I first met Rev. Dong Woo Kim over ten years ago in Toronto. He had just been transferred from Korea. His timing couldn’t have been any better. I remember many of the Korean and Canadian members not getting along, feeling misunderstood and overlooked by their brethren and all of them wanting someone to simply sit and listen to their hurt. All I remember thinking was, great, another Korean dude who won’t be able to relate. He doesn’t know what he was getting into. Just two weeks later I was proven wrong.

Rev. Dong Woo Kim is a likable guy; you can’t help but like him. He came to Toronto, that huge smile on his face, that pleasing demeanor and all around charismatic personality and in two weeks, he had the brothers and sisters in Toronto feeling loved and understood. His secret? He did exactly what they wanted; he sat down with them one-by- one and listened.

When Rev. Kim was made regional director of New Jersey - what is now proudly referred to as The New Jerusalem - he worked his magic there and to everyone's great surprise and happiness, Rev. Kim is now the overseer of education for the American Unification movement.

On Wednesday, April 18th, 2007, I was fortunate enough to get an hour of his time for a short interview where I asked him various questions about the education of second generation in America and Hyun Jin Nim vision for second gen. Following is Rev. Kim's responses, edited only for its format and grammar.

I’m basically in charge of the education of 2nd generation right now. I'm not in a certain position of responsibility within that umbrella, but I act as an overall advisor to those within that umbrella. I am also in charge of the education of first generation overall. So I don’t make decisions. We already have department directors or responsible persons, so my position is one of building up and integrating a system bridging 1st and 2nd gen. that existing departments under the umbrella of education in the American Movement can incorporate themselves into. That is the kind of mission that I have.

Do you know what the ideal education for 2nd gen is?

From my experience talking with many 1st gen.'s, I've come to really understand why 1st gen. will never be able to know what the ideal education for 2nd gen. is because they have different roots. My understanding of my present position is as an advisor. I can give advice and share my life experiences with 2nd gen. to help them find their own, true way of doing things but though I've been put in charge of overseeing the education of our members in the American movement, I don’t have any answers or a vision or way for the creation of the best educational system for 2nd gen because only 2nd gen who are leaders in their own right can create the ideal educational system for their younger brother’s and sisters. But I want to be very clear about this concept and my statement. My main point in saying this is how can 2nd gen. reach a point in their understanding where they come to have the right means to create that ideal educational system?

I identify that the responsibility to build the foundation of faith is the mission of 1st gen. and the mission of the 2nd gen. is to achieve the foundation of substance. I can accept that idea and that understanding but as we see in the bible, the parents, in order to achieve the whole restoration, the parents' generation must fulfill the foundation of faith, and of course the children must go the way of the foundation of substance in order to fulfill restoration, however, they must together do this under one condition: there must be some internal condition or internal way of inheriting the foundation of faith. So whether you are 1st gen. or 2nd gen., you must discover what that condition is whereupon everyone can agree, "Oh this is the condition whereupon everyone can inherit the foundation of faith from the 1st gen. to 2nd gen." When we discover how to pass on this faith inheritance in such a way that 2nd gen. will fully come to realize their position in the restorative process, then 1st gen. will accept everything 2nd gen. does from that point on and will support them in whatever way they go because they have inherited the foundation of faith.

1st gen.’s mentality - or what we have tried to do to in this world - is to apply the principle of restoration. But the 2nd gen. aren’t supposed to live in THAT world. Originally, the 2nd gen. is supposed to live in the original world of the principle of creation. That is a difference between 1st and 2nd gen. that I've come to is a big difference. But again, without some kind of 1st gen.’s influence, 2nd gen. cannot build up the ideal. So if I say, ‘Only 2nd gen. can create the ideal..." I don’t mean without 1st gen. No. We should do this together. But the perspectives of 1st gen., their experiences, may have certain limits in creating the best and ideal education for 2nd gen. That’s my main point.

2nd gen. can say, ‘We have to build up our own system," but this cannot come from character or personality. In what sense can 2nd gen. inherit and build up that inheritance of the foundation of faith? If we can know this, then 2nd gen.'s foundation of substance - the many things our 2nd gen. are doing - can directly connect with 1st gen. and the results of their whole life and their whole vertical tradition. Upon this foundation, 2nd gen. can build and create their path.

I had a very strong experience when I was CARP leader in Korea. I was CARP leader the same year the first time 2nd gen. became college students - children from the 36 couples, 72, and 124 couples. The age gap between myself and them was actually less than 5 or 6 years. We were almost the same generation on campus. I was so interested in them because I was beginning to realize my future - how my children could come to have true families. I became so anxious. I questioned them internally: who are they? What is the difference between them and myself? I was really thirsty to know what the difference is between 1st gen. and 2nd gen. before God. I couldn’t see any difference in the general areas of life, like during witnessing and church activities, but what I discovered was, that once 2nd gen. comes to discover who they are -- by that I mean when they find God within them, they start to build up this mutual relationship with God and it wow's me! Their growth, their heartistic expression, their understanding or spiritual growth, totally takes leaps and bounds, over and over! They are lifted so much! I never imagined that kind of level of living. That’s why I was wowed.

As an educator, I try to build things up but my results are less compared to even a single 2nd gen.'s results who is really aligned with God’s heart, with God’s spirit. That was my conclusion from my experience as CARP leader in Korea. That is why I’m saying now that only second gen can create an ideal educational system or way for their brothers and sisters.

Of course our role as 1st gen. is very clear. We can support our children and we can see whether they develop in a peaceful way or not. That’s all. Until they can discover and take the right way, based upon the foundation of faith. then their results, or what they do, will not be much higher or better than what we can do as 1st gen.

