On February 11 and 12, the Seattle Family Church hosted the first Family Matching Preparation (FMP) and Matching Advisor Training workshops of 2017. Around 26 parents and young adult children participated from as far away as Vancouver, Canada and Portland, Oregon.
Hosted by local BFM Coordinator John DeGoede and Pastor and Mrs. Nelson Mira with lots of support from Matching Advisors and community members, the workshop was a successful event for the participants. National BFM representative John Abelseth gave the presentations, with inspiring testimonies by several parents who had matched their children.
John Abelseth gave the Sunday sermon titled “Opportunity,” encouraging members to see challenges as an opportunity rather than a burden or overwhelming challenge and to use that mindset in their day-to-day lives.
Following Sunday Service, John gave a Matching Advisor Training seminar. The seminar also included guidance to members on how to use the Matching Process for first-generation single Unificationists, so that Spiritual Parents are more able to prepare their Spiritual Children to receive the Marriage Blessing. Several members attended some or all of these presentations and several more new Matching Advisors completed the training to join our large group of volunteer certified Matching Advisors.
John Abelseth advised workshop participants that the name”Matching Advisor” is changing to “Matching Supporter” to be in harmony with the rest of the Blessed Family Departments around the world. This name change is in place already beginning with the international BFD meetings in Korea over the past two weeks, but will take time to transition. Members expressed their opinion that this is a more appropriate terminology.
John and Helen Abelseth are now making their way to San Francisco, California to host the next Family Matching Preparation and Matching Advisor Training seminars on February 18 and 19.
