Miracle Helicopter Accident

Hyung Jin Moon
August 2, 2008
Headquarters Church
Chungpadong, Seoul, Korea

Welcome Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters. Nowadays the weather has been very unpredictable, but we know that God's and True Parents' love for us is always solid and unchanging. We're always grateful to have you here in the sanctuary, and for those who are joining with us via internet, we're also welcoming you as well.

Welcome brothers and welcome sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim:

It is now time for our church to not only focus on outreaching events, etc. We feel it's very important for us to start building a community once again. We really applaud to the American church. We know that for two and half years they're working very hard to start building communities in the Unification Church. It's the same with the Korean Church, we are moving very diligently and really putting in all our effort to truly improve the quality, the level and also all the facilities and education that will contribute to allowing families to succeed, to shine brightly and to really glorify our True Parents.

We really believe that if our blessed families can shine then True Parents' legacy, our community, all the blood and sweat and tears of our first generation, are not in vain.

Truly the time is now. We're working very hard to substantiate that. I do want to recommend for those who have not been downstairs yet: Take a look downstairs. There is a lot of renovation down there. You will see a new playground facility for your children. You will see a whole new library, all the best kids books. These gifts have been given to us by people in the congregation. So these are your brothers and sisters. We have to thank them. They are truly investing to provide much better quality places for children to be nurtured, for our families to grow, for ourselves spiritually to be enlightened, uplifted.

And so we're working very hard to try to do so. You will see lots of artistic renovations around our church. If you take a look downstairs you will see Father's life course that is painted in a very beautiful style. We have a wonderful artist, a sister who is a professional and who is a publishing artist here in Korea. She did that. We also have our Pastor's wife, Genn, who is also a professional artist and she's working outside on the wall that you've seen, doing the mountains, the blue sky. So we're starting. We really see all the brothers and sisters coming together, showing their talents, that tremendous potential, and really starting to make this place shine.

We were downstairs yesterday, and there were mothers downstairs playing with their kids in the playground and we said "Hey, isn't this a fantastic facility? There's no church like this in our movement." And they were really so delighted. So delighted. But that really comes from all the investment, from all the support of your own brothers and sisters that are right next to you. And also a great deal comes from the Korean congregation who come together primarily on Sunday here at the HQ Church.

Brothers and sisters let me share with you briefly from the Peace message of Father, page 123:

"When we have become completely one with God in true love are we complete. Such a perfected person might be a small individual but would represent all of the history and all potential future relationships and so could be said to possess infinite value."

See, brothers and sisters, we all have that amazing potential within. We have that potential, that infinite value. And I really want you to understand that today. When you're looking at yourself, when you see your life, yes, you may have obstacles in your life, you may have things that you have to overcome. But many times it's so important to see how far you've come and not to always only look at the things that are ahead. "I've been victorious with so many things, God has brought me all the way to here and my life will get better and better." See, when we start seeing ourselves with that kind of infinite value, we see ourselves with a whole new perspective, we are challenging ourselves to say, "Hey, I'm much more than I think I am."

When we start doing that, we can start opening up our horizon. We can start brightening our future. And we can start having hope for our life.

See, Father teaches that we are supposed to be the great partners to God. We're supposed to be the great object that is equal to God. And that is an amazing statement that we can be equal in value to the Almighty Creator of the entire universe. Brothers and Sisters, I really want to get that inside of your heart today. Really plant that seed in your heart. And allow that to nurture, grow and blossom into your beautiful blessed life.

Brothers and sisters, when we come to service, we are not here just to observe but I want to ask you to really participate. We are here to give glory to True Parents. There have been miraculous things that have happened. We figured out more miraculous things after I shared last week. Remember, we went through the whole series of events that happened with the helicopter crash. There have been MORE amazing things that we found out only after. I will speak about that a little later, not now. But truly tremendous things have happened.

Brothers and sisters, we're living in a miraculous age. All of us are miracles to each other, blessings to each other. We can truly live a blessed life. Share that blessing to the rest of this world. And I would like you to PARTICIPATE in the service. Sing together with us. Worship together with us. Pray together with us. Today we're going to extend our hearts and prayers to those people who are still in healing, those people who are still in the hospital, the heroes that are there. We have many amazing inside stories that they will speak. There was one of the passengers who wrote a testimony. I want to share that with you today because it gives a whole new perspective on what actually happened there. Absolutely amazing.

Brothers and sisters, once again welcome and I truly wish that today we can have a great service. Lift that up and send it to heaven and God can be happy when He hears that.

Brothers and sisters, once again welcome.

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

Good Afternoon!

August 1st, 12:30 am, at Chung Pyung, I was fast asleep with our children and I got a phone call that said that True Father is on the way to Cheon Jeong Gong from Cheon Shim Hospital and I thought, "It's midnight, he can't be coming to Cheon Jeong Gong from Cheon Shim Hospital." I had heard that doctors were telling him over and over that he needs to stay in the hospital and get full rest at least a month or so. So it can't be.

But our True Father did Hoon Dok Hae as usual with the members at the Hoon Dok Hae room. Yes, He did Hoon Dok Hae with the members!

When I thought about it True Father is really a real True Father. It has been yesterday, 13 days after the helicopter crash! He really shows us every day his true love for God, his true determination for God. And he never rests for God. Let us also resemble that wonderful heart for God.

Aju!

Interesting Story:

Brothers and Sisters, I want to start with a little interesting story before the sermon. I heard a very interesting story. A Sunday school teacher went to Sunday school class. All the kids where sitting about and he said, "Hey kids, If I sold my house, my car, had a big garage sales and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?" And the kids said, "NO!" And then the teacher said, "If I clean the church everyday, all day long and keep everything in church totally neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?" And the kids yell and said, "NO!" "Well, if I was kind to animals, give candy to all of you everyday, and love my wife for the rest of my life, would I come into heaven?" And the children said, "NO!" And then the teacher said "Well kids, then what will get me into heaven?" One of the children at the back raised his hand and said, "Well, you first got to be dead!" (All laughing).

Main Sermon:

Just yesterday True Father, at 12:00 am, decided to go to the Cheon Jeong Gong to prepare for Hoon Dok Hae, but the doctors finally convinced him, "Father, you can't go right now, it's only been 13 days since the accident." Of course, as you all know, when 11 tons fall from the sky, there's inevitably damage to spinal cords, etc.. So Father had to rest, but here he is! I arrived at Chung Shim Hospital at around 4:00 or 5:00 am, and as I arrived there, I was told, "OK, he did not leave at 12, but he's going to go up NOW to the Cheon Jeong Gong."

So I arrived up there and Parents are there. Mother is at the door, and Father's already out of his room. He 's already out of his room! He' s laying down on the bed, they're wheeling him out. And everybody is saying, and I'm saying, "Father, you can't be going out like this! You cannot be going out! This is too early for you to be moving around like this!" And Father says, "It's OK, I'm moving, I’m going up." So, nobody could stop him.

I was in the ambulance... We had the ambulance, so there would be minimal stress on the spinal cord region, as you know. So Father took the ambulance up. He arrived there at around 4:15 am. We waited until Hoon Dok Hae and Father on his own, at the Hoon Dok Hae room, walked to his seat, he sat down and we began Hoon Dok Hae.

Let's give it up once for True Parents! (Applause).

Everybody was so concerned. See, I really realize, when I attend True Parents and when I see how hard they work and when I see Father's unending, unchanging spirit for God, then I really realize that every day Father is battling life and death. He is 89 years old, 90 years old now, and always thinking about God's work, always thinking about the world, such a big heart!!

Every day he chooses to fight for God. He fights with true love, endurance, perseverance, sincerity, honor. He pushes himself, at even 89 years old, to keep himself disciplined, to keep himself spiritually humble. He keeps his determination alive and fresh every single day, and choosing every day to devote himself back to God. And we can say, "Hey! Father has given his whole life to God, he can take a rest now! He can take a break!" That is the last thing on Father's list! He is not taking a break any time soon, and this event surely, surely showed this reality.

I want to share with you just a couple of things that happened last time. We just have a whole new bunch of information that came in. Just incredible stuff! You know, as I reiterated last time at service, you all remember some of the real miracles that happened. You remember when the helicopter tail got caught and all of a sudden it found itself descending very quickly in what is known as a fog bank. That's total invisibility! You cannot see a meter in front of you in a fog bank. It's a very unique phenomenon. And as they were descending, as you recall, immediately there were all these pine trees that were in front of the helicopter. And the pilot thought he was gone, because, as you know, at that velocity, the pine trees become spears and they can impale people.

I want to show you a little bit. Here's the cockpit of that helicopter. And everybody sees that True Parents are up in the 3rd and 4th seat. So, you can see, and everybody else was in the back. The children were on the left side of the plane, True Mother was on the left side, True Father was on the right side.

OK, let's see the next slide. Look at this picture. This is a picture from the second hill top, as you look down at the crash site. And when you look forward into the picture, about in the center of that picture, you will see pine trees that are cut, totally cut, like bamboo, as I said, like a samurai cut bamboo in half, totally sliced in half.

Let's keep rolling. This is a little more of the damage. When you go down there, you're standing next to the pine trees that were totally cut by the helicopter blades, as you remember. So the helicopter pilot thought he was dead. The pine trees were coming at him at extreme speed, and all of a sudden the trees started jumping away. And he was thinking, "What's going on?" What was happening was that the blades were cutting those trees, making a highway of safety for the helicopter, for the people in the helicopter.

OK, next slide please. Take a look at this! I mentioned last week that when I went down there, we saw one of the panels that were totally impaled by those trees. And now you can understand why they are spears. The tree branches literally become deadly weapons. Look at that! That's pure metal. Those tree branches literally shot through those things. If that hits a person, that's going right through.

OK, let's take a look at the next one. These are some of the things on the site. The blade hit this tree while it was cutting through, plowing through the majority of the trees and then hit a big oak tree. But this is not the oak tree. That's another tree that fell down.

Next picture please. This, I believe, is the oak tree, if I am not mistaken.

Next slide please. Yes, that's one of the trees that fell down.

Next slide please. You can see some of the damage that happened to the forest. The forest was totally full. It is a very dense forest but the whole plain was opened up.

Next slide please. OK, yes! This is a picture from the second terrace. As I explained last week, there were two terraces. This used to be an old step style farm, that's what they call it in Asia. They have very mountainous terrain here. So, unlike the States, or other places, where you can just do farming on the flat plains, you have to cut into the mountain like stairs.

So this is what happened, there was one step here, a platform and then one step here. The plane came down, plowed through the trees, hit the oak tree, flipped, turned and landed on this flat terrace. And then, this is the second terrace up here. On the top is where the people are standing. You can see them standing on top, and about 50 meters behind them the cameraman is standing on a rock, a boulder the size of this piano. There it is! That's the boulder! It's the size of this piano. In 0.3 seconds, if the helicopter would not have hit that big oak tree, it would have collided straight away with this rock and it would have exploded. As you know, the fuselage is located at the bottom, and as we'll see later, the helicopter fuel is extremely flammable, extremely. It's more flammable than automobile gasoline, etc..

Next picture please. We are now looking at the flat terrace where the helicopter was. See how it goes in? We're standing on the second hill top, looking down at the crash site, and see how it kind of goes in, in that flat terrace? It kind of goes in like a cradle. You can see how it's almost like a little cradle. The helicopter fell right in there. And look at the tail. Where was that tail? And remember where it got caught? In that Y tree! Remember the Y tree that we talked about last week? Look at that Y! That thing caught the helicopter tail.

And as you remember, as I explained last week, when the helicopter loses control of its tail propeller, it cannot have direction, it cannot turn anymore. What happened was, the tail was damaged, the propeller on the tail was damaged, the helicopter was in danger of spinning. It hit the big oak tree, it turned, rotated about 90 degrees to the right, and the tail would have continued to rotate, spin, and if it hit ONE tree, it would have exploded. But the tail, by the miracle of God, got caught in a Y shaped tree, and there you are looking at it.

Brothers and sisters, give it up (applause) for the Y tree! Give it up for the Y tree! (Applause). That's the thing I mentioned last time. I do believe that "Y" is for Young Jin hyung. He's there. He was grabbing that tail, fighting that tail, holding that tail down.

In the next slide, we will see... Look at the damage to the helicopter! Totally damaged! Now here, we mentioned last time, as you can see in the middle of that picture, here it is, the red, you will see a tree that has totally poked through the helicopter body, and completely impaled it. As you saw, these trees are capable, at this amazing speed, to just totally move THROUGH this, like paper.

Remember, when Sang Soo ajoshi (ajoshi = uncle) was in the back -- here he is in the back in that thing -- remember when they made the first hit and hit the oak tree, what happened to him? He went flying forward because he did not have a seat belt on. So he went flying forward right next to True Parents. That was a miracle because when they landed, the Y tree caught them and the hill top caught those blades. What happened?

As soon as he stood up he was right next to Father, because Father was now on the ceiling, because the helicopter turned. So, Father was dangling from his seat belt, literally like on the cross, dangling there. He was dangling from his seat belt. And then Lee Sang Soo ajoshi, who flew forward through the doorway, right next to Parents, as soon as they landed the second time, he just literally put his hands up and was able to grab Father, and of course that was another huge miracle. That was of course a miracle.

What happened here was... This is the seat where that spike, that tree, came right through. So, you understand? If Lee Sang Soo ajoshi did not fly forward, if he had his seat belt buckled, he would have been completely impaled. But he had his seat belt unbuckled, he flew forward. Mr. Yoon Ki Byung ajoshi... I don't know how he made it through the center way. It's very interesting because Lee Sang Soo ajoshi is facing the doorway. I can understand how HE flew through, but by another miracle, Mr. Yoon Ki Byung, who is right behind True Parents, and there's a wall IN FRONT of him... he missed the wall and flew through the middle doorway, too. So again, another huge miracle! Brothers and sisters, give it up once again! (Applause). Amazing!

I explained some of these happenings last week. Here are some pictures of the site. This is the site... of course, you saw the impaled body of the helicopter. You can see, now the helicopter is on it's side. That's the rubble that's left, from what our True Parents, 90 years old Father, had to run out of. The children had to run out of there. You know, sometimes I just can't believe, it still has not hit me, how dangerous this crash was, but also how amazingly miraculous this was!

Let's continue through this. I want to continue to explain just another thing. At the same day that True Father was in the helicopter accident, at the Chung Shim School of Theology, they were holding the Unification Medical Science Conference. So here we had 14 foreign doctors from around the world, and we had 36 domestic Korean doctors. Where were they? They were all at Chung Pyung!

Now, remember brothers and sisters, this was a Saturday. What happens on a Saturday at Chung Pyung Hospital at night? What happens? All the doctors go home. But just because they happened to be having the Unification Medical Science Conference, in which all the top specialists of the world were gathered there at the hospital, the doctors did not go home, and they were able to quickly, quickly, treat the patients as they came in. (Applause). Let's give it up! That's another miracle!

Now I want to also mention THIS to you. In 2004 at the Chung Shim Hospital they were debating whether or not they wanted to open an Orthopedic Surgery Department. That is surgeries that have to do with the spine, or spinal injury. They decided, due to a certain analysis, that they were not going to go forward with that. In 2008, May 1st, this is just a couple of months, literally two and a half months before this accident, they, all of a sudden, decided to open an Orthopedic Surgery Unit.

Of course, because it was there, we had one of the specialists available on the site. He was an orthopedic surgeon. So when the people from the helicopter came to the hospital, he was on site as an active doctor, because of the conference of course, and of course because of this new initiative of the Orthopedic Department. He was there immediately to operate on the people who were in that plane.

Once again, brothers and sisters, let's give it up! (Applause) Amazing!

CT, MRI, were all there. Of course, True Parents had given that to the hospital. Because of that the children were able to be checked quickly, True Parents and the people from the helicopter were able to be checked with MRI, CT scans. Everybody who was on that helicopter was able to get checked, and whoever needed immediate attention... There were two people who needed immediate attention, that was Hee Ji Sun onni (onni = elder sister), and Mother who had to have a minor surgery on her spine.

Now, the conference is normally held each year on the anniversary of the opening of the hospital. However the opening of the hospital, this year, would fall on a Monday. But very interestingly, for some reason or another, they happened to be having the Unification Medical International Science Conference on the very day that True Parents were in this helicopter crash (Saturday). Again another coincidence? No! Brothers and sisters, another miracle by God who saved those people on that plane! (Applause).

And very interestingly, there was the orthopedic surgeon, a very young man... we met him, he gave us personal reports, etc, but he is less experienced, he is young. He is very good, but he is very young. So he had to call his senior, his professor, the person who taught him how to do surgeries, etc... He had to ask this person to come in an advisory position. So he called the Samsung Hospital, here in Seoul. But, very unfortunately, his professor was on vacation. It was very unfortunate. Where was he on vacation? Chung Pyung Lake!!

Brothers and sisters, give it up, give it up to God! (Applause). Oh my God!

Because he was on vacation at Chung Pyung Lake, he got the call and said, "I'll be there in 5 minutes!" Another incredible, incredible miracle! Totally impossible! Like one of my theological friends, a Harvard PhD student, said, "When things like this happens, it requires more faith to believe that this is all coincidence than it does to believe that it is a miracle!" And brothers and sisters, I really saw this. It is a true, amazing miracle! We saw so many of those things! We discussed them last week.

I just want to share with you a couple of those behind-the-scenes miracles that happened. I want to share with you now something that is totally inside. This is from Mr. Peter Kim who wrote to his family. I, of course, called him and I asked him if I could share this with all of you, and he did give us permission to share this message.

Let me just read it to you. He is sharing what happened from the inside, really what happened on that day. Here he is. He is writing to his daughter, he is writing to his grandchildren whom he loves so much. And here he writes. This is him:

Mr. Peter Kim's words:

(The words in brackets [...] are Hyung Jin Nim's words)

"Thank God! Thank God!" These are the first words that came out of my mouth as I realized that I was still alive after the helicopter crash. The day we flew from Seoul from Chung Pyung (July 19, 2008), there was a hurricane warning. Although the hurricane "Seagull" had already killed 6 people in Taiwan and continued its course towards the Korean peninsula, the weather conditions at Chung Pyung and in Seoul were determined as permissible for flight.

True Parents had a luncheon meeting with the church leaders in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Seoul. It was about 4:45 pm. when we left Seoul by helicopter to return to Cheon Jeong Palace in Chung Pyung. It was raining and still cloudy. The pilot had checked out the weather conditions in Chung Pyung. Because of the now questionable weather conditions, he decided to follow a different route. He went along the Buk Han River towards the North.

[That's apparently a different route from which they usually take].

We encountered thick patches of fog, clouds, but we could still see well enough to follow the course. We arrived at the area of Chung Pyung Training Center and we could still see the top of the Cheon Seong Mountain where the Cheon Jeong Palace is located. The heliport is located about 300 yards below. As the helicopter approached the pad, suddenly a thick layer of fog [which is known as fog bank] moved in and completely covered the area. The pilot's view of the site became almost zero, but the landing wheels were already out and the helicopter was hovering over the landing site. But the pilot decided, quickly, to take the craft up and out of the pitch dark, foggy area.

It was then that the tail hit a tree and the helicopter reeled from side to side, the powerful blades plowing through trees by the scores. The pilot tried his best to find a way to secure a soft landing in the wooded area of thousands of pine trees. The helicopter with only half of the tail wing plowed through the woods for about 150 yards. It finally hit the ground and hit a big oak tree and crashed into a muddy wooded area near a small stream [The stream he is referring to is that second terrace. It looks like a stream.].

The two of the four blades of the helicopter were lost as the craft went through the trees and the remaining two blades became stuck in the muddy hillside as the helicopter crashed. Boom...! It made a thunderous noise. While the helicopter was going through this course of turmoil, which took only a minute, we who were on board were experiencing a roller coaster ride, holding onto whatever we could grab. Because of the thunderous sound of the crash, I lost consciousness for a moment. But the noise of the crying children was loud enough to bring me back.

Among the 16 people (3 crew members, 13 passengers) in the helicopter, there were three children, [Shin Gong, my daughter, Shin Wol, my nice, and Shin Joon, my son].Upon regaining consciousness I realized that I was still tightly seat belted and hanging against the side of my chair. I struggled for a while to release myself. The cabin of the helicopter was in chaos as the copter was tilted on its left side. The children were crying at the top of their lungs.

