Lovin' Life Sermon Notes From January 16, 2011

In Jin Moon
Washington, DC
Unofficial notes

Before In Jin Nim gave her sermon a letter was read, written to In Jin Nim from a 2nd generation (Leon). It was a beautiful letter expressing love and gratitude for the care that In Jin Nim had shown in caring for his younger sister (now on STF) and the practical guidance that he had received from In Jin Nim's sermons, from Jin Sung Nim, and from his experience on STF. He is now blessed, a freshman in college, and beginning an "I deal" family with his wife in Seattle.

1) In Jin Nim greeted everyone, the members in Washington DC, the capital of America. She had been scheduled to be there earlier and expressed her gratitude for their patience.

2) This is a brand-new year and there are lots of things going on at Lovin Life. They are trying out different things to better serve the community.

3) Our True Parents are always concerned and interested about what is taking place in America and how the American members are doing. They delight in visiting us in America . Even though they are now in Korea they are constantly praying for our families.

4) The greatest perks In Jin Nim receives, as the senior pastor, are things like this letter (which had been read) from Leon. It sometimes gets very difficult, sometimes tiring, and the work weighs you down, but when In Jin Nim gets a letter like this from a young gentleman -- just starting out in a new relationship, looking forward to a life where he can have the opportunity to create beautiful family together with his Japanese spouse, but all the while dealing with things and approaching life, not as a burden but with so much to look forward to, with a sense of gratitude, of being so blessed to be living at this time with our True Parents -- this is one of the most inspiring things for In Jin Nim to hear from young people. It makes it seem like whatever we're going through as a community -- we are on to a good thing, where we can raise up young people, to not just dream, but actually want to experience and substantiate a life of true love.

5) We can wake up not just our community, but we have the opportunity to wake up all the sons and daughters of God around the world -- that is a beautiful thing.

6) In Jin Nim thanked Leon for his beautiful letter and the thoughtfulness of his language, incorporating some of the wisdom nuggets that he received during his time at Lovin and Life. His tone of warmth and love is incredibly uplifting. "Seattle you are very lucky to have such a fine gentleman."

7) A couple of days ago In Jin Nim spent time in a workshop with some of our children. One of the things she loves to do at these workshops is to put a name to the faces, get to know the kids, get a sense about what they have been going through and how she can better serve them. After coming back from the workshop In Jin Nim had a deep moment in reflection and meditation in which she thought of the words her father spoke. This quote comes from his message of peace. True Father defines what true love is all about; "true love, the essence of true love is not to want to be served by others but it's really to give to, and to serve others."

8) The great theologian of our community, Young Oon Kim, encapsulated what our True Father was trying to say when she uttered the words, "To be chosen or to be anointed by God is not to think that we are somehow better than anyone else, but to be anointed, blessed, or chosen by God means that we are chosen to serve."

9) And in the message of peace our True Father goes on to say, "True love is a love that gives and forgets." It's a love that does not tally up points -- what have you done for me lately, or what you did not do for me lately. And True Father goes on to say that true love is the kind of love where you want to serve others, not because we want to get brownie points, or a great present at the end of our journey, but because we take great pleasure (he uses the word pleasure) in serving others.

10) When In Jin Nim reads and reflects on the letter from Leon, in his desire to serve his wife, to truly take care of his wife, and do it with a grateful heart -- he is, in a way, trying to substantiate the teachings of our True Father in his daily life.

11) In Jin Nim, as a mother of a family, with five healthy robust children of her own -- (and you know there is a lot of true rubbing that goes on in her family too) In Jin Nim's children range in age from 14 to 24. They are at all different periods in their life, going through different struggles, joys, victories, and trials and tribulations that all our children go through. And when True Father teaches that the family is the textbook of true love he ain't kidding. There are a whole lots of tears, laughter, loving, and rubbing, but we all struggle and we all worked together in knowing that what we desire to accomplish together, as this team, as this family, is to create an ideal family.

12) Just as Leon said in his letter, as he deals with his new relationship in his new life, so to In Jin Nim and you, we have all dealt with, are dealing, and will continue to deal with in our journey to build this ideal family.

13) For a lot of the first-generation who came before the second and third, their time in the movement has really been that of sacrifice, giving up everything for the sake of the Providence . That meant giving up time with their families, and with their loved ones. In the time of the wilderness the most important thing we had to remember was, regardless of what we were dealing with or faced with, regardless of the obstacles in our path, the most important thing we had to remember was to be united with our True Parents. To follow True Parents as closely as a shadow.

14) When In Jin Nim's children played the Army games and board games that involved strategy -- the most important thing when you are on a combat mission is to act as one body. With a clear leader and with clear direction and a whole platoon, knowing that we live and die depending on the strength of our unity and the strength of our ability to work as one body.

15) And this is where we've been for the last 40 years in our movement, but in this time of settlement when we are no longer roaming around in different combat zones as single men and women, in these teams or platoons, almost like a military group going in and out of different places with different missions.

16) The time of settlement is slightly different. Now we have baggage to tote around, we have a mortgage to consider, grocery lists by which we make sure our children are fed. We have different concerns. We are no longer single men and women. We have spouses and children and we have different things that we need to consider.

17) Transitioning from the tight-knit one body platoon to integrating into the community at large and taking root and developing and becoming successful families in all communities and all around the world. That is going to take a little bit more effort, and possibly a different way of approaching our mission.

18) During this time when we started Lovin Life, unlike the wilderness era when there was a great deal of emphasis on sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice, what we need to think about in terms of building family and being part of a larger community, is to think about how we can apply these principles and have them take root in our lives.

19) The Divine Principle needs to be more than a conceptual understanding as to why our True Parents are so special, more than just a theological understanding as to why our True Parents are the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah. Divine Principle needs to be understood and applied in our daily lives so that we become a body, where, regardless of where we are, we become the embodiment of the Divine Principle itself.

20) When we think that the intention and desire of our Heavenly Parent was in creating humankind, to be his sons and daughters, you realize that our Heavenly Parent did not sit back on his throne and say, "Hey, I want to create a couple of kids to amuse myself." That was not the desire of our Heavenly Parent. He did not say, "Hey, I want to create a son and daughter to see how miserable I can make their lives."

21) What our Heavenly Parent wanted and so desired, his intention in creating his sons and daughters was to experience parental love. For those of us who have children of our own we can truly experience and understand God's love for us, for the first time, when we have kids of our own. Then we realize, this is the kind of love where we are willing to die for our children, to sacrifice everything for our children. In a way, we don't exist in light of what we want for our children. That's the kind of love our Heavenly Father had.

22) When Heavenly Father created his children he did not want them to suffer, he did not want them to be miserable, he wanted them to be fruitful, multiply, and to have dominion. He wanted them to be successful, prosperous, and fulfilled human beings.

23) But the history of religion has been the history emphasizing sacrifice and denial because of the fall of man, because the children fell away from God. The most important thing that the children needed to do was to connect back to God. That was the most important thing.

24) Once we have our True Parents here with us, we have to fulfill the true intentions, true desire of our Heavenly Parent -- and what he desires and intends for all of us is to be fulfilled, successful, and prosperous sons and daughters. When In Jin Nim uses the word prosperous she is not just talking about mansions, beautiful cars, beautiful men and women, but what she is talking about is internal excellence as well as external excellence.

25) So here we are, in Washington DC the capital of the United States . Here we are with our True Parents. We need to be thinking at this time of breaking news, our True Father has said many times -- there is so much in a name. He would tell each of his children that they must live to fulfill their name. He said, "In Jin, your name means march of virtue, so get to it."

26) When In Jin Nim thinks about Washington DC. When she named her boys, Preston, Rexton, Truston, and Paxton, where does the "ton" come from? In the old English ton means "from the town of." Preston means from the town of priests. Rexton -- from the town of kings, Truston from the town of trust, Paxton from the town of Pax . But when you look at the Korean or Chinese characters -- In Jin Nim wanted the Chinese characters given by True Father to be reflected in each name. Ariana is special because she is the only girl -- her name means faith and goodness. In Greek it means holy, devout, and good.

27) When we look at Washington -- ton means from the town of. Here is the capital of the United States and the name means from the town of washing. God is trying to say we have to do a bit of laundry work. Our Heavenly Father and Mother is saying we have to start washing this beautiful country of America. There is so much soot and dirt and lots of gook on this beautiful country. Let's start with a cold shower condition, inject a little shower head into the American consciousness and revive the beautiful diamond that God put into this country.

28) This country was founded because our founding fathers desired to exercise their religious freedom. They wanted to honor their Heavenly Parent and that is why they came to this great country. But over the years, decades, and centuries America has lost its understanding of the profundity of its spiritual heritage. The young people have forgotten God in their lives. We have forgotten the importance of family, that all this blessing comes, not just to be served, but it comes to America (as our True Father said) to serve others.

29) It is our duty to do right, to start the laundry process from the capital of the United States . We need to start washing the consciousness of the American people starting with our own community, with ourselves.

30) And God gives us little hints at the end -- Washington D. C. What D. C. means to In Jin Nim is that it is time to start washing the consciousness of the American people, to reawaken their great spiritual heritage that God gave to this country. With a clear direction (D) that has been shared and given to us by our True Parents, by truly uniting and being centered on the direction and guidance of our True Parents, then we can truly inspire and empower ourselves to connect (C). Not just our young men and women, but to connect the world.

31) What does Washington DC mean to you? It means let's wash the consciousness of the American people beginning with ourselves, to reclaim our spiritual heritage under the clear direction and guidance of our True Parents so that we can inspire and empower the world to connect with God as one family under God.

32) At this time of the breaking news, when we are constantly talking about the deadline, Jan 13, 2013 -- we are not talking about 2013 as though that's when the world will end, we are saying that there is a lot of work to be done before 2013 so that we can be better prepared to launch into the next level.

33) For those of you who are followers and watchers of NASA, as In Jin Nim is, when you look at a launch -- it often takes place in three stages. If we use that as an analogy when we look at our community -- the first generation has done the hard part. It's that first initial takeoff when there is shake-down and rattling to get out of the atmosphere. That is what it was like for the first generation. Our True Parents came and shook the living ga-jesus out of your parents.

34) The incredible thing about our first generation, your parents, is that they held on for dear life. They are still here!

35) What we need to do, once we get out beyond the Earth's atmosphere is to start soaring. The second generation needs to take the momentum, starting on the foundation of what the first generation gave through a lot of rattling and shaking -- we need to go a little bit smoother, a little bit faster, and a little bit happier. And we are going to travel to a place the first generation has never been to.

36) But in your (1st gen) children you will be traveling every step of the way. So do not feel left behind, because you see lots of young faces coming into positions of leadership. Encourage these young men and women. Encourage them, "I am passing on my baton to the next phase. Go a little smoother, a little faster, a little happier"

37) And for In Jin Nim, having experienced the torturous and difficulty of going through the first tribulation type of blessing, when True Father declared to our community the importance of 10-10-10 we are now living under the direct dominion of God.

38) And for the first time because of the good foundation that had been laid by the parents, all of you, the second generation, now has the chance to own up to who they are. Not just in knowing that they are eternal sons and daughters of God, they can now start to pick their own spouse. When In Jin Nim heard that, she said hallelujah! Because, what we want -- we don't want to wish upon our children a whole life of rattling and shaking and hanging on for dear life. We want them to go a bit smoother, faster, and happier.

39) This is what Lovin Life is all about. It's about understanding that we are in the time, the age of settlement when we are living under the direct dominion of God. This is a chance for our children, 2nd, 3rd and 4th to be grateful, to honor our parents, and then to start owning up to who we are, taking it one step further.

40) In Jin Nim spoke to the youth in the room -- we as the generation of peace have to change the culture of America , we have to change the culture of the world. The beautiful thing about our movement is that we have the horizontal and the vertical.

41) We have the horizontal, the wonderful values that the Western civilization has to offer -- like communication and how to work as a team. But the East also has valuable components to offer our community, such as the importance of being vertically grounded, vertically united with a father and mother. This means for the younger generation -- learning how to exist and build a culture where we learn to honor and respect our elders, where we are grateful for the first generation's suffering.

42) When In Jin Nim was visiting with the young men and women of the workshop she shared with them an e-mail she received from her eldest son. Someone sent it to him and it made him think of her. It went like this (this is not exact) -- 3 years old: mommy I love you, 13 years old: "Mommy, whatever! 15: mommy, you are so annoying!!! 18: I want to get the bleep out of this house. I can't stand it!!! 25 years: "mmm?" 30 years old: "I want to see my Mom." 50 years old: "If only I had listened to my Mom a little bit better." 60 years old: "I would give anything to have my Mom with me."

43) What this e-mail is saying is that this is true for all of us. We have all been there. We have all felt this. As a community when we are thinking about raising another generation of young people to be grateful, honorable people, we need to be mindful that this process takes place regardless if you're from Africa, the Amazon, Seoul Korea , or Washington DC -- this is a process all people go through.

44) Many times when young people are in the 15 year stage of life, when everything about the parent is annoying -- at that time they only associate with other 15 year olds who think the same way. You get a group of people who all agree that their parents are annoying. Then how can we lead them back to a vertical understanding of who they are and how they should be to their parents.

