How a Japanese grandmother found 21 spiritual children in Korea
By Hisae Sato, writing from Daejeon, Korea, in 2001
Part 2 of 2 (Click to read Part 1)
Father’s words come true
We have suits ready in three sizes – large, medium and small – with shirts and ties, even shoes, so candidates could have their photos taken immediately, and they were developed that day. I was so inspired and would exclaim, “Wow! This is great! Korean people are great!”
Then the regional leader would ask, “Really?”
And I would say, “Really! You and your wife are really wonderful! Korean people are the best!” The regional leader liked this and it deepened our unity.
Many of the guests wanted Japanese spouses, but there weren’t enough. Then members from Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan began to come, and the matching started. It seemed the Korean people did not like those from Central Asia and Russia at first. But after being matched to them, they began to feel they were the spouse of their dreams. God was really working. I thought how true what Father had said at the twenty-one day workshop was about how if we just go to your assigned area, we would find success there. His words were true.
After being matched, the two candidates became like husband and wife right away. They held hands and it was difficult to pull them apart. I discovered that although the members from Central Asia may not understand God’s Word very well, they believe in True Father and follow him, calling him “Aboji.” I felt again, this was the key. In Japan we had to persuade the candidate many times and he would attend at least three workshops. And we only recommended him for the Blessing if he’d reached a certain standard. This was Korea, however. None of that mattered. I would often say to myself, “Land of the Lord, Korea, Land of the Lord, Korea.” I truly felt that both the spirit world and witnessing in the “Land of the Lord” were different.
The sisters also called the matches they’d met the day before “my husband.” A member from Kyrgyzstan was staying at our church and around 11 pm, if she heard a knock, she would jump to the window saying “my husband is here!” I would beg her to go to sleep, but they would stay up until 2 am singing and chatting.
People started coming every day.
I was taping four hundred flyers up a day and 12 guests came in 15 days. Everything was made clear in the beginning, that after forty days you could start married life, so the candidates were all people with jobs, preparing an apartment for their marriage. The men were all so deep in heart I thought they were already our members. In the beginning, the guests were all men.
Then in October, about twenty women came. Some were of very high standard, women doctors and lawyers. They had their pride, but received the matching. My spiritual child was among them.
You just need your training shoes
My calculation was that one guest came for every six hundred flyers put up, on average. It’s okay if you don’t speak Korean. Rather than say unnecessary things, it is best to just push, without saying much. All you need are your tennis shoes.
It is so difficult to find a spiritual child in Japan. But here in Korea, I had ten spiritual children in half a month. I wrote, “First come, first served. The town is small. If you don’t come, I will do your area. The spiritual children will all be mine. If you’re busy, come for just a couple of weeks,” and faxed this to Japan every day. As a result, ten wives came to Korea.
The regional leader was very happy. The flyers all had individual names printed on them, and I think it may be more interesting for those who read them to find a Japanese name on them. The members asked the mobilized wives to let them know when they were coming and how long they were staying. They then ordered the flyers, calculating at six hundred per day. If there was spare time, we would cut the flyers for them, which took at least four hours for six hundred.
Ten members could put up six thousand flyers. You could not go out without a map. We worked in pairs without missing a single building. As it says in the Bible, the houses with the blood of the lamb on their doors were saved, so we covered every house saying, “I bring you fortune as a child of God,” so that the spiritual world could not accuse us by saying, “We couldn’t receive the Blessing because you skipped our place!” In this way, I felt that the streets were being purified.
The ten of us together walked around twenty kilometers a day. In the end, wherever we went, we saw paper fluttering about with “Marriage” written on it. Sometimes one telephone pole had three flyers on it. I advised that just one would be enough, and that it should be taped just above eye level. We did the roads after the cleaners came to peel off all flyers!
We did apartments, high and low. I went past the security guards with a smile. The probability of finding Blessing candidates in apartments was not very high–about one per thousand residents–but you could hang about two to three hundred flyers in an hour. Our heart was that the flyer belonged to God and that any family would be purified by seeing one; they would eventually join as previously married couples.
A video center
As members heard the results that were coming, lady elders of the Korean church and Japanese wives living here started moving. In less than a month, over a hundred guests came. I was determined to bring twenty-one Blessing candidates, so I continued to put up flyers.
Just before going back to Japan, I made a prayer list of my guests and it came to twenty. So before going out I prayed, “Father, just one more. By bringing twenty-one, help me to fulfill the witnessing goal that True Father desires so much. This third mobilization is something we children must fulfill, so Father, please use me.” The day I was to leave around noon, a call came at seven o’clock in the morning. I wondered what kind of person this guest, who came for lunch, might be. When we were introduced, being so happy, he embraced me. I was surprised, as this would never happen in Japan. “I have to go to Japan for a while, but next time I will bring you a wonderful gift, the Blessing, so please study hard.” This person kept saying, “I understand, I understand,” and would not let go of my hand. I was really moved by the depth of his heart.
Another inspiration was that those who applied would come to Sunday service. There are fewer than eighty members now, but if the two hundred newly blessed people start coming, we’ll need a new church.
I was concerned about the education of the new members. But everyone I asked said, “A video center just won’t work in Korea. It never has.” So I approached the national messiah assigned to our area. I told him I thought it would be a good idea to have a video center for education with Japanese women to take care of it as center mothers. He knew about video centers in Japan and told me to go ahead.
I think people from other parts of Asia such as the Philippines also need to be educated in their own languages. After a meeting with the Japanese wives in the area, I understood that these are the people who can love and give God’s words to the guests. With a little support from us, the Japanese wives living in Korea can set up a rotation to take care of the guests.
When Satan’s accusation ends, results come
I’d like to emphasize that Japanese thinking will absolutely not work in Korea. If you begin to think, “In Japan I was this way,” or “In the past things were like this,” toss out all of that. If the food doesn’t suit you or your center is humble or even if you are treated like a slave, follow without complaint. With complete gratitude say “Yes, thank you.” In order to make up for sins committed by Japanese people in the past, those have been the two words I use first for everything.
That is why the regional leader could trust me absolutely. The indemnity condition of the first thirty days was very good, and I did not have any personal thoughts during that time. I was an extremely arrogant and strong woman. However, no thought of resistance came during those thirty days, whatever happened, because I had come with real determination.
So I asked myself, “How can you be so calm? Is this real?” The response that came was, “If we don’t serve here with tears, like slaves, the rancor for the sins committed by Japanese during Korea’s colonization will not be atoned for and resolved.” About a month after I came, a Japanese sister told me, “The Korean lady elders are saying they feel embarrassed and sorry. You keep everything so clean, and they feel that’s how it should always have been.” I don’t know if that was the reason, but at that point, I felt the enmity began to dissolve.
My blood pressure rose, and I collapsed about three times during this period. Whenever that happened, the lady elders and distinguished guests came, asking how I was and bringing me Korean sushi, juice, apples, you name it. If I was caught wiping the sink, they got upset: “Mrs. Sato, you can’t do that!”
True Father said, “There are no servants of servants in this world. That is why we must go this way.” When I pushed myself in the beginning until I could do no more, conditions for Satan’s accusation disappeared, results came and I could become a true friend with Korean people.
I felt that the dispensation for coming to Korea this time was different from the past. I felt that if the Korean people understand that the Japanese members are different from what they had thought, they would feel affection for us even without our being able to communicate well.
When I was returning to Japan, the regional leader brought me a gift. I told him not to – that I should be the one to give him a gift. But he gave my husband and me sets of underwear!
I will be happy if this account of my experiences can be of benefit to you.