At that moment it came back to me that Father and Mother were in the helicopter. Instinctively I shouted, "Save Father and Mother first!" Then I looked around in the back of the cabin, where I knew 11 people had been seated, to locate the grandchildren. Glancing forward I noticed that two of the security brothers were already in the front section of the cabin where Father and Mother were seated. Father was dangling on the side of his chair, tightly seat-belted, at the top of which was now the ceiling. He was struggling hard to release himself from the seat belt.

So Mr. Lee Sang Soo [ajoshi] who flew to the front and Mr. Yoon Ki Byung who also flew to the front, they released Father from the seat belt. Meanwhile Mother's foot was stuck at the corner of her seat. Mr. Kim Seok Byung who is the President of Peace TV had to yank her foot out of this metal trap. Because the helicopter was tilted on its side, the entrance door was now located above us and so we had to lift Father, and then Mother, up through the entrance door which was now located above us. By then, luckily, one of the crew members was already outside on the roof and he helped Father and Mother to finally get out. Once reaching the top of the helicopter, they had to slide 8 feet down to the wet and muddy ground. Following True Parents, the grandchildren were lifted up through the exit and they followed the same path.

After the grandchildren were out, eight of us who accompanied Father and Mother that day climbed out of the door one by one. Nobody remembers who came out first or who was the last among us to leave. When I made my way out, however, I could see a couple of people behind me. I still remember how urgent I felt when the smell of the smoke became overwhelming and also the strong heat from the flames which had just ignited and were about to burn the interior of the helicopter. In spite of the smoke and fire that had begun engulfing the cabin we all escaped safely from the helicopter.

When I found myself on the ground, I realized that I could not move with ease because of the rainfall and muddy ground. It seems that instinctively we all knew that we had to run as far away from the burning helicopter as possible -- that it could explode at any second. So we desperately trudged through the mud and rain, scared that an explosion would occur at any second. It is a fact that the fuel that helicopters use is more flammable than automobile gasoline and the fuel tanks which were attached on both sides of the copter could explode not just by fire but also by a strong impact or shock.

I immediately looked around to locate Father and Mother and the grandchildren. As I stood up from the fall in the mud I noticed True Father was carried away from the helicopter by the security brothers. But Mother was still stuck on the muddy ground struggling. Mr. Pak Jung-Hyun tried to help her to move away. So I quickly ran to her and put her on my back and tried to move away. Mr. Pak held her to stay on my back.

The ground was so muddy and my back started hurting that I could not walk upright but I began half crawling. We were able to move up the hill about 70 yards and I finally collapsed. Father was about 10 yards ahead of us, sitting on the muddy ground behind a big pine tree. Someone shouted, "Bring Mother up here! It's safer!" But I could not carry her any further. At that point two young security brothers came to carry Mother to the place where Father was waiting. So, most of us including the three grandchildren, gathered together around Father while the rest were scattered nearby.

Though it was still raining, a strong and tall flame with dark black smoke engulfed the helicopter when we looked back at it. Father offered his lap so that Mother would have a place to lay her head. It was then that Mr. Pak took off his jacket and folded it so that Mother could lay on it. As we sat there for a while, we heard three giant explosions. The pine trees surrounding us amazingly protected us enough so that none of the debris -- from the three explosions that followed -- fell on top of us.

It was about 25 minutes after the helicopter crashed that the ambulances and fire trucks arrived with fire fighters. I shouted that Father and Mother had to be carried out quickly to the Chungshim Hospital which was only about a mile away.

Shin Joon Nim was crying loudly, looking for his onni, Im Ji Sun, but she had injured her back and could not move. She was on the ground nearby, in pain, and was also carried out on a stretcher to the ambulance. The rest of us helped one another until we reached ambulances, and we were safely transferred to the Chungshim Hospital. It was about 6 P.M. when a nurse finally took off my mud-covered shoes! [He expresses that surprise].

Even before our arrival at the hospital, YTN, MBC, SBS, covered the story with pictures of the burning helicopter.

Through that night and the next day at the hospital all of the passengers were thoroughly checked by X-ray, MRI, CT etc. Several had fractures or bruises to the back -- mostly minor injuries. Although everyone was still in shock from the trauma, thankfully there were no head injuries and everyone was conscious and mentally sound. The most seriously injured ones were Mother and Im Ji Sun who both had successful surgery on a dislocated spine. [Let's give it up for Mother and Im Ji Sun! Two warriors!]. News of the accident got out and within hours people from around the world began calling. I had lost my cell phone in the fire so I was left pretty quiet for several hours until I got my new phone.

I began feeling severe pain on my back and neck. Thankfully, the doctor said that the tests showed I didn't have any fractures or dislocations or broken bones. The pain was coming from twisted and severely stressed muscles. That night I could hardly sleep because of the pain and flashbacks of that terrible thunderous crashing sound and the events that ensued. Even until today my memory has not been able to erase that terrible sound.

According to a specialist's investigation, over 90% of helicopter accidents are fatal to some or all passengers. About three months before this accident there was a military helicopter crash near the site where our helicopter crashed. All of the four passengers on that military crash were instantly killed. I, myself, have seen and heard of helicopter accidents and I cannot recall any survivors. It is common knowledge that when a helicopter crashes, there are usually no survivors.

So it was truly a miracle that all 16 [brothers and sisters! 16!] people on board came out of that crash without shedding even ONE drop of blood. Not even one drop, not even one drop! Furthermore, even the special investigators could not understand why it took more than 20 minutes until the helicopter exploded though the helicopter started burning as soon as it crashed. [As you know, usually within three minutes there is an explosion. But 20 minutes passed until it exploded. But by that time everyone was out of that plane.]

Another miraculous fact is that, according to the pilot, if the helicopter had continued its course for another tenth of a second it would have crashed into the huge boulder which would have resulted in instant explosion and death to all passengers.

Also the two remaining blades became entrenched in the muddy hillside at the time of the crash. A specialist said that because they were stuck in the hill, the blades couldn't do any damage to the body of the helicopter. Had this not happened, then, because of the blades' spinning power, the helicopter would have been tumbled and been thrown upside down. A few sharp edged tree stems poked through the helicopter at the time of the crash. But none of those sharp edged tree stems, literally hundreds and thousands in that forest, came through to the passenger cabin area.

The special investigators could not understand why the fuel tank did not explode immediately after the crash. [As I have mentioned before, the fuel used in helicopters is much more volatile and dangerously flammable, even with a strong impact].

If the helicopter had fallen in a direction one degree North, it would have crashed into the school buildings where there were hundreds of young students.

These are some of the miraculous points shared by the pilots and special investigators.

[Mr. Kim then speaks about some of the things that we talked about the other day, the trees, the Hyo Jin hyung Tree, the Young Jin hyung Tree, the Heung Jin hyung Hero. He talks about the amazing things that happened, as you recall.]

[We had some movie directors, not our members, who saw the plane. They saw it encircled in a lotus flower rainbow! And under the rainbow were dozens of angels, white garbed people floating under the helicopter. Those movie directors are not our members. They contacted us. The director came and one of his actors, famous in Korea, came with him. And they testified to the miracles they saw. Mr. Kim writes here:]

Later they heard on the T.V. news that Rev. Moon's helicopter had crashed with 16 people in it. Neither Kim Young Ho nor his friend are Unification Church members and, in fact, the movie director had never even seen Rev. Moon in his life.

[Then Mr. Kim mentions the Korean Grandmother who saw Hyo Jin hyung couple of days ago in a dream, playing with helicopters, catching helicopters. And he writes here in his section that he entitles "God's mysterious work":]

We, who are aware of God's providential work and True Parents' critical importance at this time of the era of the fourth Adam, can interpret these spiritual testimonies. Just as at the time of Jesus' birth three wise men from the East who did not have anything to do with Jesus followed the star to show their respect to the birth of the Messiah. These two movie makers, non Unificationists, clearly testified to this miracle. Also, we can interpret the grandmother's dream that Hyo Jin Nim, from the spirit world, protected True Parents from harm.

What I can conclude at this point is that this crash was not an ordinary accident. It was providential. Because I know that the True Parents are truly the manifestation of God on earth, it is my conviction that Father and Mother had to set a condition to sacrifice their lives on behalf of all the blessed families. Just like the time when Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac as an offering to God, God accepted Abraham's condition as a genuine one and saved Isaac's life. By going through the crash, God already accepted the condition set by True Parents and gave their lives back to us. I firmly believe that because of this providential helicopter accident, the providence will make a quantum leap and move on towards a higher dimension for the realization of God's ideal. [Brothers and sisters, let's give it up for the Unification community, give it up for the amazing brothers and sisters!].

Even today I went through a physical therapy twice to cure my back pain. It has become quite routine now since I was discharged from the hospital a few days ago. I also went to see a Chinese herb medicine doctor today. Lying on a hospital bed with dozens of acupuncture needles in me, I shed tears of thanks to God and thanks to True Parents."

July 29th, 2008
Dr. Peter Kim

Hyung Jin Nim's words again:

Brothers and sisters, give it up for our brothers and sisters who were on that plane. (Applause)

You know, what can we learn today? If there's anything we can learn from today's experiences, today's testimonies, from the many amazing people that were on that plane, the many doctors that helped, the many brothers and sisters that truly lifted True Parents up, we understand that God is amazing. We know that it would take more faith to believe that this is coincidence than to believe that this is God working with His invisible hands. He is behind the scenes, preparing, protecting, and loving our True Parents.

And God did His 95% but see, there was ONE factor: The disciples, the children of God, did their 5%! See, remember, I told you all, last time, that the pilot says now, "I'm going to become a Unification Church member!" You all heard that last week. Maybe some of you did not hear.

Give it up for the pilot! (Applause) He said he is going to join the movement.

But the brothers and sisters asked him. They asked him, "Why, why are you going to join the movement all of a sudden?" Of course people assumed, that he would say, "Why? I'm alive, that's why I'm going to join the Movement!" But he did not say that. According to the CCTV, the cameras that were inside the helicopter, everybody evacuated that helicopter within 10 minutes. That is unbelievable! Military trained specialists have a hard time accomplishing that feat, in this kind of emergency panic situation.

But what did we see? He spoke about it like this, "As soon as it crashed, the first thing I heard everyone say in that helicopter cabin was, 'Father, where are you?' "

They called Father's name out first. And as they lifted Father out, they weren't thinking of their own necks. The helicopter pilot talked about the "fight or flight mechanism" that affects you when you are in panic, "You have to save your life, you have to survive!" But all the members on that plane actualized True Parents' teaching. They all attended True Parents. All of them! Even in that incredible emergency panic, smoke, flame, heat, possible explosion and death, they were able to first locate True Parents, "Where are True Parents? Get them out. Get True Mother out, get the Children out!"

He said it's because of that amazing faith that he saw embodied in the Unification community. That's his reason for him now wanting to join the Unification Movement!

Brothers and sisters, give it up for all our families all around this world. (Applause). You guys are truly amazing, and we know that every single family member of our Unification family would have done the exact same thing had you been on that plane!

Look at Moses' course. Moses' disciples could not unite with him during the Exodus. Jesus' disciples betrayed him at the final moments. They turned him over. They left him at the cross to hang alone, to die. But what did True Father's disciples do? What did our Unification community do? They didn't betray, they didn't leave! They stood right by, and they not only stood right by, they saved the lives of our True Parents, and not only that, the young children that were on board, whom I extend personal thanks and gratitude to.

Brothers and sisters this is amazing, the victory, the providential victory that we can see in this amazing incident. When all this comes together, that 95% of God's preparation, the amazing miracles that He prepared, but there's 5% that He leaves, that He can't touch, and that 5%... those people on that helicopter were able to fulfill their 5%. As we know, when 95% and 5% come together, that is the accomplishment of God's will.

Brothers and sisters, give it up for those brothers and sisters on that plane! (Applause)Truly! Truly amazing!

I truly believe that in our lives... if we take that unbelievable faith, that faith that moved this man to now say, "I'm going to become part of your family", that faith that is unbelievable, that faith that we can find in our community, the faith that knows that God and True Parents are precious, that we have to attend them, bring them up, that faith that makes us live for the sake of others in our lives, even in that panic mode, able to use that amazing faith, that power.....if we take that unbelievable faith in our own lives, actualize it, practice it, I believe we'll move forward towards our future, towards our destiny, with more victory, with more illumination and more peace and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live.

Brothers and sisters give it up for True Parents who had Hoon Dok Hae, had Hoon Dok Hae after the crash! (Loud applause) Give it up for God and True Parents!

HyungJinMoon-080802-2.jpg

This is the picture taken yesterday, of Father. Two and a half hour Hoon Dok Hae! He is, under that sweater you can't see it, but he is wearing a body brace. But Father is truly a warrior and really giving his heart to God and True Parents. 

Miraculous Helicopter Landing

Hyung Jin Moon
July 26, 2008
Headquarters Church, Chungpadong, Seoul Korea
Transcribed by Beatrice Clyburn
Edited by Bruno Klotz

Yeon Ah Nim's Welcome Remarks:

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! (Good afternoon!) As always we are honored to have you in this sanctuary, and for those who are joining with us via internet, we are welcoming you as well.

It has been the most shocking week of our lives! I am sure you all heard about the helicopter accident. We can only say, "Thank You" to Heavenly Father that everybody is OK including True Parents. (Applause)

This morning we met them. We had breakfast together. They are on the way to recovery.

Please in this time, I would like to ask you all to pray for True Parents and people who were on board with True Parents. Your prayer means so much to True Parents and us, and we want to say one more time that we really thank you for all your support and love. Thank you so much! Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Welcome Remarks:

Brothers and sisters, it's truly a miracle that we can stand before you today. Oh my goodness! It's been a crazy, crazy week! At the very least! But truly a miracle! I'm going to share with you a little bit more in detail later in the service. We are witnessing a true miracle at this time, brothers and sisters. We are living in a miraculous age, and truly, because of True Parents' sacrifice, that victory extends to us. That victory really gives us the potential, the strength, the ability to really, truly, shine before heaven and earth.

We want to talk a little more in the service. I'm going to keep my comments short at the beginning. But welcome everybody.

We really are in a tremendous time! My goodness! There were so many countless miracles, but I can't talk about it now. I just want to talk about it, but I can't do that. I'm holding myself.

Brothers and sisters, it's always good for us before service, to remember our value, our identity, our purpose here, that VIP, that very special VIP, Value, Identity and our Purpose!

Always remember that we are valuable in the eyes of God. When He sees us, He sees valuable children, He sees children of cosmic value, He sees children that are divine in value. He sees children with His identity. He sees children with His own face in us. In our destinies, in our lives, we have a purpose. We have a purpose for being in this world, to truly actualize the blessed life, which not only ends with blessing in our own lives, but becoming a blessing to this world.

Brothers and sisters, if we do that we will have that amazing VIP, we will have that amazing blessed life and be a true miracle, a miraculous hope for all the brothers and sisters around us.

I'm going to wait until service, until the word session, before I share with you, but it truly was a miracle! Let's give a big round of applause to God (Loud applause). We can only thank God from the bottom of our hearts. We have only gratitude. That's all we have.

We can only thank those brothers and sisters, thousands, for writing in, from around the world, Europe, Britain, the States, Australia, all over the world, Japan, Asia, Russia, all brothers and sisters, concerned, one heart, one mind, one thought. "Are True Parents all right? Are True Parents OK?" That tremendous mind! We see that we are one family, truly around the world, connected by True Parents. We are so grateful to all the brothers and sisters who have written in, who have encouraged us, told us to keep our head high, knowing that we're going to make it through this.

I want to report to you that True Parents are doing fine. They did a three hour Hoon Dok Hae yesterday. Father spoke how many hours today? He finished at 11:00 am today. Sun Jin was there until eleven. I had to come out early because we had a 10:30 service. But just tremendous, amazing, amazing, miraculous moments! We are going to get to that a little later, but brothers and sisters, I'm so grateful. We are so grateful.

The whole True Family came out. All the brothers and sisters of True Family came out. We're one of heart, mind, and concern for True Parents. All we had in our minds was, "Are True Parents all right?" Everybody showed up. Everybody who's living showed up, everybody in the spiritual world showed up.

We saw a tremendous miracle, brothers and sisters and we are truly grateful. My sister always says, "All we have is gratitude" and that's what I believe today. All I have is gratitude, and I want to thank everybody around this world for writing in, who are concerned about True Parents, who love True Parents, who call True Parents their True Parents.

Brothers and sisters, let's give those brothers and sisters a huge round of applause! ( Loud applause) They are our family. They are our family!

Welcome once again! And I really, truly wish that this may extend to all the brothers and sisters around the world, and that we may truly have a great service.

Let's not only listen or observe today. Let's really participate. It is something to celebrate this week. And really I'm asking you to help me celebrate today because I am ready to celebrate. It was true miracle! Brothers and sisters, once again welcome and once again thank you.

The First Visualization And Meditation Practice:

Let's visualize a beautiful spring time stream, in the forest. We are there in spring time. We can feel the new spring coming. We can see that the leaves have just began to blossom. The flowers are just opening. We can feel the power of new birth, of new life all around us. We can feel the cold waters becoming warmer in front of us, that cool stream. We can notice on the trees, the beautiful cherry blossoms. We can see them gently opening, beginning to open for this new spring.

And as we receive this new resurrection, this new life after the harshness of winter, let us receive the power of this new birth. Let us close our eyes and feel the energy of rebirth all around us. In the water, every moment the stream is being reborn, changing, flowing. We can feel the trees, and the powerful rebirth energy all around. The grass, we can see new grass starting to emerge. We can feel the power of the natural cycle of rebirth. And let's feel that resurrection spirit, the spirit of new life, the power of this new cycle of birth.

And as we breathe in let us breathe in that new spring. In our hearts, let's say, "I am alive" As we breathe out, let us gently in our hearts say, "Thank You". One more time, as we breathe in, breathe in that new life, "I am alive", as we breathe out, "Thank You". One more time as we breathe in a new breath, a new life, breathing in, "I am alive", gently breathing out, "Thank You"

True Parents are always with us, whether we see, recognize or not. True Parents are guiding our footsteps. They are here with us in this sanctuary, in our hearts, wherever we may go, wherever our destinies may take us. Let us know that they always love us, let us always know that they believe in us and let us know that they will never, ever let go of us.

Hyung Jin Nim's Prayer:

Brothers and sisters please join us for prayer.

Heavenly Father thank You for this day. Father, we have nothing but gratitude this day. Father, it is a truly miraculous moment in history. Father, this past week we have witnessed a true disaster. Father, True Parents were taken to the grave, but Father, they emerged victorious, Father, reborn, resurrected, overcoming the power of death.

Father, we see a miraculous time in history. We are living in this rebirth age, Father. We are living in this resurrection time. Father, we hope that in our lives this day, with every breath that we take, we may be reborn, with every breath that we inhale, Father.

Let us be resurrected to new life. It is Yours, Father. We are extending our gratitude to You this day. We want to celebrate You this day.

Thank You for all that you have done.(In tears) Father, thank You for saving True Parents, thank You for saving our children, thank You for saving our brothers and sisters on that plane. Father, thank You so much. All we have is gratitude. And Father, we know that all of us as Unification family, we were all on that plane that day, Father, we all experienced that crash. Father we went to the grave and following our True Parents, Father, we came out alive. Father we came out resurrected. Father, we came out with new life, facing our futures with confidence. Father, let us know that there is nothing that can stop us. Father, let us know that truly You are a miraculous, supernatural God.

And Father we know that You are in this place today. You are in our hearts, You are in our lives. Father, guide us. Father, direct us, give us the insight, Father, the direction, give us the path that we will have to take. And Father, we pray that each footstep may be illumed, Father, each step that we take, may give glory back unto You.

Thank you Father for what You have done. Father we stand here truly open with our arms, opening our hearts, Father, with an everlasting love and an everlasting gratitude. And Father, with the confidence that You have given us through this experience, Father, we face our lives with confidence, with hope, with optimism. Father, we know that we will overcome any obstacle and we will truly live a victorious life for You.

Thank You so much and we pray these things with all the brothers and sisters around this world as one family connected by True Parents in our names. Aju!

Interesting story (by Hyung Jin Nim):

You know, we always start with something a little interesting. I have to admit though that today I want to offer a real story. It's not a joke but it was an interesting incident. After the accident Mother was lying on the hospital bed, resting. The kids came in. By the way, they were playing, just the next day after the accident! And they were running around and now they came in to greet True Parents. And Mother is lying there and she sees the kids and greets them all. And my little boy -- he is now two -- comes up to True Mother and says, "Grandma, why you're lying down like that?" (Laughter). And True Mother said, "Oh my God! This boy is too smart!", and when he was right about to leave he said, "Anyonghi jumuseyo" which means, "Have a very good night tonight!" So I just wanted to share that with you.