45) In Jin Nim feels that True Parents are the greatest gift to America because they bring a little bit of Asia . When In Jin Nim first came to America and went to school, at first she could not understand what the kids were saying, but when she began to understand what they were saying she was so shocked -- at how freely, without second thought, there was a lot of criticizing of their parents. Where she came from you could not do that. You do not articulate or bring down your parents, talking about them in such a fashion.

46) In Jin Nim remembers when she was 11 or 12 there was a big girl in her class. She was the most vocally critical of her parents. For In Jin Nim, with an Asian ear, she would never dream of saying those things. You would never call your parents by their first name. It was a wake-up call for In Jin Nim. And In Jin Nim wanted to find out why this girl had this desire to trash her parents. And so In Jin Nim befriended her and she heard from this girl about all her suffering. In Jin Nim told her that in Asia they would never do that. The girl responded by saying that she is now in America. "Try a little criticism." In Jin Nim responded by asking why would she trash the very place where she came from. By trashing our parents, are we not trashing ourselves? This shows that we don't appreciate ourselves, we loathe ourselves, and because we don't know how to criticize ourselves we criticize those who are closest, our parents.

47) When In Jin Nim met this girl's parents she realized that they were not so bad. They were good people, but because this girl herself was so over weight, over 200 lbs. and she was angry with life, how dare God make her so big, so unattractive. She was angry at the world. She could not be like a beauty pageant girl -- and so she decided to be the opposite, to become negative and hate the world and her parents.

48) One time, in one of their talks, when she broke down she was able to admit to In Jin Nim that people treated her like an invisible tree and the only way she could get peoples attention was by receiving their sympathy. When In Jin Nim heard this it stuck with her -- how young people always seek validation and when they don't get it from their parents or their peers -- they end up creating a crisis. "I am so miserable," and start getting the attention so that they can control what people say or feel about them. Young people do this all the time

49) Imagine if we could apply a little bit, the philosophy of living for the sake of others in our lives, and help young people realize that living for the sake of others starts by understanding how incredibly blessed we are, how incredibly blessed we are to be living, not to be 6 feet under, but to be living. And how incredibly lucky we are to be healthy, young, and full of possibilities.

50) If we can inherit a little bit of the Eastern culture and tradition of learning how to respect our parents -- in the East, if you have nothing good to say about your elders, you are encouraged to say nothing at all. That's a good exercise to start practicing in our daily lives. If we have nothing nice to say about our parents, then say nothing at all. Perhaps this might be an occasion for us to start working on ourselves.

51) A lot of second generation who have seen their fathers and mothers suffer, seen them give up everything and dedicate everything to the Providence -- their car, everything to Providence, they can feel somehow as if they are entitled, entitled to malign the first generation for all the things that they have not done for them.

52) We need to start thinking and realize that it is because of their suffering and sacrifice that we are here, living at this time of the breaking news. We have the opportunity to not just hear about our True Parents but to actually be with them, hear their words directly -- not like some people who will come after us, hundreds of years later wondering what Rev. Moon and Mrs. Moon were all about, what they might have been like. They are here with us. And so, starting with that in and of itself, be grateful for your parents.

53) As we move on through life, as we go through the different stages, we need to interact with each other, we need to start talking with each other, we need to start -- instead of judging- begin asking questions. How are you? How is your family? How have you been?

54) We need to start thanking each other. "Mommy, I want to thank you today for being my mom. I want to thank you for making coffee cake whenever my wife has one of her tantrums -- thank you for listening to her, taking her off my hands.

55) We need to start respecting each other. We need to start thanking each other. We need to start creating a culture that will reverberate down to our children.

56) Many times the 2nd generation might feel like you guys (1st gen) are failures. "I am not Donald Trump, I am not Albert Einstein, I'm not … I gave up all that for God. And maybe sometimes we may feel like failures, but when In Jin Nim celebrated the 40th anniversary in tribute to the 1st generation, the True Family wanted to say "you guys are champions!" -- and that you accomplished what the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ could not do. They were not there when Jesus died on the cross. Not one of them offered to die in place of Jesus Christ. But all of you stood by our True Parents, you walked through the wilderness with our True Parents, all of you were willing to die and go to prison over and over and over again together with our True Parents. So you guys are the greatest champions.

57) You need to start feeling good about yourself, feeling how incredible you are to this whole Providence. If you start feeling wonderful, if you start humming along hallelujah, if you start loving life -- your children are going to pick up on your vibes, on your spirit. And if we can do our job at headquarters and continually support our children to be all that they can be -- to be great men and women of God, to not just dream on, but actually start substantiating -. The Good Book and Ecclesiastics 11:4 "He who observes will not sow, he who regards the clouds will not reap." This is not a time to be fence sitters. Breaking Time means getting rid of our fears and diving in and get on board because the train is here. What Ecclesiastics is trying to say is that we have to get off our "hynees" We have to stop regarding and observing and start experiencing, start substantiating, start breathing all the good sowing that has gone on for the last decades.

58) In this time, this age of settlement, time of harvesting the single most important thing that we need to concentrate on is this spirit of gratitude to God our Heavenly Parent and to our True Parents and to each other. We need to start being grateful for each other. We need to start actualizing and practicing love. It's the little things that we can do in life. It's the little ripples that travel the furthest, the small things like "thank you," "I love you," that mean so much. Together these, as a community, can create a grand tsunami so that the whole world can partake in the revolution of true love that is taking place.

59) So do not wait for the new brothers and sisters coming into our movement to remind us how precious we are, how precious True Parents are. Be an agent of change. Let us remind ourselves -- and start perfecting and changing our lives.

60) As we go forward think about what an incredible time it is, to be living at this time with our True Parents. Please think about the importance of Washington DC and the responsibility of America to truly direct and guide the world to connect with our True Parents, starting where? With "heavenly washing" and we, every one of us, is going to start. Right?

61) God Bless and thank you. 

"Washing-ton"

In Jin Moon
January 16, 2011
Washington, D.C.

The following is the sermon given by Rev. In Jin Moon at the Lovin' Life Ministries service held in Washington D.C. on January 16, 2011. "What does Washington, D.C. mean to you?" she asked. "It means let's wash the consciousness of the American people beginning with ourselves, to reclaim our spiritual heritage under the clear direction and guidance of our True Parents so that we can inspire and empower the world to connect with God as one family under God."

Good morning, brothers and sisters. Welcome to Lovin' Life. We are delighted to see all of you here in Washington, D.C., the capital of this great country of America. It's been a long time coming. I know we were scheduled to be here earlier, but thank you for being patient with us. Here we are, and it's really so wonderful to see the brothers and sisters in Washington, D.C., the Baltimore area, and neighboring towns who have come out to worship together with us this Sunday morning.

As you know, this is a brand-new year, and we have a lot of things going on at Lovin' Life. We are trying out different things to always better serve the community. Of course, our True Parents are always so concerned and interested in what is taking place in America and how the American members are doing. They delight very much in visiting us in America. Even though they are back in Korea, we know that they are constantly praying for you and your families and hoping that we can truly raise up a great generation of peace and inspire the young people here to be great Americans.

As somebody who stands in the position as your senior pastor, the greatest perk of doing what I do is getting a letter like this [refers to e-mail read aloud earlier to the congregation] from Leon. It sometimes gets difficult and tiring, and sometimes the work wears you down, but this is one of the most inspiring things I can hear from young people: a young gentleman just starting out in his new relationship, looking forward to a life where he can have the opportunity to create a beautiful family together with his Japanese spouse; but all the while he is approaching life not as a burden but with so much to look forward to, with a sense of gratitude, a sense of being so blessed to be living out this time with our True Parents.

It makes it seem like whatever we're going through as a community, we are onto a good thing when we can raise up young people to not just dream but actually want to experience and substantiate true love in their lives. To think that we can wake up not just our community but that we have an opportunity to wake up all the sons and daughters of God in America and all around the world -- that's a beautiful thing. I want to thank Leon for his beautiful letter and the thoughtfulness of his language, of incorporating some of the wisdom nuggets that he might have gleaned through his time at Lovin' Life. The tone of his letter, the warmth and love, is incredibly uplifting. Seattle, you are very lucky to have such a fine gentleman.

Just a couple of days ago I spent some time at a workshop, a wonderful opportunity with some of your children. One of the things I love to do is put a name with a face at these workshops and get to know the kids, maybe get a sense about what they've been going through and how I can better serve them. After coming back from the workshop, I had a deep moment of reflection when I thought about the words my father spoke. This quote is from his book of Peace Messages, where he defines what true love is all about: "The essence of true love is not to want to be served by others but to give to and to serve others."

Dr. Young Oon Kim, the great theologian of our community, encapsulated what True Father was trying to say when she uttered the words, "To be chosen, anointed, or blessed by God is not to think that we're somehow better than anybody else. To be chosen by God means that we are chosen to serve."

In that message of peace, Father goes on to say that true love is the love that gives and forgets. It's a love that does not tally up points about what you have done for me lately or what you did not do for me lately. Father says that in true love, you want to serve others, not for brownie points or a present at the end, but because you take great pleasure -- he uses the word pleasure -- in serving others.

When I think about Leon's letter, in his desire to serve his wife and truly take care of her with a grateful heart, he is substantiating the teachings of our True Father in his daily life. As the mother of a family with five thriving, healthy, and robust children of my own, I see a whole lot of "true rubbing" that takes place in my family. My children range in age from 14 to 24. There are different periods in their lives with the struggles, victories, and tribulations that all children go through. When Father teaches that the family is truly the textbook of true love, he ain't kidding! There's a whole lot of tears, of laughter, of loving, of "rubbing." We all struggle and we all work together in knowing that what we desire to accomplish as a team, as a family, is to create an ideal family.

Just as Leon mentioned in his letter, as he deals with his new relationship and his new life, so, too, you and I have dealt with, are dealing with, and will continue to deal with in our journey to build this ideal family.

The First Generation's time in the movement has really been that of sacrifice, giving up everything for the sake of providence. Many times that meant giving up time with our loved ones because we were in the time of the wilderness. In the time of the wilderness, the most important thing we had to remember, regardless of what we were faced with, of what obstacles stood in our path, was to be united with True Parents, to follow them as closely as a shadow.

When my children play various military strategy board games, one of the things that stands out while they're on a combat mission is to act as one body, with a clear leader and clear direction being given. The whole platoon knows that they live or die depending on the strength of their unity, the strength of their ability to work as one body. That's where we have been for the last 40 or so years of our movement.

But in this time of settlement, when we are no longer rolling around in combat zones as single men and women, almost like military groups with different missions, it is slightly different in that we have a lot of baggage to tote around. We have rent or a mortgage to consider, and making grocery lists so that our children are fed nutritiously. We are no longer single, but we have spouses, we have children, we have responsibilities to consider.

Transitioning from this tight-knit platoon to integrating into the community at large, really taking root and developing families to become successful all around the world, is going to take a little more effort and possibly a different approach to our mission. During this time when we are starting Lovin' Life, unlike in the wilderness era, when there was a great emphasis on sacrifice, what we need to think about in building families and being part of a larger community is how we can apply these principles and have them take root in our lives.

The Divine Principle needs to be more than a conceptual understanding of why our True Parents are so special. It needs to be more than a theological understanding of why our True Parents are the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah. The Divine Principle needs to be understood and applied in our daily lives so that we become a body where, regardless of where we are, we embody the Divine Principle itself.

When we think what our Heavenly Parent's intention or desire was in creating his first son and daughter, we realize that our Heavenly Parent didn't sit back on a throne and think about creating a couple of kids for amusement. Our Heavenly Parent didn't create them to see how miserable their lives could be. What our Heavenly Parent so desired in wanting to create sons and daughters was to experience parental love. For those of us who have children of our own, we can truly experience and understand God's love for us for the first time when we have kids and we realize that we have the kind of love making us willing to die for our children, willing to sacrifice everything for our children. In a way, we don't exist in light of what we want for our children. That's the kind of love Heavenly Parent has.

When our Heavenly Parent created children, he didn't want them to suffer. He didn't want them to be miserable. He wanted them to be fruitful, to multiply, and to have dominion. He wanted them to be successful, prosperous, fulfilled human beings. But the history of religion has emphasized sacrifice and denial because of the human Fall. Because the children fell away from God, the most important thing they needed to do was somehow connect back to God.

But once we have our True Parents here with us, we have to fulfill the true intention or desire of our Heavenly Parent. What he desires and intends for all of us is to be fulfilled, to be successful, to be prosperous sons and daughters. And when I use the word prosperous, I am not talking about just mansions and beautiful cars. What I'm talking about is internal as well as external excellence. Here we are in the capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., with our True Parents.

True Father over the years has often said that there is so much in a name. He would tell every one of my brothers and sisters, "You must live to fulfill your name." He would say, "In Jin, your name means 'march of virtue,' so get to it!"

