Flower Letter Campaign
The Flower Letter Campaign is an online campaign conducted by the World Mission Society Church of God to promote love among family members and to increase emotional stability and harmony among modern people who are having a hard time due to COVID-19. You can build strong relationships with your family members and neighbors by writing a message you want to convey via the online letter with beautiful flowers. This service is provided in ten languages, including Korean, English, and Spanish. More than 780,000 Flower Letters have been sent by May 2022.
Purpose of the Flower Letter Campaign
Promoting Family Love
Family members are supportive and reassuring. We feel thankful and comfortable with them. However, nowadays, families face various problems such as a lack of communication and family breakdown. In Korea, the decline in family values is considered the leading cause of the increase in single-person households, which is a serious matter.[1]
COVID-19 has aggravated family problems. Although the time spent together has increased due to social distancing, frequent friction can occur as family members are together for a long time. In Korea, 37.4% of 1,500 citizens with children in middle school or high school experienced family conflicts due to COVID-19.[2] On the other hand, the pandemic has made family even more precious.[3]
Following God’s teachings to love one another,[4] the Church of God places a high value on family relationships and carries out various activities to put love into practice.[5] The Flower Letter Campaign is part of the activities to promote family love via online media in the era of COVID-19. The subtitle of this campaign is “Flowers to Her/Him.” When you write to your family member, you can write the person’s name such as “Dear Mom, Ms./Mrs. ( )." This is to regard the person as an individual rather than just a parent, husband, or wife at home, and to remind yourself of how important the person is, which you may have taken for granted. By expressing your innermost feelings and words that you want to say to your family, you can reduce misunderstandings and conflicts and let your family's love bloom through online letters.
Psychological Protection for COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening the mental health of people worldwide. Prolonged social distancing has caused many to suffer from depression, loneliness, and social isolation. According to a survey conducted on 23,609 people from 101 countries in 2020, 21% of the respondents said they felt seriously lonely, which is three times more than before the pandemic.[6] While living away from their families, people may suffer from homesickness without their loved ones for a long time.[7] Terms such as “Corona Blue” to describe depression and “Corona Red” to describe anger beyond depression have emerged, raising the urgent need for psychological prevention and treatment.[8]
One of the initiatives of the Flower Letter Campaign is to spread love to people suffering from psychological pain due to the pandemic. Through Flower Letters, people can offer warm hearts and comfort not only to their families, friends, and neighbors but to all people as psychological prevention and treatment.
Communication With Neighbors
The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread mask-wearing, and increased reliance on non-face-to-face communication, which has caused difficulties in various areas of society, economy, culture, and education.[9] Sometimes, we grow apart from our acquaintances because we cannot meet them for a long time. According to a survey by Statistics Korea, 35.5% of respondents reported that they grew apart from their close friends after COVID-19 and 38.9% from their neighbors.[10] Just as the Church of God has been carrying out volunteer activities offline for the hope and happiness of people, the church sets up the Flower Letter Campaign as an online communication channel to strengthen unity with neighbors.
How to Participate in the Flower Letter Campaign
The Flower Letter Campaign aims to achieve communication and harmony by sending mobile letters to loved ones, including family. Anyone can participate for free on the Flower Letter official website. Visit an imaginary flower shop named the “Flower Shop Where Happiness Blooms,” choose a recipient, write or choose a message and flowers to write a heartfelt letter, and send it.
| Step | Content |
| • STEP 1. Choose a Recipient | Choose whom you want to send your message to. |
| • STEP 2. Choose Flowers | Choose a subject such as “Thank you," "I’m sorry," "I love you," "I miss you," "Cheer up," and "Congratulations,” and choose flowers for it. |
| • STEP 3. Enter the Person's Name and Message | Enter the recipient's name and message on the letter with the flowers. |
| • STEP 4. Download the Letter and Send It via the Mobile Phone. | When you finish writing, click the “Download” button to download it, and send it to the person via your mobile phone. |
Write a message in a handwriting font on the writing pad with a picture of the flowers of your choice. Different flowers and flower languages are prepared, depending on the subject you want to write. In special seasons, such as the New Year or year-end, Family Month, and Teacher's Month,[11][12] basic messages are provided so that those who find it hard to write would not feel burdened.
The Flower Letter Campaign is provided in ten languages: Korean, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Mongolian, Hindi, and Nepali.