Hyung Jin Nim's sermon / report:

Actually today, more than a sermon, I want to share some of the things that happened during this event. I'm sure all of you heard a basic account of what happened. I'm sure you saw on CNN, AOL, that there was a helicopter crash and there were survivors etc... But I want to share with our World Unification Family a little more in detail.

On the day of the crash we had service, as you all remember. Afterward I was out having dinner with Sun Jin, my sister, and we were talking. As you recall, last week we talked about heroes. We talked about heroes and the heroic path. And as you recall, the heroic path consists of many things. It consists of a call to an adventure, a road of trials, obtaining the victory, then returning home, and then sharing that victory, spreading it, helping others, empowering others, etc.

And I really did not think that I would meet heroes that quickly. But on that day we were having dinner and I received a call from Hoon Sook Nim, and she said to me, "You have to sit down for this!" I said, "I'm already seated. Come on, tell me what's happening." She said, "You know, the helicopter went down!" and I literally got up and said, "What?! The helicopter went down? What are you talking about?" She said, "Everybody's OK. The kids were on it, everybody's OK, True Parents are OK."

So I'm hearing from Hoon Sook Nim, "It is OK, everybody's alright." So the first thought in my mind was saying, "OK, it was not that bad, maybe a little bump. Maybe after take off they hit a twig or something."

And so we were fine. We immediately called a couple of people, and they said, "Please come to the hospital right away." We went to the hospital. We drove to Chung Pyung immediately after dinner, and as we arrived we saw SBS, KBS, all the media, totally surrounding. You all know, when you go into Chung Pyung, the gates, right? So you have the path to the Cheon Jeong Goong, the path to the Hope school and the path to the training center. All there, there must have been 10-15 different cars, different media coverage, professionals etc... They were all over there, trying to take pictures, who's coming in, who's going out.

At first, when we released a statement that everybody was OK -- Mr. Yang released a statement that everybody is fine, that True Parents are fine -- the media did not believe us. They said, "We are not going to believe you! You guys are Unificationists, you may be hiding something!" (Laughter) See, that's why we've got to change our Unification status, brothers and sisters. We have something to be really proud of. I'm going to share with you why we have so much pride in the Unification family, why it's such an amazing tradition! But let's get to that a little later.

The media coverage was all over us, asking us, "What's going on? What's going on?" Mr. Yang was the official head spokes person. He spoke to the media. He gave them his personal phone number; they were calling until 2:00 in the morning! And he was explaining to them, "Everybody's fine," but they didn't believe him.

So they waited till the fire department and the police department came to confirm, to make sure that everybody was OK, and particularly that Rev Moon and Mrs. Hak Ja Han Moon were fine. The police department came out, gave the news to the reporters, "They are fine, Rev Moon is OK, Mrs. Moon is OK. They are recovering etc." At that point the media people left.

The very next day, within hours, as you may know, the news were all over the world. It was on the front page of CNN.com. It was all over: AOL, NBC, ABC, everywhere, BBC, every media broadcast, in Korea: KBS, MBC, SBS etc. Everybody was covering this. And all around the world, "Rev. Moon survives a helicopter crash at 90 years old!" 90 years old! This went all over the world, all over in about a couple of seconds. AJU, brothers and sisters! Oh my goodness! (Applause)

I want to just give you some statistics we heard from President Joo: 90+ percent of helicopter crashes end in fatalities. And when you look at the statistics: A helicopter that crashes at this velocity, with 16 passengers on board... there has never been a case that is recorded where all 16 people survive a helicopter crash with no major injuries! Brothers and sisters, it's a miracle! (Loud applause). God is good! Oh my God! God is great! (Continued applause!)

We have just been living in a miracle in this past week. As I reported to you all, True Father, yesterday morning: three hours Hoon Dok Hae, this morning 5 hours Hoon Dok Hae! He's already doing back flips, brothers and sisters. He's already doing his Jedi mastery! He is amazing! He is Master Yoda, flipping around already! (Laughter). I just could not believe it! You understand, four days ago, at tremendous velocity, 90 percent of the helicopter in flames, gone. four days later: Father, 5 hours Hoon Dok Hae. This is what we're experiencing.

But let me explain to you a little more about the scene! It really did not hit me. When I first got to the hospital I thought, "This is not a hospital where a helicopter crash occurred." This is the first thing that came across in my mind. At a helicopter crash, I was told, everybody is crying, everybody is mourning, because everybody's life usually ends in fatalities. But here I come to the hospital, and everybody is celebrating, everybody's running around, there's baskets, there's fruit, there's things being thrown around. Everybody's having a celebration! So I come in. I see my children, they're all OK. They're all a little shaken up. Of course they give me hugs, and kisses, but then they start running around. They're doing playing, doing coloring books. I'm thinking, "What's this? A helicopter crash -- maybe a bicycle crash, (Laughter) but I don't know about a helicopter crash!"

Our sisters there, we can't believe it! We saw True Parents. They're fine! They're all OK! One of the sisters went in for minor surgery. So we visited everybody. And Mr. Yoon! Mr. Yoon was walking around that very day! Three hours ago he was in a disaster zone, and now the man is walking around like nothing happened! Won Joo also was walking around like nothing happened! This is eleven tons of pure metal, brothers and sisters, do you understand? Eleven tons that dropped from the sky! If you can imagine, driving your car and falling four stories in your car, straight down to the ground. You can imagine how much damage will occur to you. These brothers and sisters were walking around!! They are telling the story! I can't believe what I'm seeing! I'm thinking, "OK, it's not that bad! Everybody's fine, everybody's OK, it's really not that bad, nothing to worry about!"

So we did Hoon Dok Hae with True Parents. Sun-jin, as soon as she saw True Parents, she's grabbing True Father's hand, and we're massaging his feet, saying, "Father, why are you flying in that weather?" Massaging his feet we said, "My God! A joy to massage your feet!" Mother, we're just holding her, kissing her, hugging her, hugging True Parents, hugging Father, kissing Father, saying, "Oh my God! It's a miracle. It's a miracle!" And Father, he's lying there, and he's saying, "It's a miracle from God!" and I saw him putting his hands together, "A miracle from God!" He was "lifting heaven"; he was lying in his bed, bench pressing heaven. He was saying, "God, have mercy! God is good!" (Applause) It was amazing, amazing!

And so we thought, "Nothing big, nothing big!" We had to wait till the next morning. Too much fog that night. Too dark. We can't see anything. So we waited till the next morning. The next morning the security guards took us to the site. It's closed off to the public at this point. When we visited the sight, we heard the basic story. It didn't hit me, even seeing True Parents. They're so healthy. I mean I could not believe they experienced a helicopter crash! My children are running around. Mr. Yoon is running around. Won Ju is walking around. And so I'm thinking, "It's a minor crash!"

We go in; we see the site and literally our jaws drop. It is a disaster zone! Disaster! It is like in a movie. I could not believe that I was standing on that hill. I was looking at the site, and I'm thinking, "This is not real! It's a movie!" I'm looking at the helicopter and think, "This is not real, and it does not look real. It is like I'm watching a movie!" It does not look real!

So we finally go down. We went down the hill. We walked into the forest and that's when I started getting hit. That's when it started hitting me. I started just losing control of my emotions, I started shaking. I never had that experience. I started shaking, because I looked at the helicopter and I could not imagine that True Father, at 90 years old, had to escape a burning inferno, and my little baby children had to run out of that helicopter! Every time I saw that vision I started almost shaking.

And I remember just looking at that, and we were given the explanation. What happened was, the helicopter was ready to land. All of a sudden there's a phenomenon called a fog bank. That fog bank is a very quick-moving fog that's in a very thick strip and moves very quickly. It moves separately from larger clouds. And that fog bank... as soon as True Parents were coming down, they got the CLEAR, they got the OK from downstairs, from Chung Pyung, from Seoul aviation center, they released them, they had to sign, everything was OK. They saw down there the lights, and they're going down, all of a sudden a fog bank covered the helicopter, completely covered the helicopter. The pilot said he couldn't see one meter in front of him! He was literally blinded, literally blinded! All of a sudden he felt something. He is an experienced pilot. He is one of the most experienced here in Korea. He was the private assistant to the Samsung Corporation, etc, and he has the most flight time hours in Korea, etc.

This man, from his experience, he told us that they are trained to immediately pull up as soon as they hit a fog bank,, to pull out of the fog bank; that's what they're trained to do. And so he wanted to go to the right, to go to the soccer field, as you know, in front of the theological seminary.

As he was lifting up, all of a sudden he felt something from the back, he said. Something was pulling at the tail. The tail was hitting something. And as soon as he hit that, he knew that something was wrong. So he made the decision, "OK, I can't pull up now", because, as you know, helicopters can't incline when their nose is up. Helicopters have to first put their nose down, create velocity, come down and then can go up. Can you all imagine that? You can all visualize that, right? It has to do with this kind of things. But it was like this (tail down) because something was pulling on the tail. So he tried to move out of that and he lowered the nose to bring the velocity up so he could pull out, and so he went. All of a sudden, as he is dipping, all of a sudden, out of that one meter fog, he sees about 20 pine trees. 20 pine trees!

Now, if you know anything about helicopter crashes: This is the end, as the pilot was explaining. He thought this was the end of his life. The trees, at that velocity! There is a only plastic glass? only plastic is between him and the trees -- the trees become deadly weapons. Even one branch can pierce solid metal. And he literally thought, he's gone. He thought, "I'm gone! I see those trees. There're coming at me, those are deadly spears." He knew, "I'm dead!" He thought he was dead. They started moving at that velocity, the trees emerged, they started coming towards him, but all of a sudden, almost like from heaven, they started disappearing!! They started disappearing from in front of him! What was happening? The propeller blade was cutting the trees!!

Give God a round of applause! (Loud applause) Woooo! Do you understand?

Of course this site is going to be a sacred site. It's going to be a pilgrimage site in the future, absolutely. It is a huge victorious statement of True Parents' providential course and their victory as the providential savior.

But it was incredible! When you go there, there is decline of trees that are totally sliced, like a samurai cutting through bamboo. You understand? Totally sliced! He literally saw a highway open up before him. Trees, boom, boom, boom, boom, flying away! All of a sudden that helicopter hits the ground, boom. The first hit actually was the tail -- they count that as the first hit -- the second was this impact. So after the trees were cut, the helicopter went down and it hit the ground.

When it hit the ground, two passengers had their seat belts unbuckled. You understand the velocity of this helicopter. It can cover 100 meters within 0.3 seconds. Two people, Lee Sang Soo Ajoshi and Yoon Ki Byung Ajoshi had their seat belts unbuckled because they were radioing down to the cars to prepare for when True Parents would come off the plane. This is normal.

As they hit the ground, because it was rainy, they jumped up and struck a huge oak tree. That impact sent these two men flying forward from the back. They were in the back. They literally were sent flying forward. In the helicopter there are walls and there's a central passage way. At that velocity if they are thrown from the seat and they hit the wall, spinal injury! Over, it's over! Tremendous shock! There's no way they'll survive that impact.

Both of them flew right through the middle, Sang-soo ajoshi flew and fell down right next to True Father, and Mr Yoon fell -- flop! -- right on top of him. (Applause). Give it up for God!

Now this becomes even more amazing! I'll tell you why. Big impact, boom, hit the oak tree, oak tree fell! The helicopter spins because of the velocity, it turns to its right, it flies up four stories because of the impact. four stories! Do you understand? We're on the third floor, so that would mean one more story up. That's like eleven meters high. The helicopter flies up four stories. At this point one of the most dangerous things about a helicopter crash is when you lose control of the back propeller, the tail, which is the direction giver for the helicopter. It controls direction on the helicopter. That thing was lost! Because of the velocity of the propellers, the velocity will force the whole cabin to begin to spin. When the whole cabin begins to spin, there will be immense gravitation forces on the people inside. They will all pass out because of this force.

So the first danger is the cabin spinning, striking something, exploding; there's fuel, there are fuselage tanks on the bottom. If that hits something, explosion! If it spins, those risks become enormously high.

The helicopter strikes the oak tree, it jumps up four stories, and it comes down. Let me explain to you. There used to be an old farm field. So in Korea, because it's mountainous, they cut the mountains, and then there's a level field, and then there's a mountain, a level field and a mountain. Right? You've all seen this? They struck the first level. The oak tree which slowed it down, it spun this way, and as it was falling. There was a Y-shaped tree, and the tail of the helicopter was caught in the Y-shaped tree. Do you understand? The tree caught the tail. Because it got stuck in the Y-shaped tree the helicopter could not spin.

The second problem is... of course, if this happens... the blades are moving at hundreds of miles an hour! Those things are deadly. One strike... and anything will be cut in half. That was the biggest concern at that second. The blades were spinning, the tail was caught, and as it was coming down -- it drew a tremendous impact -- the blades then, because of the second incline and because this was a field -- it was soft mud -- so three of the blades, 18 meters long, shot into the second slope, boom, boom, boom, and stopped completely!! The power of those blades, brothers and sisters!! I want you to imagine, if a helicopter is spinning and it hits the ground, and those blades, rotating at that velocity, strike a rock, the helicopter body can be thrown. It can be thrown and explode.

So those blades were held tight, the Y-shaped tree held the tail tight and the helicopter just kind of boom boom boom boom boom, came down.

Amazing miracle? The door side was up! One of the most dangerous things, if you even survive a helicopter crash -- which is 90+ percent chance you do not -- if you do survive it, the next step is how you're going to get out. If you hit anything, metal bends like paper at that velocity, when you strike anything. If the door was bent, if it was damaged, everybody would be stuck in that helicopter.

As soon as they landed, everything is black, lights out, its total fog. The mechanic who is there at the door, he's disoriented, he was unconscious for one second. He said that he got up and he started reaching around. The first thing that he grabs is the door latch!!! (Applause) He grabs the door latch!! If you've been on a helicopter, there's no way that you can lift that thing with all its weight, it's extremely heavy, and the distance is quite long. I don't know how he could stretch out to do it. We talked to him, and he said, "I don't know how I lifted it. It was almost like somebody outside was opening the door!" So the door opens. The helicopter is now set in a little cradle, that little flat place between the mountains, right there, and that's when everybody started moving. That's when everybody starts trying to find their orientation, where are they, what's happening, we've got to get out!

Before that I want to mention a couple of things. If that helicopter did not strike that oak tree -- as I explained there are two inclines, there's a flat place where they landed? if it did not hit the oak tree it would not have slowed the helicopter down. Within 0.3 seconds, it would have jumped; it was heading straight forward. Up on the second platform is a rock the size of this piano. In 0.3 seconds it would have struck that rock, and the percentage of the fuselage exploding is extremely high, if a rock strikes that metal body.

Because of that oak tree... it spun the helicopter, slowed it down... then the Y tree, then the soft mountain and then the put down. You see, brothers and sisters, I call that first tree "Hyocha Namu," filial piety tree. When we think about True Family, we lost Hyo Jin Nim this year, and you know, despite all his own circumstances and the things that he had to overcome in his life, he had a filial heart for True Parents. That was undeniable. Nobody would deny that, and he truly offered his life as a condition; we believe that it was a sacrifice. He conditionally sacrificed himself. If he did not go just a couple of months ago True Parents would have been in tremendous danger.

In Korea there's the saying that the ninth year is the most dangerous. The ninth year is when everything becomes very dangerous because it's right about at a new start, a new beginning, a new fruition, etc.. Father is 89 in Korean age. It was on the 19th that this happened. The man who was flying the helicopter and saved them with his directional, he was 59 years old. So many nines coming up!

We saw in this crash so many incredible miracles. But we really saw that if it did not hit that oak tree, which I always call Hyo Jin Nim's tree, that's Hyo Jin Nim's tree... with his power he stopped that thing. He stopped it! And as it came down next was a Y-tree. The Y-tree was Young Jin Nim, I believe it. Why? It's a Y. He caught that tail! (Applause) That soft hill was Heung Jin Nim. He is a soft guy, you know. He caught those blades, boom, boom, boom! They were all doing Kung Fu training that day! (Laughter) Oh my God! Just incredible, absolutely incredible!

So when this was all happening there were some movie directors taking vacation on Chung Pyung Lake, a couple of movie directors, famous people in Korea. They look up; they see the helicopter coming down. We got a call at the HQ from this movie director. And they tell us, "We have a testimony for you. I saw something when I was fishing near Chung Pyung Lake." This is not our member, do you understand? He is not a Unificationist. He calls us and tells us, "I was fishing with my buddy and we saw this helicopter coming. We did not know who was in there, but I had a vision. All of a sudden I saw the helicopter encircled in a lotus flower rainbow." He's telling us this. And he said, "And then I saw all these things in white, flying around this helicopter." And he said, "First I thought they're birds. I thought they were birds." But I said, "How many doves are there in the sky today, flying near a helicopter?" And he said that he looked closer and that he saw people, forms, white garb, holding the lotus flower, and heading towards the Cheon Jeong Goong. This is the man calling us.

We had another sister that had a dream that Hyo Jin Nim was holding helicopters, was catching helicopters, just a couple of days before. He was a baby and he was catching little helicopter toys! He was practicing! So we heard all these things. The movie director came to the HQ. We have his testimony on video. He brought also his friend, an actor here in Korea, who also gave his testimony. He saw rainbows in the sky that day. And also very interesting: Ki Byung Ajoshi, who flew and flopped on top of Sang Soo Ajoshi, said that right before the impact he saw Hyo Jin Nim at the front of the plane. He said that he saw Hyo Jin Nim at the front of the plane!

You see, we can see all these things, tremendous miracles, from the cutting of the trees to the miraculous landing, the hit of the oak tree that saved them from striking the huge rock, the Y-tree stopping the helicopter spinning, then all the blades rotating at tremendous velocity into the hill, then the opening of the hatch. The first thing the guy did was opening the latch. He opens the latch and they come out, as soon as they make the second impact. This is what the helicopter pilot said. The helicopter pilot is not our member. He is not a Unificationist, but he told us that he is now going to join the Unification Church! (Clapping and cheers). Tell all your friends, brothers and sisters! I tell you why. This is what he said. This is what the man said, "I'm going to church now, and I'll tell you why. We can see all those miracles happened. None of those twigs struck one person..."

I forgot a huge thing. I can't believe I forgot this one thing: They hit the oak tree, they got caught in the Y-tree, and then the blades got into the mountain top. What happened when we looked at the site? There was a tree about this thick, that's like a spear, its cut. It came up right through the seat of the man who flew to the front. Do you understand what happened? The tree came up into his seat. If he was wearing his seat belt... you know, the first man, Sang Soo Ajoshi, that flew to the front, the first guy... if he was wearing his seat belt that tree would have come up and split him in half! He did not have his seat belt on, he flew forward, and a couple of seconds later, there is a huge tree sticking out of his chair! That was of course another miracle, I did forget that!

So all these things are piling up on top of each other. And so the pilot says... of course, he's going to join the church. We have an immediate influx of members joining the Unification Movement! I can see the headlines now! (Laughter). But what he said was this: They had the black box analyzed, which is the radio, the sounds on the plane, the video etc.. What they found is that in about 10 minutes everybody evacuated the plane. In about 10 minutes everybody was out! What they were explaining is that this is impossible. Military trained professionals after 20 years of helicopter crash training cannot evacuate a crashed helicopter within 10 minutes, everybody organized, coordinated, and out of the door! What happened was amazing!

This is what the pilot said, "See, usually when there is a crash, there is an instinct in the human mechanism, in the body, that says, 'I have to survive.' It's called fight or flight. 'You have to survive!' That's the first instinct you get as a human being when you are in danger. So what happens is: There is a phenomenon called crowding. Everybody rushes towards the door to save their own neck. And there's chaos. People are stepping on each other; people are stumping on each other. People are trying to get out, squeeze out of the door, and by that time... the helicopter usually explodes within three minutes of hitting the ground."

So he explained that there's this mob psychology that happens in a crash because of instinct. But this time, the door was opened after the impact, and the first thing everybody said on that helicopter was, "ABOJI!" Give it up! Give it up for True Father! (Applause). All those brothers and sisters on that helicopter did not think one second to save their own neck. Everybody's first priority was, "Where is True Father? Where is True Father?"

The men that were thrown to the front were the first ones, they literally just stood up. The plane was on the side, so Father was up on the ceiling, in his chair, hanging from his chair. They had to get up, take him down, put him on their backs and quickly evacuate. Father is 90 years old, brothers and sisters, 90 years old! Military specialists can't do this in 10 minutes! We had 90 year old True Father and baby children on that plane and got out in less than 10 minutes!

