Colorado Family Church Seniors Luncheon
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
by Richard Buessing
The seniors here in Colorado get together for lunch every two months. We meet in the coffee shop of the Colorado Family Church in Denver. We invite everyone over 60 years old at church to join us. Our church has a lunch for everyone each Sunday, so we just go through the line and get what we want and then take our plate to the café to eat together. We decorate the coffee shop tables to make it special like with Christmas or Valentine tablecloths. We have a fun discussion question to talk about at our small table, provide dessert and always give out a couple of gift cards to add a fun element. The last two meetings we asked everyone to send in a couple of pictures when they were very young, right before they joined the church and when they got Blessed. It is a delightful experience. The two or three pictures are brought up on the screen and each person gets to describe the time and context of the photo. An example below:
This is a photo below of Alex Smyth and his wife Fumiko shortly after their matching in late June of 1982. They were going out to invite local churches to the MSG 2075 couples Blessing. Fumiko was 24 and Alex 25 years old. Fumiko used a dictionary to translate into English most of what she wanted to say. Alex thinking back on it said it really moved his heart. A year later she moved to the Alabama church and her English had improved quite a bit. Alex’s heart was so moved by her dedication to her family and God’s Will.
The second photo (circa 1965) is when Alex’s grandfather bought him his first drum set from Kmart. This is a photo of him at his grandparents' house in 1961, banging away on some bongos. They must have seen his potential!
He played along to Beatles records (spinning on the record player at the bottom left of the photo), and to CFOX AM radio.
In 1968, his dad bought him a better drum set which he played until he joined the church in 1979. He plays drums at the Colorado Family Church on Sunday.
The Seniors luncheon has been a great way to connect to each other. We have a lot of fun, share experiences with True Parents, learn about each other, and just have a good time together. Sharing old photos of our lives before we joined, after we joined, when getting blessed, and then becoming grandparents is something none of us get tired of when we meet together.