by Mr. Sano - Cheju Island, Korea
Cheju-Do is the largest island in South Korea, famous for luring thousands of honeymooners all year round.
However, even this famous travelers' spot is no exception as both Korea and neighboring Japan where the largest number of foreign visitors come from, suffer from a long period of economic recession. Despite a fresh appearance of recently reconstructed Cheju International Airport, the souvenir shop owners grieve over the poor sales results nowadays.
All of a sudden, this relatively quiet island was stirred up, as if being awakened from a sleep, when thousands of Japanese women started to flow into the airport every three days. With no doubt, having 50,000 Japanese visit within a short period of three months was a history-making for Cheju-Do island. But, considering the number, the people of island remained relatively cool, as they soon came to realize that Rev. Moon invited these people. By now, they also seem used to the fact that the things unusual for them is not necessarily so for Rev. Moon and the Unification Church.
From Oct. 6 to Dec. 22, the Japanese Woman's Leadership Training was held over 25 sessions at Cheju International Training Center. The center is located at the southern town of Namwon, the region where the mandarin oranges are exclusively produced and exported to the rest of Korea. The training center is attached to a factory that True Father built initially to help the farmers by buying the waste oranges and processing them into the orange extract. It took five years from 1988 for the building to be completed. During the `80s and `90s, Father frequently visited Cheju island for offering prayer with the providential significance.
Over 51,800 sisters ranging from 16 to 80 years of age attended the workshop. It was so special in that True Father himself was the direct organizer, inheriting the spirit of Alaska Workshop. In Aug. 1993, Father started the workshop in the Kodiak island of Alaska specially designed to educate Japanese sisters, as the world came to enter the woman's era. Cheju-Do symbolizes woman or mother's position within Korea, and because of this, Father has set up and blessed Cheju-Do as the second Japan into which Father has been refused to enter for the past 14 years till March 26 of 1992.
At the later part of the workshops, Father began to mention that Japan would ruin if we failed to bring in the minimum of 50,000 sisters into this providential workshop. Setting all other important works aside, Father literally poured 100% of his time and energy. "It is impossible for me to stay in Cheju for three months just to take care of you," said Father frequently. That much Father invested his love to raise Japan to a true mother position. The rise and the fall of Japan depended on the outcome of the training.
During substantial two days of period, Father spoke on the topics such as: "Let us find a True Self," "Let us go over the Hill of Indemnity," "The Four Great Realms of Heart and Three Great Kingships" and "The True Parents and Rebirth'' for seven to eight hours daily.
In support of True Father, Rev. Ken Sudo lectured to help the trainees get clearer insight of how Father's words relate to our conventional ideas of the Principle, while Rev. Hideo Oyamada spoke on how we should comprehend this new age from the viewpoint of Unification Thought and VOC. While Father was resurrecting the entire movement of Japan, True Mother traveled in her public tour, proclaiming "The True Parents and the Completed Testament Age." She spoke at 40 universities in Korea, and then continued through 40 nations around the world.
Father went hand in hand with True Mother by listening to every single speech being transmitted on the phone from another part of the world.
Although the four days were not every long time, for 50,000 sisters of every part of society to visit Korea within less than three months was never an easy matter. Many of them had to leave without full contentment of their husbands, largely due to the negative church images mounted by recent media offensive in Japan.
However, Father, in his speech, stressed how God's True Love could be implanted between husband and wife, touching on many intimate situations. It was clear that the sisters' hearts were tremendously liberated in listening to Father in whom God's vertical love and human horizontal love were in perfect harmony. There were dozens of testimonies that, seeing the wives whose heart became so open and resurrected, the husbands were also became inspired. It was truly another miracle of God's love, that there was no single marriage harmed in the wives' coming to the training.
Towards the end of the workshops, the number of participants swelled to 4,000 and more in a single session. Upon the completion of 50,000 woman's training, a new responsibility is being given to Japan to continue and expand the mission within the 163 nations of the world. Turning to the second year of the Completed Testament Age, another series of training started in Cheju-Do, primarily to prepare women as overseas missionaries and to stimulate the Tribal Messiah activities.