Father gets out. It took some time. Then Mother! Everybody ran to Mother, Won Joo Onni, Kim Sajang, he unbuckled her. Her foot was caught between metal that was bent. So they had to yank her foot out, and then they evacuated Mother. They put her on their backs. Mother was out! Then immediately after True Father and True Mother, then who next did they all call? They're not even thinking of their own necks. They're in this inferno. Next thing they call, "Where are the grandchildren?" Two of my children were on board, my daughter, our third boy, fourth child, was on board, and our cousin, our niece was on board.

True Father, they helped him out, True Mother they helped her out, and everybody grabbed the grandchildren, out, out, out! Run, run away! First we have to run because there are explosions. If there are explosions, everybody's gone. The pilot said that, as soon as True Father, True Mother and the grandchildren were out, it was like people just literally pouring out of the door, like in the military. Now I know why that Hoon Dok Hae training saves people's lives! (Laughter). These brothers and sisters were trained in Hoon Dok Hae for the last 20 years! They just evacuated one by one, boom boom boom, out of the door. Everybody was out. They escaped, ran to safety, ran down the hill. The thing was burning, boom, boom, there were bursts, fire, fire.

That's the picture of what's remaining of the wreck and there it is. We are standing on that second platform. There is a rock right behind us. Below us is the helicopter which is on that flat plateau and then there's another hill that comes towards the picture.

The grandchildren get out, chaos, burning. Everybody was one centered on True Parents. Everybody had clearly, "We're going to save True Parents first, not even think about my neck" The pilot saw that. He said, "That was a miracle!" He said, "There were incredible miracles, absolute miracles, the fuselage did not burst etc., all those things, miracles, but what I witnessed was absolutely miraculous."

There is something in the Unification tradition, something about our faith that even in that kind of emergency situation, where there is mob psychology, "let me survive" psychology, still everybody was able to think of the other first. Everybody was thinking of True Father, True Mother, the children. And the pilot said, that's why he's going to join this movement! (Applause)

We really saw a tremendous miracle this week, even in our family. All the brothers and sisters came out to support True Parents, all of us with one heart, one thought, one mind; we are here to support True Parents. We're here to receive all the messages from all the brothers and sisters from all over the world, just expressing our gratitude. All we have is gratitude!

This was an unbelievable miracle! To believe that this is coincidence requires more faith than to believe that it is a miracle. (Applause) One miracle after another! One incredible event after another! Unbelievable! Just unbelievable! When I saw the site I had nothing to say. Even people, very skeptical about Chung Pyung or the spirit world, when they saw that site, they had nothing to say.

True, tremendous, tremendous miracles! That's the only way we can explain it. That's the only way. Some of the aviation experts said, "There are invisible hands around that Reverend!" Just unbelievable!

What can we learn today, brothers and sisters? We can learn that God is a supernatural God. We can learn that this is a tremendous miracle in our tradition. Nobody can deny it. It was broadcast around the world. Everybody saw it. Everybody saw this miracle. When everybody also understands the story behind this miracle, what actually happened, of course, it's even going to shed more light.

The greatest miracle of course is the faith of our brothers and sisters on that plane. See, I saw True Father acting like he was really an amazing Superman, just incredible, just never stopping. Just a couple of days after he was doing Hoon Dok Hae, three hours, five hours. And we see the brothers and sisters on the plane. Mr Yang said today at Hoon Dok Hae to all the brothers and sisters, "We know that every single one of you would have done the same thing on that plane." He said that, we know that. We have confidence that we have that kind of tremendous ability, a tremendous faith, that allows us even to overcome ourselves, our instinct, and to help another person. He said, "I know that any one of our brothers and sisters would have done that on that plane."

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn? We were all on that plane that day. Every single Unification family member, from old to young. We were on that plane that day. Everybody around the world was shocked. Everybody was trying to figure out, "What's happened to Rev Moon? Is he OK?" All of our family, we were on that plane that day. We experienced a miracle, we experienced a true miracle!

We saw that attendance, that amazing attendance to True Parents. We saw that from those heroes on that plane. And if we go forward with that kind of faith while facing our destiny, facing our futures, facing our own lives and the obstacles there, then I do believe that every day we will have more illumination and we will have more peace. And brothers and sisters, we will have a miraculous life like the Superman and Superwoman of Heaven and Earth. Check this one out (True Parents as Superman and Superwoman on the screen)! Superwoman! Give it up! Give it up for True Parents! (Loud applause and cheers). Amazing! God be blessed! God bless our Unification family! Aju! God bless True Parents! OK Mansei! Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Ending Prayer:

Brothers and sisters let's come together! Let's join for prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day today. Father, we have encountered a miracle in our tradition. Father, your children, Father, we have moved through the course of indemnity. We have served our True Parents, attended them. Father, they have walked the path of blood, sweat and tears, Father, they have sacrificed everything for humanity. Father, even the sacrifice of our brother that went to the spiritual world. Father, we know that those conditions were called, those conditions were heard, Father. And Father, around the world, everybody on this planet realized that there is something amazing, something providential, Father, that your invisible hands are protecting True Parents, our family.

Father, each one of our brothers and sisters on that plane, each one of our Unification brothers and sisters, all around that world, Father, we were in that plane today with Mr Kim with Mr Yoon. Father we were on that plane with Won Joo, we were on that plane with Father and Mother, with the children. Father, all of us, as Unification brothers and sisters, we were there, Father. And Father, we know that in that situation we would do the same thing, Father. That is the tremendous power of your children, Father.

Thank you so much for giving us this miracle. Father, through this we realize that we are reborn. True Father went into the inferno of death, Father, and overcame even death. Father, we saw it with our own eyes. The world saw it. It is impossible to explain. Father, it is Your doing, it is your goodness. We are so grateful for this miracle. Thank You, Father, for showing us this to renew ourselves, to renew our faith.

And Father, allow us to truly live that blessed life that you have blessed us to live. Let us have more victory, let us have more illumination, let us have more peace in this world. And Father, let us be a blessing to this world for ever and ever as Your children.

Father, we pray these things as one family around this world in our names as central blessed families, thanking you so much! AJU! (Aju!) Thank You, Father! 

Sermon: Being A Hero Every Day

Hyung Jin Moon
July 19 2008
Headquarters Church, Chongpa-Dong, Seoul, Korea
Transcribed by: Beartice Clyburn
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcoming Remarks: Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters! (Good afternoon!)

Outside it is raining today. The soothing sound of the rain really refreshes our hearts and our minds. We are always happy to welcome you in this sanctuary, and for those who are joining with us via internet we are welcoming you as well.

Welcome sisters and welcome brothers!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Brothers and sisters, welcome today!

I want to read from the Cheon Seong Gyeong, and I want to share with you from page 326. Father says here, "Since we are born of love, it follows that we must walk the path of love, and ultimately pass to the spiritual world for love."

Brothers and sisters, True Father teaches us that when we look at our lives and we see how much preciousness we can bring to this world, it starts even before we are born. And so in our lives, in our actions, in our thoughts, in the words that we share with others, it is so important to exude these qualities, the quality of love, caring, looking towards another, helping a friend in need. These many, many qualities that True Father teaches us really allow us to be able to share our hearts and uplift others who are around us.

Brothers and sisters whenever we come to service, I always want to remind you guys that we are not out here just to observe service. I really want to invite you to participate, to sing the songs of worship, to pray whenever we're praying together, to join into the celebration of the worship service.

Brothers and sisters it's always such to joy to see you guys here, and one thing we must always remember whenever we start the new week, is this: We have to start with the right perspective. That perspective is seeing ourselves not necessarily from our own viewpoint, but seeing ourselves from the highest perspective, the most glorious perspective, that is God's perspective. When we see ourselves in that perspective, we will see somebody with value, we will see somebody with unique, absolute, unchanging, eternal, cosmic value. When we see ourselves in that light, then we may have ups and downs in the day during the week, but we can always come back to that assurance that we have value in our lives, that we contribute, that we will be a blessing to this world.

Brothers and sisters, it's so important that we start the new week with that. Maybe you had something in the last week that didn't go totally according to plan. I want to invite you to just let that go, and we want to start this new week with a new vision for your life, a new perspective for this new coming week, and every week we want to keep growing, every week we're going to have more VIP in our lives, more victory, more illumination and more peace. We're going to share and spread that blessing to people around us.

Thank you so much, brothers and sisters for coming, and once again, it's a great Saturday and we're not here only to observe but let's participate and have a great worship service. Once again welcome!

Yeon Ah Nim's Words:

My husband and I had an interview from a magazine. In Korea we already have done dozens of interviews. Usually one or two people came to do the interview. But this time five people came to interview us about our ministry. And as they came in they told us that two of the people actually flew in from Japan to meet us. So I was a little bit surprised. We didn't know that we are that famous. (Applause) So I was kind of surprised. Japan has far different circumstances than Korea.

There is more persecution in general. So I was kind of nervous and worried about what kind of questions would be asked.

About an hour later one lady who flew in from Japan to meet us, that lady showed us a white note pad that she usually carries around, and on the note pad, there was a Unification Church sign and inside the note pad there was True Parents' picture. So I was really puzzled. I thought she came here to really interrogate us, but here she is with a Unification Church note pad and True Parents' picture. I was so confused. She finally told us that she is of course a reporter from this magazine, but at the same time she is a Korean language teacher in Japan. She said, apparently 90% of her students are our church members. And she said they are such wonderful children. And she said they always talk about True Parents and our ministry.

Brothers and sisters, we can easily think that our community is separated from society, but we are living in society. So when our children have a strong faith and become successful in society, that glory will eventually and ultimately be returned to Heavenly Father and True Parents.

Brothers and sisters, we love you so much and we believe in you. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed upon us. Father, on this summer day we can hear the sound of the beautiful rain outside. But Father, inside our hearts there is sunshine. Father, inside our hearts we are being refreshed by your soothing rain. Father, thank You so much for bringing us together from all different nations, Father, gathering together as one family here. Father, what a special sight! What an amazing occasion to be here together on such a day. Father we are celebrating You on this beautiful Saturday. It is the beginning of our week spiritually here. Father, we pray that You may fill us with Your strength, that You may fill us with Your perseverance, that You may fill us with Your victory, Father. And as we leave this place, Father, we pray that this new coming week we will have more victory, more illumination, Father, that we will make more peace in our lives.

Father, let us not stop there but truly be a blessing to this world. We are praying for all those blessings to blessed central families who are scattered across this world, Father, in every single nation. Father, Your seeds of hope, Your seeds of heart, Your seeds of love are taking root in every nation, Father.

Thank You so much for this day. Thank You for bringing us together. And Father, we pray with an everlasting and overflowing love, and we thank You so much for this time together.

Praying in our names, as blessed central families, Aju

Hyung Jin Nim's interesting story:

Thank you so much. Please be seated. If you can be seated, pleased be seated. Brothers and sisters, every time we'd like to start, before our service, with a little interesting story. And I heard a little story about little Alex. He was sitting out in the school yard one day, and he was exclaiming in his big voice, holding a Bible, "Praise be to God! Praise be to God!"

His teacher came on and said, "Hey Alex, what are you doing out here?" and he said, “I’m praising God!" and he said, "But why are you praising God?" Alex said, "Well you know, God split open the Red Sea, and Moses passed through the whole Red Sea."

And the teacher said, "Ah! Well, you know, Alex, actually if you look at science, in parts of the Red Sea it's only about ten inches deep, and in low tide, the waters go away and you can actually walk across the Red Sea. It's not really a big miracle like the Bible says, it's just pure science." Alex heard that, and he had a little doubt in his eyes, and he hung his head down low, and all of a sudden his eyes widened, and he opened up and said, "Praise be to God! God is great!" The teacher saw this and said, "Alex you just heard my scientific explanation, why are you praising God?" And he said, "God drowned the Egyptians in ten inches of water!"

Hyung Jin Nim's Sermon:

Brothers and sisters, today I'd like to talk to you about being a hero every day. If we are to live the blessed life, then we must be heroic in our day to day lives. See, God never created us to be ordinary people, just normal people, or people living through this world. He created us to truly be extraordinary in our lives. And if we think that we're worth nothing or that we have no special talent, then we are already taking our potential away, we're already stealing that heroic destiny away.

It's so important that we must choose to have heroic thoughts in our minds. We must choose to be a hero every day. If we do that, we understand that it is a choice to live heroically every day, then we will find ourselves with more VIP. It's so easy -- maybe when we look at our self in the mirror -- to say, "I am not a hero. Maybe Moses or I've heard stories of Hercules or Superman, or, you know, Jesus, these big figures, True Parents. These people are heroes. I'm no hero! There's no way I can be compared to them."

In 1949 a famous scholar named Joseph Campbell wrote a book called, "The hero with a thousand faces." He talked about something called a mono-myth in this work. He basically looked at many many cultures and saw that the hero stories of all these different cultures tended to fit a certain pattern. He outlined and delineated a five step pattern of the hero

He said, that in the first part the hero is called to an adventure. The hero is a normal person. He does not know that he has anything special. We can see this in the Lord of the Rings. You may see up there. Frodo Baggins, just a plain old Hobbit, doing his own farming, doing his own thing, nothing special, just an ordinary hobbit person. But he is called to that adventure.

At first he may reject that adventure. At first he may say, "I can't do it. It's too big. I'm not fit for that role." But he pursues and takes on the role towards the adventure.

The second part that Campbell outlined is that there's a road of trials. Every hero must face the road of trials. Every hero must go through bitterness, challenges, obstacles. They must overcome those things.

The third part of the hero is achieving the victory, the goal or what he called the boon. Understanding the great victory, the enlightenment, obtaining the special item like in this movie, the hero eventually overcomes and is victorious.

But that's not the end. The hero then, in the fourth step, returns to the ordinary world, back to his hometown. And here we see Frodo returning to his home. He's a huge hero. He just saved the world, but he comes back, and he's just normal Frodo, back to his ordinary place.

Number five, he comes back into the ordinary world and shares the boon. He shares the victory, he shares the enlightenment, he shares the experience, he shares the wisdom.

The hero begins as an ordinary looking person, nothing special about him! He's called to adventure, he "missions," he goes forth. He goes through the troubles and trials. And as the hero's failing so many times, the hero questions himself. He questions and doubts himself, "I can't do this. I'm not big enough for this task. I'm not the person for this. They chose the wrong one. I can't save this world." He continually doubts himself. But in the story, as you saw on the third part, he is successful.

But notice, I want you to notice that the hero is never successful from the beginning. Never! The hero has to endure hardships. He has to pass through the challenges to achieve the victory in the third step. Let us realize that the hero also may doubt himself at times, but he will never give up on himself.

In the same way, even in our lives, if it is true that we are to be heroic in our destinies, then we must realize that we may not be instantly successful at whatever we put our mind to. We may not have instant victory. There may be trials and tribulations that we may have to overcome to obtain that boon. But let us remember that even though we may doubt ourselves, let us never, ever give up on ourselves. God is cheering for us to be a hero in our every day lives.

In Zen Buddhism, there is a story which is called, "The 12 bulls." It's a very important story in that tradition, very important. It outlines the natural course of a seeker's path. And in the story, there is a seeker. He wants to obtain a great wisdom, a great boon, a great victory. He goes forth. He hears of a mystical bull that is out there, something that he can catch and obtain. He goes forth, and he notices these footprints in the sand. He notices, as he seeks more and more, that the footprints spread. There are not only footprints on the ground, there are footprints on the trees. There are footprints in the sky. There are footprints on the clouds, and as he looks in the mirror, there are footprints on himself.

And then all of a sudden, the seeker gets a glimpse of that bull. He sees it for the first time, but it quickly disappears. Once again, he tries to search and sees it again, eventually being able to capture it. He throws a noose around, captures it and he has to wrestle it, he has to tame it, he has to fight it for it to calm down. Then he's able to control it. He's able to ride on the bull. But then something very interesting happens. All of a sudden, as he's riding on the bull, playing his flute, immediately, the huge, magical bull completely vanishes, disappears under him. And he falls to the ground, and he reaches the highest stage of enlightenment.

What is this story talking about? He realizes that the bull is his own enlightened original mind. It's his own divinity that's inside, and once he reaches oneness with that there is no need for him to chase an external bull. He realizes that it is already within him, the hero, that magical bull is already within him.

After that he returns back to the market place, back to the ordinary, mundane world, nothing magical, just the same old, same old. But in his mind everything is different. In his view he can see a totally magical world. Normal people may walk around. They may not see anything special, but he can see a new world. He sees this with a whole new perspective. With everybody he sees their potential of being a truly God-like person. He sees every single person in a totally new way. In every day life he practices heroic compassion, wisdom, at the market place, at school, at work, in the family, wherever he may go.

You see, when God created us, He created us to be heroes. Every morning when we are dressing to go to work or to school, we have to say, "I'm going to be a hero today." We can't say, "Oh my God! I'm so tired, I'm not going to do so well today. That co-worker is going to make fun of me today, and I really don't have the energy." No! We've got to turn that off. We've got to turn on a new heroic radio. We have to say, "Every day, all my life, when I get up, I'm going to declare, that I'm going to have victories today, I'm going to live with heroic compassion today, I'm going to have experience, going to gain wisdom, and I'm going to return that back." You see, every time when we look at our lives, we can see a pattern in our every day lives if we look closely. We can see and remind ourselves that we are called on an adventure. Every day is a new adventure. Every day we can see that we need to accomplish more VIP, more victory, more illumination, and more peace.

But in the same day, we will also face the road of trials. We will face people who talk behind our back, people who may not support us, people who say one thing and say another thing to other friends, people who may be cursing us behind us. We may encounter people who try to actually block us from progressing. There may be those things, but remember the third step. As long as we persevere, as long as we don't let those smaller minded people get a hold of us, make us give up, as long as we persevere through that, the hero always is able to be victorious, is able to achieve the boon, the victory, the experience, the wisdom.

And in the fourth step, think about your life, every day. You come back home, you come back to your family, you come back to your dorm, you come back to your student environment, and that's your ordinary home, that's your base. You come back, having gained experience that day, having gained a new insight, a new enlightenment, maybe a new creative idea. And when we come back, let us not only come back, but let us see this ordinary world, too, as full of potential. Let us come back not only to rest, but to come back to share, to help apply the wisdom and the enlightenment, to take what we've learned and help others in our home base, in our home church community, in our larger church community, to help somebody else be victorious.

I met a young blessed child who was doing church work, many years ago. He was a very young gentleman, he was just out of high school, and I think he had just done a year of college, etc.. He was working on a very intense church related activity and all a sudden he was in a severe car accident. The person driving, one of his friends, passed away in that accident. And he had his legs severely injured. He was put into the hospital. People thought he would be permanently crippled. He, of course, was told he had to use a cane and work through the rehabilitation process.

But the boy had something very interesting happen to him. His father was a missionary in China, and all of a sudden the father got a phone call. The phone call said, "I am sorry to tell you this, but your son just passed away." They mistook the son for the other child. The father was totally shocked. He was totally puzzled. He could not understand this at all. He quickly jumped on a plane, quickly flew to the States.

He ran to the hospital. He was expecting to see his own son there on the hospital bed, maybe under a cover, maybe totally covered, ready to go to the morgue. But he walked in and there his boy was sitting up on a table, sitting up in his chair! But of course his legs were injured. The father was so relieved. But of course, the father was ready to get angry. He was saying, "What happened? Why was he so careless, etc.?"

But the young boy was really heroic in his answers. He said to his father, "I'm not going to let myself spiral into negativity. I can easily fall into a victim mentality. I can easily blame my friend for driving poorly. I can easily blame the church. I can easily blame God for not protecting us that day. But you know what, dad, I'm going to choose to do a different thing. I'm going to choose to thank you for caring for me. I'm going to choose to thank my friend that was driving, I'm going to choose to thank God who saved my life."

See, I hadn't seen this young man in many years. I once met him in Washington, then again I met him in Beijing. We spent about an hour conversing, and all of a sudden, after many years -- it was actually this past Sunday -- I saw this young man with a cane coming into the church. I said, "I definitely have seen that young man before!" He came up to me and said, "Hyung Jin Nim, I shared a one hour conversation with you in Beijing and in Washington, if you remember." And I said, "How can I forget?"

This man really inspired me during that time, but it was very interesting, because both times when I met him, he was alone. But this time he brought two very important friends. He brought a taller lady, that I thought was maybe his sister. He introduced her and he was blessed and that was his wife, and not only that, she has a baby on the way. When I saw that I was so amazed! I really thought, he has very injured legs, he has to use a cane, he has to hobble when he walks. And many many different types of people, when they see that kind of person would not choose to be blessed.

