True Mother’s mother, Grandmother Hong Soon-ae, gave the following testimony at the Unification Church Headquarters in Tokyo, Japan on December 21, 1973. She provides her unique and poignant perspective of the events and situations she experienced.
Part 2 (click to read Part 1)
Before I joined the Unification Church and met Father, I had a dream. In the dream I saw a river streaming from the East. I saw white sand in the stream. A tortoise shell boat came out of the water. On hearing the noise of the boat, a golden dragon jumped out of the water and came to me. Surprised, I woke up. I did not know at that time that the golden dragon symbolized the Messiah.
Dreams that hinted at what was to come
As soon as I joined the Unification Church, I thought that I had to live a life of service. Since I had learned the importance of dedication while I was a member of the Inside-the-Belly Church, I decided to dedicate myself to the Unification Church. I asked my younger brother to take care of my mother and my daughter.
In the Unification Church, I lived a life of simple attendance for eight months, starting with serving as a cook. I attended Father with such a dedicated heart that I got ill and had to be hospitalized. While I was in the hospital, Mr. Kim Shi-Jong had a dream in which Father, wearing a crown and golden robe, bowed in front of me. I had a dream, too. In my dream, all of the women of the Unification Church wearing white robes were entering Father’s room with a pink flower in each hand. When I looked back, I saw women who were not church members, also standing in line with pink flowers. At that time, I thought that since God had lost women due to the Fall, He had been looking for women for 6,000 years. I also saw Mother, my daughter, walking directly to Father. While she was walking to his seat, lightning flashed with thunder in all directions in the sky and then gathered at one point. Tens of thousands of people were watching the scene enviously. Seeing the vision, I wondered what it meant. I had no idea that my daughter would become Father’s wife.
For a long time, Mother had been raised for the purpose of meeting the Messiah. Therefore, even though she was clever, she was used to being absolutely obedient.
The mother of Sung Jin Nim tried to keep Father housebound, thus hindering Father in fulfilling his mission. Later, she divorced herself from Father. Father, who could not help but promote the providence, had to look for a new spouse.
It was when Mother was a 13-yearold junior high school student that she met Father for the first time. I took her to Father, saying, “I will let you meet the Lord of the Second Advent.” When Mother saw Father, she bowed deeply. Father said to me, “You have such a pretty daughter, don’t you? Does she do well at school?” After that time, Mother had no chance to meet Father until she turned 17 years old.
No longer orphans!
When she reached the age of 17 in 1960, many people gifted with spiritual insight were inspired and said that the bride of Rev. Moon had appeared.
It was announced that Father had decided to have the engagement ceremony on March 1, 1960. The day was coming near at hand, but there was no announcement as to who would be the bride. Both God and Father must have been impatient for the ceremony had to be held by all means to advance God’s Providence.
In those days, I had another dream. A phoenix descended from the heavens. Another phoenix ascended from the earth. They came together in the sky. The eyes of the heavenly phoenix looked very much like those of Father.
One day when I was observing pledge service after taking a cold bath in the early morning, I saw a vision in which I was told that the heavenly phoenix symbolized Father and the earthly phoenix symbolized Mother. I was very inspired and danced around, shouting, “Heavenly Father, we are no longer orphans! Our True Parents have come, haven’t they? We have become True Parents’ children, haven’t we?” From that time on, I no longer had the feeling that Mother was my daughter.
Since then, I received revelations day after day. Although it had been announced that Father’s engagement ceremony would take place on March 1, no one except me knew who the bride would be. So, I bowed in the direction of Mother who was staying in a high school dormitory. I bowed towards Father as well.
Mother looked like a child until she was 16 years old. But when she turned 17, she looked more mature. Whenever she came to the Church, the atmosphere became very bright. Father seemed to be staring at her steadily. His eyes fixed on her even though many other people were there. Another 17-year-old girl would have felt embarrassed if someone looked at her in that way, but Mother remained calm and fearless.
One-day Father said to me, “Bring your daughter immediately to me!” Then, Father met with Mother face to face. At the meeting, Father investigated Mother’s internal qualities. He asked her many questions over nine hours. Watching Mother answering the questions boldly, I was surprised at her inner fortitude. Finally, Father said to her, “From now on, you shall have a good tutor.” He told me to go out, and called in Mrs. Won-Pok Choi.
For one month until March 1, Mother lived a life of attendance to Mrs. Choi. When other members saw Mrs. Choi and a young woman eating the food which had come from Father’s table, they said to one another, “Who is that girl?” Some people with deep faith thought she must be a woman of great significance.
At last, the engagement ceremony took place on March 1, 1960. The wedding ceremony was held twice on March 16: once at noon and once at night. At the wedding ceremony, Holy Salt was used for the first time. Because True Parents had come into being on earth, we can consecrate all things with Holy Salt.
Then I went through a three-year period of indemnity. It was a period of trials for me. The daughter had become the Mother. The mother had become the daughter. Whenever I became arrogant, I was struck by Heaven. Father also gave me tests. Even when I greeted him, he would not say a word to me nor would he even look at me. It seemed to me that all of the members of the Unification Church treated me in the same way. I became ill. I had stomach pains as if I had cancer. Satan tested me in that way. I had to spend this three-year period eating nothing but a cup of rice soup a day.
In the past I had experienced a period of suffering in the course of my life of faith in search of the Messiah, and I was determined to endure this period by not becoming arrogant, but by being grateful for these suffering trials.
Seven-year course of suffering
I do not think it is possible for anybody but those sent by Heaven to change their position from that of a 17-yearold girl to that of Mother.
The seven-year course after the wedding was indeed a period of indescribable difficulty. But Mother persevered through all the difficulties in silence. She achieved victory, giving birth to children one by one. Until In-jin nim was born in 1965, I always had the same dream. It was a dream in which Mother with her hair loosened came to me saying, “I am very tired. Let me rest by your side.”
It was only after Heung-jin nim was born in 1966 that Mother allowed herself to be relaxed in the church. Before that, there were too many hardships.
When the seven-year course was over, Father proclaimed God’s Day on January 1, 1968. On that day, Father blessed Mother, crying in his prayer, “Heavenly Father, please look at your victorious daughter.”
The purpose of the 6,000-year course of restoration was to look for one victorious Eve as well as Adam. No matter how great Father may be, he cannot become truly successful without finding a victorious woman. Unless Father found such a victorious Mother before he became 60 years old, he would have been a total failure.
Looking back, I had been following a lonely path in order to give birth to Mother and raise her. When the sevenyear course was over, I was instructed to live a life of attendance to Mother and her children.