Testimonies
Testimonies
Types of Testimonies
Student Testimonies (16)
Testimonies from past and present students. Find out different students' experiences after being at the BTA for one, two, three, or even more years and their experiences that helped them in their lives.
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Parent's Testimonies (3)
Read testimonies from parents of past and present students. Read how they watched their children grow and develop and how it affected their future lives in the eyes of the parents.
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My name is Hideki and this is my 1st year at BTA. BTA is a wonderful place where you can grow spiritually and make some good friends while you’re at it. This place is really amazing and helped me get more knowledge about our church and also about life itself. I got a lot of knowledge through doing DP lectures. I did them before at GOP but I didn't really gain anything from them. Compared to GOP, BTA is really different. I learned so much at BTA compared to GOP. This place is amazing and it feels like everyone is family here. I also learned a lot here because of the environment. Where I live, I don't have a community, at ALL. So, it was cool being around other BC’s that I could be friends with and people that could make me struggle so I could grow! It was really…
This is my second year at the Blessed Teens Academy. This year has been a much different experience than last year. This year, I came with more determination and a desire to grow my spiritual life. However, it was difficult for me coming into this year. I didn’t know what to expect, and many of the students were new. Also, throughout the year, I questioned a lot about my time being here. I never knew I would struggle so much. I was able to see so much of my fallen nature come out. It made me see how much more I need to grow and learn. One of the most important things I came to understand here was more of the value of being a Second Generation. Growing up, I didn’t know what it really meant to be a second generation and the responsibility we have to carry. Each of…
I am Yuka Nagata, 16 years old, from Dublin, Ohio. I came to BTA because I got lost in the outside world and didn’t feel like I belonged in my own church. My year in the BTA was challenging. Before I came to the BTA, I have never touched the Divine Principle and never did Hoon Dok Hae everyday. What I struggled with at home was loving the people around me and the relationship with my mom. In BTA, I learned about a lot of relationship building lessons, like Cain and Abel relationships, subject and object partners, filial piety, parent-child relationship, and much more. After being taught all of this, I have to come to realize how selfish I am. Though seeing from God’s view point is hard to do, I’ve been practicing by serving others. I also wrote a confession letter to my mom during the first semester. I…
These past 2 years that I’ve been living here in BTA have been simply amazing. The emotions, hardships, struggles, realizations, victories, and so forth that I have experienced here cannot be expressed in words. For the first time in my life, I finally feel like I’m alive. BTA really helped me develop and realize the life of faith and the true understanding of everything that I have been lacking for so long. When I look back at just a year ago, I can really see how God was leading me here through every action that I made, whether those actions were good or bad. Being here in BTA, all the students and staff had the chance to attend our True Parents and True Children. It was really amazing to have seen them as many times as we have, and each time was as, or even more profound and enlightening, as…
The past years here at the BTA have been really what I needed. They have broadened my view on life and the Principle. It has been really amazing to see True Parents so much this year. I feel like this was a year full of blessing and I am so grateful for it. I am so fortunate to have these kinds of experiences at the BTA because everyone is making so much effort to stay in sync with True Parents. The thing that moves me most about True Father is that he is not what people expect. He totally gives himself until his legs are giving out and he is bleeding from his nose. I know that True Mother is in there with Father 1000%. She is an amazing women. I am also deeply grateful to our international leader, Hyung Jin Nim, who is so diligently following our True Parents.…
The past 4 years have only been a small portion of my life, however it might as well be considered the beginning point of my life. Throughout the years that I have spent in this public environment, I have come to understand myself as a person who has the responsibility to build a relationship with God and True Parents. I have been blessed with the understanding that my life is not to be lived for the sake of myself, but rather for the sake of others. I feel I still have a long way to go from here, but I am both happy and excited to continue my walk of faith and path of true love. The past year has been the most challenging experience that I have ever had before in the past years. I was given almost full responsibility for the care of younger students which is something…
First of all, I could see that Heavenly Father guided Felicia to the BTA. Her first spiritual experience was in the God's Day Prayer at Adonia's (her older sister) STF workshop, just after we visited the BTA for the first time in Golden, CO. She said God told her to go to the BTA. I, personally wasn't too excited about the idea, because she was a big help in my tribal messiah mission and I knew the kids at church in St. Louis would miss her. But, I reminded myself that as a Blessed Child she belonged to God and True Parents, too, and they had a plan for her. So, even still, I delayed applying and questioned and even tempted her to stay, but she remained determined to go anyway. So I sent her off to Berkeley, feeling better that my son-in-law was there, and Adonia nearby. I personally,…
I apologize ahead of time if this sounds choppy and random because really there’s no way to fully explain what the past two years have been like for me unless you experience it too. Coming here I simply thought it would be fun living with other BCs because I’ve haven’t been around them for most of my life. But since then a lot of things have happened that have made it a lot bigger than that and I have changed things even for the rest of my life. One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that in order for the relationships I have in the future with God, TP, my central figures, and eventually my family to be real and true I have to be really honest with myself and with them so that things will be clear and I can actually grow wherever I am. Because sometimes I…
Well, I don't know where to start, so I'll just start. This year was the year where I got closer to God, True Parents, and my parents. This year, I received so many blessings, a lot more than previous years. I started to learn the value of struggles and also how to relate to many different characters. I was a trinity leader, and I struggled many times with my members and other people. Sometimes I cried alone in my bedroom, asking myself, "Why is this happening? Why am I doing this?" In those moments, I felt like I was in hell, and I didn't want to struggle because I didn't want to suffer anymore. However, I realized how precious struggles are. I realized that struggles are blessings and you can grow from them when you overcome them. After that, I thought that struggles were a gift from God. The more…
My son joined the BTA in September 2005. His name is Shinghi Detlefsen. He was 15 years old by then. His father had been suffering from an extreme form of Parkinson disease for the previous 5 years. Witnessing such a deterioration was very traumatic for Shinghi. I had to focus on caring for my spouse and at some point, it became clear to me that I had to find more support for my son. That’s when I met Jeri Tamayo as she visited the Bay area during Daemonim’s visit. She took Shinghi to lunch along with some of the BTA students. We decided that he would come to her center in Las Vegas a few weeks later.
