A Tribute to Steve Mudget

By C. Ching

Here’s a prayer and a toast to our elder brother, Steve! He was a good brother and good friend during my early years of spiritual growth at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, NY and one of the reasons I remember those years so fondly. His slow, deep voice admonishing me to have “patience and endurance.”  We both were denizens in the basement bowels of the Belvedere Main House. As the Treasurer and Controller for International One World Crusade, Inc. (IOWC), his office was the former wine cellar for the former Bronfman family owners. As the assistant bookkeeper for the Belvedere Estate property, recruited after completing two-thirds of my training of the last 100-day Belvedere training program (which moved to Barrytown, NY and became a 120-day training program), my office was across the hall in the former linen closet. I would eventually succeed Steve as Treasurer for IOWC when he moved on to Golden Gate Seafood in San Francisco.

It was more than having similar jobs or being ensconced in neighboring workspaces that defined our friendship. It was more than sharing meals in the dining hall, sharing night watchmen duties, and weeding dandelions by hand on the acres of lawn. It was the one unforgettable gift he passed on to me in late autumn of 1975. Kem Mylar, the General Affairs coordinator, and Steve approached me one day and asked me to take over Steve’s responsibility of leading the Sunday Pledge service at 5:00 AM each week. For most church members living in smaller church communities, their response would probably be “no problem, can do.” But I had been attending these Pledge services at Belvedere. They were public events, with 50 or more dedicated members arriving early just to get the closest seats in front of the dais to hear the True Father of all humanity give the Sunday sermon. It was The Warm-Up Act for the weekly Cosmic Messiah Speaks Event. It set the stage, so to speak—the spiritual atmosphere to receive God’s Word through His Representative. No pressure, yeah.

I tried to demur and refuse the honor. Kem and Steve persisted. You can do it. It’s not hard. Give it a try. Eventually, I grudgingly agreed. That began my spiritual journey of waking up at 3:00 AM to pray at Holy Ground each Sunday (and Holy Days) in preparation, but never feeling prepared enough. I was searching for God’s Presence, which I had once felt as a new member in New Orleans following the successful completion of a 7-day fast of repentance, but thereafter I struggled to have this experience again. Leading every Pledge service for 21 months was like that, filled with anxiety and stress from the evening before until the moment my representative prayer ended, allowing me to feel relieved from the burden of responsibility.

But Steve was there to guide me. He taught me how to offer a representative prayer like True Father did: To build rapport with God through verbalizing His providential history of preparing and sending the Messiah 2,000 years ago and then preparing to send the Lord again 2,000 years later. To feel a measure of God’s suffering and heart of being let down by faithless people who couldn’t comprehend how precious they were meant to be in His eyes. To repent for those historical sins and convey that feeling to brothers and sisters gathered there. In the end, that was the unforgettable gift I received. It wasn’t a gift just from Steve. It was also from Kem and most likely also from David Kim who was overall in charge of Belvedere and would have at least approved even if not requested to accept such an appointment of responsibility. And for that, I am truly grateful, even to this day.

Thank you, Steve! And may you peacefully and victoriously transition to our Heavenly home of our Eternal Heavenly Parent! Amen and Aju!