for the highest points. Following that, students from each nation shared their testimonies about finding and growing in their life of faith.
The situation of Korea was thoroughly explained by three of our elder educators from each country: Dr. Thomas Ward, President of Unification Theological Seminary, Rev. Sang Pil Moon, Cheon Won Block Leader for Youth in Korea, and Katsumichi Motoyama, President of CARP Japan. We also had a presentation by a representative student from each nation about the activities they hosted to bring awareness and change to the situation in Korea.
Dr. Ward talked about the battle between God and Satan and how that manifests itself on the Korean Peninsula; Rev. Moon shared about the geopolitical situation of Korea, and President Motoyama shared about the need for the three nations to work together to make that happen.
We closed with a testament to the power of the youth, and a call to action to the young people. Bishop Noel Jones, Senior Pastor of City of Refuge Church, shared about how youth who stand for God can move heaven and earth, especially those youth who follow in the footsteps of Father and Mother Moon.
Finally, Joshua Holmes shared about Peace Road USA, a three week road trip visiting historical locations of America to repent for historical wrongdoings, inherit historical victories, reconcile all people, and determine to serve the world, even touching and healing the Korean Peninsula.
To continue this collaboration of three nations, this Conference has become a series. Korea will host next month’s conference, so stay tuned!
Full videos of this conference will be available soon. Share your story to jennifer@carplife.org!