How to Use the Flower Letter
By May 2022, more than 780,000 flower letters have been sent. Many parents and children or couples say that they have become closer after using the Flower Letters. Some families often quarreled because they were only at home due to COVID-19. However, thanks to the Flower Letter, they could finally laugh after a long time. There was also a touching story of an adopted child wrote a letter to her parents, expressing love and gratitude for always being with her after they adopted her, although they couldn’t spend time together during her childhood.[13] Some said that they presented the Flower Letter as a gift to their friends or their teachers who they hadn’t met for a long time.[14]
Stories like these are made into videos and continuously uploaded on the Church of God’s “Exhibition On” YouTube channel and WATV Media Cast.
Reviews
- “I sent a flower letter to my husband, so that we can finally bury the hatchet. My husband was so moved by the letter that he even saved it as the wallpaper on his phone, saying, ‘I read it more than a hundred times after work.’ The Flower Letter was a great help in resolving our conflict.”
- “I wanted to apologize to my mom after having an argument with her, but I couldn’t speak to her because I was a quiet person. Thinking of my mom, whom I was usually thankful for, I sent a Flower Letter to her with sincerity. Actually, I didn’t know what to say, but the basic message on the website was just what I wanted to say. When my mom received the letter, she was very touched. Now we’ve become friendly and talk with each other more often than before.”[15]
- “I sent a Flower Letter to my husband who works at a construction site and always gets exhausted after work. He didn’t reply after reading the letter, but after work, he sat next to me with a smile, saying that he was so happy for it. Since then, I send a flower letter whenever my family needs an encouragement or consolation."[16]
The Flower Letter Campaign is praised in the media, too. It has been reported that the neat handwritings and flowers are nice, but more importantly, the Flower Letter makes it easy for people to express their sincerity which they might find difficult to convey in life.[13] It is also reported that the Church of God gives energy to people[14] who are tired from COVID-19 and contributes to maintaining mental health through online communication activities such as the Flower Letter Campaign.[17]
External links
Related videos
- Flower Letter Campaign
References
- ↑ "Single-person Households Increase as Family Values Weaken and 7% Live with Children After Retirement". Anti-Corruption & Civil Rights Commission. August 8, 2014.
- ↑ Family Life and the Family Policy Agenda During COVID-19, Research Paper, Korea Institute for Women's Policy Research, July 2020, pg. 26, Youngran Kim
- ↑ "COVID-19 Made 7 Out of 10 People Feel More Connected". Newsis. July 30, 2021.
- ↑ "John 13:34".
- ↑ ""A true Christian becomes the salt and the light in all circumstances." says General Pastor Joo-cheol Kim of World Mission Society of the Church of God". Woman Chosun. April 27, 2021.
- ↑ Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Loneliness and Social Isolation: A Multi-Country Study, MDPI, September 23, 2021
- ↑ ""I haven't seen my family for 8 months," Anger and Frustration Set in Among COVID-19 Separated Families". Sports Chosun. August 24, 2020.
- ↑ ""We need psychological protection throughout COVID-19,"". Science Times. August 14, 2020.
- ↑ "[Focus] Will you adapt to 'non-face-to-face communication?'". Weekly Kyunghyang. No. 1369. March 23, 2020.
- ↑ "Social Survey Results 2021 (Welfare, Social Participation, Leisure, Income and Consumption, Labor)". Statistics Korea. November 17, 2021.
- ↑ "[SUB] Family Month, Tips for sending your heart, World Mission Society Church of God's Season Special Flower Letter Campaign". Exhibition ON, Church of God.
- ↑ "🌹Recommending 'Flower Letter' for New Year Greeting, World Mission Society Church of God, Season Special Flower Letter Campaign". Exhibition ON, Church of God.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "The "Essence of Love," Respecting and Caring Humanity". Weekly DongA. July 22, 2021.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Church of God Connects Love with Online Communication". Sports DongA. July 27, 2021.
- ↑ "How a Blunt Daughter Expresses Her Heart, World Mission Society Church of God, Flower Campaign Letter's First Story". Exhibition ON, Church of God.
- ↑ "The Way Home is Flowery Road". WATV MEDIA CAST. March 3, 2022.
- ↑ "Planting trees, cleaning up rivers and beaches, . . . Young Adults Take the Lead of Environment Protection". The JoongAng. December 4, 2021.