I named my boys Preston, Rexton, Truston, and Paxton. Where does the "ton" come from? If we look at the Old English, we see that ton means "from the town of." Preston means "from the town of priests." Rexton means "from the town of kings." Truston means "from the town of trust"; Paxton, "from the town of pax [peace]." I wanted the Chinese characters that Father gave to each child to be reflected in the name. Ariana is special because she's the only girl, and her name means "faith and goodness." Ariana in Greek means "holy, devout, and good." That's where her name comes from.

When we look at Washington, we see ton, "from the town of." Here is the capital of the United States and the name means "from the town of washing." I guess that's God's way of saying we have to do a little bit of laundry work, right? Heavenly Parent is saying, "We've got to start washing this beautiful country of America. There's so much soot and dirt on this beautiful country. Let's start with a cold shower condition, let's inject a little shower head into the American consciousness, and let's revive the true beautiful diamond that God put into this country." This country was founded because the Founding Fathers wanted to exercise religious freedom. They wanted to honor our Heavenly Parent, and that's why they came to this great country.

But over the years America has lost its understanding of the profundity of this spiritual heritage. Young people have forgotten God, forgotten the importance of family, and forgotten that all this blessing means not just to be served but is given in order that America serve others. It's our duty to do right, to start the laundry process from the capital of the United States, to start washing the consciousness of the American people, beginning with our community and ourselves.

God gives a little hint at the end: Washington, D.C. Of course it stands for "District of Columbia," but what it means to me when I hear the name is that it's time to start washing the American people, to awaken the great spiritual heritage that God gave this country, with a clear direction, D, given to us by True Parents. By truly uniting and being centered on the guidance of True Parents, then we can inspire and empower ourselves to connect, C, not just our young men and women but the world back to God in realizing that we belong to one family under God.

Brothers and sisters, what does Washington, D.C., mean to you? It means, "Let's wash the consciousness of the American people, starting with ourselves, to reclaim our spiritual heritage under the clear direction and guidance of our True Parents, so that we can inspire and empower the world to connect to God as one family under God.

At this time of the breaking news, when we're constantly talking about the deadline 2013, we're not talking about it as if the end of the world will take place. What we're saying is that there's a whole lot of work to be done before 2013 so that we can better prepare to launch into the next level.

I am fascinated with NASA, particularly with rockets and the exploration of outer space. Most launches take place in three stages. I think of that as an analogy in looking at our movement. The First Generation has done the hard part. It's that first grinding up from the launch pad, getting past the earth's atmosphere, with a lot of rattling and shaking going on. Our True Parents came and shook the bejesus out of our parents. But the incredible thing about our parents is that they held on for dear life, and they're still here.

What we need to do once we get out beyond the earth's atmosphere is to start soaring. The Second Generation needs to take the momentum, standing on the foundation of what the First Generation gave with a whole lot of rattling and shaking, and we need to go a little smoother, a little faster, and a little bit happier. We're going to travel to a place the First Generation has never been. But in your children, you will be traveling every step of the way. So do not feel left behind because you see a lot of new young faces coming into leadership. Encourage these young men and women; you are passing on the baton to the next phase, to go a little smoother, go a little faster, and go a little happier.

Many of us have experienced the torturous difficulty of a First Generation-type of blessing. But on 10-10-10, Father talked about how right now we are living in the direct dominion of God and for the first time because of the good foundation of sacrifice laid by our parents and by all of you, the Second Generation now has a chance to own up to who they are, not just in knowing that they are eternal sons and daughters of God, but to actually start picking their own spouse. When I heard that, I said, "Hallelujah!"

As parents, we don't want to wish upon them a whole life of rattling, shaking, and hanging on for dear life. We want them to go a little smoother, a little faster, a little happier. That's what loving life is all about. It's about understanding that we are in the age of settlement, when we're living under the direct dominion of God. This is really a chance for our children, the Second, Third, and Fourth Generations, to be grateful, to honor our parents, but then to start owning up to who we are and take it one step further.

To the Second Generation and younger in the room, we as the generation of peace have to change the culture of America, the culture of the world. The beautiful thing about our movement is that we have the horizontal and the vertical. We have the wonderful horizontal values that Western civilization has to offer, like communication and learning how to work as a team. But the East also has valuable components to offer our community -- the importance of being vertically minded, vertically united with a father and a mother. This means for the younger generation learning how to build a culture where we honor our elders, where we respect those who have come before, where we are grateful for the First Generation's suffering and sacrifice.

When I was visiting with the young men and women at the workshop, I shared with them an e-mail from my eldest son, who said that he was sharing something he was sent, and it made him think of me. It goes something like this:

Three years old: Mommy, I love you.

Ten years old: Mommy, whatever!

Fifteen: Mommy, you are so annoying!

Eighteen: I want to get the bleep out of this house; I can't stand it.

Twenty-five: I think I might have been wrong.

Thirty years old: God, I really miss my mom. I want to go back and see her and live in her house.

Fifty years old: If only I had listened to my mom a little better.

Sixty years old: I would give anything and everything just to have my mom back in my life.

When we are teenagers, fifteen years old, we're thinking, "God, our parents are so annoying!" When we're eighteen, we're thinking, "I want to get the bleep out of my house." This e-mail says that it's true for all of us. We've all been there; we've all felt it. As a community, when we're thinking about raising up a generation of young people to be honorable, we need to be mindful that this process takes place regardless of whether someone is from Africa, from the Amazon, from Seoul, or from Washington, D.C. When young people are 15, everything about their parents is annoying, and when they only associate with other 15-year-olds who think the same way, you get a group of people who all agree that their parents are annoying. How can we link them to a vertical understanding of who they are and how they should be toward their parents?

I feel that True Parents are the greatest gift to America because they bring a little bit of Asia. When I first came to this country at eight years old and started going to school, initially I didn't understand what the kids were saying. But when I could understand their words I was shocked at how freely and without second thought there was a lot of criticism of their parents. Where I come from, you just do not articulate that sort of thing or bring down your parents, talking about them in such a fashion.

When I was around eleven or twelve, there was a big girl in my class who was quite vocal in criticizing her parents. To my Asian ears (I would never dream of saying those things about my parents!), it was a wake-up call. I had to find out why she felt such a need to trash her parents all the time. I befriended her and got an earful about all her suffering, and I told her that in Asia we never talked like that. She said, "Girl, you're in America. So try a little criticism."

I replied, "I don't know if I want to. Why would I do that? Why would I trash the very place that I come from?" By trashing our parents, are we not trashing ourselves? It really shows not appreciating ourselves, that we're engulfed in self-loathing, that in not knowing how to hate myself I choose the nearest thing and hate my parents.

As I got to know this girl and her parents, I realized that her parents weren't that bad. She'd made them out to be monsters, but some of us got to know them, and they were wonderful people. But because she herself was very big for twelve years old, already 200 pounds, she was angry about life, feeling, "How dare God make me so big!" Feeling like a captive who couldn't be like other girls, she instead would totally neg out, totally hate the world, totally hate her parents.

When she finally broke down in some of our talk sessions, she was honest enough to admit to some of us that she was fat and unattractive, that people treated her like an invisible tree. The only attention she could get came in the form of sympathy when she shared about her misery.

When I heard her say that, it stuck with me, how young people always struggle for validation and attention. When they feel they're not getting enough from their parents or their peers, what they end up doing is wanting to create some kind of crisis so that they can control how people feel about them. In psychology, we call it crisis and control. Young people do that all the time.

Imagine if we can apply a little of the philosophy of living for the sake of others in our lives and help young people realize that living for the sake of others starts by understanding how incredibly blessed we are to be alive and how incredibly lucky we are to be young, healthy, and full of potential. We can inherit a little bit of the Eastern tradition of learning how to respect parents. If you have nothing good to say about your elders, don't say anything at all. That's a good exercise to practice in our daily lives. If we have nothing nice to say about our parents, don't say anything at all. Perhaps this might be an occasion to start working on ourselves.

I think a lot of the Second Generation who have seen our fathers and mothers suffer and dedicate everything to providence -- the home, car, and everything -- feel somehow as if we are entitled to complain, entitled to criticize, entitled to malign the First Generation for all the things that they have not done for us. But we need to start thinking about all the things that they have done for us. We need to realize that it is because of their suffering and sacrifice that we are here in this beautiful Unification Church community, living at this time of the breaking news, when we have the chance not just to hear about our True Parents but to actually be with them and hear their words directly: not like some people who will come hundreds of years after us, wondering what Reverend Moon or Mrs. Moon were all about and what they might have been like. They are here with us.

Starting with that, in and of itself, we have a whole lifetime for us to be grateful for our parents and for the First Generation. As we move through life, as we go through different stages, we need to interact with each other and start talking to each other. Instead of judging, maybe we should be asking questions: "How are you? How is your family? How have you been?" We need to start thanking each other. "You know what, Mom? I just want to thank you today for being my mom. Thank you for driving me to my violin lessons all those years." "Neighbor, I want to thank you for baking coffee cake whenever my wife has one of her tantrums. Thank you for listening to her and taking her off my hands for a couple of hours."

We need to start respecting each other. We need to start thanking each other. We need to start creating a culture that will reverberate down to our children. The First Generation might feel like they are failures: "I'm not Donald Trump. I'm not Albert Einstein. I'm not Beyoncé. I gave up all that for God." Maybe sometimes we feel like failures. But when I celebrated the 40th anniversary in tribute to the First Generation, on behalf of the True Family I said, "You guys are champions, not failures; champions of true love in that you accomplished what the twelve disciples of Jesus could not do. They were not there for Jesus when he died on the cross. Not one of them offered to give his life in place of Jesus Christ. But all of you stood by our True Parents and walked through the wilderness with them. All of you were willing to die and go to prison over and over and over again together with our True Parents. So you guys are the greatest champions. So you need to start feeling good about yourself. You need to start feeling how incredible you are to this whole providence that's taking place." If you start feeling wonderful, start humming along; if you start loving life, your children are going to pick up on that vibe and your spirit.

We at Headquarters want to continually support our children to be all they can be, to be great men and women of God, to not just dream on but to actually substantiate. Ecclesiastes 11:4 says, "He who observes will not sow. He who regards the clouds will not reap." This is not a time to be fence-sitters. The time of the breaking news means to get rid of our fears and start diving in, start getting on board because the train is here.

What Ecclesiastes is saying is that we've got to get off our rear ends, stop regarding and observing, and start experiencing, start substantiating, start reaping all the good sowing that has gone on for the last fifty-plus years. In this time, in this age of settlement, in this time of harvest, the single most important thing that we need to concentrate on is the spirit of gratitude to our Heavenly Parent, to our True Parents, and to each other.

We need to start being grateful for each other. We need to start actualizing and practicing love in the little things that we can do in life. It's the little ripples that travel the farthest. It's the little ripples of small things like "Thank you," "I love you," "You mean so much to me" that together as a movement and community can create a grand tsunami so the whole world can partake in the revolution of true love that is taking place.

So do not wait for the new brothers and sisters coming into our movement to remind us how precious we are, how precious our True Parents are. Let us be the agents of change. Let us remind ourselves and start affecting and changing our lives, and start affecting and inspiring other people who are near and dear to our hearts.

Brothers and sisters, as we go forward, please think about what an incredible time it is to be living now with our True Parents. Please think about the importance of Washington, D.C., and the responsibility of America to truly direct and guide the world to connect with our True Parents, starting with the heavenly washing that we are going to start. God bless, and thank you.

Notes:

Ecclesiastes, chapter 11

1: Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.

2: Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you know not what evil may happen on earth.

3: If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth;
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

4: He who observes the wind will not sow;
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

5: As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

6: In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand; for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

7: Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to behold the sun.

8: For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

9: Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

10: Remove vexation from your mind, and put away pain from your body; for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.  

Lovin Life Sermon Notes from January 9, 2011

In Jin Moon
Unofficial notes: Andrew Compton

1) In Jin Nim greeted everyone wishing us happy New Year!

2) Last week Ariana, In Jin Nim's daughter, started our new year off with a wonderful time with our congregation. In Jin Nim wanted to set the tone for this year as the year in which we can concentrate on the importance of family and raising up a wonderful and beautiful generation of peace.

3) What better way to do so than to have her daughter start the year, dedicating the year to God, True Parents, and to our community.

4) As In Jin Nim was thinking back over the past year, she could not help but laugh and cry. In a moment of meditation she was thinking about all the things we've accomplished and are now working through, and all the things we will accomplish in the coming year.

5) In such a short amount of time, especially with the launch of the national broadcast that took place last year, In Jin Nim thanked all the states and district directors, from the bottom of their (the Lovin Life Team) hearts. And the Lovin Life team thanks the more than 10,000 of us who are joining in through the internet -- and to say that they are so grateful that they have this opportunity to worship together. Without our support, they would not be here. If we can continue to work really hard we can truly build something beautiful.

6) In Jin Nim feels that we have taken the first step in unifying the country under this one ministry. This is the time, every Sunday, when all of America can come together and worship together as a family. Building on that foundation if we can do, and continue all the good work that is taking place at headquarters, with our trust they can do many, many things this year.

7) In Jin Nim is especially honored to have True Parents with us. They are now in Las Vegas. Their hearts and prayers are always with every brother and sister in this country. When they pray about the younger generation they are truly hoping that we can raise up great young men and woman in this country, to really understand the importance of life and the profundity of the opportunity we've been given.

