by Rev. Jea Seok Kim & Richard Buessing-Boston, MA
The New England Region was ignited with the spirit of True Mother as she came to Boston on Friday, April 3, the third city of her 16-city tour. On the foundation of over 70,000 Blessed Couples in New England, a 40-day all-night prayer condition headed up by General Mrs. Kim and Rev. and Mrs. Jea Seok Kim, and the unity of all brothers and sisters in all departments, the event at John Hancock Hall was the best ever in the history of Boston.
The first miracle was in finding John Hancock Hall. Our Regional Director, Rev. Jea Seok Kim, began inquiring about a church for True Mother to speak in, beginning in late January. About two and a half weeks before the event, after looking at many churches and receiving some rejections, we were able to secure Kings Chapel in downtown Boston. Kings Chapel, a Unitarian Church building, was the first church building to hold services in the New World in the Boston area. However, even though we secured it, we came to realize that it was not suitable for a video setup, an adequate stage, or proper facilities for all that we needed to accomplish. We started to look again, this time at hotels.
After calling every hotel in Boston and finding no space, we finally found the John Hancock Hall. It was perfect for us. It had been newly renovated and when we went to sign up and looked in the date book, someone had just canceled out a few days before. It was truly reserved by God. In fact, later on we discovered that it was the same hall in which True Father had spoken 25 years ago on the Day of Hope Tour in 1973.
More miracles
A second miracle was that not only were we able to fill the hall, but people were standing up because the seats were all totally filled. This was accomplished even without the help of so many of our Japanese sisters who were on a special condition in Japan. This was the first time ever that the one Japanese sister, Mrs. Yukiko Fairbrother, who is always in charge of serving True Parents in Boston, was away (she had left for Japan a week earlier). However, Mrs. Jea Seok Kim, Yoshie Takahashi, Aiko Onoe, Kinnio Edgerly, Cynthia Myers and Marjorie Buessing (with the help of many Japanese sisters) did a tremendous job in making True Mother’s stay so special and warm.
The third miracle was making it possible for True Father to listen to True Mother’s speech and celebration after the event. Little did we know that even though we had paid to get phone lines to transmit True Mother’s speech to East Garden, because we were one floor downstairs the equipment couldn’t transmit the speech out with the equipment Dominic Barber brought from New York. Dominic didn’t arrive till late Friday afternoon. Through much maneuvering, he could at least hang a phone over the curtain so it was near a speaker from the ceiling. It was very unorthodox, to say the least. However, the big problem was the cake-cutting room, where True Mother would go after the speech for the celebration. At 7pm our brothers went out to find a 300-ft. extension cord to run from up- to downstairs. The first brother returned unsuccessful, so Rev. Seok Kim sent another brother, Peter Roy, to look. After looking in many places, not giving up, Peter finally found one in the very same store the first brother had already looked in so desperately before. It was a miracle we could make it work in such short time. We knew, no matter how good the event went, it would be a hollow victory if True Father couldn’t celebrate with True Mother over the phone hook-up.
Wonderful guests
In all, over 700 guests attended the event, with 36 VIPs signing a promise of support for our True Parents and fulfillment of Blessing ’98. One of our distinguished guests, Rev. Dr. Albert Welch, a Congregational minister for 50 years, gave the invocation. He is a direct descendant of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and his Pilgrim ancestors were the first to intermarry with the Native Americans. At the celebration he gave beautiful congratulatory words to True Parents, thanking them for the work of establishing True Families.
Also present were two representatives of the Nation of Islam. Rev. and Mrs. Kim and other representatives of the Unification movement attended the Nation of Islam Unity Sunday in Boston on March 29, 1998. The leader of the Boston Chapter of the Nation of Islam, Minister Don Muhammad, and all members, were invited to attend True Mother’s speech. Minister Don Muhammad was scheduled to be one of the recipients of True Parents’ speech volumes. However, due to a death in the family and another death in the community, Minister Muhammad was unable to attend. Instead, Minister Jabbar Muhammad received the books in his place. Minister Jabbar Muhammad shared with us later how inspiring the entire event was, and that when he closed his eyes, he had the same feeling he had when attending Unity Sunday. He was particularly impressed with the telephone hookup between Father and Mother after the speech and how True Parents shared with each other. He asked us for the remaining dates and locales of Mother’s tour to announce on the local Nation of Islam radio program, so all members could pray for the tour. He also asked for contact addresses in the remaining cities, saying he’d encourage members in those cities to attend Mother’s speech.
One school teacher of 25 years attended the event because a friend invited him. He had heard many things about our movement, but when attending Mother’s speech he found it so different from what he had ever heard. He found the speech so enlightening and so deep. He said the speech was simple but profound and was moved to find our more about the Divine Principle. He always felt his life was going along all right, but after Mother’s speech he realized that for eternal happiness you have to be married, and to receive true love you need a spouse. For the first time in his life he realized how lonely his life has been.
Another guest was a six-term Massachusetts state senator who got up and testified to the work of Rev. and Mrs. Moon, thanking them for their efforts to create true families. He then sang a song for True Parents; because of the words of the song, everyone in the room was laughing. He was also a recipient of True Father’s speech volumes.
Celebration
Mother’s final words to us were that we should not think just "One Nation Under God," but New England should ignite the revolution of "One World Under God." She said we must bring over 2 million couples to the Blessing from New England because of the great success brought by our members in New England blessing over 70,000 couples.
All of the brothers and sisters of New England were full of joy in celebrating the victory of True Mother in Boston. Special thanks go to Rev. and Mrs. Jea Seok Kim for their spiritual guidance and inspiration, to Sam Wada from Saeilo for his organization, to Mrs. Jea Seok Kim, Yoshie Takahashi and Mrs. Onoe for serving Mother, to Mike Myers for coordinating the details of the entire event, to Andrea Higashibaba and Gerhard Weisinger for stage production and sound, to Dominic Barber and Peter Roy who saved us by arranging the phone setups, to Mary Zinno and Carol Osborn for all the floral arrangements, to Phyllis Loum and Vince Carty for their VIP guests, and most importantly to all the brothers and sisters who contributed their prayers, time, energy and resources to help Heavenly Father and our True Parents to make this event a success.