Based on extracts from his speeches throughout his life
Earlier installments are available for reading.
Part 85
Continuous Initiative and Expansion Worldwide
Father speaks about further initiatives in the church and our businesses in Korea.
Until now, each district has spent 300,000 to 350,000 won each month. That’s so much money; you cannot imagine! When God created human beings, He created the body first and then implanted the spirit. Accordingly, in the process of restoration, we should first restore material things completely and then spiritual things. Yet, we have been unable to do that. This nation is also struggling without being able to get out of economic difficulties. For the nation to get out of difficulty is impossible, because it has not prepared the necessary environment. Then, how are we to finally establish an economic foundation? First, we must economize. If we don’t economize on material goods when we can give and receive them freely, without being able to fulfill our responsibility, the Unification Church will have to experience a second round of suffering. In order to prevent that, we must take new measures.
Instructions at a district leaders’ meeting (July 19, 1969)
Each department in the headquarters must oversee the activities of local district departments. For example, each district is publishing their own materials. Those local publications should be curtailed. Instead, add some local news and information to the publication produced by the headquarters. Change the system of publishing the Seonghwa newspaper so it comes out a week before the publication date. You should focus on this newspaper by sending monthly reports and other articles for it.
When you send your monthly district reports to the headquarters, you should send a copy by mail and bring a copy to submit directly to the headquarters staff with you. The district leaders’ meeting is on the third day of the month. So, you should compile your monthly report by the twenty-fifth of the month and see to it that it arrives at the headquarters by the thirtieth.
You must bring at least a hundred and twenty members to attend your district church services. Through Victory Over Communism activities, you should connect as soon as possible to the local police. Give lectures to policemen and to the staff members of public offices. To do those things, you must establish associations comprising those people who are supportive. Let’s pioneer in that direction and achieve good results.
Indicators of serious times
Why is a summer witnessing period necessary? To put you in a position where you have to make decisions. In other words, those of you mid-way between God and Satan must become able to decide to act on the side of Heaven. During this period, you must set a condition of finding three spiritual children.
The world today remains in a state of very high tension.[1] We have conquered the Moon[2] as the first stage of the goal of conquering space. The direction of the United States’ policy has been revised and is now more inclined to pursue American interests than to address ideological issues.
I designated a 120-day prayer from June this year. I spoke to you about this, but I have invested more serious devotion than anybody else regarding the issue of how we should approach August this year. I have been going to bed at midnight and getting up again at one or two in the morning, prostrating myself in prayer until the break of day.
First National Seonghwa Student Association Convention
Today is the last day of September. It is also the last day of the 120-day prayer condition at Cheongpyeong. You must finish this day well.
Today, the minister heading the Ministry of Culture and Information presented the Unification Award to one person from each province in the Republic of Korea. One of our family members, Jong-gu Park, received this award.[3] He proudly told me that he was given \40,000 as an additional prize. This is joyful news!
It’s time for leaders to go to college
What kind of people have I been mobilizing? I have mobilized high school students, because they represent the growth level. The Unification Church must be in charge of the history of restoration. Because high school students represent the growth level, which must become the center of the history of restoration, I’ve mobilized them. The people who participate at this time have overcome that critical point of preparing a foundation in that environment. That is why you must take the lead now. I intend for these people to continue their studies even if it means establishing a university of my own.
I had told them not to go to college because the time was not ripe. Desiring something before the right time motivated the Fall. You must understand that college student members could only be treated as stepchildren until now because of this.
District and regional leaders who have been working hard must now be sent to college and they must graduate. I have put them through hardships without having even sent them to school. I must take responsibility for them. By whatever means, I want the hardworking district and regional leaders who only completed high school to be able to receive a college diploma as soon as possible.
Those who went through hardships are in an Abel-type position and those who went to college are in a Cain-type position. You must all be in the Abel position, take care of those who have gone before you, and send them to college with the heart of enabling them to study. You should then step forward, willing to bear the remaining crosses. Otherwise, there is no way for you to survive. You should be aware of this.
National defense and the air rifle business
Our members started the restoration of all things [raising funds] in 1967, when we first used the slogan, Let’s complete the foundation for economic restoration. Before that, I asked you not to think about money. However while I was pushing you to experience hard times, behind the scenes I was one step ahead of you with regard to the matter of earning money. Thus we made the air rifle factory.
Although I have worked to develop the factory over the course of twelve years, our business has dedicated itself more than any other business in Korea. God knows this. With firm resolve, I have been able to make Satan retreat. This is absolutely so. I am not doing business with a self-centered motivation. God is governing the fortunes of the Korean Republic. In that the growth of the Korean economy is under God’s administration, more than anyone else in Korea I am putting aside self-interest and pursuing that goal in a public way. The air rifle business helped me pioneer and take the lead for the sake of God’s will.
Korea’s heart is besieged by three enemies. In the future we must protect the nation and its people by establishing the correct ideological perspective. Therefore, we should be responsible for an ideology promoting national and Asian defense.
Looking at Korea’s actual situation, surrounded by enemies on three sides,[4] protecting the nation by establishing a proper ideological perspective is imperative. Judging from the nation’s situation, the time will surely come when the Republic of Korea will regard the defense industry as important. For the past ten years, I have been preparing for that. The time has come. Since the government announced it will strengthen the nation’s military, people are busy building factories here and there.
Bold mission plans
In the future, we must go out to the world. By the end of this year, or at the latest, next April, we will have missions in forty nations. You may not be aware of this, but missionaries have already gone out to Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greece and other locations. If I tell them where I had designated holy grounds during my world tour, they will go there. We have missions in some African countries. In the future, within three or four years at the latest, we will have missions in 360 foreign locations. I will send missionaries to those unknown nations, nations that are not registered with the United Nations. How will I send them? They cannot take money. They can take our air rifles with them to sell.
To be continued…
[1] This was said on August 3, 1969. America was embroiled in the Vietnam War; Egypt and Israel had reengaged in fighting, violating a cease-fire that had been in effect since the Six-Day War in June 1967. The threat of conflict between North Korea and South Korea was also very real.
[2] Astronauts first walked on the Moon on July 20, 1969.
[3] He was later known as Tiger Park for his dynamic leadership style, most notably with CARP in the United States in its formative years. Rev. Park died of cancer in 1982. He created a school for the education of impoverished children, and it is likely that the award was for this project.
[4] Father is likely referring to North Korea, Russia and China. After nine rounds of talks beginning in the midst of the Korean War, in March 1952, Japan and Korea signed a treaty normalizing ties between the two countries on June 22, 1965.