EUME Matching and Blessing Prep workshop – for Blessed Children and their parents   
28 -30 Jan. 2022

Around 100 candidates and their parents participated in this online workshop. The theme was “Love – Life – Lineage” and the aim was to give a deeper understanding about the Blessing and also to support both candidates and their parents to prepare well for the matching.

The workshop began with some wise opening remarks from our vice-regional leader, Bogdan Pammer, who underlined the importance of preparation if we want to successfully adapt from living life as a single person to living as a Blessed couple.

BFD Director Orlande Schenk, began her introductory presentation by challenging us to shift our focus from “What does my Blessing mean for me” to “What does my Blessing mean for God?”

We covered many topics during the workshop, both internal and practical, including testimonies from parents and candidates, discussion groups and a lengthy Q&A session. On Saturday we had a split session with a presentation on “Practical Advice” for the parents and “Purity and Lifestyle” for the candidates.

A big thank you to Guiseppe Cali, who gave a fascinating and in-depth presentation on the topic of “True Parents Life” and Armando Lozano, who tackled the concept of “Lineage” with many deep and practical insights about how we are connected to the lineage of God through the Blessing and what it means to “belong” to God. We also took up the topic of parent-child communication and the importance of developing this relationship as a foundation to work together to find a partner.

The schedule included long lunch and dinner breaks of up to 3 hours, giving time for candidates and their parents to discuss the content together in their homes.

Because it was an online event, participants inevitably miss the interaction that would normally occur during a “physical” workshop. There was also a desire for even more testimonies.

This workshop will be followed up by the PART 2 workshop which will take place on the sub-regional level in March.

A few reflections:

“Every time I hear the presentation on “Purity and Lifestyle”, I’m very inspired and it gives me a vision of what true love really can mean for God and the other partner.”

“Very helpful. Honestly all the presentations were great! Together they just brought perfect sense and understanding and made me even more determined and focused. Even though they were given from different people, all together they just made perfect sense and it felt more like a full story then a separate lectures.”

“I like going deeper in the theology of our movement, understand where we are coming from and why are going that path.”

“The content was real, not just rules, but also depth and experience behind each presentation. The testimonies were very inspiring and informative at the same time. Feeling that the content came from the deepest heart made me listen carefully and kept me attentive. And I just enjoy listening to good stories!” EUME BC Blessing dept. team