8) In light of what just occurred yesterday, the horrific act of the 22-year-old man who took a pistol in his hand and gunned down the US Representative, we have to think about what kind of society we are living in and what kind of children we are raising up in this great country of America.

9) Why is it that horrific acts of violence continue? This 22-year-old young man should be a representative of the generation of peace, he should be looking forward to his life, thinking about all the great things he can accomplish, and the beautiful family that he will build and all the wonderful ways of service that he could serve his community, his family, and the world. These are the kinds of things that our young people need to be thinking about, not taking a gun into your hands and deciding to shoot a representative of our country -- because you disagree with their policies.

10) As In Jin Nim thought about what took place -- she thought, here we are in the middle of Manhattan, and when she starts her day she is faced with the insanity of it all. She uses the word insanity with a touch of humor, because of the New Year's gift she received from her eldest son before he returned to London where he is continuing his graduate studies in economics. He told her, "I want to put you on the insanity program to help you with the insanity that you deal with on a daily basis." She asked him what he meant by that. "Do you want to give me another insanity?"

11) He said, yes. He and his wife have been thinking about New Year's resolutions and they wanted to invite her into their insanity program. In Jin Nim found out that this is actually a one-month work-out program. It contains terms she has never heard before. She is to religiously apply herself 45 minutes every day for one month, after which she will be healthy, fit, and hopefully insanity free. And so she promised her son she would do her best. When In Jin Nim is confronted with the insanity of New York City and her work at hand, at least she will have a smile on her face -- she'll be reminded that she has a torturous workout that her son set out for her.

12) Here at headquarters where they are constantly trying to figure out new and better ways of doing things, better serve the community, better serve America, and raise up this great generation of peace, they are constantly in conversation with themselves, with True Parents, and with God their Heavenly Parent in heaven.

13) When In Jin Nim thought about what took place, a young man casting his life away (he will spend the rest of his life in prison). The potential of what could have been was cut short. It reminded In Jin Nim why America and the world needs our True Parents. The young people of this country need to understand what it means to live a life for the sake of others.

14) This man could have been touched by the beauty of God and the teachings of our True Parents, he could have understood just as our True Father spoke (Feb 9, 1974) to a group of brothers and sisters -- he said "We must be able to love our neighbor's children, their parents, and their grandparents as if they were our own. We must love them as our own. And in so doing we will go through the process of loving front and back, left and right, above and below, and in so doing develop a vertical heart of God. And by developing this vertical standard part of God we can express ourselves in a heavenly way, in a way that is infused with this thing called true love. A love that is eternal, unchanging, and absolute."

15) In Jin Nim's father wanted to teach all of us to look at the other person as if they are a part of our family. If a young man, regardless of how upset he might be at another person, when he is looking at this 40-year-old representative as his neighbor's mom, or as his neighbor's sister, then he could not commit what he did. You cannot take a gun to your own family if you truly love your family.

16) The importance of understanding what it is to love another person as your own. What it is to love another human being as your child, as your parent, as your brothers and sisters, as your grandparents -- this is the philosophy through which the world can come to understand what it means to live harmoniously and to live peacefully. But In Jin Nim would be the first one to say, that when our True Father speaks to us about the family being the textbook of true love -- it is not an easy process. In fact some of the most difficult relationships tend to be family relationships. It is incredibly difficult to overcome the different opinions, misunderstandings, and arguments that take place.

17) But if we can understand that the family is the textbook through which we can learn to grow in depth, and meaning, and in stature -- then you realize that this thing called our desire, in wanting to build the ideal families, (and In Jin Nim always jokingly says) is an invitation to a lot of hard work.

18) Just as In Jin Nim's son commanded her to start the insanity program, she feels that now she has been immersed in a new family, all these people working out with her in this insanity program. The true rubbing that must take place, the amount of sweating and effort to complete the one-month is kind of like what we go through in the context of the family. If you want to create ideal families we have to deal with our brothers and sisters, we have to deal with our spouses, we have to deal with our parents. But we do so understanding that we belong to one family and the purpose of every human being, every divine son and daughter of God, is to love and be loved, to move and to be moved by each other.

19) Then we realize, that it is seemingly so difficult, and sometimes seemingly insurmountable -- it is like God put a Mount Everest right in front of our eyes. We realize that it is really God saying to us "Dear daughter, dear son, climb, start to climb. It will not be easy but continue climbing one step at a time and see how high you can go. Reach for the stars. Stand at the top. Take in the majesty of the creation which I have given to you."

20) Understand how incredible life is -- just the fact that we are breathing 20,000 L of air each day and night, it's a beautiful opportunity for us to be in tune with the universe and realize we can be something awesome if we apply ourselves.

21) Just as In Jin Nim must apply herself in the next month, learning how to love another is not an easy thing. But what does the good book, the Bible, teach us? In Acts 16:31 it says "believe." In Jin Nim likes to say our Lord and our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents. It says "believe." Then it asks us to take yourself "out of your keeping." Take yourself out of your keeping.

22) Last Sunday In Jin Nim's daughter shared with us words on the concept of entitlement, the concept of position, people thinking that they are entitled to something -- a person's spouse, a possession, or a position. The Bible is asking us to take ourselves out of our keeping.

23) Many times we don't realize that we are suffering because we have become petrified, we are so busy trying to keep what really doesn't belong to any of us. Our life is an opportunity to give. It's not an opportunity to take or to keep. And sometimes, by desperately trying to keep hold of something, we don't realize that we are being petrified in the process. We become so petrified in our habits, our opinions, the way we see a particular member of our family, that we deny that member of the family room to grow. We deny ourselves our room to grow. We deny the family the room to work things out and become deeper and the relationships and in the love that we can experience.

24) The Bible is asking us not to be so preoccupied with ourselves. When we come before Jesus Christ, before our True Parents, before our Heavenly Parent -- we must believe. We must know that they are always there, beside us. We must know when to let ourselves go and to take ourselves out of our keeping. Because the person or the being that keeps us, is our Heavenly Parent. Let our Heavenly Parent keep us. Let our True Parents keep us. Let Jesus Christ keep us. We have to allow our hearts to be open.

25) What else does the Bible say? Not only does it say believe in Jesus Christ -- it says take yourself out of your keeping, and it also asks us to trust in His being -- so that we will be saved. The Bible says entrust in His being, or entrust in Her being, our Heavenly Parent, our True Parents, their being.

26) We must open up our hearts. And smack in the middle of all the insanity that takes place sometimes in the course of our lives, the more insane something gets the more petrified we tend to get in our own opinions, desires, and positions. But what the Bible is asking us to do -- it asks us to entrust, it is asking us to surrender. It is asking us to let go of our own keeping and allow God to flow in and work His and Her mysterious ways in our lives. And if we do, we will realize that God loves us as his sons and daughters. God desires all of us to find, to discover, our divinity and become that beautiful person, become that beautiful dancer (like we saw just a minute ago -- Ariana and her dance partner danced for everyone just before In Jin Nim's sermon) become that great singer, become that great teacher, great minister, great professor, maybe a great doctor. Become all that you can be. Be passionate about your life. Don't waste your life away as if it were something meaningless, dust in the wind. We are not. We are divine creations of God, each and every one of us handcrafted by God and incredibly precious.

27) We listen to the Bible, and we listened to the encouragement that our True Father gives to all of us -- to learn to love the other as our own. In that way our True Father is hoping that by giving of ourselves and learning to live for the sake of others -- we can truly experience the parental heart of God.

28) One of the most beautiful things about our church, our teachings, our True Parents' teachings, is that for the first time in history we have a man and a woman standing in the position of True Parents. As a dignified and honorable man and woman coming together before God in matrimony, holding God at the center of their hearts and their lives, and together with God's blessing have beautiful children -- this is what we call in our church, the four position foundation.

29) The incredible thing about the four position foundation is that it is the fulfillment of what Jesus Christ wanted to accomplish 2000 years ago. 2000 years ago Jesus Christ did not come to die. He came to live and to love life. He came to inherit the lineage of God so that his brothers and sisters and his family, his parents and grandparents could understand what it means to live a life inheriting this true love of God, having true love, true life, and also true lineage -- to be a part of God's lineage in their lives. This is what Jesus meant to accomplish. He was not meant to go the way of the cross. He was meant to find that beautiful woman. He was meant to create a beautiful family and by establishing the first perfected family, that Adam and Eve should have accomplished many, many years ago -- it would have given the foundation for Jesus Christ as the True Parents of mankind to share with the rest of the world this true lineage of God through the process of the blessing. So that every child, every man and woman, could be grafted into God's lineage and become one family under God.

30) When we talk about the beauty of our teachings -- this is what it is in a nutshell -- the ability to experience for ourselves the four position foundation, centered on God, able to come together, man and woman, in this process called matrimony and create beautiful children -- thereby as parents ourselves we can experience how much love there is.

31) In Jin Nim thought she loved her family until she had children of her own. Until she had children of her own she did not know the depth of her love, the capacity of her love. But when you have a child you can see this 'living for the sake of others' starting with the first cry that the baby utters when he enters the world. You are thinking of this person. You want this child to be better than you, to be happier than you, to experience incredible love that you perhaps have never experienced. You want the child to be great, greater than you. That is what it means to love and live for the sake of others. That is when In Jin Nim realized for the first time, "Good Lord!, This is how much God must love me as his daughter." Then you realize we are truly, truly one family and that God is our parent, giving us this opportunity to experience for ourselves what it feels like to be like God gazing into our faces.

32) That is the beauty of the four position foundation -- and if we could have touched this young man, through the insanity of it all that drove him to commit the horrific act that he did -- if he could have been touched by the message of true love, touched by the philosophy of living for the sake of others -- living and loving and living with another human being as if they were your own -- then he could not have committed what he did.

33) Here we are in this great country of America, having survived the horrors of 9/11, having survived horrors of religious factions hating one another. But if we understand the concept, or if we can taste what true love is all about, what it means to belong to one family, to rise beyond and go beyond the barriers of race -- so that in our community we have beautiful international couples representing the different countries coming together in holy matrimony -- desiring not to love just each other, but the countries each other comes from and the traditions that each other brings to that marriage -- wanting to bring honor to the other. That is a beautiful thing

34) And not only do we have international marriages in our movement, but our father teaches the importance of overcoming our religious differences. So, we have Catholics being blessed to Muslims. We have Jewish people being married to Christians. We have Buddhists monks who have been matched to international brothers and sisters around the world. In a way, in our community the world comes together, shedding away all the different "keepings" that we have, that we kept ourselves in -- just as the Bible said.

35) In our community it is an invitation to take ourselves out of our keeping, whatever it might have been. To concentrate on the important thing at hand which is understanding God as our Heavenly Parent, understanding True Parents as our example to follow and through whom we can experience this four position foundation ourselves. And then learning and practicing this philosophy of living for the sake of others we can encourage all brothers and sisters, coming from all different countries around the world, to live and breathe and work as a family. And that is a beautiful thing.

36) When we see the beautiful dancers dancing before us, what we experience is incredible joy. Dance and music and the arts speak the language of love. They speak to all of us. It is universal in the sense that it does not matter if you speak English or not -- you can look at the dancers performance and say -- that is sublime. It is divine. When you listen to a great rock band, or the great band that performed here -- you understand that you experience that your heart is moved.

37) When Dave Hunter comes up and says that Lovin Life Ministry is a music ministry -- it is a ministry that hopes to express and speak this language of love so that we can be moved, we can be in tune with the language that the universe is speaking to us through the different forms of the arts so that we can celebrate who we are as human beings and that we can celebrate in this incredible opportunity which God has given to us, and instead of throwing it away, in the end the potential yet to be realized, to be fulfilled -- we can harness the potential within ourselves and develop it through the different programs. For In Jin Nim, the insanity program -- through the sweating, the practicing, the disciplining, hopefully she will come out in the end as a beautiful butterfly.

38) When In Jin Nim watched the beautiful dancers move, she knows that behind the grace and elegance of movement there is a whole lot of hours of sweat in the dance hall, disciplining their bodies, practicing their movements, falling down and getting back up and doing it again, and again, and again. But as long as we can believe. As long as we are willing to take ourselves out of our keeping and keep an open mind -- that maybe God has another plan for us. As long as we can entrust ourselves in our Heavenly Parent there are endless possibilities of things that we can do and become.

39) In Jin Nim's father told his children many years ago, he said to In Jin Nim -- "I want you to be a great woman of God. I want you to stand tall. I want you to accomplish many great things. But just remember that in order to go high you must learn first how to go low." Back then, when In Jin Nim was a young girl, she thought her father was talking about just the importance of being humble -- that before you can accomplish great things -- for example if you want to be a karate expert, a black belt, you have to surrender yourself to the Master's torturous program that he or she has outlined before you. In Jin Nim thought, when her father said, that in order for you to go high you have to go low, he was simply speaking about humbleness.

