Ocean Church in Action! Ocean Training – What are we training to become?
On September 25th, NJ Ocean Tribe hosted a meeting at the NJ Ocean Tribe in Little Ferry NJ, gathering staff, Ocean Church alumni, and interested members in the area.
At the meeting, Branch Gaarder and Minobu Joo gave a presentation on the overall vision and purpose of Ocean Providence and Ocean Church per True Father’s words, exploring what is the strategy behind Ocean Providence and the purpose of the ocean training. Why do we train on the ocean? What kind of trainees are we supposed to produce as a result of the ocean training?
Upon revisiting some of True Father’s words regarding his establishment of the Ocean Church and why He continued to train us on the ocean, we clarified the goals of ocean training. We want youths (and anyone who wants!) to train on the ocean to receive character training, spiritual training as well as training to unite their mind & body. At the same time, we want them to gain practical skills, such as planning and running a successful fishing boat (captain training), basic maintenance of boats, capability to implement local projects through ocean-related activities, and a vision and a mindset to become a global leader, who can love and live for the entire world, and testify to True Parents through action.
As many who were involved with Ocean Challenge and Ocean Church would tell you, True Parents’ vision of Ocean Providence often deepens the faith and love for True Parents, as it becomes clear to one that they are trying to not only bring spiritual salvation to the world but at the same time, bring physical and substantial solutions to the world’s unending problems.
An Older 2nd generation participant shared about his desire to contribute, and how he wants to gradually bring his friends over and garner interest past just fishing and having fun. Several Ocean Church and ocean business veterans also testified to the power of the old days and the energy it still brings them. We discussed the past model of Ocean Church that existed on a larger scale and considered how we can rebuild a similar foundation.
In that spirit, we at the NJ Ocean Tribe have decided to create a program that is more consistent, running all year long with a clear purpose to train youths and others to become the people who True Parents have dreamed of – ones with vision, but with practical ocean-related skills!
The first step of course is to make our Little Ferry property ready for action, as it needs a lot of maintenance work and tidying up before an effective program can run consistently. And on October 2nd, the next Saturday, staff and alumni gathered once again to begin organizing and cleaning up the property.
We will be gathering every Saturday at 10 AM, to have something going on consistently, be it cleaning up, fishing, boating, class sessions, kayaking, and others until we can create a more consistent and well thought out rotational program for Ocean Tribe. NJ Ocean Tribe is determined to create something wonderful here to offer to our True Parents! Stay tuned!