Reflection and personal testimony of the world peace tours in 2006 by Park In-sup nim
During the past year, my wife Sun-jin and I had the tremendous honor of participating in and accompanying our beloved True Mother on the South American portion of the second world peace tour. Also, for a month recently, I had the extreme privilege of taking part in the third world peace tour representing the three generations of the True Family. Prior to embarking on these tours, I reflected on the significance of these providential events. I asked myself why our beloved True Father, who is eighty-eight years old, is still directly reaching out to the world. It is difficult enough for most people his age just to stand up. I also asked why our beloved True Mother would be willing to sacrifice her health to stand on the front lines with our blessed family members and deliver True Parents’ message of love and peace. After reflecting on reasons for conducting these tours, the obvious purpose that came to mind was True Parents’ desire to connect, build and strengthen our much-loved blessed families throughout the world. Second, I believe that through the Universal Peace Federation, True Parents have the urgent wish to restore God’s true love, true life and true lineage as well as to bestow the blessing beyond our core Unificationist communities to every level of society. With this basic understanding in mind, I embarked on these world peace tours in support of our beloved True Parents.
Seeds of true love: Strengthening blessed families
I believe that one of the main purposes of the world peace tours was to spiritually strengthen our movement and build solidarity among all our brothers and sisters globally. The tours were spiritually, physically, emotionally and financially challenging for our beloved True Parents, as well as for all our dear brothers and sisters throughout the world. However, from every member that I had the blessing to meet during the tours, I felt the sincere desire and willingness to unite with our True Parents to accomplish every event successfully. In my encounters with brothers and sisters during the course of the tours, I stated many times that the foundation, in terms of the number of members, varies from country to country. However, it is an astonishing fact that in the span of one lifetime, our True Parents—through their blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice as well as the through the deep conviction, devotion, and faith of our brothers and sisters—have created a global movement, and more specifically, a global family. We often take the remarkable blessing of having brothers and sisters and family members in virtually every country of the world for granted. Blessed family members in some countries may feel disheartened at times during their lives of faith because they feel isolated or their responsibility seems overwhelming, but we must look from a global perspective and never forget how far along we are as a family and movement.
Especially during hoondokhwae, I sensed the intense desire of our True Parents to strengthen blessed family members in each country. On many occasions, while accompanying True Mother, I witnessed her wholeheartedly investing in a country by taking time each morning to talk directly to our blessed family members. Her primary message was to allow love to flourish by giving and by initiating loving relationships. I could also sense her concern for the future of the movement because she would always emphatically request that CARP members and younger members of the second generation come forward to offer songs of celebration. She unconditionally taught and nurtured family members with deep concern and love in each country, as if each brother and sister were her very own child and a precious child of God. During breakfast after the event in the Bahamas, there was one poignant moment when True Mother, in tears, answered a minister’s question about how it felt for her to be anointed True Mother. She replied that although she felt unworthy, at a young age she had made an absolute promise to God and heaven to restore the world back to God. With these spiritual “seeds of love” that True Parents have planted, I think True Father and True Mother want all of us to courageously go forth, so that we can prosper as a global family of God.
UPF: Advancement of the blessing
With the Universal Peace Federation, I feel that we are at a crossroads in the history of our movement. With their bare hands, our True Parents and core blessed families have gone through the difficult process of establishing a Unificationist tradition, centered on True Parents and the blessing. Based on decades of dedication and sacrifice and on having created a foundation of faith, True Parents and the blessed families are continually developing a rich Unificationist tradition that we can be proud of. In the manner of St. Paul spreading the teachings of Jesus among early gentile Christians, by True Parents’ establishing the Universal Peace Federation, I believe True Father is providing a means for us to spread the core beliefs of our movement—as key ingredients of peace—to a much broader base of people. Those core beliefs are in fulfilling the purpose for which God created us, in the need to engraft to God’s lineage, in the importance of the blessing and of building harmonious, God-centered, three-generational families and in the power of true love and of living for the sake of others. The Universal Peace Federation is expanding God’s blessing to the world at an accelerated pace.
I have witnessed how the Universal Peace Federation is allowing “non-core” families and couples to receive the grace of True Parents’ blessing. I have met many ambassadors for peace who have taken personal responsibility for events, being involved in organizing as well as in inviting guests. With the Universal Peace Federation, True Parents are directly witnessing to new spiritual children who as ambassadors for peace will actively support and contribute to our movement at all levels of society in each country.
True Parents’ message: an urgent letter to the world
Someday, the speeches given by our True Parents and delivered during the last three world tours will probably constitute the core of our Unificationist canon, since True Father even stated within the text itself that they are the “summary of his divine teachings.” As I contemplate the speeches further, I derive a deep sense of urgency from our True Parents. The messages of true love or living for the sake of others, true life, true lineage and the blessing seem on the surface like simple concepts. Especially for Unificationist blessed family members, though, I think it is easy to lose sight of the preciousness of these words because we have been exposed to them so many times. Nevertheless, if we reflect on how True Father and True Mother uncovered these truths, the more profound meaning of these concepts becomes evident.
