Sumie Shimmyo, “God started to guide me more directly”

I was born and raised in a village surrounded by beautiful nature, and I always believed in an invisible God. My family was a morally good family, and when I was a child, my grandmother used to teach me that it is wrong to lie. When I was around 11 years of age, I started to wonder where we would go after physical death. I had many good friends, and thought that even the friendship between a boy and a girl could be a pure one.

But God started to guide me more directly when I entered college. Four things happened. First, I was admitted to Chuo University in Tokyo and made friends with a fellow student who later became my spiritual mother. She disappeared for a couple of weeks, during which time she joined the Unification Church. Soon after she came back, she started to witness to me on January 17, 1966.

Second, at college I joined the German-Speaking Club because I majored in German. The club chief was a male student, and I developed a friendship of trust and respect for him. A little later, however, he took advantage of my pure heart and attempted to make a sort of sexual advance towards me. I was extremely disappointed and hurt. So, I started to realize that human beings were very ugly. I started to wonder about the nature of the man-woman relationship and the purpose of life. This prepared me to accept the Divine Principle teachings on the human fall and God's original purpose of creation later.

Third, my experience led me to go to Christian churches more often than when I was a high-school student. I became a church-goer to search for the truth that could answer my questions. So, when my spiritual mother invited me to come to a Unification-Church Sunday service, I had no problem at all. In my first Unification-Church service, I was moved with spiritual power far more powerful than in Christian churches.

Fourth, I was exposed to Korean culture through a wonderful Korean lady who came to Japan to marry a Japanese man. I came to know her, because I had a part-time job in his management-consulting office. I eventually moved in to their house and spent much time with her personally. I was amazed and deeply impressed with the Korean culture of jeong seong (sincerity) explained by her. Because of this, later I easily accepted my spiritual mother's statement that the Messiah came from Korea, and he was now here on earth.

I went to a three-day workshop in January, a seven-day workshop in February, and a 16-day special workshop in March 1966. On the final day of the 16-day workshop, as a 19-year-old girl I pledged to devote myself entirely to God, True Parents, and the Unification Church.

From Tribute, pp. 311-12.

Shirley Stadelhofer, “I was introduced through my second son”

I was introduced to the Unification Movement through my second son, David, who joined in 1969 when he was only twenty years old. Before that he had gone through many phases in his young life, searching for his purpose by experimenting with speed and LSD, smoking pot, and trying to find God or himself. During the late sixties, he left home and hitchhiked around the United States for about eight months.

When he came back home, he enrolled in classes at Laney College in Oakland. A young member of the Unification Church who was a classmate at the college, asked David if he would like to come to dinner at the Unification Center in Berkeley. Several months later, David joined the movement and moved into a house on Ashby Avenue with a dozen other members and a married couple, Edwin and Marie Ang, the center’s directors.

Surprised by my son’s quick decision to join the “Moonies” and being a “good Christian mother,” I decided to investigate. I was afraid that he had joined one of the free-sex communes or cults that had sprung up during the “Flower Children” era. I went to the Unification Center and met a small group of dedicated people living there. It was clearly not what I had feared, and my panic left me.

David made many sacrifices to join the movement—he led a life of purity and abstinence, giving up the carefree style of a young bachelor, and gave up other individualistic pursuits of material gain, such as a business career. I felt proud that while he was in the movement he did manage to attend classes at the University of California at Berkeley, which was only a few blocks away from the center, and earned the Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering.

After David moved in with the Unification group, I was then alone, separated from my husband and with only one child left at home. I felt compelled to look inward and did much introspection about my own life. After nearly a year, in which I spent much time studying the life of the founder of the movement, I was becoming familiar with the people in the center and coming to understand the lectures.

My first study of the revelation of Rev. Sun Myung Moon was from a small book, titled Divine Principle and Its Application by Dr. Young Oon Kim, which my son offered to me. While reading it, I became so furious with what I believed to be theological deviations from my confirmed beliefs that I actually threw the book across the room in a sudden burst of anger. Later, I received a sense of quieting, spiritual calm and told my son that I wished to study the teachings further. To his astonishment, I also wanted to become a member of the movement!