40) But as In Jin Nim saw the dancers perform, she was reminded of her ballet dance teacher she had when she was attending the Little Angels art school. She had wanted to study painting, but her mother asked her to study ballet for one year. Unlike the programs in the United States, the program in the Little Angels school was what she called torture time. They did not take it slowly, it was more like a concentration camp. From the first day, they drilled her for hours. It was three or four hours of torture a day. But one of the things the ballet teacher taught them when teaching them how to jump, how to jump very high and look graceful at the same time, one of the principles she taught all of them (she was trained in Russia), "In order to jump higher you have to ground yourself lower." She was saying the higher you want to go the lower you need to bend. You need to take yourself down and then, like a spring, you can jump up into the air.

41) Conceptually this sounded easy, but to do it in reality with a physical body was not easy. And In Jin Nim realized that when her father taught that if you want to go high you must go low -- that this is exactly what our True Father was talking about. This is exactly what you must do in the arts -- in order to be that Maestro, to be that ballet performer, to be that great ballroom dancer, to achieve the highest heights in any field of the arts you have to humble yourself, you have to go down, you have to grind it out, you have to sweat, and you have to be willing to submit to this discipline. And that is what will give you the power to spring and achieve that height that we so desire.

42) In a way, when True Father was saying -- in order to go high you must go low, In Jin Nim was again reminded of the Good Scripture, Acts 16:31 when it says simply believe, you can do it. Believe in Jesus Christ, you can do it. And you know you are meant for greatness. You are meant to express and manifested Divinity unto the world. But in order to do that we must be humble, we must go down, be willing to be the servant of servants, going through the darkness, going through the sweat, through the discipline of it all -- in order to bounce high into the air.

43) Just as In Jin Nim's ballet teacher stressed the importance of stretching -- don't forget you have a beautiful physical form through which you will express the universe. She told them to stretch your limbs, take in the universe. Stretch your legs. Stretch your arms, your neck -- so that you will be graceful. She was asking them to basically take themselves out of their keeping, out of their petrified forms -- at that time, be it a tree -- they must have looked like a row of tree trunks -- and she told them to stretch, not just to be flexible -- but flexing strengthens your body and limbs. Stretching yields strength.

44) Being able to be open, able to stretch beyond ourselves, in the words of her father "going beyond the call of duty." Doing things, not just up to what you have to do, but taking it a step further. In In Jin Nim's insanity program it's called "make it burn" make it hurt. Don't stop when it starts burning -- make the burn hotter by increasing the speed or doing it more vigorously. It's not stopping when you think you should stop, but going beyond simply stretching, beyond the call of duty.

45) If you are a young girl or young teenage boy, stretch a little bit when it comes to your parents. Go beyond the call of duty. Maybe it's your turn to take out the garbage, but what about if you were to also vacuum the house, what about putting the foyer neatly in order. What if you volunteered to pick up the groceries on the way home -- go beyond the call of duty and that will give you strength of character. In dance that will give you strength to bounce up higher from where you are.

46) One of the other things In Jin Nim's dance teacher taught her is turning. Some people can do it naturally, almost instinctively, and others look awkward. But one thing the teacher taught her was to use your own momentum, the momentum of your body, and pull it into the core. By pulling into the core, by bringing the body closer to the core as you turn -- that is how you turn faster.

47) This reminds In Jin Nim of the Good Scripture when it says "entrust in His being." When you pull in closer to the core of our teachings -- if we want to go faster, if we want to turn faster, what we need to do is to pull in closer to the core of our teachings. What is the most important thing, the most simple things -- it's God, True Parents, and family. Remember that. Turn on that as the core. And the dancer, as they quickly pulled in and start to turn, the sheer momentum of their mass (their body) will help them turn faster.

48) Likewise, the faster we want to turn, there has to be a pulling in and there also has to be a letting go. There has to be a pulling in, but also a surrendering. This is what the Bible is talking about when it asks us to entrust in the Lord. We may think we have everything under control, but we must not forget that God is always with us, watching over us. Sometimes in our effort to control everything, we lose everything. We have to be willing to pull in, to remind ourselves of the most important things in our lives, and then to let go. Let the sheer momentum of our bodies take is faster and faster. Let that mysterious hand of God take us faster to where we want to go.

49) These are the simple concepts and teachings of dance, but they can be applied to every area of our life. Just as the Bible tells us to believe in Jesus Christ, to take ourselves out of our keeping, to entrust ourselves in him, in the Lord, in God, in our True Parents. If we could do that in dance, that would be like going down, reaching down deep before we spring up, stretching so that we can go beyond the limits of where we are, constantly growing, and by turning, in a way you are surrendering yourself. A true artist is somebody who is not confined by their art, but somehow in the surrendering of it all becomes one with the art, becomes art itself. In a way that is what every artist aspires to do. And even if we are not engaged in the performing arts -- becoming a professor or a doctor is an art of sorts. We are there to participate in helping, touching, and moving other people.

50) If we can keep this simple philosophy, that her Russian dance teacher taught long time ago, but also remember that all these applications, all the ways we can apply to love, is so that we can practice what it means, or experience what it means to love another as our own.

51) In Jin Nim hopes, as she says a prayer for this young man -- perhaps he is thinking his life is worthless and there's nothing for him in this life -- therefore he has to do what he has to do and he will contend with his maker when he gets up there. But those who understand God and understand the importance of our lives and who our True Parents are. We will be the ones to say to our Heavenly Parent, "We are not going to wait for the kingdom of heaven up in heaven, we are going to start building the kingdom of heaven on earth -- starting with our families!" So heaven can wait! Because we have lots of good work to do and we have a wonderful life to celebrate each and every day.

52) Just as our Heavenly Father is always waiting, watching, and guiding -- it is high time that we as the children decide today, and every day, to make our father/mother proud, to make our Heavenly Parent proud by becoming those great eternal sons and daughters of God.

53) In Jin Nim wished us all beauty, health, and happiness in the New Year. She knows we are going to do many great things.

54) She thanked us for our continued support and she prayed for a beautiful Sunday and a beautiful week. 

Let us be proud Unificationists

In Jin Moon
January 8, 2011
Speech at CARP's Second Annual Winter Ball

Everybody looks so gorgeous and beautiful out there! I thought I was attending the VH1 awards ceremony or something. Once again, I'm delighted to welcome all of you to the second CARP Winter Gala. It is truly an honor for me to invite my family to join you here in the beautiful Hammerstein Ballroom.

As you know, our True Parents prepared the Manhattan Center, together with the New Yorker and 43rd Street, to work as a trinity, to bring about a revival of a whole new culture in this great country of America. When your parents joined the movement many years ago, they were inspired by the concept that we belong to one God, our Heavenly Parent and as one family we must overcome such barriers as race, religion, and different customs.

My father and mother encouraged American members to imagine a world where they could be the best representatives of God on earth, as his and her children. That is why your parents joined this movement. In the last 40 or 50 years since they joined it, our movement has gone through a lot of great times such as the excitement-filled Yankee Stadium rally here in New York, and the Washington Monument rally. But we've also grown as a family. Your parents are no longer the single man and woman who initially joined the movement. Now they have beautiful families. They have you, their beautiful children.

Now, as we are transitioning from the First to the Second Generation, we realize that we're standing in an incredible time when we can once again be inspired by what is before us and not be chained and burdened by the sufferings of the past, the difficulties that we had to bear as a movement together with our father and mother.

Together with my brothers and sisters I went through elementary school, middle school, high school, and college, knowing we were called "Moonies" and our movement was called a "cult." We experienced the pain of having our father and our mother being persecuted to our face. I was there, your parents were there, and many of you were there.

But the great thing about Lovin' Life, and the great thing about this time, is that it's a God-given opportunity to say to ourselves, "Suffering is great." Understanding the heart of God, understanding where we have come from, honoring our tradition, and appreciating how difficult the path of faith and our life has been -- that's all wonderful. But going forward, we have to start working on ourselves. We have to start living for the sake of others, as Rebecca said so eloquently just before: not dying for the sake of others in the sense that we are so burdened by the pain and suffering of the past that we have no energy to go forward.

This is a time when we as a community can come together and say, "We decide today to be that agent of change, that divine son and daughter who decide that we are going to start loving life. We are going to start celebrating the reason why we are here." No matter where we come from -- which state, which college, which fantastic family -- when we come together here in this beautiful Hammerstein Ballroom prepared by our True Parents, we come together as a family. As the young generation that is to be the hope of not just our movement or our community, but of this great country of America, we are going to produce the greatest leaders we have yet seen, the greatest leaders who will overcome the barriers of religion and race need to come from our community.

When we get together here at the CARP Winter Gala, it's not just an invitation for all you beautiful young people to enjoy each other's company in an evening of fun and entertainment. It's an occasion to think about our lives and think about those brothers and sisters who still suffer in Japan. In the last three decades of our Japanese movement, more than 4,300 men and women have been abducted against their will. They've been tortured. They've gone through starvation. They've been abused mentally and emotionally. But probably the saddest thing of all is that many of our sisters have been sexually abused.

When my brothers and I got together, we decided to take this faith-breaking issue as a matter of honor for us to fight. We had no idea how many sisters were being abused. But perhaps because they now see a feminine figure in the pulpit, or maybe because they see more and more women getting involved in the community and rising to leadership positions, many of these women started coming forward, asking to meet in secret. When I took my dear friend, who was an executive producer of VH1 and MTV, together with me to create a documentary, which will be forthcoming, many of these abused Japanese women decided to talk for the first time in their lives.

One sister, who because of the shame of what she had to endure being raped repeatedly in the course of her incarceration, hasn't had the courage yet to speak to her husband. She wanted to meet with me, to tell me that she felt there was no hope for her, that there was no hope that she could alleviate the suffering and burden. But by talking to me, she said that for the first time in her life of faith she felt liberated and validated. She felt human once again. When she was interviewed, her face was obscured, and her voice was altered. I promised this sister that as long as I am standing, I will fight for people like her who have suffered for our True Parents and our community. I will fight for her right to choose how she wants to worship our Heavenly Father.

In modern Japan, one of the greatest superpowers of the world, we should be able to decide for ourselves. All of these 4,300 people who have been abducted are over the age of 21. All these men and women should be allowed the chance to decide for themselves how they want to live their lives.

As we celebrate in this beautiful hall, all of us looking gorgeous and handsome, I want you to think about our brothers and sisters and work toward a day when we can invite them together here with us in the Hammerstein Ballroom, so that they, too, can celebrate life, and we together as a family can love life.

When I look out into the audience, you young men and women are the promise and hope of America. You have left the family nest, so to speak, where you've been nurtured throughout your school years. Now you're off to college. For a lot of young people, college means freedom. It means doing whatever you want to do. For the first time you are away from your father and mother. You can pretty much do whatever you want to do.

But I want to ask you young people something tonight. We all have benefited from the freedoms we so enjoy in America, and I have more than once explained that atrocities like I have described are taking place in Japan and our brothers and sisters are still being locked up. Even as I visit Capitol Hill every week to talk to congressmen and senators about the faith-breaking issue, we have to know that there are brothers and sisters on the brink of death and the brink of losing hope, who feel that their movement and their brothers and sisters have forgotten them.

For those of us who are blessed to live in this country where we are guaranteed religious freedom under the Constitution and through due process of law we have the right to fight for our own freedom, should we not be grateful that we have been so blessed to be in this country? Taking this gratitude as a part of our motivation, instead of just wasting our lives on college campuses on a lifestyle with no direction, how wonderful it would be if we in our college years could be focused and strive to be excellent men and women of God internally as well as externally.

When I heard the words of Victoria, Rebecca, Hero, and Kayeon, all these young men and women so eloquent, so beautiful, so full of promise, I was reminded of the reason why I work here every day. When I meet brothers and sisters, I tell them that Lovin' Life Ministries is really not about Rev. In Jin Moon. In fact, it has nothing to do with Rev. In Jin Moon. It has everything to do with being proud of who we are as a movement. Lovin' Life Ministries is a medium through which our community, more than 10,000 of us every Sunday, can come together unified in spirit and heart to worship and remember that we are one family, And, knowing that we have been blessed to live in such a great country, to utilize the opportunities before us, choosing not to just party and waste our life away.

If somebody like President Obama, coming from a single-parent home with very few prospects, can surpass the racial barrier and sit in the White House as the president of the United States, there is no reason why you can't do the same. And because you have been touched by God and our True Parents, you can be that much greater.

My hope as the senior pastor is to inspire all of you to see the real you, to see the divine in all of you. I want to hold a mirror up to how beautiful and amazing you are. The only thing we need to do is exercise our 5 percent responsibility. God has given us 95 percent. All we have to do is emphasize our 5 percent responsibility, work on ourselves, and prepare ourselves for the good work ahead -- to become a great doctor, or a great professor, or a great minister. I'm waiting for you guys to come here so I can be a nice granny resting peacefully in Boston. I'm waiting for you so that you can be that great president of the United States. You can be greater than somebody like Rosa Parks, who inspired the civil rights movement.

Brothers and sisters, the incredible thing about being in college is that this is the first time when you have the opportunity to exercise your freedom to be the agent of change and do something great for the world. You have the chance not only to partake of academic studies, but also to get involved in different clubs, go to Costa Rica, do the service projects that are made available to you. You can get involved in Project Connect at Lovin' Life Ministries. Do things that will serve others.

