JCARP is a very good way to experience Japan’s culture and understand how the life is for Japanese CARP members, you learn very quickly the do’s and don’ts of the rules in the centre, and sometime it can be quite a culture shock due to the differences in rules, e.g almost accidently drinking from the sisters cups and not the brothers cups. It would be wise to understand and learn the different rules that the CARP members uphold as it seems they expect you to know them. Witnessing has both its good and bad points, being with a Japanese member when witnessing can often share the burden between each other and help especially if you are new to witnessing. Despite this there can be communication problems between the Japanese and English language. Also students that are in the top universities are often very busy and don’t have much free time this can be daunting at times, but do not fret! There will always be people who will have time and listen to you so don’t be bogged down by rejections.
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Michael SSo we just finished 3 weeks on JCARP, what a crazy experience. I was leading the team in one of the most intense workshop style environments I’ve experienced. We only slept about 4-5 hours a night and witnessed every day at Waseda University (where True Father studied). I had 5 guests who I hope can be looked after by the centre when I leave. Interestingly enough, witnessing albeit hard to do in a foreign country was such a special experience for me. I enjoyed going out on the frontline, it felt very natural and I could learn a lot from the experiences of the Carp members. One of my wife’s guests (Kanon) was so unique; we spent time talking with her about purity and how important it is. She expressed a desire to study the Bible more deeply. She made me realise that there are people that are so ready to receive the Principle. Speaking with guests like this gives me hope.
I was very moved being told by a Carp member (Hojo) that he broke down in tears as he found God for the first time, on a 40 day workshop through the lyrics of a Holy Song. The Carp members close the day with a 3 minute unison prayer where it’s not uncommon to hear screams and crying from the members as they desperately pray for their guests. Everything they do is whole-hearted! JoannaProgress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. This is something I have really related to and learnt over these past few days at JCARP. It has been an incredibly moving and inspiring experience as I felt I could overcome so many of my own boundaries and limitations I never thought I would have. Although, it has only been a short while, it feels as if I have been here and known these brothers and sisters for so much longer. They made us feel like family so quickly despite out cultural and language barriers differences. They were also all so patient and have such an amazing outlook and positive attitude to life, being grateful for even the smallest things. This taught me such an important lesson not to take things for granted and to be grateful for everything I have and receive, especially as this is so easy to do in the UK and in general.
Many times I felt slightly nervous, especially at the beginning, about being the youngest and having to experience so many new things which most people had done several times before. One major example of this would be witnessing at Waseda Unviersity with the help of the Japanese members. I normally get a lot of anxiety talking to new people who I’ve never met or trying something new for the first time – let alone having to do this all in such a different culture and place! This has been a struggle for me personally as it is not always easy to allow yourself to love others fully if you do not love or value yourself first. However, seeing the JCarp members absolutely giving themselves and pouring their hearts out to people was truly inspiring and I was so glad to get to know them more at this point as they gave me so much more self confidence and were always so encouraging and supportive even when my Japanese was so poor. Witnessing was definitely an act out of my comfort zone but when we had finally got to the last few hours, I almost wished I could do more and was so grateful to have had this chance and share it with the JCarp members as well. I have many things still to learn and improve about myself; however, I know I will take so much from this unforgettable experience and from the incredibly kind-hearted members in Japan. It is hard to put into words the immense gratitude I feel to God, TP and for everyone at the Sousei centre as I feel truly blessed to have been part of this unexpected yet beautiful journey. Overall, they have shown me that the things in life that are most worth doing, are what we do for others. HannahI am grateful that I could come to JCarp this summer. I have to admit, the first night at Sousei CARP Centre was an overwhelming one as we were loudly welcomed into a boxed room of over 20 people. I wanted to curl into a ball and disappear. There was some culture shock and it was difficult to settle in at first. However, over the next few weeks, I became moved by the amount of determination and sincerity the CARP members gave, taking care of us, despite having to witness every day and then stay up each night for studies. I was amazed every night by how desperately they prayed, as if they wanted to give ten times more than what they were already giving. The members really showed me how much a person can push themselves and how much a person can accomplish if they really try. They were doing things I didn’t think was possible e.g. sleeping 4/5 hours every night and still actively working during the day. They work so hard and they never complain. We Europeans can really learn a lot from them. Their humble and grateful attitude gives them a general positive outlook in life- they never seem to go through struggles! They are constantly living a public lifestyle – I don’t know if they even know the meaning of “me time”. The Japanese members serving and selfless natures showed me what living for the sake of others is really about. It inspired me to also want to be better, to think bigger than just myself all the time.