Perception is thinking what I’m thinking. Perspective is very different. It comes from cultural background and from what is studied. It comes from an internal base. So when we look at a certain situation, there are always two aspects: one is perspective and the other one is perception. When it comes to how we think about the Unification traditions, we can say perception is the Divine Principle facts. But when Korean Unification church system and Japanese Unification church system and American Unification church system try to implement those Divine Principle facts according to their cultural backgrounds and many different situations, the implementation may not be totally the same among those three countries. That’s why the key to implementing the Divine Principle facts and create a successful foundation or result anywhere is to build up a certain perspective from the perception.

Hyun Jin Nim recently and has, ever since he concerned himself with 2nd generation more directly, in the past as well really wanted to build up an educational pipeline. I don’t know if that’s the right term to use or not. Maybe it's better to say ‘educational track’. Education for our 2nd gen., especially elementary, middle and high school students is not what happens in the camps. At the camps there are many programs to create friendships and have interrelationship with other blessed children. There is an identity educational component to the camps - a "who am I?" - and then, on top of that, there is the desire to incorporate value education and Divine Principle fact into camp experiences. I don’t think these three components put together in one week or ten days will bring lasting results. I don’t think it works.

Hyun Jin Nim has said that we need to evaluate how our present educational systems is composed for 2nd gen. -- what kind of elements should education incorporate? What aspects? In order to fulfill Hyun Jin Nim’s ideal, we really need to figure out, how many aspects, how many components are being taught in our second generation department and then see how these aspects and components connect, react, and develop. So we really need to implement an educational perspective to analyze what we have and then we need to build up a different concept and provide a new, overall educational track. So we need to decide, for example, on summer camp: what constitutes elementary, middle and junior high school camp and college student programs? They are all different, but at present, we only use different age groups to decide this difference. There is no clear step-by-step constitution of each level of education. So we are challenged now to figure out how to divide the levels for camp and other educational programs and give reason for that division, and provide what is being taught at those levels. This needs to be figured out and set as the pipeline from which all the departments will build from.

This is my basic understanding of Hyun Jin Nim’s explanation of the educational pipeline. STF education and the second year formula course are also included within this whole educational pipeline. Educational leaders in America are particularly focusing on building up one track. So from elementary school, Junior high school, senior high school, college with CARP and how this 2nd gen. course includes STF is 2nd gen. education right now. But the most important point is family education. Without making sure what family education is -- and here I don't mean teaching verbally or giving lectures to children in the family - just showing, what we are doing as educators with these programs means nothing. Education within the family and Family Education is a more important, fundamental fact in the education of our second gen. In other words, if there is no such spiritual, heartistic, Divine Principle educational component within the family, then second gen, no matter what kind of amazing education track we have, cannot follow or fit within this education. So the most important question we have at this moment is what is family tradition? How should blessed central families live? What kind of family life do they have and should they have? This is very serious. The educators’ meeting goals is to build up all these components of education from the first level to -- well on ward.

It is our aim to build up a long-term educational track to include 1st and 2nd gen. On the other hand we have been developing each department in the educational area on a short-term goal as well. We are basically developing a strong college education centering on CARP. Centering on Naokimi Ushiroda, the new director of 2nd Gen. Department, for junior and senior high school, we are focusing on building up junior STF program, which is a ‘lack of faith’ oriented program and leadership program.

Many 2nd gen. look at 2nd gen. blessed couples and they wonder because they cannot figure out what is the model of a 2nd gen. blessed family? When they look at college 2nd gen., they ask who here is the model? Middle and high schoolers look at their older brothers and sisters and they often see what is the wrong model. That’s why in short-term goals in each area among the staff is to create the right model in each age level. These models will be incorporated into the long-term vision -- the educational pipeline.

When we look at any organization or system on the whole, they all have certain problems they try to fix short-term. From an external point of view, we have the same problems. We, like them, try our best to try to contain these problems but we have a lot of limitations in terms of what we can do, what can be done, especially where 2nd gen. are concerned. I don’t really want to deal with the short-term situation because there is no short-term answer. The only answer I have for solving problems we face is we really need to give vision to 2nd gen. We need to build a real vision. And if we successfully instill ownership in them, by taking ownership OF them in terms of giving them a vision, then I think in a short time, 2nd gen. will really change. But this kind of result depends actually on leadership commitment.

1st gen. like to say, "Okay, now 2nd gen. can take leadership." But almost next to none of them have real vision. That’s why 1st gen. has to work together with our youth to build up a vision. Once we discover that vision, all 1st gen. should give everything to 2nd gen. -- all organizations, all power, and everything to 2nd gen. so that they become real owners. I am very clear on this point in my mind. Hyun Jin Nim does not think that he is solely a leader of 2nd gen. right now. He is concerned with the bigger picture, really thinking about our entire movement, including 1st and 2nd gen. in his thoughts. This is what I’ve come to understand from talking with and listening to him. I really listen to what he’s talking about, try to understand where he is heading.

For the future, I believe Hyun Jin Nim really wants to build up a strong internal foundation for 2nd gen. so they can take ownership for the future providence. On the other hand, Hyun Jin Nim doesn’t want to ignore 1st gen. He realizes now how much 1st gen. has done. Because of their sacrifices, Father was able to build up this foundation and based on this foundation, Hyun Jin Nim can work now. So what I received from him is, no matter what kind of idea, or theory, or values he spoke of before, now he is very clear about wanting to see unity between 1st and 2nd gen. That is his main point that I have been able to gather from listening to him. A couple of years ago, Hyun Jin Nim's perspective was very clear -- only 2nd gen. That was my honest feeling! That was everybody’s feeling. but now, he has totally changed. He really wants to embrace 1st gen. and walk with them together. 1st gen. can now be moved by HJN. He has a changed perspective.