When I saw his wife that day, it really moved us, it really called us to a whole new level. We noticed that she really was heroic in her own faith life. She incidentally had a brother who passed in a car accident many many years ago. And so she had compassion for those who were injured in those kinds of accidents. One thing happened, and eventually they were able to get matched and come together, and she totally accepted that blessing. She accepted it. She said, "I'm going to be great in this marriage. I'm going to be happy in my marriage, I'm going to be successful in this marriage."

When I saw them, they were so amazing. I was so surprised, I was inspired. They were so positive, so inspiring, so alive despite their difficult circumstances. And I told them before I left, "Hey! Don't be surprised if you end up in my sermon." And brothers and sisters, here they are in my sermon! Let's give them a big round of applause! Come on! (Applause)

See, these are people within our community. These are people in our Unification family. They're in our Unification family. They're right amongst us. We may walk by them and think they are normal in their minds and their hearts but if we look closely, we see heroic living, we see heroic mindsets. We see mindsets that never get weighed down, that overcome first in the heart, in the mind. When I saw them I truly was inspired.

True Father got his calling at the age of 16 and began his heroic adventure. He faced the bitterest road of trials, imprisoned, tortured, left for dead but he kept on fighting for God with true love, and he was victorious.

We have brothers and sisters and Unification church communities in more than 180 nations of this world. When our family did the world speaking tour, we went to all sorts of different countries. My sister did so many countries in South America. My brother-in-law did countries in Europe. He did the Bahamas, and many times we reflect together. We say, "It's amazing! We've been to different countries. We see blessed children from all around the world."

My older brother always tells me, "I remember, when I first got off that plane in the Bahamas, I thought there would be one brother there." He came out of that plane, and he noticed a whole group of little Bahamian boys, all tanned and waving Unification flags, saying,"True Parents, True Family." This boggled his mind. He said, "It's incredible, the foundation that True Parents have made."

See, when I studied religion, I found that no religious founder has ever accomplished this much in their life time. Only True Parents, compared to all the religious founders, have accomplished this incredible foundation that extends all over this world. (Applause)

But see, following the heroic path, they don't only go and achieve the great victory. They come back to the every day life. They come back to the every day reality. I see them coming back at 89 years of age, still working extremely hard, getting up at 2:00 am every day to start the day with spiritual practice. And they never forget to notice the ordinary.

I see them, and many of you may have witnessed it, in the morning when their grandchildren come out. And Father may be talking about something really serious. And the grandchildren come and they come running and screaming, and he goes, "Whoo, wee!" He's like a little child again. And we can see him just totally embracing that moment, totally being one with the basic ordinary life.

And you can see him, even at each meal, thanking God, praying, and I see him crying over even breakfast. He's praying, just thanking so much God for the victory. I see them being grateful for just being alive, being able to spend time with members every day. And we shared a beautiful dinner with them, just a couple of days ago. They're so happy to see their children, so proud of our sister here who graduated with four honors degrees from Harvard, at the same time, at one graduation. So proud! So proud in seeing their children working.

They're so encouraging, and they encourage us to be the best at what we can do, whatever we can do. They empower us to be the humble hero. They share their wisdom, they share their enlightenment. They don't only dwell in the realm of victory and enlightenment. They come back down to share with us the wisdom, to share with us the strength that helped them achieve those things.

Brothers and sisters, when you do succeed in life, it's so important to remember that the true hero returns back to share. He comes back with the victory to the ordinary world, to every day reality, back to the work place, back to home. He comes back as a hero. But when he comes back to his home, he may not be received as hero. But there, he humbly shows, he humbly teaches, he humbly shares his experiences, his victories, his enlightenments.

Brothers and sisters, in the same way, in our lives as well, as we succeed, let's remember to share those experiences, to share the victories, the enlightenment, also the resources, with your own personal family, with your church family as well. Help people in our church community succeed. Help, mentor somebody. Bring a new light into somebody's life. If you can do that, you will help others also live every day like a true hero as well.

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? Like the hero, you will be called every day, and you will face adversity, every day. But you will overcome, you will be victorious and you can return to share and empower others. See, we were designed by Almighty God to live this kind of pattern, not only to live ordinary, but truly live extraordinarily. We were designed to go through this path, to really be able to come back and share that wisdom.

Every day we can remember our calling. Every day when we live with professionalism, every day when we go out and show our best, then we are changing society's impression of our community, of our True Parents. Every day we are changing the world with our actions, with our work. Every day when we face adversity, we can face it with bravery. We can overcome. We can find the bull in our life, we can remember that the true hero lies within. True Parents are always with us, and then we can return to our home base, not necessarily as a huge victor, but coming back as an ordinary brother and sister, come back to share that wisdom, to help another person increase, to help another person succeed, to help another person find victory.

See, we will walk the hero's journey. Remember the hero, the Hercules, the Samson, the Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, all these amazing heroes, especially our True Parents, the "Superman of Heaven and Earth." Brothers and sisters, in the same way, we will find all of us, walking on the hero's path.

If we do that, if we understand that True Parents are always within us, we will find ourselves with more victory, more illumination and more peace, and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live.

Brothers and sisters, if you can receive it, give it up for True Parents! (Very loud applause) 

Unbeatable Natural Subjugation

Hyung Jin Moon
July 12, 2008
Headquarters Church, Chungpadong Seoul
Transcribed by: Pamela Stein
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcome Remarks: Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters. I'm sure God and True Parents are really happy to see you guys in this sanctuary. We're always honored to have you in this sanctuary. And for those who are joining us via internet, we're welcoming you as well. Welcome brothers and welcome sisters.

Hyung Jin Nim:

Welcome brothers and sisters. I want to share with you today from Cheon Seong Gyeong, page 328, and Father says here, "The love of God is love for the sake of others. Love that seeks to live for others. How did the universe begin? It began from the point of rotation. All existing things by their intrinsic nature have to rotate. And what can keep on rotating forever? The love that is willing to give eternally, that is eternal love, will keep rotating forever." I want to draw your attention to this one statement, "The love that is willing to give eternally.”

You see, what Father is telling us is that love is not something that we may feel or something that we may necessarily receive from another, it is something that we must be willing to give. It is something that we must choose to share. It is something that we have to make a determination, a conscious decision, to hand away or hand to somebody. See, Father is saying to us that really we have to be proactive in our life. Related to true love he's saying that in order for it to exist eternally, we have to continually choose to let it exist eternally.

And I want to ask you all -- when we think about our own lives, when we're thinking about the people around us, our loved ones or our family members, our precious friends and relatives, the people in our lives -- what element, what part of our life, can we be willing, be more proactive in, to invest into our children, and to encourage brothers and sisters, etc.

Brothers and sisters whenever we come out to the service, it's not that we are coming out to observe service, but I really want to invite you to be participating in service. We want to pray with you. We want to meditate with you. We also want to sing songs of praise with you. And really we're here to give our hearts, allow this initial investment in this week to be one of love, one of respect, honor, and whenever we give those things to God, He always returns them back to us in our week. They always find a way back to us as we send them out to Him.

Brothers and sisters once again it's such a joy to see you all here, really beginning the new week. Hey! We start on Saturday! Fantastic! We start one day early; so we're one day younger then, that's even better.

Brothers and sisters, it's always good to see you here. And let's really have a participatory service today. Let's really have a great service. We're here with True Parents, with God. We're here in their presence. Let's really give it our all today. That will return to us in this coming week. Thanks brothers and sisters.

Yeon Ah Nim's Message:

One day my husband told me that he's like a cloud. He comes when he's needed, when there's work but when the work is done he moves on. So I told him, "You know, Appa it's been only two months since you became the World President of this movement, so you don't think it's too early to say such a thing?" I asked him that. His answer was this, "It is important for one to know what one has to do in the short run but it is also important or even more important for one to know what one has to do in the long run."

And he told me about Asian gardening. Some of you may know that my husband likes Asian gardening because he mentioned it once in his sermon. His favorite part of Asian gardening is the rock arrangement and especially right after the rain the rock becomes most beautiful, he says, because its texture, its color and its shine all become different and its print becomes more vivid and clear. That's why he likes that part so much.

He said he's like the cloud that brings fresh rain on True Parents' rock so that our precious True Parents' rock can shine magnificently in its true color in front of everybody. Brothers and sisters we're also that cloud. Let us also bring that refreshing rain on Heavenly Father's and True Parents' rock. We always love you and we believe in you. Aju!

Interesting Story:

I heard a very interesting story. It was about a little boy named Alex, and he was one day in his grandfather's library. On his granddaddy's desk there was an old Bible. Little Alex went over and picked up the Bible and was flipping through it. In the chapter of Genesis an old leaf that granddaddy uses as a book mark fell out. All of a sudden, Alex was overjoyed. He picked up that leaf and he put it in the Bible, and he ran to his mom, and said "Mommy, mommy, look what I found"! Mommy saw this and said, "Yes, of course, that's grandfather's bookmark for his Bible." And little Alex said "Mom it's not a bookmark! I found it in the book of Genesis!" "Honey that is a bookmark. It's simply a bookmark; he has used it for many years." He said, "Mommy, it's not a bookmark. I found it in the book of Genesis and it's Adam's underwear!" (Laughter)

Main Sermon of Hyung Jin Nim:

Brothers and Sisters, today I'd like to talk to you about the unbeatable natural subjugation. Do you enjoy that title? In order to live the blessed life, we must learn to harness the power of natural subjugation. True Father teaches that natural subjugation is the only way, the only way, to overcome the Cain type world. That means simply that it is the only way to overcome people that may be against you, or people who don't believe in you. It is the only way to bring to natural subjugation, through that power. It is the only way to turn somebody around.

It is not necessarily dramatic, not necessarily showy or loud, but it is consistent. It is constant, diligent, humble and persevering. And here's the key: The friend, the closest friend, of natural subjugation is time. Learning to apply natural subjugation in our lives is key for the blessed life.

Confucius taught how there are three types of filial children. The first type of filial child takes care of his parents. He attends his parents. He attends his parents' physical need, their clothing, their health, their food, etc. The second level filial child does not bring shame to his or her parents.

Confucius then talked about the highest type of filial son or daughter. That is the type of child who may not be able to physically attend his parents, but he goes out and brings glory to the parents' name.

See, in the same way, in our faith life, when we become better and better filial children, more victorious in our lives, it's so important that we become this third type of filial child. And we do this by gaining the respect of the world, bringing the world to understand the strength of our community, the power of our potential, the goodness, and the honesty that is here, that is alive in True Parents' community. And we do this by truly excelling in whatever we do, by really exceeding anybody's standard of success.

A very close Buddhist monk friend of mine once described a metaphor. In the Buddhist tradition, and of course -- I've also studied Indian religions -- it's also present in Indian religions, there is the metaphor of the lotus flower. In the Indian tradition this is a very powerful and important metaphor for enlightenment. The seed must usually descend into the dark waters, into very muddy waters. The seed must go into the cold dark mud; it has to be surrounded by that dirty water. The seed has to fight. It has to take everything that it can gain from the mud, anything from that environment that it can receive in order to give itself substance and nurture so that it can bloom. It has to pass through the mud. It has to pass through the water, where there are all sorts of dangerous obstacles. There could be fish, there could be other things that may strike it and block it's pathway toward the surface.

But eventually, over time, with perseverance, with never giving up, the seed is able to reach above the water surface, and the lilies bloom. If you know anything about lotus lilies, they are totally waterproof. As you drop water on them, it bounces off. They're completely waterproof lilies. It starts in a certain environment and eventually becomes a shield for that environment. It eventually changes that environment. It protects the things that are in there as well. Then the flowers come. They bloom not on the surface, not in the water, they bloom outside the water. They completely transcend that world and they bloom in utter beauty. If you've seen the lotus flower, it's really one of the most beautiful flowers.

Now when we think about this metaphor it's so important that we understand that God created us to be this kind of beautiful flower, this kind of beautiful blossom, in this world. He never created us to be little water weeds, lake weeds, on the bottom, saying, "I can't go into the dirty mud. If I go in there, I'm never going to get out; I'm only going to grow two inches." No! We have to start thinking, "Wait a minute. I can go in there, I can still succeed, I can come out, I can shine, I can transcend that environment and bring beauty to that environment."

See, in the same way, when we gain respect from society -- we have the talent, we have the brains, we have the potential in our community -- when we understand that when we gain the respect of society by natural subjugation, not by force, not by might, but by the spirit of hard work, the spirit of persevering, the spirit of professionalism, etc, then we are able to bring back glory to True Parents, then we are able to allow that lotus flower to bloom, and in that lotus flower we can uplift and raise the name of True Parents and our Unification Church community.

Really, it is now the time, brothers and sisters. God doesn't want us to hide any more. It is time for us to be confident in ourselves. We have plenty to offer to society. We have so much talent. We have so much potential. I see so many talented people, so many talented individuals that are just ready to bloom. And it's so important that we understand that now is the time. We are now at a stage in our history that we can now step up to the next level. We may think, "OK, now we must go out, we must fight the world, we must do loud rallies and beat drums and sound trumpets."

But, brothers and sisters, that's not the real way to earn long term respect. In order to earn real long term respect from our community, we must be able to succeed at whatever we do. That may be succeeding in school if you're a young person. It may be succeeding in business if you are a business man. It may be succeeding in your ministry if you are a minister, if you are involved in the church community. It may be succeeding as a scientist, as a parent. Whatever it is that we do, we show that we have a standard of excellence, we live lives of integrity, we Unification Church members have something to offer this world.

And the only way to do that is by this power of natural subjugation. There is no other way to do it; there is no other possible avenue in order to gain the other person's respect. I've heard so many voices that say, “But if the blessed children get too successful they'll leave the church. That's what happens. If they get too successful, they end up leaving, they don't end up contributing back to the church."

But personally I don't feel that our blessed children are that self-oriented, and that they will throw away their parents' tradition, their parents' blood, sweat and tears when they get one opportunity. I believe that they are much more loyal than we think. "Well, society is dangerous; it has all sorts of temptations, all sorts of evil. They'll never make it, they are too pure," we may say.

But remember the story of Moses. God sent a little baby into the Pharaoh's palace, the heart of decadence, the heart of oppression in that Egyptian environment. He sent that baby right into the middle of that, to be able to naturally subjugate that Egyptian community. And eventually Moses became one of the key providential players in the providential time line.

"Well, they'll fall to society's pressure; they'll live fallen lives if they are exposed to society!" But remember, look at the story of Joseph. God had Joseph go through all sorts of ordeals, he was sold into slavery, he was sent to prison for three years for a crime that he never committed. Why did God put him through all those ordeals? He was training Joseph, making Joseph be the one to be able to win the heart of the Pharaoh, be able to win, by natural subjugation, the respect of the Egyptian community.

Eventually Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt. And at that time, at that point, that is when the Egyptian people started to recognize the beauty, the potential, of that Israel community.

See, our blessed children are doing the same. In the past when our blessed children really felt that they needed time away from the church, they went out into the world, and really succeeded. I've met blessed children that have succeeded in the work force, that have been out there ten years, fifteen years, enormously successfully, hugely successful. And I see these blessed children, having a desire to want to come back. They want to participate, they want to start investing in their community. It's not enough to just have personal success.

They tell me, "I'm just not content having personal success. I have plenty of financial security, I have plenty of family happiness, but I just want to contribute more. I want to be able to make an impact on people's lives. I want to invest in my own community for my children."

And I see this kind of amazing people starting to come back. And I see people who are starting to nurture their own talents, their potentials, trying to ready themselves to really naturally subjugate, to learn how to earn the respect of society.

And when we think about that, we can see that when we try natural subjugation, it's not a fast thing. We may say, "I've tried. I've tried to work in the outside environment. I've been trying to compete against people that are 'in the outside'. I've been doing it for one or two years, and still nothing is happening. I'm not able to naturally subjugate them."

Remember that one of the keys of natural subjugation is the power of time. It usually takes three to five years, experts say, for somebody to start earning the respect of a community, especially if that person is new in that community. It's so important that we understand that right at the three year point so many people give up, right when they are about to be recognized, right when they are about to earn the respect of that community.

We have to remember that one of the keys of natural subjugation is consistency, is time, is persevering over a duration of time, not only for one or two years, not shining for only one or two years, but continually shining, every year improving yourself, every year accumulating more success, etc.

One CEO told me like this -- he is a Korean CEO -- he said, "People with real success can understand the Divine Principle." He's an outside person, he just joined our membership. He's a CEO, very successful; he worked at huge firms here in Korea. And he said, "I'm a very successful individual, and I understand Principle. When you guys talk about true love, when you talk about naturally subjugating, that's a very important principle in my own leadership skill."

"People with real success," he explained, "understand that there are those who create great value for an organization and that over time, if they continue to create that kind of value, they will be promoted in a fair and just organization. In the modern world we have very fair and just organizations, unlike in the feudal societies of the past."

And I'm so proud of my brother, and my brother-in-law and my sister here, who are fighting that battle. My brother Kook Jin Nim, as you all know, he's out there on the business side. He is fighting that battle of faith, he is fighting for the UC community, and he’s fighting to earn the respect of the business community here in Korea. He just met with the SBS and MBC presidents, and they were telling me how the MBC president was totally amazed how he turned around the business. He brought that business portfolio from a hundred million dollars loss per year to a five million profit in a matter of three years.

When the MBC president and SBS president heard that, they were totally blown away. He's starting to gain respect in the business community among the CEOs here in Korea. And when I see that I'm so proud of him. He's fighting day in and day out. Everyday he goes to work, everyday he tries to professionalize each business, everyday he's trying to bring those up to the new level. He's fighting for our reputation. He's fighting for True Parents' name.

We feel the same way, too, while doing ministry. Everyday we're out here giving services, going out on the internet, we are fighting a battle of faith. We're fighting to show, "Hey, we're not a dangerous cult; we have a lot to offer. Our community is powerful. We have a lot of good potential. We are good people, we're honest tax paying people! There is nothing to fear about the Unification Church."

And we feel that whenever we do media interviews, whenever we have interviews with articles in newspapers, etc, we feel that every time we talk to them, we're trying to battle that preconception that we are somehow a cult. Every time we do that, every time we engage in those things in a professional way, in a respectful way, in a mature way, then that begins to change the image, change the patterns, how people look towards our community.

We've had of course, as you know, many many articles written about the ministry, the developments in the church, and I can report happily that every single article that has come about the ministry, about improvements in the Unification Church, has been positive. About the previous ten to fourteen articles in the past, whenever the media organizations did articles about us, it was always somewhat negative, always at the end some negative person talking about the tradition.

But ever since we started engaging the newspapers, the media, talking about the new movement of the tradition, the new orientation of the tradition, the new leadership of the tradition, every single article, whether it be newspaper, whether it be media, whether it be magazine articles, they have been positive! (Applause)

Brothers and sisters, I do believe we are not here for our personal glory. We are here fighting this battle for faith, we're here fighting this battle to improve the name of our community. We are here everyday to try to battle on the frontline to improve the name of our True Parents, to glorify them, to have them lifted up higher. Like my wife said, we are just clouds, we are here to come and go. We're here to help systematize, to help to improve the church, but when our work is done we have to leave and the next person has to step in.

The organization has to become charismatic, as opposed to leaders, charismatic leaders, leading the church. The organization itself must become charismatic, that is really what we feel.

And in the same way, our blessed children, our first generation, whenever you guys are out there, whenever you're out in your schools -- we have professionals, we have teachers here in our church. Robin is teaching in the universities, we have sisters who are in professional organizations -- whenever you guys are out there doing that, fighting that battle of faith, whenever you are out there being those kind of spiritual warriors, you're changing the tide, you're changing the name, you're changing people's view of our tradition, not by force, not by might, not by power, but you're doing it by consistency, hard work. You're doing it with a loyal heart, a persevering spirit.

Whenever you do that you impress people, whenever you're able to do that, you're able to change the tides in people's minds. One person at a time starts viewing us a little differently. Brothers and sisters, that makes a huge difference, a huge change, over the long run. And I see it right now. I see change coming.

When I was young, I thought society was all evil. I thought it was totally Satan's world. I thought that if society feared us, then they would come to respect us. If they feared us, they would come to respect us. That's what I thought when I was really young, when I was in high school, etc. I thought that if we were able to intimidate society, if we showed them our passion, if we showed them our fire, we'd be able to make them back down; they wouldn't persecute us as harshly.