A lot of people think that Father is a man of faith and therefore it's basically 5:00 o'clock Hoon Dok Hae and suffer and suffer and suffer. But anybody who spends time with our True Parents knows that it doesn't matter where they are. In the middle of a sermon, Father will break into a song. In the middle of his lecture, he will ask two couples to stand up and dance. Father and Mother have always encouraged the True Children about the importance of the arts and the importance of culture.

I hope you will think about becoming that generation of peace -- a generation of young men and women who understand that God is our Heavenly Parent, P, who understands that we are Eternal, divine sons and daughters of God, E. We are young men and women who are dedicated and committed to living for the sake of others -- not dying for the sake of others -- and not doing it simply for a reward, but because we are good people and we take satisfaction in doing something good.

And C is for living a life of Compassion, of empathy, understanding how it feels to be in another person's shoes. Before we judge, we take a moment to think: "I wonder what that person is going through." And E is being internally Excellent. We understand who we are and we manifest the internal beauty outwardly as we become an externally excellent man or woman of God.

When you start shining your bright light onto the world, when you start unleashing your divinity on your campuses and in your classrooms, when you start being proud Unificationists, you will change your class and your campus. You will be the agent of change. You will be the one ushering in a new culture for your community and family.

Men and women are still dying in Third World countries just in the hope of gaining an education. A friend of mine went to produce a documentary in Afghanistan. He was horrified upon visiting a school for girls in the basement of a building to witness a riot of young 16 and 17-year-old boys storming the place, throwing acid on these girls' faces. The boys wanted to maim these beautiful young ladies' faces simply because the girls wanted to get ahead, simply because they wanted the right to be educated.

There are people who are still fighting for an education, but all of us have this great opportunity to go to college. So how are we going to utilize our time? Are we going to spend it just thinking about ourselves? Are we going to think about when is the next party? Or are we actually going to remember our brothers and sisters who are still suffering in Japan? Are we going to remember those sisters in Afghanistan who are fighting for their right to educate themselves? Are we going to remember the starving people as we enjoy our meal tonight?

And if we do, in our remembrance we need to feel our own desire to do something positive for the world, to leave something beautiful behind. I ask the young people in this room to help me help you. No matter how much I want to do good work at Lovin' Life Ministries, I cannot do it without your support. If you are not proud of who you are, there's very little I can do.

I'm hoping that through interchanges such as these CARP Winter Galas, getting together, worshipping together, where we actually "rub" with each other, we can grow closer. Instead of thinking that you have me figured out -- perhaps you don't. There might be a thing or two you might want to know. As senior pastor, I am always yearning to hear about you, to know what you're doing so that I can better serve you and the community.

Brothers and sisters, you are in the most incredible four years of your life. You can decide what you want to do. Your parents are not there. Nobody's watching you. You can do whatever you want. How wonderful it will be if you can seize that opportunity. Anybody can rebel. It doesn't take much talent or practice to rebel against one's parents. But how wonderful if we do something different than what everyone else is doing. Don't be a follower: Be a leader. Don't follow fashion trends: Set the fashion trend.

Two years ago, when I first came to Manhattan Center as CEO, I was taking a walk in Times Square and there was a huge poster that asked the big question: "What's your cult?" It was asking, "What's your religion? What's most important to you?"

The First Generation are scared of the word cult because that word was used to persecute us. But young people are ingenious in taking something negative, spinning it around, and turning it into something uber-hip and uber-cool. So when they ask each other, "What's your cult?" they're basically saying, "What's your new religion? Is it fashion? Is it "Smashing Pumpkins," or is it Reverend Moon, or is it the Dalai Lama? What's your cult?"

Seeing that, I said to myself, it's high time that we as Unificationists stop buckling in fear of this word cult, but let's spin it around and throw it back at the society that persecuted us, making it hip, something new, something that people cannot do without. Here at Lovin' Life Ministry I've always said to my team, "Look, first and foremost, Lovin' Life Ministry is a music ministry that speaks -- not just channeling the word of God and our True Parents -- but speaking the universal language of love and music. In honor of my older brother, who spent a great deal of time here at this beautiful Manhattan Center, it's my way of honoring him every day of my life. Every day I come here I honor him, and I want to fulfill what he did not have a chance to do.

The great thing about being here is I have such a wonderful team. I have a great production team that you don't see, but they're working so hard to make events possible for all of you. I also have an emcee in Dave Hunter. I have many beautiful brothers and sisters performing in the Lovin' Life Band.

I feel incredibly privileged to be given this opportunity. If I could be in a situation where I could share a little bit of my inspiration with you young people so that you can start shining your light, start changing our culture, and bring in the heavenly culture of love, of really honoring and respecting each other, how wonderful the world would be.

Just as the civil rights movement took hold and became something else on college campuses, and the anti-apartheid movement took hold on college campuses and changed the world, how wonderful it would be if you young people, members of CARP, can start changing the culture of the world to something beautiful, divine, and worth fighting for.

Ladies and gentlemen, I am hoping that tonight will be a wonderful night when we can enjoy each other's company. We are here in the grace of our Heavenly Father, and because of the grace, dedication, suffering, and all the different things that we have gone through in our movement together with our True Parents and the First Generation. So let us be proud of who we are. Let us be proud Unificationists.

And in remembrance of our brothers and sisters who are still fighting, please spread the word. Please spread it to everyone who has ears to hear: Talk to your professors, to your friends, your minister, to anybody who will listen. And in so doing, by working together we can change America, and we can put an end to what's taking place in Japan.

Brothers and sisters, thank you so much for coming to this CARP ball. I am hoping for and I am praying for your success in your studies and your extracurricular endeavors in college, be it music, be it art, or anything else. I'm hoping to see one of you sitting in the White House one of these days.

Thank you. 

Ballroom Dance Ministry presents Ballroom Dance Instructor's Intensive -- January 7-9, 2011

In Jin Moon
December 15 2010

"Dance is an expression of the universal language." -- Rev. In Jin Moon

On August 9, 2009, Rev. In Jin Moon stated in her sermon: "The great thing about ballroom dancing is it's so cultural, a very prestigious and an upper class thing to do. Everyone has formal ways to approach the partner. How wonderful it is in this 'ice age of the heart' for a young man to approach a young woman, saying, 'May I have this dance?' instead of saying 'Want to grind on the dance floor?'… I think it's a healthy way for young people, especially kids going through their difficult adolescent years, to approach the opposite sex in a respectful, beautiful, and enjoyable way, for each other to appreciate the partner and the distance between the partners, as well as the closeness…If you can find a constructive and beautiful outlet where they can learn etiquette and social protocol, and at the same time have a great time, I think it's a beautiful thing."

The Ballroom Dance Ministry was founded by Ms. Ariana Shin Sun Moon in the autumn of 2009, with the inspiration to share the beauty of dance, respectful etiquette between men and women, and build closeness in the community.

The purpose of this Ballroom Dance Intensive is to train inspired leaders from around the country who are committed to sharing the vision and mission of Lovin' Life Ministries' Ballroom Dance to the communities they come from. The intensive will cover advanced steps in the waltz, swing and cha cha; teach the methods of dance instruction; and impact the structure and quality of ballroom dance nationwide.

Rev. Moon also hopes that all the parents, husbands and wives, would also be attending these classes. "Sometimes the day-to-day difficulties can leave us feeling isolated, even in a marriage, and lonely and unappreciated. But I hope with different programs like this, not only can the young people enjoy themselves, but this might be an opportunity for married couples to enjoy another spark in their life or find a common hobby or love they can share together."

General Questions:

Who can attend this intensive?

Anyone who is interested in instructing a ballroom dance class with some training in the basics of waltz, swing and cha cha.

Where will people from out of town be able to stay?

The Lovin' Life Learning Center (43rd Street) is open for those who need a place to stay for $15 a night. Let us know in your registration if you need a bed. Please pay cash at the front desk in the lobby.

Will meals be provided?

Meals will not be provided during the intensive but there will be enough time during the breaks for you to go out and get something to eat.

Isn't the CARP Gala also on the 7th of January?

Yes. We are having the intensive begin on January 7th at 10 AM with an orientation, first lesson and then a lunch break. The afternoon we will cover a beginner's dance class for anyone in the community to join before we take a break so that everyone can get ready for the CARP Gala.

Will our CARP Gala fee be waived or discounted for being part of the intensive?

No. You must register through the CARP website, CARPlife.org. If you do not want to attend the Gala that is your choice but we strongly recommend it. 

Rev. In Jin Moon's Sermon Notes, Dec 12, 2010

December 15, 2010
Unofficial notes: Andrew Compton

1) In Jin Nim greeted everyone. It's a dreary but beautiful rainy day, but she is delighted to see us once again.

2) We just had a lovely tribute to our members of 40 years, those who walked the walk without her parents for the past four decades, this past Friday at the Manhattan Center. We were honoring the old-timers who had been at the forefront of the American movement, who sacrificed themselves giving their blood, sweat, and tears to build this movement, this family community we call our home.

3) It was such an honor for In Jin Nim to spend an evening with the elders of the American church, comprised of not just American brothers and sisters (50) but many Japanese brothers and sisters (80), and 50 Korean brothers and sisters, being honored for their lifetime achievement.

4) In Jin Nim use the word achievement in her thanks to them, because, what they accomplished in their life of faith was to be the protective environment that supported our True Parents through this time of the wilderness. In a way these honorees were able to achieve and accomplish what the disciples of Jesus Christ were not able to do. When Jesus went the way of the cross he suffered a lonely death. None of his disciples were there to say, "Please take me instead, please crucify me instead, please save my Savior the son of God." Not one of his disciples were there to be in the position where they would sacrifice themselves to save their Lord. But the honorees who were honored on Friday evening, these were the incredible and courageous brothers and sisters who through their life of faith were there to say, "You're not going to take our True Parents. Please take me instead. With our faith and with our lives we will support and work and walk together with our True Parents."

5) It was because of their foundation of faith that our True Parents are still with us today, and based upon their foundation, that now we are coming out of the wilderness era and looking to the settlement era, when we can express ourselves in excellence, not just internally but externally. This is a time we need to celebrate the achievements of these great soldiers, brothers and sisters of God. As we look toward the future, as we look toward building this incredible skyscraper which will be miles up into the sky, it is most important for us to remember where we come from.

6) Just as we know, when we look at a building, as high as it is in height, so it is deep in the ground below. So we must be grounded in our faith and proud in knowing what our heritage is and what kind of tradition we come from.

7) In Jin Nim called the evening, "honor our tradition", the acronym would be HOT. So we were honoring the HOTness of our movement. It's In Jin Nim's intention, as we go forward in our life of faith, to manifest all that is glorious within us and build that great skyscraper for God, that we will also deepen our understanding of who we are, and deepen our foundation as we go along.

8) They asked In Jin Nim to give the keynote speech (on Friday). But, she would like to take this moment to congratulate the video editing team, Toshi and Koichi and other volunteers who put together this DVD of testimonies. We have many more testimonies to share, but time was limited so the honorees only got a taste of the testimonies. The personal stories that they shared were so moving.

9) One German sister shared how she was selected to be one of the first Europeans to come and work in the American providence. Her name is Clara. She was so amazed that when she arrived at the airport, guess who the welcoming committee were. It was none other than True Parents. To see their faces greeting this European group, to welcome them to this great country of America so that they could begin their work together -- these are the kinds of stories that need to be shared with our children and grandchildren. These kinds of stories really deeply moved In Jin Nim, so much that she was struggling to get through her speech without crying. When you hear the stories of these brothers and sisters, and they all look so much younger -- pictures of members In Jin Nim knew.

10) And when In Jin Nim was collecting the testimonies that will be put in the book about our 40 year members, she mentioned one story on Friday, the testimony from our brother Ron Pine. He was with the Hells Angels when he met our movement. He met someone who was also on a motorcycle who shared with him and that was how he found God. In Jin Nim wonders, what would Ron be doing now if he did not meet True Parents. Would he still be with the Hell's Angels? Where would he be working? What would his family be like? And Clara, what would she be doing if she had not come to America with that first group of missionaries? What kind of family would she have raised? What kind of life would she have had? But because she met True Parents … (it skipped a few seconds here) But here we are together sharing this incredible time, this breaking news time, with our True Parents. In Jin Nim thought how wonderful. Truly God works in mysterious ways in each and every day of our lives.

11) During the dinner Ron came up to In Jin Nim to finish his testimony. He shared that when he was 15 years old, he came to his father sitting on the front porch of their house, and he declared to him that he was going to meet the Messiah in his lifetime. About a decade later after he left the Hells Angels and joined the Unification Movement his father reminded him, "do you remember when you were 15, on the porch, you declared to me that you would meet the Messiah in your lifetime?" And so Ron said to In Jin Nim, "that's what I did, didn't I?"

