The Words of the Kamiyama Family
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The Words of the Kamiyama Family |
Rev.
Takeru Kamiyama
I'm sure all of you are having many thoughts about the coming mobilization to Korea. Many of you an excited to go, but some of you are quite anxious about it. Of course not everyone will be going to Korea; some of you will remain in America and take responsibility for the important activities going on here. For leaders who may be losing many members, considering this impending mobilization is almost like a big tumor in their brain -- it's even more than a headache!
Because I have been sensing many mixed emotions from both members and leaders, I feel I should address this issue. So this morning I would like to share about how to prepare ourselves, in this important providential moment, to be a pure offering to God.
As Father has explained, Korea has a vitally important role in God's dispensation at this time. Therefore, Father is now concentrating much effort and prayer toward the realization of God's will in this providentially significant country.
During this past summer, Father invited over 200 Korean professors to come to America to learn about and experience firsthand the Unification movement. I was invited to spend some time with them in Alaska. Many of these scholars are senior professors from prestigious universities and have impressive qualifications and backgrounds. Externally they may look like simple men, but they are actually quite influential people in their communities.
Try to imagine what these famous professors experienced during the Alaska portion of their tour. They arrived at North Garden in Kodiak at four in the morning and then two hours later were outfitted and ready to go out fishing. Even though some were over 60, they worked hard on the boats all day. I'm sure they were used to dining in nicely furnished dining rooms and sleeping in comfort- able beds in Korea, but in Kodiak they had to serve themselves from a simple buffet dinner -- and eat off paper plates sitting on the floor. They slept in sleeping bags and had to stand in line to use the bathroom. I'm sure they had experienced such primitive accommodations only during war- time. Yet because of Father's embracing spirit and love, they cheerfully endured the difficulties.
With Father's guidance, they caught quite a few fish, some weighing 100-200 pounds. They were as excited as school kids, especially when they would catch a large fish. Some had never been fishing before. The work was very tiring, but when they saw the others catching such big fish, each was determined to try harder to catch one too.
On the last day, all the boats were supposed to start heading for shore at 4 pm so that the scholars could be back in time to catch their plane to Washington DC. But the two professors on my boat wanted to fish even longer. Reasoning that their boat was faster than the others, they said, "Let's stay out one more hour; then we can catch up with everyone else their special desire and determination to stay out was rewarded when one of them caught a huge fish. They were thrilled!
Father truly won the professors' hearts through their experience in Alaska. When the professors toured the ISA fish processing facilities, they could see that our movement is like an international community. They saw brothers and sisters from all over joyfully united in their work, with obvious admiration and love for Rev. Moon.
They watched the Japanese sisters doing, the messy work of cutting and cleaning the fish. The professors were amazed that while many of the sisters were college graduates, they had been cleaning fish for years. In the evening, the hard-working sisters came in dressed in beautiful chimachoguris [Korean dresses] to greet the professors, speaking in Korean. They even sang beautiful Korean songs. The professors were deeply moved. Without a word of Principle spoken, they were transformed.
One night I had the opportunity to testify to the scholars about the church and about Father. One of the professors acted as my translator. I began by saying I couldn't call Rev. Moon "Teacher Moon" (or Moon Son Saeng Nim, which is the usual term in Korean). Because of my deep relationship with him, I preferred to call Rev. Moon "Father." and I hoped they would understand. So my translator had to use the word "Father" too. They were moved to see a Japanese with so much love and respect for a Korean. In my talk I expressed my closeness to Father and my complete trust in his leadership
I told them how the words from the Bible, "Love thine enemy." were literally being practiced by Father -- not just preached. I shared Father's description of his reaction to the Japanese people after the war. Father could have held tremendous resentment against the Japanese, yet he actually treated them with generous love. "The day after they lost the war," Father had said, "The Japanese were a defeated nation. Those who had done many evil things were now hiding in shame, desperate to get back to Japan. Whenever I came across any of them, they were so frightened, because I could have turned them over to the police for execution. But instead, I gave them shelter and helped them with traveling expenses so that they could go back to Japan. I turned this situation of resentment toward the enemy into lover'
"Father treated us, the Japanese, 'the unforgivable enemy,' with love," I told them. "As a result of that love, we second generation Japanese want to follow him." Furthermore, I told them, although America imprisoned him, Father has never held any resentment or animosity toward this country. Even in prison, he continued to do things to love and bless America. Despite all the persecution, Father has poured his love and care, energy, money -- everything -- into this country. I told them that Father, an international religious leader, was treated in Danbury just like a common prisoner; nevertheless, he was always humble, grateful to God, loving, smiling, and never complaining.
