The Second World Tour

The global mission

In 1969, from February 2 to May 2, True Parents conducted their second world tour, visiting 21 nations. They presided over a meeting with regional directors at the Tokyo, Japan headquarters on February 2 and then arrived in Nagoya the following day to attend the final performance of the Little Angels in Japan.

On February 4, they began their tour in the United States. From March 16, they traveled to England, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Iran.

Father and Mother departed Tehran and traveled via New Delhi, Bangkok, and Hong Kong to arrive in Tokyo at around midnight on April 18. They returned to Korea on May 2.

1. 1969 is a very critical juncture in history when we must overcome a great obstacle. It will enable us to rise from the level of the Korean people and determine the destiny of the nation.

This is necessary to recover the world that has been lost. This is also a time in which nations in Asia will face their greatest challenge. With this reality guiding my determination, I will tour the world for 100 days.

New members among you, no matter how you have lived in the past, must now establish a tradition based on understanding this incredible teaching of truth. Your older members must not deny your past accomplishments but sacrifice even more.

You who are younger need to become pillars of the future Unification Church. You need to establish this teaching as a starting point for the people and the nation of Korea and advance until we accomplish our goal.

You must create a Korea that loves the people and the nation while attending to God. If you do this, 30 million people will open their arms and welcome God.

This nation of Korea will influence the whole world, and God's sovereignty will be praised in all nations. We need to establish the foundation not only to unite the world but also to open a new historic era in the 20th century and beyond. This is the path that we Unificationists have to walk. (022-106, 1969/01/26)

2. As we enter 1968, the times are changing. The fact that God's Day was inaugurated means that we have brought victory and recovered the original base that the first human beings lost in the Garden of Eden.

Before, the providence of restoration was carried out by sacrificing the people on God's side. From now on, the direction of the providence of indemnity has changed, and the opposite is happening.

We have entered an era when, rather than using people on His side as sacrificial offerings, God can now advance the providence of indemnity through sacrificing people on Satan's side.

For this reason, when we look at the international political climate, we see a new worldview from Western Europe emerging even in Eastern Europe. Furthermore, those world leaders who were boasting of their power and authority are now declining.

They are facing an era in which their power and influence over the world, which peaked, will now diminish. My view, from the providential perspective, is that the three years from 1968 to 1970 will be critical for the providence. We have to effect comprehensive changes and advance to the next stage.

Even the political situation in Asia is drastically changing. In particular, the situation between the North and the South on the Korean Peninsula is dangerous. We need to overcome challenges, especially in 1969. (022-222, 1969/05/02)

3. The present era is incredibly intense. As I toured the globe, I felt that the world was demanding our teachings. The momentous change occurred between 1965 and 1969. The world has changed in unimaginable ways.

This is true for the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. We can sense that nothing in the world can be resolved apart from our teachings. As time passes, this will only be more and more apparent. Without our teachings, the world will gradually decline into the realm of death. (022-221, 1969/05/02)

4. From now on, you need to pray for the unification of Korea. Until True Parents return from their world tour, everyone, man or woman, young or old, must pray at the holy ground whenever they have time. If you cannot go there to pray at dawn, please go during the day or in the evening.

Please think about how I shed tears on this holy ground in the early years. Please think about the path of suffering that I walked as I chose the holy grounds and established Parents' Day, Children's Day and Day of All Things.

You must understand how much effort I made leading up to God's Day on January 1, 1968. God was miserable, I was miserable, and Unificationists also were miserable.

Now that you have the responsibility to establish the foundation for the unification of Korea throughout the world, you need to pray so fervently that the rock you sit upon is moved to tears and all nature bows its head. I should ask you to fast during lunch while I am on the tour, but I would rather not do that.

Instead, please pray hard at the holy ground. Sing “Song of Unity” to stimulate your heart for the unification of Korea and its people and for the unity of all humankind in God's providence of restoration.

Pray with all your heart and mind on the holy ground that all people will follow your example. In addition, pray that by the time I return home, you will have inspired many people around the world to sincerely desire and pray for the unification of the Korean Peninsula. (022-158, 1969/02/02)

5. When I visited Jerusalem during my world tour, I went to the Mount of Olives and saw an ancient olive tree. It occurred to me that this might have been the tree under which the three disciples, Peter, James, and John, fell asleep as Jesus offered three prayers in the Garden of Gethsemane 2,000 years ago.

It might have been there that Jesus reproached them and that Jesus' disciple, Judas, committed the unbelievable act of betrayal. Furthermore, it could have been the place where such tragic events occurred.

Nevertheless, some people who come here think, “Jesus fulfilled his purpose of coming to this earth by dying for me.” How lamentable! (022-275, 1969/05/04)

6. I felt a big difference between 196,5 when I toured 40 nations and 19 when I toured 21 nations. Given God's providence of restoration, I concluded that the world's situation is converging with the direction in which God's Will is moving.

When I went to America in 1965, I observed that Americans, as citizens of the leading democratic nation, had a sense of pride that theirs is the only country that can solve the world's problems.

I could sense this just by looking at their society. But when I visited America this time, I could see that the American people recognize that neither the problems of America nor of the entire democratic world can be solved by America's strength alone.

When I noticed this overall trend, I keenly felt that the time was pressing for us to fulfill our mission. Southeast Asia and the entirety of Asia, along with all European nations, are just like America.

In light of this, as Unification soldiers, we have a tremendous responsibility to fulfill our global mission, centering on the Unification Principle.
(023-097, 1969/05/14)

7. I asked the American members, “Do you think that because America is across the Pacific Ocean, it is alright to pull out of Vietnam?