The most witnessing experience I have had was during STF in Albania. However, the witnessing methods were slightly different on JCARP. I liked the more casual form of witnessing, inviting guests to a short PowerPoint introduction over tea in the Waseda University cafeteria. The members really invested into each guest, trying to form a friendship with them first before introducing CARP, which I was impressed by as it makes witnessing more natural. At times, it was exhausting to pour out so much energy and love to each guest. I was amazed to see how warm and serving the members were. I guess witnessing is almost second nature to them! No wonder the membership numbers are soaring. During witnessing, I began to question my own motivation and desires for witnessing back in England. Do I really believe we have the power to change people’s lives? Why are many older BC’s not inspired to witness? What makes our church so special? Family values, marriage, relationships, making the most of one’s life. In England, we have a lot of inspiring organisations that we could use in collaboration with CARP, such as WAIT and WFWP. I think we could definitely utilise them to make witnessing activities easier back at home. I am really happy for choosing to come to JCARP and would recommend it to anyone! If you’re looking to experience a whole new culture, get a deeper understanding of activities in our movement and making great new friendships then this is the place to be! Thank you Sousei Centre for everything! AmyJ-CARP was never something I had planned on going on this summer, but since my workshop in CheongPyeong was cancelled, I decided quite last minute to hop on a plane to Japan instead. So due to this I didn’t feel very prepared when I first showed up. I had no idea what to expect, everything seemed very spontaneous, and honestly I showed up completely clueless as to what was going on and how to act. Very soon however, I found my feet. My brothers and sisters from England who came before me gave me many pointers; ‘don’t use the black chopsticks’, ‘that bathroom’s for the brothers’, ‘don’t cross the road before the green man!’, ‘wash True Parent’s bowl with the True Parents sponge!’ and so many more. I was grateful that they could teach me from their past mistakes, but of course I did end up making a few of my own gaijin slips.
But amongst all the strict rules and regulations of the CARP house and those silent, unspoken social laws of Japanese etiquette, I soon saw such sincere hearts amongst the Japanese members. Every day the members will do conditions for their guests, take care of the CARP centre, go out witnessing to university students, cook, clean, give lectures, take care of other second generation, and on top of that they are all full time university students themselves. Every day I felt exhausted from lack of sleep, the heat, lack of coffee and English tea, but honestly I did a fraction of what the members do each day. I woke up for HDH, did some cleaning, went witnessing for a couple of hours, but the Japanese members do all that and give lectures, study for exams, cook, and look after us foreigners. I think they are all superhuman. They are able to give so much of themselves consistently. I really think that they find this energy from the love they have for God and True Parents. They are constantly giving and serving with such vigour, faith and dedication. When they pray they shout, ‘Kami-sama’, with tears. I was so moved by how much they love God and True Parents, and how hard they fight for the sake of God’s providence. Everything they do is with a heart of sincerity and offering. They offer True Parents food before they start every meal, they pray before pretty much anything, and they stayed up all night creating a beautiful goodbye card for each of us European members before we left. I felt so much love from the Japanese members. They are always smiling and looking after us and giving to us. Even when we tried to give them gifts, they would return double the favour. On the last day they sang beautiful songs for us, gave us cards, gifts and did performances. I felt that amongst the members there is a beautiful family culture. Every night they will thank each other for their hard work and encourage each other to do their best tomorrow. The sisters have an albeit strange, but super adorable tradition of giving each other a ‘power-up’ by touching each others’ feet with their own. Small traditions and customs like that in the centre really helped create a beautiful atmosphere and I felt so welcomed into it. Witnessing was also actually really fun for me. In general the Japanese are very warm, polite and friendly people. The witnessing CARP does in Japan is hugely successful firstly because of their sincere attitude, and secondly because they have a very clear, structured and reliable system of outreach. It gave me some hope to improve witnessing culture back in England. I hope we will be able to learn a lot from their organised system of witnessing as well as from their attitude, and bring this back to Europe. For me I was really most inspired by getting to know the Japanese members and see their customs and schedule and how they treat each other and how much they want to give to others. I believe that the East and West have so much to learn from each other, and the Unification Church can really blossom once we can unite to humble ourselves before one another and try to learn from each other. I see so much potential and greatness in J-CARP and I hope we will be able to build communities like this all over the world. JeungsunBeing in Japan has been a unique experience for me. All of my personal plans for summer were completely changed, so I felt I had to persevere and dedicate myself to CARP.
