Father’s Life in His Own Words – Part 95

Based on extracts from his speeches throughout his life

Earlier installments are available for reading.

The 1970s: Vision of the Global Mission Centering on the United States

By the early to mid 1970s, Father and Mother were focusing on developing the movement in the United States through a wide variety of initiatives. By this time, our movement had missionaries in some 40 countries and in some the church was growing swiftly.

Part 95

A landmark workshop begins in America (March 1, 1973 )

[From Father’s prayer:]

This one-hundred-day workshop, which is unprecedented in history, is being held for the first time in the Unificationist community. We hope sincerely that You will allow Your children sitting here to become sons and daughters with a heart to transcend the nations of the world and to pass on Your tradition. Please let them not forget this workshop time in Belvedere and let them feel lifelong pride in having attended it.

Why am I giving a hundred days of education? It is because leaders of our Unification Church mustn’t be ignorant of the Principle. Not only that, they must apply the Principle in their lives. Therefore, they have to know the Principle comprehensively. I must have you do things by which you experience this directly in real life during the course of this workshop.

My plan is that you should listen to the Principle six or seven times, not lecture it, for thirty-five to forty days. I am going to test you on it two or three times during that period.

I am going to drive you strongly. You will cry and find paths you haven’t taken before. In that way, you will grow. In other words, when you become serious, you will find a solution.

Sometimes, I am going to ask you to fast for three days. I mean, go out and beg for bread.  Then I will have you receive donations, too. Since you have come here to receive training in these practical matters, please understand that this is the best time in your life and be firmly determined and prepared. My idea is to send out more than half of the people here as leaders within a hundred days.

I am going to keep these one-hundred-day workshops going. I started this workshop with the goal of revising and correcting all the traditions of the Unification Church as the American churches and members have thought of it—a complete change. I formed the mobile teams as a part of mapping out such a strategy. I believe that from the highest leader down, we have to stand in the forefront and create a movement that establishes a new tradition. Accordingly, I have appointed Young-oon Kim and David Sang-chul Kim, who have been here as missionaries, as the leaders of the mobile teams. I have included the longest-serving members and the headquarters’ staff members in the mobile teams.

Next, we are carrying out two economically-oriented activities, selling candles and flowers. I am not sending members out (as leaders) unless they earn an average of eighty dollars a day for two weeks. Well, a thunderbolt has fallen, right? Next, where do people go who have passed that stage? They are going to New York, and each of them has to bring three new members a month in New York.

Professor’s World Peace Academy launch (May 6, 1973)

We have been holding a regular annual convention on the issue of unified science with professors from every corner of the world. You can’t imagine how much interest this is generating. I decided I should try to bring them under one organization. This would be under the banner that all the world’s professors should be leaders mapping out humankind’s course toward world peace in the future through their intellectual prowess and their writing, even though they may be unable to take part directly in the movement itself. This effort had to begin in the interconnected academic community, and so we created an organization called the Professors World Peace Academy. I made PWPA to help the professors live for the sake of the world.

Father obtains permanent residence in the United States (April 1973)

I received permanent residency in America on April 30, 1973, right after the first and second speaking tours there. I couldn’t engage in battle before receiving permanent residence. I have been persecuted on the individual level, family level, tribal level, people and national levels and so set up indemnity conditions….

I had originally sent two missionaries to America. I later assigned a man to the East and a woman to the West. Another man was assigned to the Northwest. So, Bo-hi Pak in the East was Adam, Young-oon Kim in the West was Eve, and David (Sang-chul) Kim in the Northwest was the Archangel. When we think about who should arrive here first, Eve should come and make the road for Adam and the Archangel. It was her responsibility to make the three into one. Unfortunately, when I came to America, there was no foundation on which I could command everyone to move forward. So 1972 did not become the year of progress, but a year of internal correction. Until June this year [1973] I was doing that work.

A day of celebration (July 1)

On the first day of July 1973 we established a historic memorial day, the Day of Victory. We have established many commemorative days in Korea, but this was the first time to establish one outside of Korea. Day of Victory could be established as we have successfully finished the difficult second three-year period of the second seven-year course. We will celebrate victory. From now on, the harder Satan tries to oppose us, the sooner he will collapse. In the near future, America will be hit by the typhoon of our Unification Church.

Now you can meet members of Unification Church in forty-three countries. By 1975 we will have dispatched missionaries to 120 countries.

I have come back with miraculous achievements from eight months of travel. On my return I could hear cheering in the spirit world, celebrating our success.

Church leaders should lecture for eight hours a day

We have set up a worldwide standard that all church leaders should lecture for at least eight hours a day. Ordinary people generally work eight hours, but Unification Church members should work more than eight hours. In our church, officially, members get up at 6 o’clock and go to bed at midnight. So they take six hours of sleep. You leaders should give a lecture for two hours, from 6:30 to 8:30, every morning for the regular church members. Cultivate the existing church members. When one or two new people become members, bring them out to the street for witnessing. When you meet someone who is interested in what you say, bring him to the center and give him lectures. Put your heart and soul into the work. Bring even one person to the center each day and teach him the Principle.

To be continued…