A spiritual whirlwind blew across the Pacific on March 20, the first day of spring, as Southern California welcomed our Ambassador for Peace from South Korea, Dr. Young Kyung Yoo. A university professor in the field of business administration, Dr. Yoo brought such great warmth and enthusiasm to his role of Ambassador for Peace that he not only gave presentations throughout the region, but he also personally invited nine guests to the major Los Angeles event.

His welcoming dinner, held at Pasadena House Peace Embassy, proved to be an occasion when Los Angeles area Peace Ambassadors could network with one another and share their own experiences of becoming Peace Ambassadors. Ms. Norma Foster, president of the local United Nations Association, commented that she, too, just as Dr. Yoo had testified, appreciated the fact that Father and Mother Moon value all the world's great religions and never berate the faiths of others. Dr. Piara Singh, a local Sikh leader, remarked on the similarity between the five key points of the Ambassadors for Peace and the Sikh beliefs.

The following day, Dr. Yoo spoke at the weekly Divine Principle lecture and discussion program led by Rev. Timothy Henning, District 12 director, and held at Bishop Juergen Bless's Old World Village Community Church in Huntington Beach, Orange County. The Peace Message contents sparked a lively but profound session among the ministers and guests about the importance of lineage, tradition and ancestors. Rev. Chang Woon Jeong, Korean Family Church of Los Angeles leader who accompanied Dr. Yoo to all his events, and Father Pedro Contreras contributed deep insights from the Asian and South American perspectives. In Bok Ross provided excellent interpretation for Dr. Yoo and traveled on with him and Rev. Jeong to San Diego for the day's final events.

That evening, Rev. Walter Frank and the San Diego Family Church hosted Dr. Yoo at an intimate dinner with local Ambassadors for Peace and ministers, followed by a packed event at the church. Dr. Yoo signed brotherhood papers with Chief Clayton Two Bears, bringing together two brothers of the greater Mongolian clan. Assistant Pastor Marcus Beresford testified to the value of Universal Peace TV (UPTV.org) as an incredible resource for all our Universal Peace Federation work. The San Diego program featured the video "What is True Peace?" directly downloaded from the UPTV web site.

Dr. Yoo's final full day took him to an Ambassadors for Peace luncheon in the vibrant Koreatown area of Los Angeles. Organized by Rev. Jeong and Mrs. Susan Lee, a longtime community activist and principal of the Seonghwa Korean School, the mid-day program drew many prominent Koreans, including one of Father Moon's former high school roommates.

That evening, Dr. Yoo spoke with several hundred guests, including nine of his family members and graduate school alumni friends. Held at the Temple City Seventh Day Adventist Church, the program featured not only Dr. Yoo's testimony and the reading of Rev. Moon's Peace Message but also the appointment of three new Ambassadors for Peace. Dr. Yoo himself helped present the honors, starting with the newly elected Mayor of Temple City, Ms. Judy Wong, a guest of Gayokla Nichi Ayala, one of our key Native American Leadership Alliance leaders. Mayor Wong remarked how impressed she was with the cross-cultural efforts that were evidenced by the diverse people gathered for the evening. In addition, two local activists, Ms. Michele G. Dulac and her daughter Solange Morton, working for the sake of youth in the Southland, became Ambassadors for Peace. A Bridge of Peace ceremony between Dr. Yoo and Dr. Dietrich Seidel, a professor of the Unification Theological Seminary, completed the evening. Myung Ja Ashworth effectively interpreted for the evening as participants shared their personal insights into the process of building intercultural relationships.

Dr. Yoo ended his sojourn before heading for his flight home with a Friday morning roundtable breakfast attended by several key Ambassadors for Peace, including Ted Choi, a Pasadena Human Rights commissioner, with whom he had attended graduate school.

Los Angeles has been called the capital city of the Pacific Rim, and the Southern California members truly reflect all the nations of the Rim. As Rev. Jeong and the Korean Family Church members worked together with Rev. Henning, Keith McCarthy (the secretary general of the Southern California UPF) and the rest of the District 12 staff members and volunteers, we could truly feel the energy and effectiveness that working in harmony generate.

Perhaps the most inspiring aspect of the entire four days, though, was Dr. Yoo and his own personal testimony. His humble sincerity about what he had learned through the education he received as an Ambassador for Peace -- added to his impressive educational and professional credentials -- won the hearts of all the people he met. As part of his testimony, he read a poem from the 1913 Nobel prize-winning East Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore that refers to Korea's role in bringing light to the world:

In the golden age of Asia Korea was one of its lamp-bearers And that lamp is waiting to be lighted once again For the illumination in the East. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free: Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action; Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

* Dr. Yoo joins with all the newly appointed Ambassadors for Peace and their hosts and event organizers to commemorate the historic March 20 event at Los Angeles Peace Family Church.

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