by Billie-Ann Sabo-Los Angeles CA
Even away from home, with my mind totally focused on Madison Square Garden, Heavenly Father can reveal so many things through dreams. As long as we keep our minds open and receiving, we can be filled with wonderful inspirations. I try to feel God even when I sleep.
In Region 12/Los Angeles, I am the Regional Blessing Coordinator. Almost every month, for the last year, we have had members fly to L.A. to join our MBT. We are known for our very high spirit and unity. Our region is very blessed to have a wonderful Regional Director, Rev. In Hoi Lee, and State Leader, Rev. Godwin D’Silva, who totally support our blessing activities. Rev. Lee taught us to have a very high standard when giving the blessing, so our numbers are not as high as in some areas, but each blessing we do is backed up with a name, address and telephone number.
Almost a year ago, Heavenly Father revealed to us that we should stop doing door to door and start setting up tables in shopping centers. This proved to be a very good way to bless many people and most members across the United States started doing tables. After RFK, and at the end of our three-day ceremony, Heavenly Father sent me a revelation while I slept. Office building blessings. The next day, I convinced my husband that this truly was an inspiration from God, and asked him to try blessing people in office buildings. The first day, he blessed over 300 couples and, thus, office building blessings (shop to shop) were born. This revelation was actually very powerful as it liberated us from tables and many members nationwide were now using holy chocolates in a blessing basket.
Even with all we had been shown, Heavenly Father was not through with His revelations! We were only able to use holy chocolates for a very short period of time; then the direction came down not to give them to adults anymore and we had to go back to juice. This was devastating news, but only for a few hours. Even though I’m a new member (22 months old) and did not believe in God before joining the Church, our movement has given me strong faith and complete belief in the power of prayer.
After receiving the news about the discontinuance of the holy chocolates, I prayed so strongly for Heavenly Father to reveal a way for us to continue to bless hundreds of people quickly with juice. I knew we couldn’t go back to bottles of juice at the tables. He had to have given us the chocolates for a reason and I was determined to find it. It was nighttime and He guided me over to a Christian bookstore in Pasadena. Even though I had been in this same store many times buying communion cups, that night right by the door was a display of little disposable juice cups from Compak Corporation. I couldn’t believe it! Heavenly Father had truly answered my prayers and in a two-hour period! I wasn’t sure at the time how to sanctify the cups, but I knew He would give us the answer. I bought some cups and hurried back to Pasadena House to show Rev. In Hoi Lee. I was so excited by what Heavenly Father had given us, it felt just like Christmas! Within days, the entire country was informed about the disposable juice cups and began using them. Two weeks later, we were able to obtain permission to put our seed wine directly in the juices at the factory and Rev. Kim of Chicago Church visited the company and blessed the juice.
Meanwhile, by that coming weekend, we were able to hand-sanctify the cups and use them on our Mobile Blessing Team, inside our blessing baskets. Brothers and sisters were skeptical at first, but through my husband’s example they were able to bless many hundreds of people with no problem. Because we were completely mobile now, we started witnessing at tourist attractions, such as Grauman’s Chinese Theater (where the movie stars’ footprints are in the cement) in Hollywood, and members were able to bless more than 200 in a day.
We continued blessing this way until our MSG mobilization began. While mobilized in New York, my husband Joe is the acting blessing coordinator in Los Angeles. He had continued leading the team to tourist attractions. This was good, but the daily results were only around 1500. Two weeks ago, I received two very strong dreams about MBT/LA and saw our members very clearly at the beach, tables in the sand, members in bare feet and serving our holy juice on trays in Dixie cups! After the second dream, I called my husband and told him I was certain this was again a revelation from Heavenly Father as a way to bless more people.
He agreed to try it with the Memorial Day MBT team. The very first day, the whole team called me in New York, cheering and shouting with happiness. It was wonderful! They blessed almost 9,000 couples that weekend. Last weekend, they went to the beach again, and blessed another 12,000 couples! Los Angeles is truly on fire, and we want to share this method with all members. I truly believe it can work the same in any high-traffic area. Our numbers are high, and our blessings are good, because we are using good standards. Through my husband’s dedication and hard work pioneering the way once I receive the revelations, he has been able to bless over 12,000 couples himself since mid-January!
My dream: three or four tables in the sand at the beach. Not on the boardwalk or sidewalk, but in the sand (we have the right to be on a public beach-no problem). Members should wear beach-type clothes-shorts, sandals, whatever, so they fit in. No sign is necessary at the table; keep it simple. Depending on the size of your team, place three to six members in the sand, holding trays with juices poured in Dixie cups (no plastic communion cups!). They will give the juice to people. The second set of members will then guide these people to your tables. At the tables will be another set of members to help the people sign our application and explain more about what we’re doing.
It’s very simple but very good. If you pre-plan your strategy, a high-traffic area, set up like this, can support over 30 members at one time.
Blessings have gotten a little out of control with standards being dropped in some cases to fulfill such high numbers quickly. But if we just "tune in" to Heavenly Father, He will show us how to accomplish our tasks every time.
Good luck!
ITPN