So I thought of myself as some kind of a warrior. In the time when I was in high school, I always envisioned myself like a samurai warrior. I studied martial arts; I was thinking, "Yeah, I'm a samurai!" I was imagining myself as a samurai warrior out there, battling for the name of True Parents.

But I really misunderstood one big thing. Society will never respect us if they fear us. They will never respect us. I realized that that's not the teaching of True Parents, that's the teaching of Osama Bin Laden. And that's not something that I will attest to. That's not something that I will be able to teach.

We have different types of churches now in our church. We have small pioneer churches. Those churches are in developing nations, those are in different mission countries. They are very passionate, they are very fiery. They do very fist popping style of ministry. And in those pioneer churches that kind of ministry is very important. That kind of charismatic leadership is so important.

But once a church gets large enough, once a religion becomes established enough, maybe in an established nation in the modernized world, then it has to begin to show to society that it's not dangerous. It has to prove to society that it's not a dangerous movement. We are in that situation right now, brothers and sisters. We are at a stage in our development when we are established enough, whether it be in our American church, whether it be in our Korean church, in our Japanese church.

We are here to show, "Look, we are not a dangerous religion. We do not teach fear, we do not teach hatred towards other religions. We teach about true love. We teach about family, blessing, we teach about living the blessed life."

Every time when people begin to change their minds about us, not by what we say, but by how we live, how we live our lives, by living them with honesty and professionalism, by living them with consistency and drive and real internal passion, with humility, always the willingness to learn. If we show these traits, society will naturally be subjugated. We will earn the respect of society.

See, after I went to school and made friends with other traditions, made priest friends in the Catholic tradition, Buddhist monk friends in the Buddhist tradition, etc, after a while I started realizing, "My God, there are such great people out in society! There are such amazing individuals that are not necessarily from our tradition but they are waiting to hand in hand walk with us, when we go out and take a step." It will be defeating if we totally cast away the society and say that it's totally evil, that it's unable to be saved.

When we do look at the people in society, there are of course difficulties, there are problems in society, there are temptations that, when somebody has to go into society, he or she has to face. But there are also beauties in society, there are also very important people that we need to make connections with. There are also very important organizations that want to help in the work that we're doing. That kind of things is what I'm saying, brothers and sisters.

And I do still see myself as a warrior, that's the interesting thing. I still do see myself as a warrior in my own mind, in my own image, when I meditate on myself. I do still see myself as warrior. But I don't see myself anymore as a samurai, wielding a sword -- that was when I was really young. But now I see myself more trying to be like a spiritual warrior, more somebody like True Father, naturally subjugating communism. I see myself more like somebody that's trying to follow in the footsteps of that kind of leadership, a leadership like that of Gandhi, with nonviolent opposition, nonviolent protest, a leadership like the Dalai Lama, standing up with nonviolent compassion, a leadership like Martin Luther King, stepping up for civil rights, speaking out against society, fighting for the respect of their communities -- but not by force, not by might, not by power, but by the spirit of God, by the spirit of love, by the spirit of goodness and peace.

Brothers and sisters, I have the privilege of meeting so many precious people when we do ministry here. We have really the privilege of meeting amazing people in our community. You really have to get to know one another. We have just incredible people here in our community.

We have one brother, a Western man living in Korean with his wife and his beautiful three children. He just graduated, got his MBA from a prestigious Korean university and he has now been recruited by Samsung Securities. He is now on his way into great success as an investment banker. And he was telling me how one day he was sitting next to a manager in Samsung. The manager is a Catholic man, from the Catholic tradition, and he practices Buddhist meditation. And he found out that our brother was a Unification Church member.

And he said, "You know what, I'm proud of you, that you're following such lofty ideals. You come to Korea, you're a totally Western man, you've come to Korea, and you follow the ideals of Rev Moon, and you're living with a Korean wife, and your Korean is fluent, it's fantastic, you know our culture. You know us better than we do. You graduated from a Confucian University!"

When they see that, not only do they see somebody who appreciates their tradition, they see somebody with talent. He has an MBA. He's now working as an investment banker. He's making success in whatever he does, whatever he touches.

He's also investing back into the church. He's always out here in our youth groups, in our seminars, in whatever we are doing, he's always out here to support. Sometimes he's been even out in the morning at 2:30 for meditation and early morning practice! He's out here giving his heart to truly lift up this community, out there in the world fighting for our name, also internally building his spiritual strength, his spiritual life. Whenever I see brothers and sisters like this, I'm totally impressed.

I had the privilege of meeting another tremendous person, somebody that I really respect. She is a Japanese sister. She is a tea master, a tea master in the Urasenke school of Japanese traditional tea ceremony. And if you know anything about tradition of Japanese tea ceremony, Urasenke school is the biggest school. It has a 400 year old tradition. The top head master of that school is the president of the UN council for Japan, and he's an established person in all of Japanese society.

She worked there 20+ years! 20+ years giving her life to that tradition, of course doing everything in our church, going to the services, going to the education programs in Yeosu, doing all the things that all the other sisters are doing, but she was out there as a professional and also raising three kids. She has a Korean husband, and she is out there working with the tea ceremony organization. 20 years! They did not know her identity.

She is now an established teacher in that whole organization, the highest of those who represent our church in that organization. She told me just a few months ago, that somebody was a little jealous of her; somebody didn't like her so much. Somebody was jealous and spread rumors about the fact that she was a Unification Church member. That rumor started filtering up, and eventually it got up all the way to the grand head master. The head master eventually gave her a call and said, "I'm coming to Korea." He's of course from Japan. Her heart literally dropped. She received that call, she said, “I don't know what I'm going to do. I've worked 20 years for this organization and now they find out I'm Unification Church and I'm going to be fired. There is no way they're going to keep me. The persecution in Japan is still heavy."

The grand master came, he arrived at the airport. He had brought some of the biggest tea masters with him. They were all standing there in their traditional kimonos with their solemn samurai faces. Some of them were wearing women's kimonos, but those were women! They were standing around him. They were all tea masters. He said in front of all of them -- she was there; she had her head down, she was totally at the mercy of his mandate -- he said, "I respect religious freedom!" When he said that, it meant to all those tea masters that came with him to judge her, "Don't say a word, I acknowledge her, I respect her, she's a part of our family." Brothers and sisters, let's give that sister a hand. (Applause)

Now she says to me, "I have a totally new fire. I have a totally new fire doing tea ceremony now. I'm still calm, I'm still meditative but I still have an internal fire when I make green powder tea. Now everything I do for that organization, every time I do a ceremony at Yeonsei University, at Seoul University, to show the Japanese tradition, now I'm showing myself as a Unification member with pride. I'm not hiding it. Everybody knows in my organization is. And I 'm happy that I have that pressure, because now everything I do can be for the glory of True Parents."

Brothers and sisters, I'm happy to announce that our Japanese tea master is actually right here in this room. She's right here in this room! (Applause) You see what I mean? And so is our other brother at Samsung Security. (Applause) He's right here in this room, he's sitting back there. I see you constantly.

Brothers and sisters, we have such amazing people in our community. We have so many people that are fighting the battle of faith. They are fighting for our reputation, fighting for our names; they are fighting for True Parents' name in society.

Even us, whenever we do interviews, every time we do it, we feel the same way. Whenever we get publicized in the newspapers, every time when a positive article gets written, we feel it's shedding a different light, a different perspective, on our tradition. We have something to offer. We are capable people. We are talented individuals.

I want to brag a little bit about my sister (Sun Jin Nim). She's here. You know, I want to brag about her a little bit! (Applause). She just graduated from Harvard University. And so did we. Hey! I graduated, too. I got my master's there, my brother got his master's. We all came out of Harvard! But that wasn't all! She came out of Harvard with four Honors' achievements. She came out of Harvard with the Magna cum Laude Honor. She was enrolled into the National Honor Society, that's totally across the nation, across America. She was the representative of the class. Among 7,000 graduating students only eight people are selected. She was one of the eight, and she was the only woman and only Korean! (Loud applause and cheers). "Whoo! Oh my God!" That was also publicized on Yahoo news. That went out in the newspapers. All the people in society said, "Hey! Rev Moon's daughter!"

See, brothers and sisters, what are we trying to say? We have amazing potential in our community. We have so much to offer this world. We have so much burgeoning potential that is coming out. And brothers and sisters, I want to say, that really, we are ready at this time. We are ready to show society: We are capable, we are talented, honest, ethical, compassionate, respectable people.

And of course, when we think about the power of natural subjugation, I always think about True Parents' life course, their whole life investing in society, investing in community, investing in peace, investing in other religions, even at the cost of their own, continually investing in other traditions, in education, in organizations, etc. This has been done over decades of time. Over decades and decades, they have continued to invest. We're now at a stage in society where we just did a blessing about a week ago, we blessed about 200 couples, and next day it was on KBS. See, what am I saying, brothers and sisters? Society already recognizes us as a tradition, they already recognize us as an established community.

I've met one CEO that said, "Rev Moon is the most respectable Korean. He has people from all different nations facing Korea, respecting that homeland, saying that that homeland is the birthplace of True Father, True Mother.

On the street when I meet people, sometimes I ask them, 'Hey have you heard of Rev Moon, what is your impression?' People, even just on the street, people selling little crackers, they say, 'Oh yeah, I heard of that Moon minister, he's a real national patriot. He's out there; he's sending our Korean culture to the world.' "

See, what am I saying? Brothers and sisters, I'm saying that people are starting to change their minds about us. They're starting to say, "Wait a minute, this is not a dangerous cult; this is not some crazy religion." Remember, all major religions started out as "dangerous cults", always labeled like that. People are starting to realize that we are an established organization, that we're honest, that we're professional, that we can be growing, that we're maturing, and that we're getting better over time.

When I see that, brothers and sisters, I really do believe that it is time, it is time for us to be proud of ourselves, to be proud of who we are, and also to develop our talents to bring more pride to our community. It's not about fighting, it's not about changing people by force. It's about changing ourselves, it's about changing other people by the power of how we change ourselves, how we act, how we live, whether we live with integrity and excellence and professionalism.

Whenever we do that, we start changing the whole nature of that environment. See, natural subjugation is a powerful force. When we understand this, we can harness that power in our life. But it doesn't work quickly. It's doesn't work in a year or two. "I tried, worked hard for a year or two, it didn't work out, I got another job; did for another year or two there, it didn't work out, got another job..." No, no, no! It works over time, time is its best friend. Whatever work that you may be doing, please know that you can be successful at whatever you put your mind to. God has given you a particular gift that He wants you to establish, that He wants you to burgeon, that He wants you to let blossom before this world.

But know that time is your friend. If you understand the power of natural subjugation, earning respect, changing people's mind, happens over time. It happens with consistency, hard work, three years, five years, ten years. See our tea ceremony master here, twenty years in the tea tradition, finally getting that respect that she deserves, and being truly a person that can stand proud as a Unification Church member.

Brothers and sisters, I see all the talent in the blessed children's community and our first generation community, really improving themselves, really understanding, “Now is the time!" We can step out. We can still develop our church, and develop our own personal lives. We can become more mature, effective, hardworking, humble, willing to learn, creative, we can be more successful at work and family. We can do these things if we start to believe in the potential of our own selves.

Brothers and sisters, we will not be like that muddy water weed that thinks, "Oh! If I go into the society, if I fall into the mud, I'll never get out. It's too dark in there, it's so muddy, and it’s so dark. If I'll only go two centimeters out, I'll be drowned in the water."

We can't think like that water weed. God created us to be that beautiful lotus flower. We may start in the mud. We may start at a low position in an organization, but we're going to work our way up. We're going to gain all the nutrients that we can. We're going to learn whatever we can to garner that strength, pass through that mud, pass through that water, break that surface and bloom in resplendent glory.

Brothers and sisters, and guess who will be in that lotus flower when it blooms. Check this out! (Showing a picture on the screen). When that beautiful lotus blooms -- check this out! -- There’s True Parents being lifted up! (Applause)

Brothers and sisters, if we do that, we will find ourselves with more victory, more illumination and more peace and we will live that blessed life that True Parents have blessed us to live. Let's give them a big round of applause. (Applause and cheers) 

Insights Into The Blessed Life

Hyung Jin Moon
July 6, 2008

After receiving the blessing on July 6, those who had come from overseas -- mainly Europeans -- spent some days in Korea. On June 8, Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim invited them to the Headquarters Church. Same twenty couples filled the church coffee shop, sitting in an approximate circle with their hosts, who welcomed them with great warmth. After the meeting, Hyung-jin nim took at least two pictures with each couple, treasured souvenirs of their blessing experience. These excerpts from what Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim said on that occasion.

Hyung-jin nim

Marriage is a very challenging practice, I have to say. It draws out all our potential. For me, when I reflect on our blessing. we are also international. My wife, as you may know, was born in South Korea and only after we were blessed did she come to the United States. I am a native New Yorker, so there are different cultures, different backgrounds, and I am sure many of you are experiencing that.

Are there any words of wisdom I have accumulated after about ten years of marriage? I am very happily married by the way! [Laughter] When we look back at the ten years we've had, they really have been our best ten years; I think we are confident to say that. And we are confident to say that every year is going to get better. That is our attitude. We always try to have the attitude that this is a process for us, in the sense that every year there are areas we can develop. We can become stronger in our relationship, in our practice; we can be stronger in our understanding of each other. It is really an ongoing practice. That is why I love to call it a "practice."

The marriage tradition in our church is where we get to actualize all the things we heard when we were young and all the things we listened to in workshops. It's the real place for us to actualize and refine those very important skills, such as understanding the power of the relationship, living for the sake of the other person, understanding the other person and practicing true love in the same way we always explain it. When we have differences of opinion, we recognize them; we come to deep understandings through them by natural subjugation, not by force.

For us, our marriage is one of the defining times as an Unificationist, one of the most important landmarks in the life cycle of Unificationist practice. All of you are now going to be fully engaged on a very close level. Some of you may be used to living alone, but now you have to deal with someone being in your space -- very practical things like that. There are very practical dynamics, daily dynamics. I think one thing beneficial is looking at the blessing as the "practice" of living a blessed life, of actualizing a blessed life, really allowing ourselves to become great blessings to the world. One of the benefits of looking at the blessing and our life in that way is that we can constantly improve. There is no real limit to how great, how powerful, the relationship can become or to the goodness in that relationship.

It's not necessarily goal-oriented, where you will set up a certain goal and try to reach that. Of course goals are very important to make -- it is important for you to set goals in your practical lives -- but to see it as a process is equally important, to understand that when you first start out, nobody's perfect, and that's fine. You will have times when you don't understand each other and that's okay, very normal. There are times when you may mistakenly, unknowingly, insult the other person -- for example by joking in a way that you might have been used to doing with your brothers and sisters. There are certain things after one is blessed that we really must try to practice in Unificationist life and within our blessing. We must, in my view see it as an ongoing blossoming of a great potential.

I believe all of you have that potential. You are starting new lives together -- many of you look happy, which is a great start. Very good! Remember that in life there are always fluctuations. There will be some not-so-great days. That's okay. But you want to keep your spiral moving upward, so you may be up sometimes, some days you may be down, but your spiral is moving in an upward trajectory; there's an upward trend. Some people go up and down in life as they are slowly going in a downward direction. You want to avoid that and keep the energy moving up in your life together. It doesn't mean you're going to be flawless every day. Give yourselves permission to be human. Sometimes it's okay to get emotional; I sometimes, when words are exchanged, you can be hurt, and it is important to share those things together. Share those things, but remember that life together is a process. If we can remember that, we can see it as something we can build on. Maybe at this moment we are not having such a great day, but if we work at it, we can continue in a new and dynamic way.

I think one of the great things about being blessed is that we are constantly reminded that our most precious relationship is dynamic, not static. In order for it to be truly alive, it does require investment. It does require us to put in effort and to work at it. I feel some things have helped me personally -- such as trying to understand my wife more. Sometimes, early on, I just didn't get it. (laughter] That's okay; if you work through that, you learn. It is a process of learning, a process of growth, a process of continual improvement. I feel that the blessing is not only a milestone; it is one of our most central practices. You may have a family soon -- children -- in a couple of years. Then you can also start this practice with your kids, raising them.

It's very exciting, very dynamic. One of the things I think is essential for blessed couples, blessed families, is to understand the concept that in giving us the blessing, True Parents have extended the blessed life to us. That is something we can be proud of, and the blessed life is something at which we can excel. And it does not have to stop with us. The blessed life really is having the success and the victory God wants you to have in your lives, in relationships and so on. Then you take the next step and be that blessing to those around you, be that blessing to that person who needs a little help, your guidance, your mentoring. When we do that, we can start coming full cycle with living the blessed life. Our view is that it can continually get better, which is very hopeful. I don't think it has a limit in the sense that you reach some stage and just stay there. True Parents continually try to improve and grow-with the grandchildren, together, and so on.

One suggestion we like to offer blessed families when we visit them is a practice-making days for each other. For the future, make a note in your mind about this. Most parents believe that times spent together as a whole family are the most memorable times for children. But research has shown that the most memorable times for children is when they have individual time with their mom and dad. So, when you have children, one thing we suggest is that you invest in one of your children each week. Each week you have one child's day. For example, in our family, Shin-pal's day comes in the first week; Shin-man's day comes in the next week; Shin-go nim comes in the following week... It will be that child's day; he or she is totally the center. We do not compare that child with any of our other children. That's irrelevant. We just focus on how precious that child is The reason I am sharing this with you is that after all that is done -- after we have gone through the children one by one -- we have daddy and mummy's day! [Laughter] It's important for you to take time for yourselves, to get to know each other more deeply. Invest in your relationship.

You can see that it is a practice; it is more than just spending time together. It is one of the defining spiritual practices in our tradition. It sets us apart from other traditions that may focus on traditions such as the power of prayer (which, of course, we have) or the power of meditation (which, of course, we employ). We use those different spiritual practices, but our central practice, I would say, is building strong relationships. You see this throughout the Principle, for example, with the four-position foundation. The Principle is actually about relationships; succeeding in relationships is one of our most important tasks as Unificationists.

The relationship you are now entering into as husband and wife can be the most profound relationship in your life, more profound even than your relationship with your parents or your children. I can say with all certainty that my wife is my absolute closest friend. I can tell her everything, and she can tell me everything. I can't count too many people in the world that I can do that with, totally and completely.

There is a real profoundness in the power, in the potential, of your relationship. Of course, you are just starting out. That's why it's exciting. Like anything else, you learn how to walk together and then how to run together. Just like anyone, sometimes you will stumble, or wobble a little bit. That's normal. The key thing to remember is not to condemn or attack yourselves. "Why am I so shaky? Why am I rethinking why I married this person?" When we have these thoughts, it is important not to condemn yourself. As a human being, you have emotions, so it is sometimes natural to feel such things. When you have siblings you sometimes say, "I don't know why he was born!" or "I wish he hadn't been." You don't literally want that to come true. At that moment, you are emotional; maybe you've had some disagreement.

Sometimes you feel that way. It is important to acknowledge that this is how you feel, but also acknowledge that feelings change. You might feel down one day, but then your little nephew or cousin, who's always smiling and happy, comes in, and you feel better all of a sudden. You will see your emotions change all the time. It is important not to confuse our emotions with the level of our love. When you are investing in your relationship, please see it as a practice. You are investing in each other, in this union.

It's just like a bank account. You have to deposit into your account, and sometimes you have to make withdrawals. It is the same in your relationship. When you ask your wife or husband, "Honey, can you run over and do this for me?" When you are making a request of someone, you are withdrawing from your account with them. So make sure you are also putting back in, that you are always investing.

I don't want to say too much; if I do, I don't know if you will remember anything! [Laughter] If you can take away one thing with you today, I hope it is the idea that marriage is one of the central practices for us as Unificationists; marriage is not a ceremony, a one-time event. Just as other traditions may have meditation or prayer as their central spiritual practice, in our tradition, I feel that in our life of faith, succeeding in the most profound relationships -- including the one between husband and wife, and with our children -- succeeding in key relationships - -is our central practice.

I encourage you all to keep in mind that your futures can be tremendous together. We want you to be very happy together. We want you to succeed. We want you to be abundantly fruitful in whatever you do and to find happiness in your relationship together. We believe the more Unificationists do that, the more we also allow our movement to shine and allow True Parents' work to shine. Within society, we can do many things, which of course can lead to people being able to admire our tradition. At the same time, the success of our families is very important. Please take this practice seriously.