True Father and True Mother each have faced tremendous suffering during the course of their lifetimes, both externally and internally as well as both spiritually and physically. They have experienced the occupation of their homeland and the horrors of war. They have witnessed death and starvation. True Father has been beaten, tortured and imprisoned. True Parents have endured persecution, ridicule, betrayal and theft. They have overcome all the ungodly forces that Satan has thrown at them with the power of true love and forgiveness. Having set the proper historical and providential conditions and leaving no room for Satan to attack, True Parents have uncovered these precious truths to liberate God, individuals and nations. Rather than becoming victims of the cruelty that Satan and the world directed at them, True Parents have continuously subjugated Satan and given blessings to the world with the authority of true love. They have built this movement and global family not based on hate or revenge but on the force of true love and on absolutely living for the sake of others. I, myself, have had the tremendous honor of receiving their forgiveness, grace, patience and love on many occasions. The words in these speeches given by our True Parents empower and challenge us to do the same. Through these words and the authority of their example, True Parents have given us the force to recreate our relationships and families and to eventually restore the world back to God. As many ambassadors for peace have stated, this message is timely and relevant for today’s world.
People along the way
During the course of the tours, I had the tremendous privilege of meeting many great people. It was a joy and an honor to spend the time I had with them, even though the pace of the tours was fast. It is difficult to describe here the wealth of experiences compacted into such a short period of time. It would take a very long time for me to do each individual justice with a proper description. However, as if flipping through the pages of a photo album, I would like to briefly share some of the experiences that I had on the tours.
I could sense how dedicated to and serious about accomplishing these tours our True Parents were through such things as True Father intensely following every single line of the speech as it was being read by True Mother or one of the True Children as he watched events on the second world peace tour over the internet in Cheongpyeong. Also, although True Mother had influenza, chills and a fever, she bravely went onstage to give her speech without allowing the guests to notice her pain. The True Children and True Grandchildren displayed a tremendous amount of filial piety in ways large and small, such as when a True Son, True Daughter or True Grandchild read the speech in tears, inheriting True Parents’ urgent heart or when my wife Sun-jin and Shin-mi, a True Granddaughter, would give True Mother massages and do whatever it took to support and comfort her during the course of the tours.
I was also able to get a firsthand glimpse of the spectrum of blessed families and ambassadors for peace that comprises our global movement today. I was moved by their dedication, sacrifice and history, and by their love for God, True Parents and their nations; I learned so much through them.
As if looking at snapshots, I hope readers will be able to sense the essence of these experiences with a simple description of each encounter, many of which I found memorable and inspiring. For instance, I was moved by the smile of a pregnant mother as she was drinking the holy wine and bowing to her husband. I met a brother who as a missionary had been imprisoned for several years under past communist governments. I met the mother of another missionary who had been imprisoned, who in memory of her child had donated her house to be used as a church center. One young member, despite being harshly criticized by an unsympathetic audience, had the courage and strength to assure me that things would be better next time. One brother shared his pride in having helped support the national movement for seven years through fund raising. I met a young blessed child whose parents had passed away but who was working and saving on her own to go to the blessing. I prayed with church leaders and members as they took me to the national Holy Grounds that True Parents had sanctified during their world tours in 1965 and 1968. A sister asked me to thank True Parents for her because True Parents had given the blessing to her and her husband, both of whose parents were divorced. A blessed child shared about her two-year experience on European STF and about how much she had grown spiritually through it. An elder member who had been in the church for forty years took care of us as part of the hospitality team. Because of lack of manpower, one blessed member did everything to organize an event from scheduling it, being the MC, giving the slide show presentation on the purpose and mission of UPF, moving stage props, inviting friends, neighbors and relatives to the event to even having her own children do a performance. Ambassadors for peace who had been inspired by their experiences in Cheongpyeong and at interreligious conferences organized events themselves and invited many of the participants to receive the blessing.
In addition, I had the experience of sharing many concerns with our blessed family members related to pragmatic issues in building communities of blessed families. Many blessed couples had concerns about the blessing and raising those in the second generation, such as how to guide those of their children who though young had recently received the blessing or how to deal with children who are questioning the value of a life of faith and are not sure about getting blessed. Also, many shared concerns about how to create good organizations, so that we can sustain forever the message and legacy of True Parents and expand our blessed family communities.
Thank you
One phrase that I was able to pick up very quickly during the tour was “thank you.” With that in mind, I would like to thank True Parents for giving me true love, true life, true lineage and the blessing through their blood, sweat and tears. Also, I would like to thank all the brothers and sisters for their investment and effort to make the tours a success as well as for their warm and generous hospitality—from sharing their homes to sharing their meals. Thank you for truly making me—making all of us—feel like a part of your family, a global family with True Parents as the parents of all of us.u