Testimony from Junna Ueda & Hiroaki Okazaki
Dear True Mother,
It is a bit disheartening writing this letter to you. However, as you have mentioned, God’s providence must continue. I hope that through our Blessing, my partner and I can work together for HP and TP.
I was not even really supposed to meet Junna. When people ask how we met, I say, “Oh yeah, she was on the website,” which isn’t wrong, but it isn’t entirely right either. In mid-2025, there was an international matching program run by Rev. Thompson’s wife, where girls from Japan and guys from America and Europe submitted their profiles hoping for a match. Junna submitted her profile for this program. I did not submit anything. Luckily for me, Mrs. Thompson happens to be my father’s spiritual mother, and she heard I was looking for a match. So she sent a few profiles from that program to my father, who then sent them to me. That was when I saw Junna’s profile, and I was captivated by her career-driven and faithful personality. When I approached her mentioning that I had found her through the exchange program, her first reaction was, “This guy didn’t even submit an introduction for the program!”
If we had to describe our journey in our matching process, it would be slow and steady. We usually only called once a week for an hour or two since we were both quite busy. One of the first things I learned about Junna during our process is that she is terrible with directions. Like GPS in hand, she will start walking in the opposite direction—horrendous. Another thing is that she has such a pure heart for Heavenly Parents and True Parents, which ironically makes her the best GPS I could ask for if we were trying to return home to our Heavenly Parents.
After four months of talking, I visited her in Japan, and a month afterwards she visited me in America. Whether we would continue toward our commitment ceremony depended on whether she could imagine herself living in America. There were a few factors that made her feel confident about moving to America (including my amazing hospitality and care for her, of course), but I will share just one.
When she was visiting, I was showing her around my house. We got to the backyard and were just looking into the trees when we started hearing a knocking sound. It turned out there was a woodpecker just pecking away at a tree (it kind of looks like a crane—shoutout True Mother). Junna is way more spiritual than me, so she looked up what it meant when she got home, and this is what came up: “The woodpecker symbolizes persistence, rhythm, and divine timing. It teaches us to keep tapping on the door of opportunity until it opens.” And I was the door of opportunity. Shoutout to Mother Nature for sending the woodpecker.
There is still a lot for us to learn about each other. However, through our process, we feel that we are headed in the right direction together, guided by Heavenly Parents. The Blessing for us is just the beginning for us to keep growing and create a beautiful relationship.
I am excited for what the future holds for us :) Thank you God and True Parents for allowing me to receive the Blessing with such a wonderful person.
Hiroaki Okazaki
