Dearest Brothers and Sisters of North America

The time has passed mercilessly over the year of 1994, and we find ourselves anticipating the onset of the very important year of 1995. You are working seriously with year-end witnessing and fundraising drives to bring 1994 to a successful conclusion. In this year-end season, I would like to offer my review and perspective on the providential events of 1994.

This year was really a meaningful and very incredible year in which we experienced the value of trusting God and True Parents. Father asked us to bring True Mother to ten Ivy League universities to proclaim "True Parents and the Completed Testament Age." Beyond that, the True Family spanned across America to ninety other universities with the same providential message.

Last year, True Father and Mother spoke in fifty states as well as on Capitol Hill and at the United Nations, plus in forty nations around the world. This historical triumph was so miraculous, and yet True Parents had even more to accomplish by bringing this external victory to a more internal level. The ten universities of the Ivy League, especially Harvard, Yale and Princeton, were founded by strong Christians representing God's dispensation for America. Through those schools, so many Christian missionaries were sent out across the world, including to Korea, witnessing for Jesus Christ. These schools welcomed True Mother, and this signifies the Old and New Testament foundation accepting the Completed Testament Era, and engrafting with True Parents' proclamation of messiahship.

So, actually this was the more difficult task, in that political leaders often act for external benefits or advantages which they might gain, and hotels rent their halls very easily, but university leaders exercise more direct control over their schools, and are not constrained as much by public opinion or diplomatic protocol. Therefore these old American universities opening their doors to True Mother signifies the internal victory: the transcendence of theological barriers, and the opening of the heart and mind of the American Jewish and Christian foundation to our True Parents.

Following the victory on American campuses, on May 1, 1994, True Parents and our worldwide membership celebrated the 40th Anniversary of the Founding of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, in Seoul, Korea. Of special note at this event was Reverend Moon's promulgation of the "Family Pledge," which expresses the basic standard of life for blessed couples worldwide.

This was followed by the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of Father's Oceanic Providence, on August 1, 1994, at Belvedere Estate in Tarrytown, New York. These two events represent the providence of land and ocean reaching a new plateau in this year, and ready to jump forward.

This year saw the establishment of two major new organizations: the Youth Federation for World Peace and the Family Federation for Unification and World Peace. (Detailed reporting on the Family Federation is in this issue of Unification News.)

Another major event of 1994 was the mobilization of the second generation through World CARP. This is like the second generation of the Israelites entering Canaan and establishing the Heavenly Kingdom there. But this time, the first and second generations worked together, going day after day for the last months of the year to cover 3,000 campuses throughout America with classroom presentations, social action, and evening programs and workshops. Overall, more than 15,000 American students attended lectures and programs centering on World CARP. We found that the younger generation in America is very open- minded and hungry for truth, and they welcomed World CARP.

Early December in New York City we hosted the Mr. & Miss University Pageant, which gathered representatives of campuses from 13 different countries. This was the first time for this event to take place in the West, and it attracted the attention of the office of the President of the United Nations, a number of Ambassadors and notable dignitaries, as well as young people. (See complete report in this issue of Unification News.)

This event was special in that it was also a fund-raiser for sending medical equipment to Rwanda under the auspices of the International Relief Friendship Foundation. The IRFF also sent several tons of fish protein powder to Rwanda earlier this year. This protein concentrate, made of heretofore unwanted bottom fish, was developed by Reverend Moon himself for the purpose of solving world hunger.

This year also saw the increased activism of our second generation workshops. Over 500 of our youth attended major workshops at Camp Sunrise, which included for many a stint at fundraising and witnessing, at which they excelled. In particular, our second generation and first generation here in New York City held a big rally on Wall Street promoting virginity. Photos from that rally were featured in a Newsweek magazine cover story on this new trend among American teenagers. It is no coincidence that this reversal of a downward moral trend is taking place at the time that the Unification second generation is beginning to activate.

Another indication of the "mainstreaming" of our activities was the recent article in People magazine about one blessed couple, Robin and Patricia Graham and their four children in Irvington, New York. This magazine, like most U.S. media, has increased its circulation at our expense over the years, but for the first time a refreshingly candid portrait of one of our families was presented, and it made a wonderful impression. We can see that in the Completed Testament Age the false concepts and prejudices about us are melting away.

November 1994 witnessed a tremendous conservative shift in the political, and spiritual, atmosphere of our country. The family values, fiscal responsibility and principles of local control, which our members have championed over the years, are now taking hold throughout society. For 40 years the grassroots were dominated by the big-government panaceas, and now for the first time in 40 years the people of the country are finding their voice with a new sense of responsibility and a re-affirmation of the God-centered values of our Founding Fathers which made this country great. We are proud that our members in hometowns across America are working on town councils, school boards, and in elected offices on local and state levels. Also we were gratified with the passage of Parents Day as a national holiday to be celebrated every year on the fourth Sunday of July. We can see a new spirit in our country by the passage of this bill through both Houses of Congress and the prompt signature by President Clinton.

Also members are working hard and having success in family-oriented media and cable on the highest levels in New York, Washington, DC and elsewhere. Our church members' businesses are growing and stabilizing in very important sectors of the economy, as we develop the professionalism to go along with our spiritual and interracial unity and vision.

Another landmark of 1994 was the initiation of the project to translate the 200+ volumes of the collected sermons of Reverend Sun Myung Moon, from Korean into English. Of course, once they are in English the gate is opened for translation into many other languages very quickly. By year's end the third volume of this series will be published.

At the same time, church leaders and scholars in Korea, at the direction of Reverend Moon, have prepared an edition of the Divine Principle with color annotation indicating the primary, secondary and tertiary contents of the text. We have been blessed and humbled by Reverend Moon's authorization to check and make corrections in the English translation of the Korean Divine Principle as we prepare the annotated text. By mid-1995 this edition will be available. All this indicates the increasing vitality of our Headquarters publications department and Korean translation team.

This year saw the conclusion of Reverend Moon's incredible goal of personally educating 160,000 Japanese women in Korea, through numerous 4-day seminars. A bond of sisterhood between Korean and Japanese women was created with 160,000 Korean woman, which solved the centuries of war and conflict between these two nations. This embrace of sisterhood soon will cross the Pacific Ocean and eventually encircle the whole world.

Thus, in this year preparations have begun for developing the cooperation of Japanese and American women. Fifty years have passed since the end of World War 2, but the spiritual misunderstandings between America and Japan have remained unresolved. Of late, trade issues continually create tension across the Pacific. The purpose of Reverend and Mrs. Moon's work is the substantial accomplishment of world peace, and they are sincerely investing to bring about the spiritual and substantial foundation for deep harmony between these two great nations in the coming year.

Also we are preparing for the blessing of 360,000 couples in August of 1995. Through this world-historical event will come the broad foundation for the settlement of the ideal family, which is the real condition for world peace and the Kingdom of God on earth to appear.

In conclusion, I want to express my deep and tearful appreciation to our True Parents for their trust and heavenly guidance of our activities in North America. Also I convey my deepest gratitude to the brothers and sisters of North America for your strong faith and true love of God and True Parents. All of this potential and possibility for the Safe Settlement of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age could not have been realized without your participation, commitment and unity. I hope that continuously we will work together and do our best no matter how much tribulation comes our way, and bring final victory for God and True Parents, to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth before the year 2000.

May God bless you, your family and tribe and mission.

Happy New Year and Happy God's Day!

Sincerely,

Rev. Joong Hyun Pak

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