At that time I was just a young member. I had joined the Unification Church May 1 St of that year. My parents were very worried because they had heard so many bad things about the Unification church and particularly about Reverend Moon, such as brainwashing, messing up young people s mind, sexual activity. Such were some of the false witness done by the established churches, and the media against the,UC, and particularly its Korean founder. I lived then with a team of members in an apartment in the city of Liege in Belgium.
That day I was witnessing with another sister, Francoise in downtown Liege. Suddenly walking towards me, I saw an old friend of mine that I grew up with. His name is George. It was mind-boggling that he even found me there. We greeted each other and I introduced him to Francoise. He told me he had heard I had joined the movement. He happened to be in Liege and wanted to get together and hear all about it. He reminded me that we used to discuss about religion and the bible in the past.
I invited him to come to the center where we could talk, to which he agreed. He said, he had a car and he could drive us all there. As we were walking toward the place where he had parked his car, his twin brother, Charlie, married to a cousin of mine, also walks up toward me to another great surprise to me, yet possible since they are twin brothers. So I invited them both. When we got to the car, there was another guy there, which George introduced as his friend. George was the driver, his friend was sitting in the passenger seat, Charlie went in first to sit in the back on the left side, me in the middle, and Francoise came in last,sitting next to me on the right side.
Arriving at the center, George stops the car, Francoise opens her door to get out; I had my right leg out the door when Charlie placed his arms around me, and pulled me back forcing me to lie my upper body on his laps. George’s friend turns around, brings my leg back in, closed the door, all the while George presses hard on the gas pedal, speeding toward the nearby freeway.
I shouted, why are you doing this?! But got no answer. I knew then what was happening of course; I also knew they had a plan to get me deprogrammed, as I was not the first Moonie to be kidnapped to undergo deprogramming. We were on the freeway driving toward Brussels, where George has an apartment he stays at when on business in the area.
The funny thing was, I felt a wave of calm wash over me; no fear at all, while all three of them were very nervous.
On the way there, Charlie was trying to make me sign a paper that acknowledged that I was in the car of my own volition.
“Are you out of your mind? I will sign nothing!” I told Charlie. “How can you do this? I trusted you! You make a decision without asking my opinion, trying to understand what my stand is.”
Charlie said after a moment, “I see that you are not zoned out, or brainwashed …”
About 30 mins before hitting Brussels, George parks the car outside a mansion. And I knew, again because of previous such activity on our members, that this was the house of a judge, who was known to be high in the ADFI organization, responsible for the kidnapping of young people adhering to new religious movements, and particularly our church, which was nicknamed by the media, the Moonies. George went to the house by himself. He took a very long time there inside that house. Finally he came back to the car, said simply,
“We were supposed to meet another person (I knew he meant the actual person doing the deprogramming, oftentimes, a priest), but he was not available until the next day. You can either stay at my house, in Renaix (my hometown) or yours.” I said, “I’ll go to mine.”
I thought in my head, I could easily leave from there, take the train back. George then said, he needed to stop by his apartment in Brussels to grab his luggage. Once there, he parked the car on the adjacent street (they were quite clearly advised of how to proceed in this unlawful activity). George leaves the car to walk to his apartment, but never comes back.
After a 20 mins wait, Charlie steps out of the car, goes to the corner to see if his brother was coming, came back, said the police is there, you,are free to go. I was stunned, but I left. I knew where I was, knew my way to the church’s headquarters.
Both leader and the members were happily surprised to see me safe and sound. I found out then also what had occurred on their side.
First of all, when the car started to drive away with me, Francoise had run after the car, and was able to read the license plate. She ran to the center, reported my kidnapping, and the Police was called. Irmi, Belgium National leader at that time also called Austrian (her country of origin and where she joined the UC), National leader, Peter Koch. The whole church went on a chain prayer condition. I remember how I felt this wave of calmness wash over me … I was so amazed, and felt an energy inside me I had not felt before. I felt so strong in my faith, and the incredible love and support from the leaders and members made me feel this is where I belong, where I must be. This is the will of God, and I felt His love through this ordeal. I was back in Liege that same evening. I had been so protected.
I filed a complaint, also implying my parents as being part of this whole criminal activity because they were the ones who had paid for it. However, eventually I let that go.George went to jail, but was released on the next Monday, my father paid his bail.
The most painful thing of this ordeal for me was the absence of trust and even respect of my family. No one in my family ever thought about asking me why I had joined. They trusted strangers like the ADFI over me, their daughter. I was 23 years old.