True Father’s public mission began in 1945. In the late spring of 1946, Father received the instruction to go to North Korea. Father was, in this sense, the first missionary.
He had to lay a special kind of foundation at great personal cost, and he witnessed to specially prepared people. In this installment, he reflects on those times and remembers his early followers.
My being in Pyongyang caused an uproar, and later my being in Seoul would cause an uproar as well. I caused problems wherever I went. Why did I become the object of such criticism? In whatever neighborhood I went to, rather than sleep, people wanted to come to where I was.
Why did they do that? When I meet children, I tell them interesting stories. They even forgot when it was time to eat. I am excellent at playing with children. I would devise hundreds of different things for us to do together, and we would have a lot of fun.
Furthermore, I did that kind of thing at the house I was staying at in Pyongyang. Even when I met three-year-olds, I used to bow to them. I used to serve young children as I would serve Heaven.
Jesus said you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless you are like a child, so I started with children. You should love children so much that you can teach them with tears; love them as you would love Heaven.
I wrote a poem about young children and made it into a song, so I could praise them as God’s sons and daughters.
You have to respect and praise children as though they are God’s children. When that happens, you can receive God’s official recognition, and you will be able to sing praises for a baby. I made a relative base so that they could receive those things with joy and through this, for the first time, I had a place to stand.
Prayers and longing for members
Satan worked actively when I was in Pyongyang. In such a situation, I prayed for all the members. If I prayed for a member in the morning, that member would surely visit me later in the day. In Pyongyang, I so yearned to see members that I would wait outside the front gate to see if any were coming.
I used to speak with old grandfathers and grandmothers throughout the entire night.
Our young Unification Church leaders say, “Oh, I don’t like old people!” But that is wrong; you have to treat everybody well. A person comes on the foundation of prayer, but if you don’t treat everyone with the same heart, you will be in debt.
There was a woman who was an important figure in the providence. I visited her house for a year and a half and witnessed her husband and all the other members of her family.
The husband might have wanted to kill me, but he couldn’t do anything. He was unable to oppose me since I hadn’t done anything wrong. He may have complained in his mind, but all his children liked me, so it would only have resulted in his looking bad if he opposed me. I ate meals at that house for a year and a half and witnessed to all of them.
People led by the spirit world
Even though I worked hard, I am truly thankful to God that He had already prepared people to meet me. Some people had been prepared by Heaven to follow me even before they saw me—even before I was born.
In Pyongyang, I met a lady who was older than I am—about twenty or thirty years older—who said to me, “I was led by the spirit world to meet you.”
What puzzled her was that she had met me and been taught by me when she was only twenty-four years old. I wasn’t even born then. It is not something that can be easily understood.
Because God, who governs the heart, has the spiritual capability that allows for future encounters, it is possible to transcend time in the spirit world. That’s why a person can be destined to meet someone in the future.
When I was in Pyongyang, all the grandmothers who joined the Unification Church had been led by the spirit world to do so. Any of those grandmothers, even if she had just touched a piece of my clothing, would return home and dance, or something like that. Why do you think that was? It was not because I did magic! It was because they had discovered an atmosphere of true love.
The members I met in Pyongyang
This was true for Grandmother Ok [Ok Se-hyun]. Nobody witnessed her. She had been told in her prayers that the Lord would come. God had told her through the spirit world that the Lord would not come on the clouds but in the flesh, as a man. That’s why she believed it, even if everyone told her not to.
There was also a wealthy church elder who did what she said she would. She had ten sons and daughters and was an important person in Kyongchang-ri [district of Pyongyang]. She lived in grand style.
After she met me, however, her husband and even her children beat her, so she was left at home to follow me. She had been a member of the Jangdaehyon Church, a famous church in Pyongyang. An elder’s wife turning out like this, wreaking havoc in her family, suddenly turned everything upside down.
I met Grandmother Ji Seung-do then, too. They have been with me for all these years, and they still testify to me. I don’t have to boast about anything; they do it for me. It is quite interesting, isn’t it? Something new can be created from that.
She used to come up to me and grab hold of my hands saying, “Oh, I missed you.”
Then she would kiss me! If you think of it from the worldly standpoint, it’s upsetting for some.
Even today, she still says, “When I was younger, I had to see True Parents at least three times a day, or I couldn’t eat or do anything. I still feel like that. What’s wrong with me? Even now, I can’t live alone. I have to go and see True Parents.”
Then there was Kim In-ju. When I was in North Korea, this lady’s father-in-law was an elder in a Presbyterian church. He was a strict Christian. His eldest daughter-in-law had seemingly gone crazy by following this man, Moon; he saw it as a threat to his lineage, so he shackled and whipped her.
Under those circumstances, she came to the Unification Church, if only to catch a glimpse of me, and spent all night in tears. How can you stop such a thing? You cannot block the course of true love.
You don’t know, but I have kept Kim Won-pil with me until today because in his historical background there is something that aligns with the substance of the providence. Only the spirit world knows about this.
Then there is Chung Dal-ok. Her father was a minister, and her older brother was a minister. She came from that kind of home. Her minister father and grandfather came and persecuted her tremendously. I could relate many such stories about this.
The fact that I blessed the person I loved the most with the daughter of someone who was so violently opposed to me was the beginning of my tying up the enemy world. She is eight years older than Won-pil.
He has walked such a historical course and contributed so much to the furtherance of my will, tasting both what is sweet and bitter. He is a completely faithful and righteous person.
Remembering old ties
These people had the heart to put living for God’s will and the country before even their children or anyone else. They were willing to go this way even under the threat of death.
They were whipped and beaten, and even their bones were broken. Under such terrible conditions, they said, “Even if I die, even if we perish, God and True Parents’ goals will surely be realized.” Restoration starts from such a point.
I dearly miss those people from long ago. If those grandmothers who prepared a birthday table for me were still living, I would like to kill a cow, even a hundred cows, and prepare a feast for them. It seems like only yesterday. I have often had such thoughts.
There were many people like this in the early stages of the Unification Church.
When I was suffering in prison, they came and visited me. When I think about old times, I recall those historical events like a panoramic movie.
I am indebted to many people. I met those early members in wretched, pitiful circumstances, and I wish to keep my connection with them.
Sun Myung Moon