By FFWPU Dominican Republic
FFWPU Dominican Republic held a marriage reaffirmation and blessing festival at the Santo Domingo Headquarters on May 15, 2022. Eleven couples and seventy guests participated at the ceremony. The aim for this event was to bringing couples closer to the holy blessing of our Heavenly Parent, and let them establishing ideal families that can fulfill the ideal of our heavenly parent’s dream and will. This event was part of heavenly tribal messiah activities in our Santo Domingo headquarters.
Among the participants we had:
- Mr. Leonidas Belliard, president of sub region 5 of the heavenly Caribbean and his wife Mrs. Miho Okazaki.
- Mr. Bernardo Cruz, FFWPU National Leader and his wife Mrs. Roxana Carbajal.
- HTM Director Mrs. Yumiko Yamaguchi de Gomez and Mr. Candido Gomez.
- Mr. Cesar Regalado, regional secretary of the UPF.
- Rv. Takashi Kono ans Mrs. Teiko Kono, National messiahs of Japan in the Dominican Republic.
- Rv. Pasquale Lai and Mrs. Yoko Lai, national messiah of Saint Kitts and Nevis.
- Pastor Jesus Peralta, the president of the fishermen’s association “El Buen Samaritano”
- Pastor Emilio Jacquez, pastor of the Nazareno church.
- Mrs.Carlos Hernanandez, CARP’s president in the DR. and his wife.
- Mrs. Hope Gomez, president of the second generation and his wife.
The ceremony began at 3 PM on that day, with a warm opening remarks from our MC Rev. Bernardo Cruz, national leader of the FFWPU Dominican Republic, who invited Pastor Candido Gomez to make the prayer of invocation, followed by welcoming remarks from the regional leader of Sub-region 5 of the Heavenly Caribbean, who gave beautiful words of welcome for the couples present.
Right before the blessing ceremony, Mr. Cesar Regalado, Secretary General of UPF, gave a lecture on the value and meaning of the blessing. And this was followed by the marriage blessing and reaffirmation ceremony, which was started by a motivational video of about blessing ceremonies which was officiated by True Parents in the past.
Then we had the entrance of the attending couples, the president of CARP in the country and the president of the second generation in the country.After that the blessing officiators, Mr. Salvador Castillo from the Dominican Republic and Mrs. Marlete Silva from Brazil who were blessed in 1992, entered. They began the Holy wine ceremony to purify all the couples from the original sin.
The blessing ceremony started with the holy water ceremony with the help of the attending blessed sisters. After that the vows were made by the officiators, where all the couples said yes. The officiator offered the invocation and after that gave proclamation of the blessing. Couples were so happy participating at the event, following every step with big smile. After the blessing, we held the indemnity stick ceremony, where all the couples participated and went through the ceremony joyfully as well. This was something they never done in their life.
Rev. Takashi Kono gave emotional words of congratulations expressing that from now on they are couples reborn by True Parents in the Dominican Republic, also emphasizing that what they received this day is more important than any visa.
After the congratulatory words, two second generation ladies offered two beautiful congratulatory songs, bringing joy to all the participants. At the closing we had group picture and shared a toast with all the participants.
The three pastors who participated were so inspired and that is why they decided to hold blessing festivals in their churches soon. So we are going to help them and make this happen. We can see how spirit world is working and people all around wish to receive blessing. The blessing of marriage is the heavenly gift that our True Parents wish to give to all the people of the world and we will do our best to continue these ceremonies our Heavenly Parent and True Parents can embrace their children. We hope to bring joy to Heavenly Parent and True Parents and all God’s lost children with these ceremonies.