The Korean professors went on to have incredible experiences touring The Washington Times and The World and I facilities in Washington DC, visiting the Unification Theological Seminary, hearing Principle lectures in New York -- in short, seeing and understanding the vast accomplishments of Father's mere 15 years in America. At the final banquet, Father didn't have to say anything more; he just urged them to go back to their universities and work for the unification of Korea.
Now that they are back in Korea, do you think the professors are keeping quiet about their experiences here? Don't you think they are talking about them everywhere? Imagine the influence that 200 renowned, top-level professors will have in Korea. Since Korea is a very homogenous, vertical society, these respected professors, besides influencing their many students, can also easily influence their relatives and clans, too. Each professor could easily reach 1,000 people. So these 200 professors alone could influence 200,000 people.
We know that the North Koreans call Kim Il Sung "Aboji" and must demonstrate their supreme loyalty to him, even though he's a false father. It is our responsibility to help Koreans recognize our Father and Mother as the genuine True Parents, so they can become known, loved, and accepted first by the South Korean people and ultimately by the nation as a whole.
At this time in history we must understand this great, world-level goal that we are called to achieve for the sake of heaven. We must be serious about willingly sacrificing our- selves and our personal concerns for the accomplishment of this goal. Then we will be a pure offering before heaven. This is a time to move to a new, higher level of commitment and dedication.
December
1983: A packed crowd at one of Father's IFVOC rallies in Korea.
From 1945 to 1985 Father went the servant of servants course to restore everything that was lost up to the world level. To successfully culminate this 40-year period, Father had to accomplish something special in 1983 centering on Korea. Right after ICUS XII, held at the end of November in Chicago, Father announced that a series of IFVOC rallies were to be held in several key cities in Korea before the end of the year.
Father asked 72 scholars who had just attended the Science Conference to come right away to Korea. Each represented his own country and collectively they represented the world. These scholars were already on their way home, but great efforts were made to reach them before they arrived at their home countries. When they heard Father's request, all of them turned around and flew to Korea right away, without fully understanding why or what they were being asked to do.
In Korea, Father asked the local members in each area to start organizing everything and to pay for the rallies themselves. The leaders and members began to complain: It's impossible -- we don't have enough money, it's too cold in December, it's too close to Christmas, everyone's busy, it's too difficult to rent auditoriums, etc. Even though these difficult situations did exist -- for example, the government of Korea did not want to let us use the auditoriums -- the members failed to respond with a united and faithful desire to try to fulfill Father's direction and to challenge the very real difficulties with enthusiasm.
Father sensed this unwillingness, so he showed the leaders a little notebook he carried, where he had written that he had received a special order from God and had promised God absolutely that he would hold these rallies. Father said, "Look. This is my promise to God. It must be done. We must do Father had to push them to get them to go ahead with the rallies, because there was so much initial unwillingness to unite with the direction. Because Father pushed so hard, the rallies were carried out -- but this gap of disunity provided a place for Satan to invade.
I am not saying the members rebelled or disobeyed, but their complaining and discouraged reports were disturbing to Father. He could sense their lack of desire to try. When you come to Father saying, "Father, how can we possibly do this?" it really means you don't want to do it. That kind of response is already evidence of disunity with God's need and desire.
It was ultimately because of our lack of unity with True Parents that Heung Jin Nim had to be sacrificed at that time. Father, even though he had no personal reason to be claimed by Satan, was being singled out as Satan's target because of the members' reluctance to embrace Father's direction. But because of the overwhelming positive response of the Korean people who attended the rallies and the incredible loyalty of those 72 professors, representing the world, Father's life was spared. At the rally in Kwon Ju, a city with a high percentage of liberal leftists, Father was actually targeted for assassination, but because so many people came in early and packed the auditorium, the leftist demonstrators couldn't make it inside. Satan's efforts there were frustrated. But at the very moment Father stood up on the platform in Kwon Ju, Heung Jin Nim's accident occurred. Though Father was protected by the extraordinary support of the Korean people, still a condition had been made by the members' dis- unity to take his second son instead, as a ransom.
