In Loving Memory of Queen

Lesa Ellanson, 

February 14, 1954 - September 14, 2019

Lesa was born on Feb. 14, 1954 to Ben and Mary Mitchell in Englewood NJ. Her Dad had a commercial graphics business in New York City. Just across the street from their house was a large park with a small stream. Being close to nature in this case this park, awakened in Her a love of nature and a desire to be outdoors.
Their neighborhood was a predominately black neighborhood.
When in elementary school, the move to integrate the schools happened. All of a sudden the neighborhood kids found themselves being bussed to a nearby predominately white neighborhood school. This was very difficult for her as she felt very unwanted and disliked by her new teachers and fellow students.
She has recalled that experience saying that she often asked herself, ``why do these people not like me, they do not even know me?"
She was deeply affected by this.
The racial struggles of the day came into sharp focus for her in the summer of 1967, when the Newark riots occurred. Although there was no actual rioting in the streets in Englewood, she did see armed personnel patrolling the streets of her neighborhood.
As the nation was experiencing these turbulent times, her community was like ground zero for this struggle.
As Lesa entered high school, the Black Panther party had a strong presence in the community. They set up food banks and gave
public assistance to people in need. In addition they taught that communism was the solution to the injustice that was the plight of racism. Lesa's righteous activism spirit was awakened, and she deeply
identified with the Black Panther cause and philosophy of strong action. She recalls becoming quite involved in those years.
Although totally agreeing with the movement, she did not agree with killing innocent people to further the cause. When she realized that this was a part of the action plan, she withdrew, shunning the thought of lethal violence against random innocent people based only on their skin color.
Upon graduating high school she chose to go to W. Va. State College. She was soon quite put off by the shallow, party culture in school. This came to a head when on two occasions she was sexually assaulted but was successfully able to narrowly avoid being raped at these parties. After the second experience, she said "Hell No. I am so done with this", and she left school.
One day she was in a bookstore in Charleston. She was approached by this "funny looking" lady who asked her if she would like to see a better world. She said she was with a Christian group and was
inviting people to learn about realizing ideal change in society.
Lesa said no thanks, I'm a communist.
This lady immediately replied no problem, communists are good people too. This tweaked Lesa's interest, and she went with her.
Well, long story short, This was 1973, and this girl was with the lOWC.
Lesa's heart was deeply moved upon hearing the conclusion of the Divine Principle. She had given up everything she loved to follow God's calling.
Little did she know that in just a few months, Rev Moon would ask her to move to the Catskill mountains to the newly acquired Seminary
to manage a barn with several horses.
From here, her incredible walk with God and Christ began.

Father's Words, heard by Lesa as Father spoken to seminarians at UTS
"All people should learn first to speak multiple languages, second,
should learn to ride horses, and third should learn to shoot guns.
If you do these three things, then, you will be able to easily relate to anyone in the world; from the highest nobility to every level of society."

Lesa's life was shaped by these words, and she dedicated her self to
teaching others to do these things. 
She was convinced that learning to live a "blessed life" was not learned in the lecture hall alone, but in relationship with the world which God created especially in the specific areas from Father's instruction.