It is not hard to keep learning about relationships. You don't have to read only church authors. If you are in a bookstore, pick up a couple of books on marriage or relationships. With more information, you can make better decisions... You don't have to practice, as if it were the Bible, all that the relationship experts say; you can decide what you feel is appropriate in your relationship.

It is very important to accumulate a lot of knowledge of these matters. I would certainly encourage you all to keep learning about the nature of relationships, how you can continue to be fruitful and to succeed in your relationships. Don't limit yourselves to church authors. Father has always been pushing us out to study every field. In this field of relationships, it is so important for us to learn as much as we can. It will really help you; it will be a great resource for you to make good decisions in your relationship.

Hyung-jin nim invites Yeon-ah to speak to the couples.

Yeon-ah nim

I am happy to know that my husband has had a happy ten years (of marriage). (Applause, cheers). One thing that really helped me in my marriage was when Father said, "In marriage we have to experience all kinds of relationships. Even though we are husband and wife, your husband sometimes becomes your father or grandfather, or sometimes your son. For a woman, it is the same: a wife will sometimes become like his mother, sometimes his sister or his daughter." When my husband feels depressed, I have to be in the position of a mother and console him one hundred percent, just as if he were my son. And if I am in a difficult situation, he will do the same for me. I think it is very important to know which state your husband or wife is in, and then try to match that emotional state appropriately. I think that is very important. That helped me to have happy years of marriage and a happy family.

We are so happy to see happy blessed couples, and we really wish that ten years from now you can say, "You know, we have also had a happy ten years of marriage." That's what we really wish for you! Always remember that Heavenly Father and True Parents are always with you, and whenever you have difficulty; please pray to God and True Parents about whatever problem you have; get help from your parents or someone else you really trust. That's really important.

Hyung-jin nim resumes speaking

Hyung-jin nim

I want to say it is very inspiring for us to see you with your courageous hearts, moving forward and really taking on the blessing. We see confidence in your hearts. The victory is there. We want to encourage you to do as you are doing, continue to be the wonderful people that you are. Whenever I go anywhere and have the chance to meet our young blessed families, young Unificationists around the world, we are always moved to be a part of the same realm of heart. That's very important.

One thing we always try to remind brothers and sisters about is this: sometimes we may feel alone. No one ever wants to be lonely, though we may want to be alone at times. I want to remind brothers and sisters that we are not walking alone in our life of faith, our spiritual life; we are walking together as a community of brothers and sisters. You have someone to reach out to if you need help. You can still be a man and ask for help. [Laughter] You have to be man enough to ask for help. It's important, when you need help, when you feel down and need some understanding, to be able to ask for that.

When the Christian ministers came to Korea, Father said there are three things we have to watch -- our mind (our thoughts), our words and our actions. It's very important to maintain a habit of keeping the right thoughts in our mind -- about our spouse and about ourselves (not beating ourselves up when we are not perfect) -- and keeping the right words coming out of our mouths. Sometimes we want to say something that we may regret later, so it's important to choose the right words with each other. In some couples, you are from different countries, so please be understanding of that if one is learning the other's language. And of course actions -- these will honor and glorify your relationship with each other.

We are so thankful to see all of you and very much inspired. It gives us strength to see the wonderful new couples that have so much awesome potential to bring joy and happiness into the world. What a great blessing for this world! We are so grateful to have you here. I'm very inspired personally. Whenever you are in Korea, come to the service; we're always over here holding services. Whatever church we are in -- we may not be in this location forever -- wherever we are, please know that you are part of our home, part of our family. If you have time, we would love to see you.

One thing we like to do when we gather is to say a prayer.

Let's all gather and say a brief prayer.

Hyung-jin nim prays 

Living with a Savior's Heart

Hyung Jin Moon
July 5, 2008
Chungpadong Church, Seoul
Transcribed by: Cathy Quebral
Edited by: Bruno Klotz

Welcoming Message: Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon brothers and sisters! (Good afternoon) This week we were in Japan visiting churches. As usual, in the morning, we did training, we did our prayer for members throughout the world. While we are devoting, we are offering our 120 bows.

Brothers and sisters, please know that we are praying for you and your families. We truly wish that you all live a blessed life and be a bigger blessing to the world. Today we are truly welcoming you to this sanctuary and for those who are joining with us via internet, we welcome you as well.

Welcome brothers and welcome sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Welcome brothers and sisters!

I want to share with you from Cheon Seong Gyeong page 339 today. Father says, "Are arteries greater or veins greater? Which is greater? They are equal. Then which is greater? God or people? They are equal. When it comes to love, if God is the artery, we human beings are like the veins. So we have the value of having the privilege to be God's equal."

You see, brothers and sisters, when we listen to Father's words, we understand that, actually in terms of love, when Heavenly Father looks at us, He sees someone with equal value to Him. You may say, "That's impossible. How can I be equal to Almighty God, the creator of the universe?" Of course Father is saying we may not be equal in His power, we may not be equal in His might, we may not be equal in His knowledge, but in love, Father is saying, we can become His equals. We can share with Him the greatest power in the universe.

Brothers and sisters, that's a very empowering statement that True Parents are teaching us. They are saying that when we look at ourselves with God's eyes, we see someone with tremendous value, with cosmic, divine, and unique value. We don't see, "I can't do this right. I don't have any ability and talent." No, we see somebody that is made, specifically handpicked, for the work that we are to do here on this earth.

Brothers and sisters, it's so important when you live your daily lives to see yourselves from that highest perspective, that divine perspective, to see yourself from God's viewpoint. Remember, that was the first step to the fall, to not see from God's viewpoint. And so we want to make sure that, when we are actualizing the blessed life, that we are always looking at our lives, at ourselves, with God's viewpoint.

Sometimes we may have obstacles, we may have challenges. Maybe sometimes we are not totally perfect but when you look at it from God's perspective, we are growing, we are improving, we're getting better every single day. We're getting stronger, we're getting more confident, we're getting brighter and brighter.

Brothers and sisters, it's so important to see ourselves from this viewpoint. That really is the starting point for the blessed life: How we view ourselves, how it is we view our children, how it is we view our families, how it is we view our relationship to Almighty Heavenly Father.

Brothers and sisters, today I want to invite you to not only observe service but really participate in service. When we pray or when we sing songs of worship, we really want to include you, we want to invite you to participate, to be a part of that communion, to let God know how much you love Him. When you do that, when you muster up your strength, give your effort to give God that strength in the very beginning of this week, we believe that God will be with you with each step that you walk during this next week.

Brothers and sisters, once again it's such a delight to see all of you and let's really not just observe service, but we're going to really participate in service. Let's have a great service today. Once again, welcome Brothers and sisters!

Hyung Jin Nim's visualization and meditation:

Brothers and sisters I'd like to invite you now to unite the mind, body and breath in our first blessing's practice; let's start preparing our body.

As we breathe in, I'd like to invite you to feel the energy flowing through your body and as you lift your hands towards your heart, breathe in. And as you pass your living heart, as you breathe out, let's stretch up towards the heavens today. Let's really receive what God wants to give us. Really stretch our faith, receiving His love, His compassion, breathing in. As we pass our living heart, let us breathe out. One more time, feel the universal prime energy flowing through us, breathing in, calming us, our minds, passing our hearts, breathing out. Lifting towards the heavens today, receiving God's wisdom, His love, His peace, His strength, breathing in. And as we pass our hearts, breathing out.

I'd like to invite you to take a seat and let us prepare now our mind.

Let us now enter into our first visualization and meditation practice as we close our eyes. Let us now visualize a beautiful forest path that we are walking along. It is in the evening and the sun is still out. Warm evening rays passing through the forest. We can feel the beauty of this day. The trees are lush and the sky is blue and every time we walk through this forest and pass under the shade of a tree, I'd like to invite you just to feel how cool and refreshing that shade is, the simple act of feeling the tree's shade as we walk. When you start to feel the refreshing quality of the shade, you also at the same time are able to contrast that with the warmth of the sun as you walk. As we experience these beautiful realities of nature, we can feel the warmth of God all around us.

There is a river there in front of us. Let's walk gently towards that stream. We can hear the sounds of the stream getting gradually, gradually louder as we walk towards it. We can feel the energy and healing qualities of the water, the sound of the rushing water. And I now invite you to take a step into that stream's very shallow waters. You can feel the river rocks underneath your feet standing on a cool waters under a beautiful shade of a tree.

And I invite you to gradually just gently close your eyes in that image. Feel the water rushing near your ankles and your feet. As you breathe in, in your heart, let us say, "I am alive." And as you breathe out in our hearts, let us say, "Thank you." Once more as you breathe in, in our hearts, "I am alive." As you breathe out, in our hearts, let us say, "Thank you." One more time let's feel the peace flowing through our heart, as we breathe in, "I am alive." And as you breathe out, "Thank you."

Let us continue this brief concentration practice for just a couple of breaths. Let us recognize each breath that we take that we are alive. That we have this precious life to truly become all that God has created us to become. Let's just take a couple breaths, naturally. Let us feel our hearts with the everlasting peace, with the everlasting love of God. Breathing out, "Thank you."

May you always be blessed. May you always be safe. May you always be well. May you always be free from suffering, from pain. May you be kind to yourselves and to others with ease and may you always have true peace in the heart of True Parents.

Hyung Jin Nim's Prayer:

Brothers and sisters, let's join through prayer:

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with. Today is a glorious summer day. Father, You are raining down upon us, Father, Your love, Your refreshing everlasting life. Father, we feel revived in Your presence, in the presence of our community, of our brethren, our brothers and sisters here, where we partake together in this communion.

Father, let us truly offer our hearts to You this day. Let us know that You are dwelling with us at all times. Father, let us know that in every obstacle, in every challenge, You are there walking with us, You are there helping us along that path and, Father, You are preparing us for a greater future.

Father, thank You so much for this day. We are praying for each one of the brothers and sisters here today; we pray for their divine health. Father, we pray that they may have success and be blessed in all aspects of their life, physical, material, spiritual.

Father, we pray that You may be with them at all times. Be with their children. Allow them truly to blossom, to become the great creations that You have created them to become.

Please be with all our brothers and sisters today who are joining us via internet across the world. We are praying with one heart, with one mind and with one spirit today.

Father, thank You for this day that You have blessed us with. Give us strength today, give us wisdom, give us Your everlasting peace and we offer this with an everlasting love.

In our names we pray as Central Blessed Families. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim's Interesting Story:

Brothers and sisters we always like to start with something a little interesting! We heard about the story of a little young man, his name was Michael and he has spent a little time with his grandma and eventually he came back home and he was eating dinner with his dad and his mom. And this was the grandma on his mom's side. And so they prepared a beautiful meal. Right before the meal, the children came and sat at the table and they didn't pray and just started eating. And then their mom said, "Hey wait a minute you guys. You know, we're supposed to pray before we eat, we're supposed to say grace before we eat. And the children said, "Oh don't worry, unlike grandma, mom is a great cook." (Audience laughing)

Main Message of Hyung Jin Nim:

There are some moments in life when you are embarrassed and things don't work out your way but you always must overcome it and shake it off and take a step up. Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk to you about "Living with a Savior's Heart."

If we truly are to live the blessed life, then one of the keys is to have the heart of a savior. True Father anointed us to be tribal messiahs and he described it as being masters of love. To have the heart of the messiah and the heart of a savior in your tribe, in your extended families, it is so important that we understand that God created us not only to live for ourselves but He created us to have the heart of a savior for others, to truly be a blessing to others.

When God anointed True Parents as savior, True Father was at first filled with... I can see his heart, his mind, I can see him almost being overwhelmed by intimidation, thinking, "How can I save this world? How can one person make a difference? The world is so vast. This place is so great; there's no way I can make a difference. There's no way I can save all of mankind. How can I, a mere person, liberate the God of the universe?" But he overcame that intimidation. And on the third time that God asked, the third time that God requested him, True Father came into agreement with God. He said, "God, if I can't liberate all of mankind then at least I will work and give my all to liberate Your heart."

I heard a story about a train that was traveling at night. It went through very cold plains where there was a lot of snow. It went through mountains. There were hundreds of passengers on this train. They were sleeping, they were very comfortably riding, and they had to pass over a lake. And over this lake there was a beautiful bridge but during the night there was a snow slide and that bridge in the front section had collapsed. Nobody on the train knew that they were eventually heading towards their own doom.

And while everybody was sound asleep on that train and as the train rode closer and closer to that icy lake, there was a man that was standing near that lake, that happened to be there at night. He saw the scenario. He saw the train rushing towards this lake with a collapsed bridge. And he thought quick. He ran to the rail switch. He was right about to press the rail switch button and if he did so, the train track would switch and the train would safely go on to safe tracks. But at that exact moment, right when he was about to press that switch, he saw his only son standing there running towards him. The son was only about one or two years old, had just barely learned how to walk, smiling, saw his dad, running towards him.

This man was in the worst dilemma a parent can be in. He had to make a decision on the spot. "What will I do?" What will you do in that situation? If he presses the rail switch button, hundreds of passengers on that train come to safety. But what happens? That train will collide with his son. If he doesn't press the rail switch button, the son will be saved but hundreds of passengers will plummet into an icy lake in the middle of night.

This is the dilemma that this man was facing that day. What is this analogous to? This is like the situation that God was in. God was in a situation, He had waited from Adam through the providence of restoration to Abraham, Moses and even Jesus. And after Jesus died on the cross, the sorrow, the pain, and 2,000 years waiting until True Parents would come. And even when they did come, God understood that in order to save the greater whole of humanity, He had to send His only son on a path of suffering, on a path in collision with that train.

What would you do in such a situation? I asked the brothers and sisters in Japan when I traveled there. I said, "What is it? What decision did God make at that instant?" And they all told me the answer. They said, "God decided to press that rail switch."

Brothers and sisters, I want to invite you to imagine the agony, the pain when God pressed that rail switch button. When He closed His eyes and He pressed that button, He must have felt like the biggest sinner in all of the universe. He must have felt that He was the most worthless parent sending His own child to collide with danger. And I could see God in those very moments when He was waiting for the sound of that train. Almost inevitably He knows it's going to collide. And in those moments of darkness that He is closing His eyes and he's just waiting, He is hoping, "Please don't let it happen." But He knows it will. He knows His child will suffer. And in those moments I could see God feeling tremendous terror, fear. I can see His heart descending into the lowest hells, really struggling with so much pain, so much agony. Not wanting to hear or see or even imagine what would happen. And I could see the kind of immense sorrow that He must have felt in those few moments.

And then, imagine brothers and sisters, when He does hear the sound of that train coming into collision with that young little boy. Imagine the sound of that boy's cry. Imagine the tears that are shedding from God's eyes as He hears the cry of this young boy. I want to invite you to imagine that kind of suffering, that kind of pain.

And somehow, He has to, in His mind, muster up strength. He has to say, "Okay, I have to open my eyes. I have to go and save those people on that train. I have to make sure people are alright on that train. Even though I know what happened to my son, but now I have to go and care for those people on that train.

And I can see Him trying to muster up His strength, trying to just become strong enough to open His eyes. And when He opens His eyes, He looks towards that train track with total fear, total desperation, really, His heart is being full of sorrow, of guilt.

And when He looks at that train track, He sees that little boy holding up that train! Brothers and sisters, at that moment when He sees that little boy, like a miracle, holding up that train, I want you to imagine the joy in His heart. I want you to imagine the happiness that must have overwhelmed Him. I want you to imagine Him saying, "Oh, my God! I can't believe this is happening!" I want you to imagine the relief that He must have felt, from total hell to total heaven.

You see brothers and sisters, True Parents fought that kind of battle. They established this kind of worldwide foundation. Such a foundation has never been done during the lifetime of a founder of a religion. It's so immense, the victory is so great and, in the spiritual sense, even God's heart is liberated. When we understand that, think about how much joy He must feel.

And really, if we truly are to have the heart of a savior, it really begins by believing in the greatness that God has placed within us, it begins by believing in the greatness, by believing that we have the potential to even face large oncoming trains, I am not saying in the physical, but in the spiritual. When we have obstacles coming your way we're not going to give up. We're going to say, "I can get through this obstacle. Me and God, we can become a strong force. We can become the greatest force in the universe. We can make it through this path."

Even when no one says, "You can do it", even when nobody believes that you will be able to survive, even when everybody thinks you will fail, even when God doubts that you will make it through this ordeal, then it is so important that we know that we will be victorious through this ordeal, that God is preparing us through this challenge, through this obstacle, through this difficulty, to bring us up to a whole new level of success, of blessing, of victory.

We have to know that God created us to become brave, to be strong, to be able, to be creative, to be intelligent, to have confidence in our future, to have hope in the people that we are destined to become, that person in your life that you are designed to help, that you are here to extend your savior's heart to. That person maybe be your child. It maybe your brother. It maybe your sister. It maybe your parent, your grandparent. It maybe your spiritual future son or daughter. But because of you, and just like that story, because of you, hundreds of people in that train will be able to be saved. They will be able to be freed and to become all that God has created them to become.

It is so important that we understand that we have this kind of destiny. Just like True Father, that immense heroic faith that he had to muster up, the immense strength that he had to develop in order to encounter those obstacles, the same kind of spirit we have in us as well.

I heard a story about a young person who volunteered at Stanford Hospital. That's in Connecticut, in the States. And he got to know this little girl by the name of Liz. She was suffering from a rare and serious disease and the only way to save Liz was to give her a blood transfusion. But it couldn't be any normal blood transfusion. She had to have the blood transfusion from the person who had the same illness as her, who had developed the same anti-bodies to fight that illness. There was one person that they found that had the exact criteria. That was her five year old younger brother.

That younger brother had also suffered the same rare disease and had been victorious over that. He had developed the anti-bodies to fight that kind of disease. The doctor explained the situation to this little brother. He said, "Will you be willing to give your sister Liz your blood?" And the volunteer saw the little boy, the five year old boy, hesitate for just one moment. And with a trembling voice that little boy said, "Yes, I would do it if it would save Liz."

There they lay on the hospital bed and all the people were smiling as the little boy was donating his blood to his sister. He had a smile in his face. You could see Liz's face was becoming red again and becoming healthier. You could see the colors returning back to her cheeks. But after a little while, the little boy's face became more pale and more pale and he began to lose the smile on his face. It started to fade slowly and with a trembling voice he looked up with hesitation towards the doctor and he asked, "Doctor, will I start to die right away?"

You see, this little boy thought that he was supposed to give all his blood to his older sister. He thought he was supposed to give all of his life to his older sister Liz in order to save her and he was willing to do so. In the heart of that little boy, when he looked at his sister, his love for her was greater that even the value of his life and that little five year old boy was willing to give his life to save his older sister.

When we think about that story, why are we moved when we hear that? We can say it is sweet innocence. We may say it's naivety. But when we look at it, there is something inspirational about that kind of heart, the heart that will sacrifice, that will lay down their life to help another person in the family or somebody that they love.

Of course, in times of extreme circumstances like war or famine or when somebody has a rare disease like Liz, then it is important to have such heroic sacrifice to save such a person, such heroic strength to be able to offer oneself for the life of the other. True Father, even in Hungnam prison, would share his meals, the little one bowl of rice ration that he was offered. He'd always share that with his inmates even at the risk of his own starvation. He always practiced that kind of sacrifice.

Of course, those are very extreme circumstances, and we may be tempted to say, "Hey, wait a minute, I don't live in such extreme circumstances. I live day to day. I go to work. I come home. I eat dinner with my kids. I'm not living in war. I'm not living in famine. I don't have somebody around me who's dying with a rare disease and needs blood transfusion like Liz." We may be tempted to say that. But, brothers and sisters, the part of a savior begins with very small things. It begins with very small steps that we take in our lives even though conditions are not that extreme.

In this church we have a Korean brother and a Japanese sister who are blessed, they've been blessed for many, many years. Unfortunately the husband, the Korean husband, became very ill in the last couple of months. And about three and half months ago, he was hospitalized. He was in total paralysis. He was in a vegetative state. The doctor said that he had no chance of survival, absolutely no chance of survival. They actually told the relatives about this kind of circumstance, very bad news from the doctors. And the relatives went to our Japanese sister and they said to her, "Pull the plug. We can't afford this." The doctors say, the professionals say, "It's not going to work, it's not going to help. He has to move on. He's going to pass on."

She was totally, totally distraught by this message. She did not want to believe that this would be the case. She came to our ministers here. She asked one of our Korean ministers. She said, "Minister, look, I have this terrible situation. What am I supposed to do? What do you recommend?" And the minister said, "Well, you know what? Let's hold on just a little more." We are doing special prayer conditions everyday, at 2:30 in the morning, every day for our members, all nations, we are praying for them. Everyday we are praying here in the HQ church." And he said, "Just hold on a couple more weeks." We even did a special fundraising to help that family so that family could have a little more time in that hospital.