Even though Heung Jin Nim was fatally struck, he did not die right away but remained alive for about 12 days. Later I reflected that if, during that time, we -- the Unification Church members all over the world -- had recognized and truly repented with tears for our heartistic disunity, there might have been a way for him to recover.
Father felt he couldn't leave Korea until he finished all his public speaking engagements. He continued on, demonstrating public love and fulfilling the will of God. Only after the rallies were over did he fly to America and go straight from the airport to the hospital to see Heung Jin Nim. As the days passed, Father himself saw that it was no longer possible for Heung Jin Nim to remain alive. Father conducted a special unification ceremony and declared that Heung Jin Nim would go to the spirit world victoriously and that through his sacrifice, a new spirit of unity with True Parents could come about -- unity among members, unity among all the religions of the world, the unity of established Christianity with the Unification Church, and the unity of the blessed couples and the True Children with True Parents.
A victory was finally achieved, but at a tremendous price. What can we learn from this? Today, in response to Father's direction to prepare for mobilization to the Fatherland, we must examine our hearts. We know that Father won't give any directions on his own accord; whatever he asks will be from God. His response to God is absolute; therefore, when we hear directions from Father, our level of unity with Father has to be absolute. When Father gives directions, we can't harbor skepticism or complaints. We have to unite in heart and desire, and then put his words into practice.
Often we like to first consider the practical possibilities of a project. But we must first unite in desire and willingness, and only then consider how to actually accomplish what God and Father want to do, Otherwise Satan can accuse us and cause separation from Father. Reaching the level of unity I am talking about is not a casual thing, like playing on a team. It's the absolute unity of True Parents with God and True Parents with myself.
I'll share with you from my own experience. A couple days ago some leaders came to me and said, "If Father calls for a mobilization of 2000 members, our departments will be destroyed. The MFT will totally collapse." I felt the wrong kind of attitude behind those words. If they had said, "Such a mobilization would create great difficulties, but if this is Father's direction, we'll do it," that would be a little bit more positive. But saying "We're finished!" is a "can't do" attitude. Let's turn around such an attitude.
We can learn from providential history. God chose Abraham to make His substantial foothold on the earth. Without Abraham's successful offering, providential history could not even start. But because Abraham failed in his first offering, Satan had a condition to invade; thus Abraham had to be completely willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. God's desire was not to kill Isaac; God wanted to see Abraham's absolute unity with His heart and direction so that Satan could be separated out and the providence could begin again. Therefore, it was a very serious situation for God, and a crucial condition had to be successfully made.
Abraham was given Isaac when he had no hope left of having a child. God told Abraham that he would have descendants innumerable as the stars, a promise that was to be fulfilled through Isaac. Therefore, when God said, "Destroy him!" it seemed like an absolutely insane request! But Abraham's unity with God, no matter what He asked, was essential in order to separate from Satan.
Abraham probably went crazy for three days and nights; yet in the end, he took his son to the altar and began preparations to make of him a burnt offering. When God saw Abraham's decision to be loyal to Him, He stopped Abraham from killing his son, saying, "Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me!'
I feel that each one of us is in Abraham's situation. Your mission can be your Isaac, your spouse can be your Isaac, your child can be your Isaac. If you feel you can't leave a certain person or situation when a direction is given from heaven, that's your Isaac. The point to remember is that Satan is watching you closely to see how you react on an individual, family, national, and world level. We have to watch our attitude every minute and make sure we are totally dedicated to the way of God so that Satan cannot invade.
In this crucial time, let's remember the very important lesson we learned from Father when Heung jin Nim went to the spirit world. Father didn't shed one tear publicly. His primary desire was that the will of God be carried out. He considered this before dealing with the personal loss of his own child. First his public, official mission was done, then Heung Jin Nim was offered as a sacrifice for the sake of the salvation and unification of the whole world. Only after all the public activity was completed could Father then take the position of parent to his own child and shed tears for his son. Father set up an absolute level of commitment to God.
We are following Father's tradition and standard; therefore, we have to do our utmost to unite unconditionally with that standard. I feel I need to urge everyone to make a commitment of faith at this time.
Thank you very much.