From New Truth in The Last Days: My 36 Years in the Unification Church. Lincoln, NE: IUniverse, 2006, x-xi

Richard Van Loon, “The ‘right’ decision”

Our family was Catholic, and my mother, who had converted from Protestantism to marry my father, was fervent in faith. I remember saying the rosary on my knees at night and reading about the lives of the saints and martyrs. I enjoyed the sacredness of Mass and the Stations of the Cross. My sister, brother and I went to Catholic school. My sister would become a nun.

In my teen years, during the sixties in San Francisco, I became dissatisfied with Catholicism. I delved into Buddhism, astrology, Yoga, and drugs. When my friends and I discovered drugs were a dead end, we began studying the Bible. Soon after, we met the Unification Church. I remember attending a weekend workshop. At the time, I was taking a college class on Religious Philosophy, which I thought was pretty deep. But when I listened to the lectures on the Divine Principle, I was completely bowled over. Here, during one weekend, I had found a teaching that included all the religious and philosophical knowledge I had come to know, had wrapped it up in a unified, systematic package, and had then gone on to answer some of my as-of-yet unanswered questions about life, God, and the universe. Not only did I find the truth profound, but also the people were refreshingly sincere and caring.

I was twenty-two, and my life had come to a crossroads. I realized the world was polluted with selfishness, and it repulsed me. I felt I didn’t belong. Yet to join the church, I knew I would have to change. I’ll never forget the moment I decided to join. One instant I was torn in two; the next I was feeling a sense of deep inner joy that comes after you have made the “right” decision.

From I Am in This Place, p. 71.

Reiko Mickler, “Every word of Divine Principle made much sense to me, and all my cells rejoiced”

I joined the church on October 10, 1969. I didn’t have a habit to call Heavenly Father’s name before then, though somehow I used to offer silent prayer when the midnight siren wailed in my town … [Y]ears have passed since I called Heavenly Father’s name every day. In 1968, I attended a three-day workshop. However, I didn’t join then. I joined a year later. During that one year, I struggled very much about life in general and love to the point that I didn’t want to live anymore. Most of my college friends were Marxists, and they worked hard to convert me. I was pushed to the edge. Then, my spiritual mother invited me to a Divine Principle workshop a second time. Every word of Divine Principle made much sense to me, and all my cells rejoiced. I regretted that I didn’t join a year earlier. From there I went to a 14-day workshop and decided to join the church. I was completely liberated from my questions and agony and felt I had found the purpose of my life. I was happy, joyful, and felt the urge to tell all mankind.

From Tribute, pp. 223-24

Pamela Stein, “I felt genuine regret that I was 2,000 years too late in meeting him”

I was born in Los Angeles, California in 1946. My ancestors were early pioneers of California from the 1800s and settled the land between Los Angeles and San Francisco. As I grew up, I wanted to become a missionary. I believed literally that God was my Father and I was His daughter. My life of faith was very real, and I talked to God daily about all sorts of issues. In February of my 21st year, I was "reborn in the holy spirit" in a little attic in Berkeley. I was visiting a friend of mine who was a re-born Christian. We were having an ongoing discussion about God and Jesus and how to live a life of faith, when my friend said, "Jesus taught that the purpose of life is to be loved by God and to return love to God. God is our Father. We are born to love each other. We are supposed to be God's family. We are actually all brothers and sisters." It was so simple, so beautiful. I cried as the Holy Spirit filled me 100 percent.

For days following I danced with happiness. At that time I was working in a hospital in Oakland, California. I said "I love you," to everyone I met, even to dogs and flowers and the food I ate. I hugged patients and their family members. I didn't want to go to sleep at night. Carrying that love was more precious to me than food or money or even my own family.

I was praying daily to know the will of God in my life, and how I could help God change the world. I opened the Bible each morning to any page randomly, and put my finger somewhere on the page. I opened my eyes and read the passage. That became my direction for the day. I studied any book I could find about the life of Jesus, and I felt genuine regret that I was 2,000 years too late in meeting him. I used to daydream that I was his follower. I imagined that I would make him sandwiches and make sure he had a place to stay at night. I cared for the people around me as if we were living with Jesus during his time on earth. I hoped and prayed that this was the time when the messiah could return, and I was a person prepared to follow him.