First off, I will start this by saying BTA is an awesome place. Well, I am going to have to write more than that so I guess I will tell you more about my 2 wonderful years at BTA. I decided to go to BTA when I was 16 one summer after meeting them in Ohio. I liked the guys there and Aunt Jeri was a little scary, but I didn’t mind at first. When I got there, it really was an interesting experience. I never had been in an environment like it. Many times it was hard living the lifestyle and I wanted to leave, but there was always something in me that felt like staying. I guess that was God. I learned so much there and really felt like we were one family under God. People in this church talk about it all the time, but I had…
I was with the BTA for a year and a half. It was the most amazing experience I have ever truly had. Before I joined BTA I didn’t know much about my own faith or our church's core fundamental beliefs. I basically only knew we weren't allowed to date, we had arranged marriages, and True Father was the messiah. I wanted to learn more about our beliefs since obviously I am a part of this movement and it's important to know what it stands for. When BTA moved to Ohio I heard so many good things about it and I REALLY felt that this was the place to find what I was looking for. I have had so many different experiences some that make me explode with happiness just by the thought of it, some experiences were a lot harder because of the struggles to grow. I do have to…
Before I begin I'd like to thank Heavenly Father and True Parents for never giving up on us just as all the teachers and staff have done for everyone at BTA whether it is recognized by them, students, observers or anyone else at the time being or ever. My experience at the Blessed Teens Academy was one of great importance for my life with God and True Parents. With it being the way it is and always changing in different ways whether it was location, people, spirit, conditions, activities it gave most people attending, a refreshing experience of becoming a public person both internally and externally helping us become used to exposing our struggles, victories, thoughts, intentions, goals, and determinations. Through being there for a couple years I noticed how quickly my conscience and awareness of my surroundings, actions,and of others grew. I became a person of deeper thought and…
My family, which includes my mom, dad, my grandmother of 86, an older brother and two younger sisters, moved to BTA when I was almost 15. I'm now 17 and this is my last year at the Blessed Teens Academy. It surprises me how fast time moves and all that has taken place in the last 3 years. My experience has been tough, but also some of the most precious times. I had to go where my family went so at the time it was really heartbreaking to leave my hometown. Honestly, the majority of my first two years was extremely difficult for me to overcome. Public life was a struggle, but I managed to digest a lot. It was mainly hard to watch my parents take care of other students and be busy working out stuff with the other teachers all the time. I started to feel a lack…
It is hard to express everything I learned here at BTA in words. The life we live here is not an easy one, but we live it any way. This difficult life is why what we have here is so special. At BTA I was pushed in a way that made me think and rethink my life until I found what is true, we are always growing and you can never know enough. We live by Fathers words, and I have personally gained everything I know to be true from Father's words and his tradition. When I view my personal experience here I know I have to live it on my own without the support of the environment, then it can really become my lifestyle. We were all educated to own what we experience. Here I didn't live alone. I always had someone who cared for me and there was…
I have two daughters who have attended BTA and I am grateful for their maturity and attendance to Heavenly Parent and True Parents. Amanda Cornier graduated one year early and my other daughter Emily Cornier also will graduate early. This is a life saver from the negative experiences my first daughter went through in High School. My youngest daughter is now looking forward to attending BTA next year. BTA is heaven's blessing to parents who would like their children to experience Divine Principle in daily action. It prepares them for a life of responsibilities, matching/Blessing, Marriage and the importance of who they are as Second Generation. They live in a supportive environment with internal and external guidance. I am eternally grateful to the BTA staff. You know who you are. I don't want to name names as I may forget some precious brother or sister who has my upmost respect. Thank you with my heart for BTA. Sincerely,In True Parents…