Communism is also in the United States. If the United States leaves Vietnam, then won't countries like Brazil and Mexico follow in Vietnam's wake? When I went to South America in 1965, I found that most people carried an anti-American sentiment.

In these circumstances, if neighboring countries are engulfed by communism and turmoil starts in a country like Mexico, is it not obvious that a war could break out right at America's front door? Don't you think that within ten years, communism could also engulf America?”

This is what could happen in America. That is why I said that America must not retreat from Vietnam and decline in its readiness to defend against communism. I have been emphasizing the importance of pushing to prepare the front line so that a bulwark of defense will stand firm in America.
(160-163, 1969/05/12)

8. The entirety of God's 6,000-year history, all the entangled providential history, has been unraveled in my generation. The Unification Principle will now conquer the world, even if I die presently.

Even if 100 million people in Japan oppose us, they will not be able to defeat Unificationism. This is because God needs not only Japan but also the world, the spirit world, the earthly world, and the cosmos.

God first made the environment. We have now entered an era in which if we shift energies just a little, the world will move in the right way.

The young people of the Unification Church would not think of saying that God does not exist; they would not dream of it. God is not an abstract being but dwells within the sphere of our daily life. His heart is not conceptual but empirical, one that we can experience.

Unless we go through the course of restoration on all levels, entering the realms of the individual, family, tribe, people, nation, world, and cosmos, and then establishing the realm where Satan cannot accuse us, we cannot say that we have established the conditions necessary to receive the Blessing.
(022-196, 1969/02/02)

Encouraging members

While following a rigorous schedule during the second world tour, True Parents encouraged missionaries and members in each country and gave new directions and guidance. Notably, they conducted Blessing ceremonies in the United States, Germany, and Japan for a total of 43 Couples from 10 countries.

9. As I toured the world, I asked members what they wished for. They always answered, “Send me to Korea.” In all honesty, I do not need to send them; they could just go to Korea if they wanted.

But there is a condition they must fulfill if they do come: they must speak Korean. English is now the world's common language, but just wait and see what is going to happen. Once I set the tradition for Korean during my lifetime, undoubtedly, the Korean language will become the universal language.

During my second world tour, I held a meeting in Germany with missionaries from 11 countries. By April 197,0, I plan to send missionaries to at least 40 of the nations where I established the holy grounds. And in three years, I will send missionaries to 120 nations. Our time is drawing near.

You must understand how great is the truth of our teaching. That is not all. You need to know that in the future, throughout the world, all Koreans will be proud to be Korean. Furthermore, you need to understand that you will also be proud to have joined the Unification Church. (022-229, 1969/05/02)

10. While I traveled to different parts of the world, I met overseas members who clung to me and shed tears. Whenever I saw this, I felt both joy and sadness. Where did this incredible bond of heart come from that makes so many people miss me and cry when I leave? It came from 6,000 years ago.

When Adam and Eve bore the consequences of their sin, they tearfully left God's bosom. Thus, a sea of tears must appear here on earth when human beings who had lived in despair meet in hope and joy the original man and woman they had longed to see. Without such tears, restoration paid through indemnity will not be completed.

Thus, people transcend boundaries of ethnicity and nationality, as well as cultural barriers between East and West, when they cross the intersection of tears. You also have to resolve to be this kind of person.

And when such a person dies, you need to have the heart that you are willing to die with them. If you can do that, even if you fall into ruin along the way, you will be able to feel that you have been victorious. (023-050, 1969/05/11)

11. What hope did I hold on to during my 21-nation world tour? Many people from those nations looked down on Koreans.

But what is so good about someone like me? I am Korean, yet people are drawn to me and feel like following me as if it were their destiny. What I wanted was not for them to follow me but to follow God and to love me only after loving God.

As a man with such an enormous responsibility, there is one thing I never forget whenever I meet people.

That one thing is whether I am in their debt. I never allow myself to remain in debt. If you were to stay up all night offering devotion, I would stay up all night with you. I do not allow tiredness to be a problem.

Thus, if millions of grieving spirits who have come and gone in this country revere me, I have to do something for them. The question is how our hearts can be attuned to each other. I am careful never to fall into debt.

Therefore, if I have incurred any debt in the countries I have visited, that debt must be quickly solved. (024-030, 1969/06/22)

12. As I toured the world, I instructed our missionaries everywhere to offer devotions for Korea, the homeland of our faith, for four months starting from June 1, 1969. Please be aware that members around the world are facing Korea and earnestly praying every morning.

This world tour was a great battle for me. I could not have been more exhausted. Yet, since the people whom I met had been sincerely anticipating my arrival for years, I did not put a time limit on our meetings.

Because I knew they desired to have me stay even just a little longer, no matter how tired I became, I could not ignore their hearts and rest as I needed, even when it became midnight or 1:00 a.m.

I had the mental strength to persevere throughout my tour as I traveled from America to Germany and other places in Europe and then to Japan. Otherwise, I would have collapsed. I truly pushed myself to my limit. (023-245, 1969/05/25)

13. I gave the Blessing to many people in America, Japan, and Germany during my second world tour.

Whether in Blessed families or secular families, for men and women to live together in a family is the same. What is the difference between the two? If you were to compare the poorest person to the richest person, what would be the difference? They both have eyes, a nose, a mouth, and ears.

If you took the wealthiest person in Korea and clothed him as a beggar, he would look like a beggar. Even though he is not an actual beggar, if he were to dress and act like one, he would be viewed as one.

But if that rich person who acted like a beggar died, no one would say that a beggar died. They would say that a rich person died. The external appearance may be the same, but that does not mean the inner content is the same. Likewise, families who live for God are precious. (023-033, 1969/05/11)