One morning in March 1968, I had stayed up all night typing a thesis paper for my college friend. I banged away on the manual typewriter until around 4:30 a.m. When I finally finished, I went outside to watch the sunrise. I was disappointed as the sky got lighter that there was no sun peeking over the horizon, just lots of clouds. As I watched the cloud formations, I thought that even if there were so many clouds, the sun was really shining behind the clouds. I was thinking that God is like the sun, always shining, and our lives on earth were restless like the clouds: unpredictable and shifting, sometimes cloudy, sometimes raining, sometimes just plain foggy. Yet the sun was always there.

It was a comforting early morning meditation; then all of a sudden my eye caught a cloud formation in the middle of the sky. It was the face of Jesus! His eyes were closed and he looked very serious. I couldn't believe it! It was the face I had seen over the years of the Holy Shroud. I stared at the sky with my eyes wide open. Then I closed my eyes and shook my head because I thought for sure I was hallucinating from lack of sleep. I looked again and the face was still there. It was truly remarkable. Then the clouds shifted and the early morning sunlight began to pour through the eyes of Jesus, and finally his whole face dissolved in sunlight breaking through. I was so moved, I began to cry. I went to my Bible and opened up to a page. The passage I found read: ''At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens." (Mark 13:26-27) I knew I was having a sign from God.

Through my continued studies and prayers, I concluded that Jesus should have married and had a family for God. Despite the sins of humanity, he made every effort to teach each person he met about God, to uplift their spirit so each one could become God's child. I wanted to emulate him. During this time, I received in my prayer, "Pamela, you are a bride of Christ and you will have blessed children." I asked God who would be my spouse for these special children, and God said to me, "I will choose your spouse.”

In April of 1969, I went to Europe. I set out with only my air ticket, a little cash, and the clothes I could carry. I wanted to prove that if I just cared for the people that God sent on my path, they would care for me. My message to others was that we are brothers and sisters, and that we did not have to be afraid in this world if we loved God first. In June I found myself in Spain. I was caring for a sick man, living in a little house on an island in the Mediterranean. I ate goat cheese and figs; I meditated and studied the Bible. One day I was meditating in the early morning under a fig tree, and I received a message: The Messiah is on the earth, return to America. I did not want to return to America and I struggled a whole lot about leaving my idyllic life in Spain. I did not respond right away, and misfortune began to find me. I got the message real quick that I was no longer in the right place at the right time!

I arrived home in Berkeley, California on July 4, 1969. Forty days later, I came to the Ashby House Center of the Unified Family, having been witnessed to by several different members. When I came to hear the Principle of Creation lecture that August 15th evening, it was Dan Fefferman who opened the front door to welcome me. He was 21 years old, a student at the University of California at Berkeley, and he was to be my Divine Principle teacher. I listened to the Principle all week long. When I found out that I could create a family for God, I was overjoyed. I was deeply grateful to Dan, because he not only taught me the Principle with much love and passion, but he also fasted for me and helped me understand my unusual dreams and revelations.

I moved into the Unified Family Center on September 9, 1969, and each time I came home to the center, I ran to the prayer room and wept in gratitude to live the rest of my life with Heavenly Father, and that I had found the Master and His Bride. There were less than 20 members in the center when I joined, and for the next three years we doubled in membership each year.

From Tribute, pp. 327-31.

Nanette Dorowski, “I saw an oriental man in a western business suit”

I grew up in Washington, D.C., with an awareness of my unusual spiritual sensitivities. In 1966 I read the book, In Search of Truth, by Ruth Montgomery, who had the gift of "automatic handwriting.” I heard a voice saying, "You can do this also." I received many messages, such as one telling me who the next President of the United States would be; where to find a friend's lost cat, and about all the personal problems of my friends. I believed that I got these messages from spirit guides who wanted to inspire me to help my friends and to practice being what Unificationists call being a "spiritual mother." In between, they mentioned that "Christ would be returning." But I shelved this to the back of my mind.

