The Words of the Beutl Family
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The Words of the Beutl Family |
My dear brothers and sisters,
Many of you will be aware that the term Northeast Region refers in the structure of our Movement to Russia and the countries of the former UDSSR as well as China. In 2011 Father told the former continental director Young Chon Seong that Europe is responsible to open up Russia. Therefore it is important that European members invest for this goal to be achieved.
In line with this direction by our True Father Einari and I came to the Baltic region which belongs to the Northeast continent after we had concluded our tour through Western and Eastern Europe to gather testimonies centered on True Love.
It was 40 days after I had started the special outreach on the European level that we arrived in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania on the evening of Saturday, May 25, 2013. Before leaving from Poland we had asked the Lithuanian national leader if we could attend Sunday Service on the following morning but we did not get permission to do so. First he lied to us saying that he does not know the purpose of our visit and therefore he did not tell us the address where our members meet on Sundays. Later he confessed that he had received the memo from the European Office and therefore he would not allow us to come to the center.
When Einari spoke with the national leader for about half an hour on the telephone where he asked why we cannot just come for the Sunday Service he was told, "because you are not my members." Such is the mindset of a Unificationist national representative who justifies his behaviour in a way which directly contradicts our True Parents' teaching to welcome others beyond national boundaries which are the handiwork of Satan as Father emphasizes in the First Peace Message.
From an external viewpoint Einari was on his way back home to Finland through the Baltic countries, a route which he had driven with his car several times before when he went from his Fatherland to the homeland of his wife, Hungary. He had stayed in our church centres overnight on this long journey before and therefore he knew the address of our Peace Embassy in Latvia. So we left that night for Riga after having travelled all day, getting some sleep in the car before attending Sunday Service in that country.
We arrived at the Peace Embassy of Latvia shortly after Sunday Service had started and joined the Hoon Dok Hae reading of Father's words which included the following excerpt: "God has been weeping every day…" What I did not know at that time is that this statement applies especially to the reality of our Movement in that nation as I found out a few hours later.
After listening to Father's words we saw one part of the introductory video of Father's autobiography which speaks of building a world of peace and love, and of the river in the heart filled with love… Little did we know then that a few hours later we would experience just the opposite of Father's teaching and example being practiced by the pastor of that church.
The newly appointed national leader of Latvia, Rev. Makoto Ando, gave the sermon in the form of a lecture whereby he had written the core content of what he wanted to say beforehand on the whiteboard because his ability to speak in English is rather poor. He involved the audience by asking simple questions in relation to the theme he had chosen for that day: "How can we resemble God and True Parents?"
Rev. Ando, a former Korean regional CARP leader, spoke about resemblance, emphasizing Shim Jong as the irrepressible emotional impulse of the heart that desires to feel joy through living for the sake of the object partner.
He referred to the Old, New, and Completed Testament as periods of justification by deeds, faith, and finally attendance, which is meant to be practiced towards leaders as it became clear in the course of what happened on that Sunday in the Peace Embassy of Latvia, the headquarters of the Baltic nations.
In the course of the Sunday Service the MC asked Einari, whom he knew from prior meetings, and me to introduce ourselves. Therefore we spoke shortly in Russian for the congregation of about 15 people to know who we are. One brother translated for the church leader who expressed his joy and gratitude for our visiting his community.
Later at the time of the announcements I introduced in English our desire to gather testimonies concerning True Love, inviting brothers and sisters to share if they would like to do so. Five members responded with the desire to either give their testimony directly for us to record or to write it down at a later time.
At the end of the Sunday Service the former national leader came up to me to introduce himself and so we began a deep conversation which lasted for more than two hours including lunch at which the congregation sat on one long table in that beautiful Peace Embassy. The brother who was responsible for this country until recently spoke about his struggles concerning what he should do next and he expressed his gratitude for the answers he received from God through our heartfelt sharing.
The former national leader of Latvia told me that 9 families have left the country to live in other nations because of the internal disunity and fights among leaders which they experienced. How painful such realities are for our Heavenly Parent when Unificationists leave their native land because of internal issues in our Movement instead of taking responsibility for the restoration of their homeland!