After the Korean service, on Sunday, we have a lottery that we pull from. And the family that is selected, we go to visit their home. This is a random lotto. By chance I stuck my hand in the lottery and I ended up picking up that brother's name! We ended up going to visit him in the hospital. This was three months and 10 days after he was hospitalized. At that time he was in a total vegetative state. He could not move. His body was in complete paralysis.

Three months and 10 days later when I saw him, he was moving, walking, talking, he was moving around like a miracle! I could not believe what I was seeing. Of course he had a respirator in his throat but he was totally defiant to science. He totally overcame this sickness. The doctors could not explain it. The wife with a huge smile on her face, she was telling me how now they meet that doctor who said, "There is no chance, he's going to pass away, we might as well pull the plug". When she meets that doctor and she looks at him, he can't even keep eye contact with her. He knows there was something miraculous that happened.

And what did that sister know? She knew that God is the God of miracles. If we truly believe, and if we give it our all, God can turn a situation that looks terrible into something that is totally tremendous. What happened in that situation? She literally became his savior. She nursed him back to health, she helped him walk again, she helped him learn to eat. She literally became his savior. She had that heart.

What does she say now? At first, when she first got blessed, it was very difficult, so many struggles, she couldn't understand the culture, there was the language barrier, etc. Now, after this ordeal she is so grateful to have this husband. She's so grateful. She realized she would be terribly lonely without him. She realized that, "My God, what a precious blessing he is." And I asked him when we were in the hospital, "Aren't you grateful to have such a wonderful wife like this?" And he started just shedding tears, just started shedding tears and he said, he was looking down on his belly, and he said, "Yes I am. I am truly, truly grateful for such a wife."

Brothers and sisters, when we truly live the heart of a savior we may say, "But some of us have bad news from the hospital. There are bad diagnosis. I have a terrible disease. I'm not going to make it through, that's what the doctors say. I'm just being rational. I'm being realistic. The doctors are professionals after all." We may be tempted to say, "Okay, I will just give up. I might as well pass on."

But brothers and sisters, it is so important that we never give up on ourselves, that we always say, "Wait a minute, as long as I'm alive, I have some saving to do. As long as I'm alive, I have someone to help. I can inspire someone. I can encourage someone."

I spoke to a blessed child. He is now in his 40's. He is a highly paid professional now in a very good firm and we were talking about his father. His father was a very famous minister but he suffered lung disease at the very end stage of his life and his father never gave up. He said, "I'm not going to lose to this lung disease. There's no way that this is going to stop me. I need to go and see Father." He was on the hospital bed with lung disease, totally incapacitated and he said, "I have to go and see Father. I'm healthy. I can beat this disease. This will not hold me down." The blessed child told me how he was eventually taken by lung disease. He did pass on by lung disease.

So we may be tempted to say, "Hey, you know what? If I have a disease, and I ask God, "Help me!" and I say, “I’m not going to give up." But what if I do pass away? What if I do? What if God does take me away?" Well, brothers and sisters, even in that scenario, even in that case, in the worst case scenario when that did happen to this young blessed child, what happened? This father's warrior spirit, the spirit of never giving up, the spirit of seeing obstacles and saying, "This is nothing; I'm going to pass through this" that heart was passed down into every single one of his children.

All his children now are very successful people and they attributed that to the warrior spirit of their father. His legacy, his spirit that he endowed them with, that strength, that warrior spirit of never giving up, of always looking in the face of fear or dread and saying, "I can overcome this. God gave me the potential to move through this," that spirit became part of them. Even though his life was claimed in that instant, in the greater picture of it all, his children became so much more blessed. They became so much more positive. They became so much more filled with overcoming power because of his heart.

Brothers and sisters, it's so important that we understand that this heart of a savior is not something that we just totally give out. It makes an impact on those people around us. When we do express it, when we do live with the heart of a savior, the heart of compassion, the heart of grace, it does make a difference in people's lives. It does make a difference in our own lives.

I know a brother who practices one act of kindness per day. His practice of being a savior, practicing the heart of a savior, is not huge things. They are not heroic things. They are simply getting up to help an elderly man, giving him his seat on the bus, or he does something very special that he told me about. Whenever he passes a homeless person, he goes to the closest 7-11 and buys this person a sandwich. And he says, "I'm not going to give him money because he may go and buy an addictive substance but I'm going to buy him a sandwich." That's his own interpretation. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that but that's his own heart. In other words, in daily life, in the normal things of daily life, he's trying to actualize his heart of a savior, he is trying to participate in God's goodness.

Practicing the heart of a savior could be something as simple as calling your parent and saying, "You know mom and dad, thank you. I'm just grateful. I just thought of you today. I just want to say thank you for everything. You raised me. You really gave me a lot of strength. I know we had our tough times together but really, you know what? I am really grateful that I have you in my life."

It could be something as simple as that. It could be something as simple as writing your children a little letter, a little email, a little instant message that says, "Hey kids, I love you. You are our blessings." Or, "You know, you're going to make it through this day. You're going to do a great job on that test." It could be something so simple. When we exercise the heart of a savior, I'm not only talking about heroic, huge things, I'm talking about very small things in our lives, things that can make a difference in people's lives, things that help people succeed more, that can give them the spirit that they will need in order to overcome those obstacles.

When we were at the Mapo church ministry, at the smaller church over there in Mapo, every morning after morning practice, morning training, we would go out at about 4:30 in the morning right before Hoon Dok Hae and pick up some Ramyon at the local 7-11. Every morning we would go to the 7-11 and we would see the same lady working there. She was always working there with her middle school aged son. And the son was there. It was 4:30 in the morning, the kid was there every day, every day, every day, every night, with his mother, of course, going to school, coming back, sleeping, taking a rest in the back room and then working again.

We were so impressed. We were so inspired by this young man. Here he was in middle school, trying to help his mom with the family business. He is here trying to build the skills not only for himself but trying to help his mom make it through the day, make it through the night safely, make sure that nothing happens to her at night, keeping guard, keeping watch, keeping vigil over her. This young man was just about 10 years old!

And everyday, when we went to the 7-11 to buy Ramyon, we encouraged him and said, "You guys are totally amazing! You guys are truly remarkable! It's amazing, young man, you are protecting your mom everyday, day and night. You are truly a heavenly guardian!" And he was always encouraged by that. I remember, every time we left the 7-11, they used to come out and say, "Bye, bye, have a great day!" We used to exchange that kind of greeting.

What am I saying? Having the savior's heart, having a heart that wishes to help others, extending grace, extending compassion, extending love, doesn't mean doing huge things. It doesn't have to be things in extreme circumstances. Of course, it can be those things but I'm talking about daily life. Who are those people around you that could receive your help? Is there somebody you can encourage in your life today? Is there somebody that you could say thank you to, or, "I appreciate you"? Are your parents alive still? Then you can maybe give them a call and say, "You know, dad and mom I really love you guys. I want you to know that."

Is there something in your life that you can do for somebody, that would truly give them strength, give them a fresh spirit, give them a new outlook on their life.

Brothers and sisters, what can we learn today? How we can make a difference, how we can live the blessed life with a savior's heart. It's so important we start understanding that in times of extreme circumstances it can demand great sacrifice, but in times of normal circumstances, day to day life, day in, day out, with the kids, at work, it starts with small things. It starts with very small acts of grace, very small acts of kindness, very small acts of love.

Even in my own mind, whenever I fall into fear, thinking, "Oh, I never can do this job. I'm getting too bogged down. I have too many responsibilities. I can't do ministry and administration, and do this job and that job. I have way too many works. I cannot do all these things," whenever I start having those kind of ostrich thoughts, I start remembering what True Father told me on my inauguration day. He said, "Don't worry so much. You have plenty of people to help you."

Whenever I think of that one statement, that one encouragement that Father gave me, it didn't take too much time, it took about two seconds from him to say it. But that one statement that he said gives me so much strength every time I start having ostrich thoughts thinking, "I can't do this" and running around like an ostrich hiding my head in the ground. Father says, "Don't hide your head in the ground. You are an eagle. Spread those wings. Fly. Soar. Reach new horizons." When I listen to that one phrase that he said, "Don't worry, there will be people to help," that gives me so much strength.

Brothers and sisters, it doesn't have to be something great. One encouragement can give so much strength to another person. Who are those people in your life today that you can do that for? Let's keep our eyes open! If we can do that, we can make a small act and God can use that small condition to make it into a giant difference.

You may feel small but for God you are the greatest force for goodness in the universe. We must always remember that. And even though the Archangels may send big trains in our path, we have to know that we have the power to stop them, to lift them and to save those people who are traveling on that train.

Brothers and sisters, if you can receive this message, let's give True Parents a big round of applause. (Everyone claps.) 

Investing in Each Member: - Hyung-jin Nim in Japan

Ken Doo
July 3, 2008

Hyung-jin nim goes economy class every time he flies, so I try to secure him a seat near the emergency exit of the airplane, so that he can at least stretch out his legs. During flights, l notice that Hyung-jin nim doesn't recline his seat, though he would be more comfortable if he did: he has said this is because he is always aware that True Parents are leading the providence without rest.

On June 30, Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim were on an early morning flight to Tokyo. Rev. Kim Dow-soon, who has overall responsibility for activities in Japan, his wife Shim Woo-ok, and the director of the region in Japan that Hyung-jin nim was to visit were among the welcoming party at Haneda Airport. It was raining heavily during the flight, but just as our plane arrived, the sky cleared. It seemed as if the weather, too, was welcoming Hyung-jin nim to Japan.

We headed straight for the holy ground in Sayama Park, a full one-and-a-half hour's drive from the airport. On several occasions in years past, True Father has spoken to large groups of members at this holy ground.

When we arrived at the holy ground, Hyung-jin nim explained what members should do when visiting a holy ground. He said that because it is land that True Parents have restored from the midst of the fallen world, visiting a holy ground should not be a mere formality. When leaders or other members visit a holy ground, they should do so with a pure and sincerely devoted heart. Upon arriving at a holy ground, a person or group should first offer a bow, recite the Family Pledge and then there should be individual prayer. The Family Pledge is not something one should recite only as a habit before an event. It is in itself a prayer. We should first offer a prayer that shows our resolve as true children of God and True Parents that is, the Family Pledge -- and then offer a personal report in prayer.

With a final bow, we departed for the headquarters church to prepare for the Chil Il Jeol holy day celebration, the following morning. On the way, we stopped so that Hyung-jin nim could shop for a gift for Sun-jin nim and her husband In-sup nim who had invited Hyung-jin nim, Yeon-ah nim, Rev. Kim Dow-soon and his wife to dinner. We then went to a book store, where Hyung-jin nim was especially interested in the books on Japanese art. For almost two hours, he looked through many hooks. At last he said, "This is it!" He had finally found what he had been looking for. It transpired that Hyung-jin nim had been considering how best to place the portrait of True Parents in a sacred way in public places and private homes. He had been looking for an illustration that he could use to demonstrate this.

I felt that the two hours he spent on this revealed his pure heart, which longed for True Parents.

Tuesday July 1

Today marked the eighteenth anniversary of Chil Il Jeol. If Hyung-jin nim had been in Korea, he would have presided over the Chil Il Jeol celebration instead of True Parents, who were out of the country. being aware that the traditions and culture set up by True Parents need to be established in all nations while True Parents are still living, Hyung-jin nim chose to visit Japan. At the celebration, he said that until now doing everything centering on Korean people and Korean things had been emphasized in order to establish a standard, but a global foundation on which all races and nations can serve True Parents should be laid down for the generations to come, for only then could we become a worldwide religion. If we stubbornly insist on what is Korean, True Parents are limited to being the Messiah for the Korean people only and not the Messiah for all humanity. Korean leaders should go beyond guiding non-Korean members from their own standpoint, and relate with them with an even bigger heart than they do Korean members; the leaders should put more effort into nurturing the members so that they can become leaders who inherit True Parents tradition.

Hyung-jin nim also related a story (which he later incorporated into his July 5 sermon at the Korean Headquarters Church) about a boy and his father who saved the lives of may people that were trapped in a runaway train. The heartbreaking history of the providence for the salvation of humanity is depicted in the few words of this story.

After the celebration, we departed for the church in Hachioji, which is a subdivision of Tama, Tokyo, about an hour's drive from the Tokyo headquarters.

The Hachioji church building is very small; the members hold their services in a very cramped space. Because most of their resources are offered for the greater providence, the church in Hachioji, where we actually stayed overnight, was small and humble. Members filled every corner and cranny of it. After Hyung-jin nim spoke, he and Yeon-ah nim took pictures with each of the families.

The speech and photo session ended after two o'clock in the afternoon. Hyung-jin nim then took us to a nearby Chinese restaurant, one of chain he had come across during a prior visit to Japan. It is quite affordable even for large groups and serves a wide variety of teas -- so Hyung-jin nim likes it. After a meeting, Hyung-jin nim invites the church leaders, woman leaders and other hardworking members for a late lunch, during which he encourages them. After the meal, he got ready to visit a family at their home.

This time he visited the home of the Sujimoto family. The parents were blessed in 1997 among the 40 million couples and have very young children. Hyung-jin nim listened earnestly to the couple's testimony The husband and wife are both Japanese. Nevertheless, they said they had had difficulty understanding each other. Hyung-jin nim said that to overcome differences, it is important for a couple to take time together. He mentioned that he and Yeon-ah nim were like an international couple because they do not have the same native language and came from different cultures. In his case, he said, in order to help his wife understand him he would always tell his wife what was on his mind.

The Sujimotos expressed how they valued the blessing through which True Parents had brought them together and resolved to succeed as a blessed couple.

After he shared these things with them, Hyung-jin nim wrote the phrase, Seong ae il shim (Oneness of heart in devotion and love), in Chinese characters for them before returning to the Hachioji church.

Since the Hachioji church is small, the accommodation for Hyung-jin nim and his wife was prepared in the regional director's office by clearing out the desk and other furniture; their entourage was put up in the small hall. Hyung-jin nim feels that as leader of the church he should stay in the church rather than in a hotel. He also doesn't want to use church money unnecessarily.

Wednesday July 2

At 3 am Hyung-jin nim offered his devotions: with members who had come to Hachioji church, held Hoon Dok Hae and listened to the testimonies of the elder members. Around seven in the morning, he departed for his next destination, the church in Adachi. [Daily at 3:00 am at the Headquarters Church in Seoul -- or wherever they may be-Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim, together with the Headquarters Church staff member and anyone else who wishes to attend, began by bowing to God and True Parents. They then do the special exercises that True father does for physical fitness, following which Hyung-jin nim leads a session of contemplative meditation. Then everyone offers 120 full bows to Heaven. After this, all present go outside to clean up garbage in the vicinity. At 5:00 AM they have Hoon Dok Hae]

To save time and trouble for the visiting church, for breakfast he always drops by some hamburger place along the way and eats simply, arriving at his next destination in time for the church meeting.

The church in Adachi has the greatest number of young people among all the Japanese churches. Some five hundred are working actively; pushing themselves hard. These hardworking young members always welcome visiting leaders, whom they encourage by cheering and applauding loudly during meetings. However, once the meeting starts they are bound to doze off no matter which leader comes to speak to them because they are so tired. This is what their church leader told us, but when Hyung-jin nim was speaking to them, they were all listening intently so they would not miss a word.

He told them he had at one time wandered off the track, but through the help of Young-jin nim, who had passed away, and illumination from True Parents, he had come to a new appreciation of what it means for him to be True Parents' son. He emphasized to the audience that members should strengthen their true character so that the archangel cannot take blessed families to the archangelic side. He went on to say that he had Young-jin nim to turn to for help and to depend on; if the members did not have someone like Young-jin nim to depend on, Hyung-jin nim himself would become their older brother and help them in their needs.

With this precious message, he gave strength and courage to the members. Afterward, he and Yeon-ah nim took individual pictures with the eight hundred audience members. They then took the men and women who lead the church in Adachi out for a meal (at the usual Chinese restaurant) as a way of expressing appreciation for their hard work.

After dinner, they went to visit another family. The families Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim visit are chosen by lot. In this family the husband and wife were already married at the time they participated in the Blessing of 10 Million Couples. He is in business, and only his wife participates in church activities. However, their son had left our church while in college because he had read some bad stories about the movement. While everyone held hands together, Hyung-jin nim offered a prayer for this family. After the prayer, he said spoke about the need for making conditions for the children. He said that such devoted effort remains eternally and will be utilized as a blessing from God.

He went on to explain that when he had asked True Father what he should consider the greatest moral principle by which to live, True Father had answered, "Offer sincere devotions," and added that when you offer devotions earnestly, God bestows on you blessings equal to or greater than what you have offered. However, you should know that though you may anticipate blessings from God that correspond to the devotions you have offered, the blessings may not come when you want them to. God does not follow our expectations. He has His own timing, which often differs from ours. So when you lead your lives with constant devotion and set conditions, one day God will bestow His blessings on you.

Finally Hyung-jin nim suggested to this lady that certain kinds of conditions are good for children, and suggested she set a number of different ones. For instance, he suggested she carry a picture of True Parents in her purse or write the names of her children in a Divine Principle book, then place it on the prayer table and pray. Before leaving, he wrote a message for the family that he felt was what they needed: Seong ae hwa cheon (Be in harmony with Heaven through devotion and love).

Hyung-jin nim, Yeon-ah nim, Rev. Yim and his wife set off for dinner with Sun-jin nim, who was staying in Tokyo for a while. So they visited one more home! Sun-jin nim served them food that she had spent much time and effort to prepare.

Thursday July 3

On the day of departure after four days in Japan, Hyung-jin nim brought his eleventh visit there to a regretful close by offering the 3 AM devotions with the members including Rev. Tokuno Eiji, who is the new national church leader of Japan, and his wife Hisae. The Tokunos accompanied Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim through the 3 AM devotions and until they boarded the plane for the flight home. Rev. Tokuno said he realized how devotedly Hyung-jin nim and Yeon-ah nim loved the Japanese members. Based on that love, he said, the Japanese church would develop and grow even further. He resolved to put more effort into witnessing in Japan. He expressed heartfelt gratitude to Hyung-jin nim and his wife on behalf of the Japanese members.

On the way home, Hyung-jin nim sincerely offered thanks to God and True Parents. The Japanese members' love, yearning and passion directed toward True Parents is true faith, he said, and planting the roots of such an attitude in all members of the world as quickly as possible is the best way to lay the foundation stone for the establishment of Cheon Il Guk.

Ken Doo is a special assistant to Hyung-jin nim 

Marriage Blessing for the Godly Civilization under the Sacred Reign of Peace - Blessing Prayer

Hyung Jin Moon
July 2008

Beloved Heavenly Father. our eternal King of Peace and True Parents of Heaven Earth and Humankind: On this day of the blessing. we dedicate these prepared 153 couples before You, so please grant them the foundation whereon they can form ideal families.

Our Heavenly Father, after You lost the first human ancestors due to the Fall. You have had to walk a sad and sorrowful course. You recovered through the providence of restoration carried on for thousands of years, the rights of love, ownership, and lineage, and established True Parents on this earth. Through them, the right of the eldest son, the right of the parents. the right of kingship and the realm of the royal family have been completely recovered. and we are now standing on the, restored foundation of victory.

Heavenly Father, though we exist as individuals and families, I believe that when You look down upon us. You will see us as Your precious children -- blessed, central families -- and the couples who can perfect the purpose of creation.

Heavenly Father, we have renewed our hearts through this day and the blessed. central families gathered here are making their eternal vows before You.

Father, we need to realize once again the value of this blessing. and we need to know clearly how much You and True Parents, who have walked a course of six thousand years waiting for this day. really value and love all the blessed central families.

Heavenly Father, I hope and pray that You will allow these blessed families to become devoted sons and daughters of filial piety who can completely liberate Your heart.

Father, I beseech You to please bless these new blessed families as blessed central families. and bestow on them grace and love that they may become precious families who can establish God's ideal family. And I also truly pray that You will bless this day whereon these families can I return glory to You.

Heavenly Father, once again I dedicate to You the good men and women standing here before You, so please bless them and let them make a new beginning on this day and become Your blessed children who can firmly establish eternal lives of the freedom, peace, and happiness of the ideal world.

I offer all these words and bless and dedicate the new blessed couples gathered here in the name of Moon Hyung-jin's family a blessed central family and the names of our True God and True Parents. Aju. Aju. Aju.