I studied all religions, but I held on to my Catholicism. Then, one day I was praying and I was taken up into the spiritual world through dark realms and then through white realms, then through white electric realms. There I saw an oriental man in a western business suit sitting behind a desk, and he was gesturing and gesturing to me but I could not hear what he was saying.

In 1968 I was studying painting and new media at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C., and I felt like my career in the art world was ready to take off. I went to parties with Andy Warhol. I had my own shows at the Corcoran Gallery. But I valued my virginity, and I kept searching for truth by visiting churches. In August, I visited a church in Washington near Upshur Street where some of the Unified-Family members also were visiting and singing at the service. Afterwards, I bought a lunch, and I sat down in the church's dining hall. Suddenly, I felt like invisible hands were trying to pick me up and move me to sit down by a girl on the other side of the room. This girl was talking to a young man, Neil Salonen, who kept talking about the year 1960, when supposedly something momentous had happened.

Neil was asking her to come have lunch at the church center and hear a lecture. He asked her three times, but she refused. So, I said, "I am doing nothing. I can come and have lunch with you." Neil looked at my lunch in front of me, and looked how I was dressed. I was wearing an Op-Art design mini-dress, art makeup on my eyes, and black-and-white striped stockings. Later, I found out that the members took one look at me as I walked in the door and they said, "Neil really doesn't know how to pick them!"

After I heard the first lecture on chapter one of Divine Principle, I came back and heard it twice more. Neil said, ''Are you going to sit on chapter one all of your life?" The next time I came, I stayed until 2 a.m. and heard all the lectures. I then was shown a picture of Rev. Moon: It was the same man I had seen in the spirit world. The members asked me what I thought had happened in 1960. Understanding dearly the four-position foundation, I said: "Rev. Moon had a baby." They said, "OK, but you have jumped a step." On August 25, 1968, I signed the membership application.

From Tribute, 82-84.

Maria Kiely, “I didn't need to search anymore”

I was born in 1939 in Bohemia, Czechoslovakia. Because of the decision at the Yalta Conference to expel the German-speaking population from the country, our family needed to leave our home in 1946. I was then seven years old. My brother was eight; my sisters were four and three years old. My mother died in Czechoslovakia two months before we were moved. My father was a prisoner of war and was released because of my mother's death, so he could come with us to Germany. My grandmother was Czech and my grandfather German. They moved with us in order to take care of us.

Although I was raised in a religious family, many people in my environment were convinced that God did not exist. So, I wanted to find out for myself. At age 19, I went to England, worked in a hospital, and studied the English language. After one year, I went to Paris, stayed with a French family, worked there and studied French. There was one professor who spoke passionately about the existence of God, while so many others taught dialectical materialism. He had a profound influence in my life.

When I came to New York City in 1961, I was amazed that the churches were filled with people every day. Initially, I stayed with a family, and then worked as a trilingual secretary. The day I encountered Therese Stewart and Betsy Jones at St. Christopher Chapel at Washington Square, I heard them talking about a new movement founded by Sun Myung Moon which unifies all religions. I invited myself to their lecture, and my quest for God ended. Within three days, in September 1968, I knew that the Lord of the Second Advent was on earth, in the person of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, that he had completed Jesus' mission, and that since 1960, mankind had True Parents. That totally changed the direction of my life. I didn't need to search any more.

When I was eleven years old, my grandfather, whom I loved very much, told me that a historical event would take place in 1960, changing the direction of human history, that a man would come who will unify all religions, that his name will be known more and more in the 1980s and that he will usher in a world of universal peace. This was an excellent preparation for my acceptance of the Divine Principle.

From Tribute, pp. 172-73.

Ken Weber, “My memories and feelings”

I met the Unification Church in December of 1970. Soon after I met the church, I wrote reflections of my memories and feelings during this time. Here is the text of these memories and reflections.

*

Something really strange happened today. A couple of people walked up to me on the street and started talking about new life and rebirth and a wedding of over 700 couples in Korea. No, that can't be right.

They talked with me awhile, gave me a pamphlet and invited me to a discussion with their Family, as they called it. Then they walked away. Strange people ... I wonder what this Family is all about.