Instead of working harmoniously together there is fighting among brothers not only in this but in so many other countries because we have not developed a member-centered culture but are still focused on leaders who all too easily fall into the temptations that come with gaining power over members.
After the former national leader left with his family to go back home I spoke with the brother who was MC for the Sunday Service. He told me that he appreciates Einari and my efforts a lot and wants to contribute by giving his personal testimony that evening before the daily 8 p.m. meeting of study and Kyongbae which Rev. Ando initiated in order to find out who are committed members. So far only a few brothers joined that condition even though I was told that there are nine sisters in the community of 32 people who have no husband…
By that time Einari had gone to receive the testimony of two Unificationists who had invited him to their homes. Most brothers and sisters had left the church center when I sat down to work on the computer. Shortly afterwards the national leader came out of his office with the three brothers who were still in the center and he said to me in a very strong voice: "I received a telephone call from the headquarters. You have to leave this place immediately."
I swiftly put the computer into my bag and dressed to leave while the church leader began shouting at me at the top of his voice, repeating words like: "Don't ever touch my members. Don't come here anymore -- never ever!"
After putting on my shoes I shook his hand and wished him all the best, said good bye to him and the three brothers who stood there rather shocked about what they saw happening. As soon as I had left the Peace Embassy apartment the church leader slammed the door behind me which created a loud noise in the stairway, expressing his anger in this way…
This experience was the complete opposite of what had happened during the four and a half hours I had stayed in the peace embassy where I talked after the Sunday Service with the former national leader for a couple of hours about his work in this country. He was especially interested in how to be more successful in witnessing which is a very important topic for him because he could not break through in this area during the three years as leader of this nation.
After the four hours of harmonious sharing in the Peace embassy of Latvia came the ice-cold shower from the newly appointed leader of that country who had been one of the two Japanese church leaders in Korea -- with very strong emotions of hatred towards me. In this way the pastor of this community practiced the very opposite of what he preached a couple of hours earlier about focusing on Shim Jeong and resembling God and True Parents.
Needless to say that to kick out a perceived enemy, telling him that you never ever want to see him again is not the way which Father has been teaching. Such behaviour is equal to killing another person -- because it means that for the pastor of this community I do not exist anymore. I have no right of existence in front of him.
That is the attitude of Rev. Makoto Ando who has been friendly and smiling at me during the prior hours and then suddenly he threw his anger and hatred at me as hard as he could, only because he had received a telephone call from the continental director who had infected him with this poison by telling him lies like that I am a member of spiritual groups, etc. The church leader did not even show a minimum standard of respect to confirm what he was told about me was true or not but just blindly inherited the hatred of the regional president of the Northeast Continent, to whom he is extremely submissive, as a leader in that region stated.
For me it is clear that if a person is extremely submissive to his superior then he acts the other way around to those under him, what is visible in how Rev. Ando treats his members, showing not even a minimum amount of respect, pushing them aside in order to get his way, even shouting at the top of his voice and expressing his hatred in the presence of an innocent 8 year old girl as Einari had to experience on that day.
I suppose most of you know how it feels when you are the object of another person's anger who screams at you extremely loudly, showing that he despises you, giving his best to crush you emotionally through expressing the hatred which is inside of that person.
It only needed one call from his boss that the Japanese leader changed completely in obedience to his superior, uniting with the hatred the continental director has planted in his heart and then doing his best to throw these destructive emotions on the brothers who were declared enemies even though we had not done anything wrong in front of him and his community but had invested our heart to support them.
Imagine how shocking it had been for the brothers who appreciated Einari and me to witness this abusive scene of the mean behaviour of their new leader. How can they trust him to take care of their guests when he treats his members in such a way?
Can our Heavenly Parent bring the people of this nation of Latvia back into the embrace of His/Her all-embracing Heart when those who are called to invest for this task are led by a person who practices hate instead of love for perceived enemies, preaching about the importance of resembling God and True Parents and then a couple of hours later practice the very opposite by throwing fellow Unificationists out of the Peace embassy which was established in order to promote understanding and unity?