Julian Gray
May 27, 2017
Cheon Jeong Gung
Today, Saturday May 27, Mother invited the Europe STF team - who range from high school graduate to university student age - to lunch at Cheon Jeong Palace. The STF team has been in Korea for a week already. Their schedule has included visiting important holy sites connected with God's providence, experiencing fishing in Yeosu, and this weekend they are sampling the spiritual path of Cheongpyeong Training Center.
But this morning it was the opportunity to meet with True Mother personally. Walking up to the palace (rather than taking a bus), the youngsters continued on up the sacred path to Bonhyangwon, True Father's tomb, to offer their respects.
Following a brief tour of the palace, everyone gathered in the room where Father and Mother have held hoondokhae since the palace was opened more than a decade ago. True Mother came in, and with her our FFWPU International President Sun Jin Nim and In Sup Nim, and Yeon Ah Nim. A lunch of Heaven G Burger hamburgers and ice cream (haute cuisine for this age group, dare I say) was elegantly served by the palace staff. After lunch, True Mother spoke for quite a long time and touched on many themes. Here are one or two points in summary:
Mother outlined the course of God's providence to find the True Parents, and examined the last few hundred years of Christianity, with special focus on Europe. Mother noted how those seeking religious freedom were guided to set out for the New World (the Americas), where they built a church and a school before and as one means to prepare the environment for the Second Advent of the Messiah, God inspired King James I of England to translate the Bible into English. Even so, Mother noted that communism arose from within the Christian realm due to its inability to exemplify God's love. Mother asked the young people to work to accomplish what the Christin realm could not accomplish, and to restore the situation that the Messiah was persecuted by people of the faith. Alluding to the fact that these young people are blessed children, born from parents blessed in marriage by True Parents, they must know about history and about God's providence; they must reveal it to the world and be "a light" for the world.
After Mother spoke two STF members gave testimony of their time in Korea and both spoke in Korean, reading from translations of their texts. Although not completely fluent, their pronunciation was good, and their efforts reflected their desire to communicate to Mother so that she could listen to them directly.
The entire STF team then sang two or three songs for Mother and the True Family members present, and the event concluded with Dr. No Hi Pak leading everyone in three cheers of Mansei.
To see young people from around the world embrace the challenges of the Korean language is a source of great hope, as it is clear that soon, people from every nation will be able to understand True Parents' teachings in the original Korean. That will truly be the beginning of a new era in our movement.