*

Something even stranger happened today, I visited this Family. I expected there to be a discussion that lasted only an hour or two, but it turned into an all-day affair. When the discussion began, several people were there, but one by one they left, saying that this new philosophy didn't fit into their lives, or they just couldn't agree with it. Strange, this philosophy means a great deal to me. It talks about a very loving and personal God, a God who gave His Son to LIVE, not to die. He gave His Son with love, and ... we crucified him!

I wanted to hear more, but as I looked around, I found that I was the only one left listening to the philosophy. I felt as if I was keeping these people from work more important than lecturing to one lone individual. Yet, as I got up to leave, explaining that I hadn't planned to stay the whole day, they invited me to come back for dinner later in the week, and one or two individuals would teach me the rest of the philosophy. They are sure going to a lot of bother for one, lone individual! They're so persistent in wanting me to come back that I'd feel guilty turning them down. Strange people ... I'll go back once more. Then maybe I can go back to living my normal life again.

*

OH GOD ... I heard the rest of the philosophy today, clear through to the conclusion. OH, MY GOD ... What if it's true? What if it's not true? God, I have to know. I've been taught all through my life that this is the time when the Second Advent may take place, and also that now is the time when many antichrists will appear. Which is this? How can I find out? I must eventually decide to accept or reject all that I have just heard. Whatever my decision is, I know that my life will never be the same again.

*

Dear God. It has been two months now since I first came to your Family. One girl has taken me under her wing and has been teaching me what they call the Divine Principle and inviting me to participate in Family activities. God, there is so much love in this Family. I've been afraid to get too involved, but I can't find anything wrong with the way they live or what they do.

It's difficult to find out what I really want to know about this socalled Messiah, because, to find out about him as a person and to be satisfied about the truth of all I have heard about him, I would have to meet him. But, if his teachings and the way of life that he has set up in this Family are any example of what type of person he is, then he must really be wonderful.

*

Dear God, our Father. I attended a workshop this weekend and I learned a great deal about myself and other people, as well as learning more about the Principle. One thing that impressed me in the Principle is how You, Heavenly Father, have been striving throughout history to show Your love for us, and how we, through lack of love and faith have kept You so far away. It isn't You who left us!

Now God, I am still not sure about this man who they claim is the Messiah, but I am now convinced that if he is not the Messiah, he must be the Elijah or John the Baptist who, through the foundation he is laying, will lead us to the. Messiah. So, whoever he is, I accept his teachings, and I will try to follow them

*

Oh, Father. I have been a fool not to completely accept the Principle before this! All the proof that I have ever needed about this being the right thing has been laid out right in front of me since the first day I came. The Principle not only makes sense, it covers everything. No matter what situation I find, by following the Principle it is impossible to really go wrong. And the love here is genuine. The people really care! They don't give their love expecting something in return. The give their love because they really do love! Father, this is so important to me.

Yet, now I realize that so far, I have not had much faith. And because of my doubts I have been keeping You at a distance. I have been looking for proof that this man is the Messiah, and the proof has been here all along: in the truth of the Principle, and in the love of this family!

Father, I want to know You better. Father, I want to live Your Principle. Father, I want to love!

*

Our loving Father, I have now been with your Family for eight months, and in these eight months I have done more living and growing than I did in eight years before meeting Your Family. I thought that I was happy before, and I was. But, since joining Your Family, I have learned and experienced a happiness much deeper than I have ever dreamed possible. I thought I was capable ofloving. But now that I have learned more, I find that my love is only beginning to grow and blossom. I thought that I was alive. But now I am living a life so full that my life before seems like an empty shell. I have learned that it is extremely important for us to act on the Principle. I used to wonder who Elijah was, but I have learned that we should not wonder who it is, but instead take the role of Elijah, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US, for it is only through our actions and our preparations that our True Parents, and You, Father, can work.

Father, I pray for strength as I attempt to overcome my weaknesses, so that I never will betray You as Judas did, or deny You as Peter did. I will strive, Father, to be a True Son to You and our True Parents. Each day in Your Family has been a day of rebirth. You have given me new life, Father, and I give You my life now, with my deepest love.

Thank You Father for Your Family, the new life it brings, and most of all, Father, thank You for You and Your love. We send our love to You, Father, and invite You to share each and every day with us. Have a nice day, Father."