12) And, yes he did. And you and I, we all have met the Messiah, our True Parents. As In Jin Nim looked out into the audience of old-timers, enjoying each other's company, many had not seen each other for many years. And because of modern technology, the evening could be shared with all of America. So it was really a family affair. And for the younger generation to honor our elders, the "HOT"ness of our movement, and for the Abels of our family to honor the Cains, it was really in the spirit of wanting to work together, of reconciliation and unity. Despite whatever we have gone through it is our desire to honor each other in the life that we have been given and truly recommit ourselves and march on until we build the kingdom of God that we are waiting for.

13) When In Jin Nim thought about the brothers and sisters she has met over the years, she knows their hardships, trials and tribulations, their triumphs and days of glory, and she thought about them. After the event she meditated about the evening and thought about how difficult it must have been to follow our True Parents for the last four or five decades, but because they were absolutely dedicated, they wanted to live a life of faith, somehow they persevered.

14) And she was thinking, just as she goes out of her way each day to find those 5 or 10 minutes of beautiful silence to commune and have a relationship with our Heavenly Parent in heaven, she knows that many of you have had those beautiful moments of silence with our Heavenly Parent in heaven where you found yourself emptying the cares of the world, turning ourselves into that empty vessel so that we can truly be a pure receptacle of the message that God wants to share with us -- or to be that pure receptacle so that we can be a true receptacle of the beauty of the magical words of music, the universal language of music, and of love, that our Heavenly Parent wants to share with us.

15) One of the most difficult things In Jin Nim has found in her life of faith, is that -- many times when we are dealing with modern-day life, with our ideal families, spouse, children, and job (hopefully) -- sometimes it seems that we are fighting with this huge Leviathan of a monster that we are fighting everyday. And many times it reminds her of the story of David and Goliath. In that story, taken in a metaphorical sense, Goliath can be symbolic of all our insecurities, worries, and anxieties, all the things that cause fear and petrification in all of us.

16) Many times In Jin Nim has experienced her own Goliath in her life of faith, and she is sure that you have done so too. But every time she is confronted by this Goliath difficulty or a conundrum that she needs to work through, she is always reminded of the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel.

17) Every time she reads this story a couple of things come to mind. Here is this young handsome boy who feels called to fight this huge giant of the Philistines, this Goliath. It caused a shiver in every person who heard his name, but armed with his faith in God, knowing that God is with him, David approached Saul and said, "I want to fight Goliath. Let me fight Goliath."

18) What David does, he does not stand petrified with the fear of Goliath. He is actually quite proactive. He says and asks Saul, "let me fight Goliath." Of course Saul laughed at David -- telling him that Goliath sends shivers down the spines of even the strongest and most experienced soldiers, and "You little boy want to fight Goliath?" And David says "Yes!" He told Saul how in his days as a shepherd he fought lions and bears and with the strength of God he chased them away and destroyed them. And, with the strength of God, he will get rid of Goliath.

19) He asks, but he is also seeking this opportunity to fight Goliath. To look at the thing which causes fear in our veins, but actually be proactive and ask for permission to go after it. And because of his youthful exuberance, or Saul just wanted to test them out, Saul let him go. And he goes, and what does he do? He doesn't just ask, or seek, he articulates exactly what he's going to do. He tells Goliath exactly what he's going to do, that he is going to destroy him because he is armed with the faith and power of God and he will chop off his head.

20) Of course, Goliath laughs at him. Goliath is this huge crushing giant and David is a young lad, like a scrawny teenager, with just a few pebbles and a string. He must have looked quite funny, just as we must look funny when we are being crushed by our own demons, our own Goliath. God may be looking at us, maybe smiling, hoping that we will be victorious like David.

21) But what does David do? Even when King Saul offers him his helmet and coat, David takes it off and says he is not accustomed to them, "I will go as I am." He goes as he is. He takes away all the worldly layers people want to put on him. Because, when you're fighting with Goliath you have to be honest with yourself. You have to go with your truthful body. So, David going as he is, is representative of what we all need to do in this place where we want to commune with God, where we really want to explore and understand and overcome our difficulties -- we have to go as we truly are. We have to take off the external layers, armor, that we tote around.

22) Maybe some of us are saying , "I am not afraid . That doesn't cause fear or for me to shiver in my veins." We can fool other people, but it is very difficult to fool ourselves. When we go as we are, we are only armed with our power and faith in God. And, David goes and declares to the Philistines, "Goliath, this is what I'm going to do, I'm going to destroy you." Then, instead of just standing, he charges towards the enemy line. He is a very engaging fellow! He is proactive. He is asking, and he is seeking, and then what does he do? With his sling he hits him straight on and knocks him out.

23) When In Jin Nim thinks about the story of David and Goliath, it reminds her of a verse, Matthew 7:7 "ask and it shall be given to you." It says "Seek and you will find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you." In a way, what David was doing with his demon, this Goliath like demon, is he was destroying it with a rock and a sling. A rock is symbolic of the rock of faith, the rock of the church which Peter represented. The rock represented faith. The sling shot represents something that supports, that helps propel our faith forward. Therefore -- armed with the faith in God, armed in knowing that we are here to believe, he goes ahead, asks the permission of the King, seeks his enemy, and knocks him down with his faith.

24) When the good book, tells us to "ask and it will be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened unto you," in a way, what God is promising his children, just like David, armed with our faith in our Heavenly Parent and our True Parents, all we need to do is to be humble and be in a position where we are asking. And when we ask it is because we want to request, we are making an inquiry, or actually wanting to invite something in -- in a way, when we invite God in, "it shall be given to you." All the things that we need will be given to you.

25) That sentence is a reminder in In Jin Nim's mind, to tell herself, "just believe, ask and it shall be given to you." When you invite God into your life -- there are so many things going on all around us in a life of faith, even as blessed children, dealing with our church, our friends, our family, things on the internet. In Jin Nim heard a report of one sister who attended a workshop in Los Angeles and the knowledge of all the bad things from the internet was shared there.

26) This perplexes In Jin Nim, why do we bring to such a holy place this kind of knowledge that dirties the minds of our young people. We have to be cognizant, and not be arrogant of our knowledge of certain things. "Do we really know? Were you there? Did you talk to that person in question? How do you really know?"

27) So when we think about it, we feel powerful when we think we know something others do not know. And so we want to go around acting like Goliath, before these seemingly feeble minded people who seem to not know anything. So in our knowledge we become arrogant and powerful, "let me tell you a thing or two about these people." And it puts them in a position where they get a lot of attention, for a little while. But when we find ourselves in that position, seemingly armed with this knowledge we have just learned, we as faithful people, wanting to be someone who honors God and True Parents with our lives, have to ask ourselves the question, "What kind of a person do I want to be?"

28) The Bible says ask and it shall be given to you. What are we asking? Are we asking God to solve all our problems or are we inviting God in? "So it shall be given unto you, the fuller faith, the stronger our knowledge, in who God and True Parents are. These are the questions we must ask ourselves.

29) In this sea of fear, and a whole lot of static going on, how can we stay vigilant and true? There is a very interesting story that Rev. Jenkins shared with In Jin Nim when they were talking about the new vision for ACLC. He shared about Tonya Edwards, the beautiful wife of Rev. Jesse Edwards. She was visiting True Parents at East Garden. She has a face that looks very angelic to In Jin Nim. She has beautiful bright blue eyes, roly-poly cheeks, and her eyes have a hint of sadness. It reminded In Jin Nim of a dream she had. When True Father first met Mrs Edwards, the first thing he said to her is that her faith is like a kindergarten.

30) Mrs. Edwards was shocked. She said "My faith is not like a kindergarten." But True Father said it again. And she responded, "My faith is not like a kindergarten." Then In Jin Nim explained to Rev. Jenkins that True Father gave to Mrs. Edwards the highest compliment. True Father has often said in order to go to the kingdom of heaven we must be childlike, pure, innocent, practicing the words "just believe." The child just believes in their parents and in God. They have yet to be contaminated by all the static in the air. So, she told Rev. Jenkins True Father was giving Mrs. Edwards the most sublime and profound compliment, because he probably looked upon her face and saw the angel that In Jin Nim sees. The face of an angel, of a child, someone in kindergarten. When Rev. Jenkins shared this with Mrs. Edwards she was so inspired and again she realized that True Father does not just look at the externals of a person, but he was seeing her heart, her inner self. He saw what In Jin Nim saw.

31) When the Bible tells us, "Ask and it will be given to you" -- to put yourself in a position to ask, is a position of a student, like a child, asking, and beseeching, and inquiring -- and requesting of a parent. We need to be childlike, in that simple frame of mind, no matter how staticy, how complicated our life might get, it's important to keep pure and innocent in our faith, and in our love of God and our True Parents, and just believe.

32) And when the Bible goes on and says, "seek and you shall find," not, it shall find you. Seek and you shall find. The verb seek is a very interesting verb. It means to go after, to discover, to find. What David did in engaging the enemy Goliath, is again, very proactive, it was an articulation, something he did not have to do but wanted to do because he was moved and inspired knowing that God was with him. He was propelled by his faith in God and he wanted to defeat this terror that was terrorizing his people. David went after, he sought after his demon, his Goliath.

33) What the Bible is asking us to do, instead of sitting idle and being crushed by the weight of all the static and all the information we don't know how to digest -- seek and discover, be proactive, engage your demons, your Goliath. And not because you have to do it, but because you want to. David was not seeking his own glory. He was seeking the enemy because he wanted to relieve his people of this terror.

34) When the Bible says "seek and you shall find," it is a reminder to live our lives in a certain way. It is asking us not to sit idle and be crushed. It is asking us to grab our life, grab the horns of destiny within our hands and do something about it. And, grab onto the horns of destiny not for personal glory, but like David, because he was serving his community, he was living our philosophy of living for the sake of others. He was thinking about his people. It is a reminder for all of us to serve and conquer and seek our own demons and burdens that are crushing us, because we want to continue to serve and to bring glory, not to just our families but to our community, nation and world. In a way, it is an invitation for us to practice living for the sake of others, just because.

35) The Bible says seek and you shall find. It is within our hands, within your hands. When you and I decide to serve, we are that agent of change that will help us find exactly what we need to defeat, to overcome, to go through -- to be the kind of individual we would like to be.

36) When the Bible goes on and says, "knock and it shall be opened unto you." It does not say knock and it shall be opened into you, or over you. It says unto you. We have this incredible grace when we realize in our moment of silence, no matter what we are going through, God is with us each and every moment of our lives.

37) And the Bible says knock, it does not say crush the door and it will be opened unto you. The Bible does not say explode and it will be opened unto you. The Bible doesn't say destroy and it will be opened unto you. It says knock. The Bible is reminding us once again, how we need to be childlike.

38) Whenever In Jin Nim approaches the door where her parents might be, she would never approach the door to destroy. "Mom I'm here! Boom!" You would never explode it open because you want a dramatic entrance into your parent's room, and you don't barge through the door. You treat the door with respect and quietly you knock, with respect, honoring who is behind the door. You knock

39) When In Jin Nim thinks about this it reminds her of the story a friend once shared with her. He went on a Boy Scout outing. He and his colleagues were spending a week or two outdoors in a mountain log cabin with a beautiful lake. There was a great deal of canoeing and water sports. One day everyone decided to get into their canoes and go to the other side for a campfire or get-together. Everybody got into their boat and pushed off. Then this friend's teenage boy looked around and saw all the boats and said to his dad, "it's a competition, let's win!" And the other boats joined in and began racing. Her friend and his son ended up getting there first, and his teenage son began jumping up and shouting, "we won, we won!" And he was waiting for the last boat to come in, the boat which contained his dad's best friend, and he yelled to them, "we won and you lost!" He was celebrating his victory jumping up and down. He was competitive and he won and he wanted to let the last boat know. But his father's friend turned to him and said, "you won, but we had the longer trip." Meaning, they enjoyed the trip, they enjoyed a longer vacation. Then this boy could not say anything.

40) This is what this Bible passage, "knock and it shall be opened unto you," reminds In Jin Nim of. Many times we are barraging God, "God, help me!" We are exploding in front of God. "SOS God!" -- my family, my husband, my children -- many times we are destroying ourselves in front of God, not realizing that in front of God we have to honor our Heavenly Parent, and respect fully -- "knock and it will be revealed to us."

41) It reminds In Jin Nim of the importance of just breathing. Matthew 7:7 reminds her of her own philosophy that she tries to remind herself of day in and day out -- she usually starts her day saying -- just believe. Ask and it shall be given to you -- just believe. Seek and you shall find. Serve others, love others, and you will find exactly what you're looking for. And what are we looking for? All of us, we are looking to experience the heart of God. When we love each other, not because we want something at the end of the rainbow, but because you want to experience the heart of God. We want to love just because.

42) It's a reminder to practice our own philosophy, just because we want to experience the heart of God. And when the Bible says, knock and it shall be opened unto you, it's a reminder for In Jin Nim, just breathe. She always reminds herself, before she goes into her parent's room, she takes a moment of silence -- she knows she will be in the presence of her parents, and she knocks respectfully. But before she knocks she always remembers to breathe, a deep breath. Three times to calm herself and then she knocks.