Meeting the Japan CARP members when I arrived was heart-warming. Upon meeting them, I had the impression that they had been longing to meet me. Although this was the case, I felt that their desire to welcome the U.K members into their centre was sincere. The Japanese CARP members have a very full schedule. They work diligently. They make a lot of 정성, by doing, waking up early, HDH, studying, serving others and making their own conditions to become close to God and True Parents. The Japanese members usually have university during the day and it's not unusual for some members to return home from studying or working at midnight. Without fail, every day the members go witnessing, meeting guests, giving lectures or public service. I think their way of living is the standard of life that all blessed children should attain to have, because you're always in public position (even there are countless difficulties) you will always be guaranteed, happiness. They are always active and serving. Internally they have a very clear direction. This week, a few of us had the opportunity to observe our witnessing guests receive an introductory PowerPoint of J-CARP. We also had Amy and Joanna join us in the weekend, new additions to our J-CARP family! It was really exciting to watch the member’s style of witnessing, sitting in the University canteen with some tea and watching a tablet screen. We tried to practise saying our witnessing lines in Japanese and could meet some really interesting people!
On Saturday, we met the 3rd year CheonIlGuk missionaries who are going to the UK soon. They treated us with some real Japanese sushi at a Tokyo restaurant. Totemo Oishideshita! Afterwards, we went to the Shibuya church centre to introduce ourselves to the leaders of the Japanese CIG missionaries and the missionaries themselves. On Sunday, all the European J-CARP members went to the international Sunday service at the Tokyo headquarters. We experienced a service full of international members; the atmosphere and sermon were very bright and inspiring. In the evening, the president of J-CARP and his wife visited Sousei Centre, along with the Tokyo block leader. They wanted to find out who we were and why we were here to do CARP in Japan. It’s inspiring that the leaders here have been making so much effort to make us feel personally welcomed in Japan. The European members performed a song for the guests, but we were soon outshone by the Japanese members who sang and danced as the evening turned into an enjoyable family night. Although it was extremely packed (and slightly claustrophobic!) with about 30 people confined in a space no bigger than 4 square metres we could feel the love in the room. What can we say, we’re all one big family right? HannahIt’s only been our first week in Tokyo and it’s been full of new experiences such as learning Japanese, witnessing at Waseda University, eating natto every morning and being slightly overwhelmed by the CARP members’ hospitality with three welcome parties. We’ve had the chance to observe the lifestyle and seriousness of JCARP members and how they manage to balance church work with studies. It’s been inspiring so far; participating in the 2-day weekend workshop gave us a chance to meet more members and listen to DP lectures in Japanese. We also got treated to a trip to Ueno Zoo by the members and cycled around Tokyo on electric bikes. Sugoi deshita! Jeung-sun During these past few days I have felt relaxed and have tried to soak everything in, so that I can really learn a lot and achieve my goals here in Japan. I am learning about the Japanese people and feel that the culture is dramatically changing. The world is changing. I felt that in general, Japanese people can be easy to approach and make an impression in witnessing. The young people here are very academically focused and want to succeed in this respect. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to be in Japan. There is so much that each nation can learn from each other; each nation is so vital for the success of the other. The CARP members in our centre are very dedicated to witnessing and also to their studies. It creates a nice balance to their lives – they have clear motivations. Michael S I have truly loved my fist week in Japan. The JCARP members have absolutely blown me away with their faith and sincere devotion to True Parents and our Heavenly Parent. They follow the most intense schedule I have experienced in the church. It’s like doing your degree on STF, that kind of level. One reason for me going on JCARP was to experience and serve Japanese people and understand their hearts. I arrived in Japan with certain concepts about Japanese people being fairly cold and stern people. However, I’ve come to see that Japanese are the most sincere and deepest individuals I have ever met. I hope that I can develop the kind of love for the Divine Principle that the CARP members possess. I’ve spoken to nearly all the CARP members here (over 20) and they all share a heart of sacrificing their whole life on devotion to doing God’s will and serving True parents through Witnessing, Hoon Dok Hae and Prayer. The main purpose for my visit to JCARP is to experience witnessing in Japan so that I can witness in the UK full-time next year. My experiences here have already given me the inspiration and the knowledge to start my mission next year strongly! I am also grateful that I could spend this time in Japan with my wife. Ganbatte! WilliamI came to J CARP curious about the lifestyle the members lead, and learn as much as I can about why they do what they do and what they are like. Thus far it has been an insightful week, where I have been surprised by the immense levels of faith they possess and how devoted they are to witnessing despite their already busy schedules These are people that also take their studies very seriously, so they rarely have time for themselves to just chill for an hour or two. For myself, it is hard for me to relate to how they conduct themselves, but I admire it a lot, and have a huge amount of respect for them. Michael RI came to Japan to learn about the culture and to visit relatives, and see how the Japanese CARP is run as it is not such a big thing in England. I stayed in Tokyo for a few days, which is a great place with so much to offer, both from members and sightseeing. Within a few days it was suddenly announced that I alone, from the original J CARP members, would be assigned to a completely different prefecture near Yokohama with a blessed couple who would arrive later that day. There was no apparent explanation until just one hour before I was to depart which I felt was quite annoying as there was no clear reason for me to move away for a while. However, once I had arrived at the new centre, I settled down quickly and got to know everyone which was nice. Despite the centre being a lot smaller, it was more comfortable and like being in a small team. Staying in the other centre though, and being apart from the team for a while was good and I still got to experience witnessing. AlexandraI've been in Japan for almost a week now and I'm really glad to have chosen to join JCARP. I wanted to go to JCARP to see how the members practice their faith and balance that while being students, I want to support them! When I was in Cheong Pyeong I met a lot of Japanese members and I was so impressed and inspired by their humble attitude and sacrificial heart. I'm so grateful to have this chance to live with the CARP members here and witness with them.
We went to attend a Japanese Workshop last weekend, which was very different to the European Workshops we're used to. Lots of members gave testimonies about their witnessing experiences and I was pretty impressed by their strong faith, sincere heart and determination. Most of them shared that they find witnessing very challenging and it's difficult to find time besides their busy schedules at university and work. Somehow it seemed to me that they don't struggle, because they never complain and always look so joyful, so it was nice to hear what they're really going through. I'm really grateful to the Japanese members for all their investment! They're amazing and I really respect and admire them truly! I'm glad that we moved to another CARP centre, because it's a lot easier to get to know everyone since it's a smaller group. The CARP members are so welcoming and lovely. Japan is GREAT! |
Stories
Here you can find a selection of stories and experiences from some of our participants. The project is slightly different each year giving people a chance to participate again, parhaps taking a more supervisory role the next time. But each one of them has a life-changing experience which they will carry with them for many years to come and will encourage them to start projects of their own in their local community. CategoriesArchives
September 2019
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