43) This Bible passage reminds her, sometimes we take things too seriously, or if we tried to do things too desperately, or to furiously, or to quickly, when it's not time yet -- then we end up frustrating ourselves more than we need to be. And when she reminds herself -- just breathe, it's her mother's voice reminding her in the back of her mind, just breathe. Like in the words of the Beatles, just "let it be."

44) And knowing that we are armed in the faith and love of our heavenly parent, we need to just believe that things will turn out fine. And invariably and in due time, they do. What is seemingly crushing and insurmountable at that time, as long as we remember to breathe, and remind ourselves to just believe, and love each other just because -- it helps us through the difficult moments and we realize that, just as David slew the great monster Goliath with his faith and with the support of those who love us, our families and friends and community -- we can do the same.

45) If we are armed with our faith and we decide just to believe and we decide to practice that in our daily lives, just because -- and we want to do that knowing that God is with us every step of the way, so that we are breathing together with God, not being destroyed or exploded by all of our problems, not knowing where we are, but in understanding that we have Parents up in heaven, but more important than that we have our True Parents with us walking with us and guiding us -- the only thing we really need to do is to concentrate on our unity with our True Parents and really be together in heart and mind. And in understanding what they are hoping in their children is a revolution of heart so that we can truly experience the heart of God. In this incredible thing we call an ideal family. That is a beautiful thing.

46) In Jin Nim was reading a speech True Father gave (God's Will and the World), Sept 11, 1977 -- he spoke about the Heart of Reunion. He had been gone for about 70 days or so, and when he came and saw the members he was so happy and he spoke to us about the beauty of East and West, why the West needs the East -- how the West is like the high noon culture -- everything is bright and glorious, but in order for the Western culture to continue to grow and become great it must understand that high noon comes when it knows, and when it has gone through the midnight, the darkness, or the deep mysteriousness of midnight. Everything is a cycle, so fathers spoke about the beautiful relationship between the East and West, something so unique to our community.

47) One of the things that he shared is his definition of what an ideal family is all about. An ideal family is not something that is something symbolic of uniformity and regimentation. Those two words were very much our understanding of a religious life when we were in the time of the wilderness, we were like soldiers, we had to be regimented, we had to be put in uniform's literally so that we could stay coalesced and focused (lost about 15 seconds here) … not uniform and regimented people, but harmony resulting from people in their distinctive roles, and their distinctive ways.

48) Some of us might have brown hair, some of us might be white, some black, some yellow, but an ideal family is the place where we can all come together in harmony and in love. Keeping our distinctive and unique values makes us who we are.

49) That speech, for In Jin Nim, when father was talking about the heart of reunion, was an incredibly profound one. As we move forward into this millennium of peace it doesn't mean that we are all going to be boring, that we'll all be the same in uniform. We need to develop our divine potential. We must exercise our divine creativity. We must allow the signatures of our distinctive roles to be left behind as something beautiful for our children and our grandchildren to share. So just as the great honorees on Friday evening, have in a way left their signatures by sharing their testimonies with us, the life of faith -- in a way they have left something truly beautiful behind. In Jin Nim will never forget Mrs. Ang's personal testimony about the Blessing, how she was so afraid that Dr. Ang was not going to show, because he was really late to the blessing. One of the most beautiful things that she conveyed to all of us, the only thing she remembers from her blessing were the tears of her husband falling on her hand, drop by drop by drop. These are the kinds of stories, testimonies that will be carried and shared with our children and grandchildren.

50) So, what we were celebrating on Friday, was not to just lift up the elders -- we were celebrating everything that our community is and will be. In a way when True Father shares in his Heart of Reunion speech -- he talked about how America is symbolically in the autumn season when everything is in full bloom, the time of harvest. This is a country of plenty that everyone wants to come to. But True Father warned the American people -- you know when you are in autumn you know you're looking towards winter before you can see spring.

51) True Father comes with the message of True Love, trying to get everybody to fulfill their true potential. He says he comes armed with love and faith, but also armed with a certain amount of discipline. Because a certain amount of discipline needs to be carried out in autumn for human beings to have enough to eat through winter in order to face spring. Some beautiful fruits need to be changed into marmalade, some cucumbers need to be pickled so that we can enjoy the crunch of a fresh cucumber in the dead of winter.

52) So, True Father spoke about the importance of disciplining ourselves to be that incredibly strong seed in the wintertime that God will grab with his hands and sprinkle all over the fertile ground that he has prepared.

53) That is what God wants of all his children. We are living in a country that is representative of autumn. There is so much of everything. There is lots of technology, television, fashion, lots of money, and lots of whatever you want in this country. But we must be mindful and prepared to meet our winter knowing that there is a spring ahead.

54) In Jin Nim reminded the audience on Friday that you have gone through the 40 years of your winter season and because of your discipline and hard sacrifice you kept our True Parents alive, something that Jesus' disciples could not do. This is an incredible accomplishment in and of itself, but this is the time of spring when God is waiting to sprinkle all of us into his fertile grounds so that we can grow and we can enjoy the prosperity and we can actually enjoy loving life, truly celebrate life with each other.

55) So brothers and sisters, our True Parents are coming back to America once again! In Jin Nim hopes that we can join with her in sending them a lot of good old American lovin. With that in mind have a lovely Sunday and a beautiful, beautiful week! 

In Jin Moon, Tatiana vs. Holy Spirit Association

In Jin Moon, Tatiana vs. Holy Spirit Association

Your Faith Has Kept You Young

In Jin Moon
December 10, 2010
Honoring Our Tradition (HOT): Forty Years of Faith Gala

It's truly my honor as the senior pastor to welcome all of you celebrating 40 years of faith, loyalty, and perseverance. As a member of the True Family, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts because your faith, loyalty, and dedication have accomplished something that the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ could not do 2,000 years ago. Your love, faith, and dedication have kept our True Parents alive. So, for that, the True Family and my parents thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Here, standing before you, is actually a little girl who came to this beautiful country of America many years ago, when I was eight years old. I remember growing up with Dr. Salonen, Dan Fefferman, Mr. and Mrs. Farley Jones, Dr. and Mrs. Ang, Dr. and Mrs. Spurgin, Mr. and Mrs. Sugiyama, and so on. All of you have been giants in my life of faith. I, along with my brothers and sisters, always looked up to your life of faith and your dedication to our True Parents. We said to ourselves, "I wonder if we can ever live up to these American, Japanese, and Korean giants that our True Parents call their sons and daughters, our brothers and sisters?"

I know that Peter and Phyllis Kim very much wanted to be with us tonight. I met them last night in the lobby of the New Yorker and they are also being honored tonight. I remember that we gave Peter and Phyllis Kim a lot of hard times when we were growing up because they were in charge of the True Children.

Actually Phyllis Kim was one of our first English teachers. Whenever it was class time, for Phyllis that meant to gather the children, but, for the children, that meant to play hide-and-go-seek. I remember many times in East Garden Phyllis would be riding around the circle in front of the old house looking for True Children, calling us. In Jin Nim! Hyo Jin Nim! Heung Jin Nim! She was riding a tiny bicycle, but pedaling really vigorously, trying to find all of us. That's my memory of Phyllis Kim -- always after the True Children with a lot of energy, riding a bicycle that was a bit too small. But nevertheless, because it was her job to educate the True Children, to teach them the English language, she really dedicated herself to the task.

The fact that I can stand here before you and speak the language in our mother tongue -- because I am now an American citizen as well -- is really in honor of her and of the other people who have graced my life and the lives of my brothers and sisters. These people are not nameless faces; they are all of you being honored here tonight. So on behalf of my brothers and sisters, thank you once again.

For 40 years you have been loyal sons and daughters of our True Parents. Earlier, we were watching a video about the golden olden days and some of the experiences that you had with our True Parents. Those kinds of experiences will never come again, ever. You experienced True Parents in a way that even we, the True Children, never had the opportunity to do. Those personal moments -- the sharing of McDonald's Big Macs, quarter-pounders, French fries, and apple pie -- these are stories that will be told over and over again as our movement continues to grow.

As the senior pastor, I told Kevin Yoon that one of the things we must do is to capture these great stories of what the giants of the American, the Japanese, and the Korean movements, and of all the countries around the world, experienced as they lived and worked with True Parents. These will be the most precious stories that will be shared, not just with the Second Generation but with my children, the Third Generation, and so on and so forth.

I said to Kevin that I want to create a website called HOT -- H for "Honor," O for "Our," and T for "Tradition." You guys are the hottest commodities we have in our movement, exemplifying what our True Parents have told the children over and over again, "You have to be internally excellent as well as externally excellent." Father really pushed all of us to academic excellence -- to do the best in our careers; whatever we do, try our best. He always propelled us to build a gigantic skyscraper that could be a testament of what True Parents are all about, what our Heavenly Parent is all about, what our community is all about.

But Father always reminded his sons and daughters that the higher we go and the faster we grow, we must always be cognizant that a skyscraper sits on the lower part that grounds it and permits it to attain and maintain its great height. As high as it is up, so it must go deep down. As we move on through successive generations -- third, fourth, fifth, and sixth -- and really transform this world into one family under God, I feel that it is extremely important for the young people of our community -- the generation of peace -- to remember and honor where we come from because the higher we go, the deeper we must be grounded in our faith, in our tradition, and in knowing where we come from.

All of you have been champions through this time of the wilderness for the last 40 years. Heavenly Father and True Parents are really smart. Forty years ago, had you met our True Parents and True Father said to you, "My brother, my sister, my child of God, for the next 40 years in the wilderness you are going to suffer like you've never experienced before," I wonder how many of us would have stayed.

But in Father's guidance and wisdom, he kept us going, giving us little deadlines to complete, little time frames to work on. And before we knew it, 40 years have gone by. But because all of you laid such a solid foundation of faith so that our True Parents could live, work, and breathe with us, all of you, our honored elders, accomplished what the 12 disciples could not do. You were successful in keeping our True Parents alive through the time of the wilderness.

How blessed we are as a community that we are taking our first steps into the land of Canaan, into the age or the era of settlement, when our internal excellence is manifested outwardly in everything we touch and do and people around the world can recognize what a precious treasure we have been given in our True Parents.

It is my desire to appreciate those among us who have successfully persevered and dedicated yourselves to a life of faith in keeping our precious True Parents alive and with us, even though your bodies may not follow because some of you are well into your 60s, 70s and 80s. Yet, you don't look your age; your faith has kept you very, very young. We know that regardless of what the body might feel, your spirit is right there with our True Parents. With the magic of technology, not only the 200 of us here in this room, but all of America can celebrate and take this opportunity to honor all of you as our precious elders, as the precious treasure.

All of you have stories to tell. We are putting together a tribute book, a collection of your personal testimonies that you sent in -- and thank you so much for all those precious stories -- in honor of the 40 years of your life of faith. As I was reading through your stories I realized how each of you has been prepared and hand-picked. I read a story about Mr. Ron Pine, quite the motorcyclist back then -- I think you were hanging out with the Hell's Angels -- and then you met True Parents. And I read about a sister who in her dream was taught to look for True Parents.

There are so many moving testimonies of how we came to understand the beauty of who our Father and Mother are. Those testimonies are precious stories that I look forward to sharing with my children and their children and so on. All of you sitting here tonight are the true disciples of our True Parents, and in a sense you have completed your mission in keeping them alive.

Now it is our responsibility as the second, third, and fourth generations to make True Parents real and to make our faith one of loving life. In the time of the wilderness, of indemnity and restoration, there was a great deal of suffering and misery. But as we come out of the wilderness and look upon the shining era of settlement with our children and their children, this is an amazing time when we can stand as proud sons and daughters of God and as proud disciples of our True Parents. This is a time when, together as a community, we need to start loving life. We need to start living for the sake of others in a way that brings satisfaction, fulfillment, and growth as well as prosperity.

I can see a time coming. Brothers and sisters, we have to be prepared because the floodgates are opening. I see signs in ministers who have come to experience our worship and our community. I see signs in students from the top universities in America who have come as guests at a CARP ball or service or participated in ballroom dancing. These people know that our community is different. They know that there's something unique and beautiful about our community and they want to learn more. Since we formally implemented our new membership guidelines in August, we have over 32 new brothers and sisters through our Lovin' Life Ministries. It's only the beginning.

Brothers and sisters, this is an incredible time. The fact that because of your life of faith and because of your dedication we can stand in a beautiful hall like the Grand Ballroom in the Manhattan Center is really a tribute to you, our True Parents, and our Heavenly Parent.

So as we move forward, as our movement grows in height, in magnitude, and in the ability to move the worldwide community to understand who True Parents are, it is my desire as the senior pastor for the young people of our movement to grow deeper in our understanding of the tradition we come from and of the kind of parents that have graced and touched our lives. I want the young people of our movement to be proud of the heritage that we come from. This heritage is made more precious in knowing that it comes from God and our True Parents.

So, brothers and sisters, we have so much to look forward to. We have so much celebrating to do. In honor of you, I want to open up the floor for music, dancing, and just having a wonderful time to enjoy each other's company.

Once again, brothers and sisters, thank you for allowing me to stand. Thank you for allowing the True Family to stand. But thank you for allowing our True Parents to stand as the True Parents of humankind. Thank you.