As many members know, our dear elder brother, Dr. Bo Hi Pak, was a victim of unscrupulous businessmen who targeted our movement by using his prestige and national stature in Korea for what is known as an "African money transfer scam."

In the faithful heart of Dr. Pak, these criminals found an easy mark. At the time, Dr. Pak was trying desperately to enable his performing arts projects in Korea to be self-sufficient by raising funds for them, which was his last mission in the Korean Cultural Foundation.

The outlaw Koreans and Africans who conspired in this scheme absconded with the investment funds Dr. Pak had borrowed, and unfortunately, left Dr. Pak to face the criminal consequences from investors who were promised very profitable returns.

After serving 2 years 3 ½ months of a five year sentence, on Nov. 3, 2006, Dr. Pak received a suspended sentence based on time served. In the following sermon given at the Seoul Main Church on Nov. 26, 2006, Dr. Pak assumes responsibility for his actions, past experiences, and apologizes to the movement for the pain and humiliation that he caused.

Blessed families, Ambassadors for Peace, and leaders from around the world express our appreciation and love for Dr. Pak, his family and their many sacrifices during the providential course of restoration. Dr. Pak’s personal experience and testimony reminds us how rigorous and demanding is the tumultuous spiritual age in which we are living.

My Loving Brothers and Sisters!

I am so happy to see you. It is like a dream to me. I have truly longed to see you. I have no qualification to receive your applause. I have not returned after doing any work worthy of such a welcome by such warmly embracing family members or of receiving these flowers. I would like to offer this bouquet to True Parents. It was the cosmic True Parents who made today’s joy of resurrection possible.

This Bo Hi Pak became the prodigal son of the age of the Second Advent. The True Parents welcomed with the warmest love this prodigal son who has escaped death and returned. The True Parents, whom I could not forget even when asleep, appeared to me frequently in dreams.

In the dreams there was not even one instance when they scolded me. I am the person in the Unification Church who has heard the most scolding and worrying from True Father. Not receiving a scolding even once while in prison, I lived truly experiencing the boundless grace of the True Parents. Attending our True Parents in this manner, I have actually returned from a heavenly place.

And it is all of you, my brothers and sisters, who have made this day of joyful resurrection possible. It was all of you who prayed so fervently to redeem this elder brother from an early grave. You sent letters of encouragement saying "take heart," and you aided my release by sending contributions.

I was in this early grave for two years, three months and two weeks, a total of 837 days, and without the comfort and encouragement from all of you, I would surely not have been able to endure in such a place. I take this opportunity to respectfully offer all of you my deepest bow of gratitude.

On May 20, 2005, when the prosecution demanded a sentence of 12 years and I actually received a sentence of 5 years, my mind was swallowed up in darkness and despair. There could be no question that my destiny was to perish in prison. I did not have any confidence that I could survive till the age of 81 in prison.

From the time I first entered the Unification Church, I have believed that my mission was that of John the Baptist. However, the John the Baptist of the time of Jesus died an untimely death in prison. Ah, was it not the will of Heaven that I must indemnify the sin of the failure of John the Baptist? Then must it be that I am also destined to die in prison? If that was my mission, I stoutly resolved that I would accept it.

But the True Parents did not abandon this son to die.

When I was undergoing trial at the appeals court, the True Parents were in the midst of the difficult and exhausting worldwide course of directly proclaiming the establishment of the Universal Peace Federation. This campaign was like a forced march such that Hercules would have had difficulty withstanding the rigors.

As they completed the events in New Zealand and were about to embark for Uruguay, they called for my younger brother, No Hi Pak, to come to Uruguay. Under such intense circumstances, how could the True Parents be thinking about this son, Bo Hi Pak? After completing the events in Uruguay and just before departing for Brazil, True Father called No Hi and received a report on my situation.

My mistake was that, completely believing that foreign funds could be brought to Korea, I borrowed large sums of money from construction companies to be used for expenses to complete the transaction. I foolishly thought that since $100 million in foreign investment would soon be arriving, borrowing $1 million or $2 million would not be any problem.

How could I have any doubt since I had in hand already a statement [purportedly] from one of the largest banks in America, JP Morgan Chase Bank, showing that $120 million had been deposited in my name?

However, it was a trap. It was all a scheme by sophisticated international scam artists. I was completely fooled and taken in. Consequently, there was no way I could repay the debts incurred in Korea.

One thing that I hope that you will all understand is that I had not all of a sudden acquired a desire to enrich myself. It was desire to raise another ivory tower for the sake of the providence before I died. At this advanced age in my life, why would I suddenly want to become a rich man? My desire was only to be a son of filial piety in a big way.

True Father, upon hearing these circumstances in Uruguay, gave an order then and there. "Make settlements with the creditors. Get Bo Hi released from prison!" This was True Father’s order.

The appeals court’s final judgment came on November 3, 2006. The judges declared that, whether it was intentional or not, the commission of a crime had to be recognized. But they said that the final sentence would be suspended because the defendant, Bo Hi Pak, had served honorably in the Korean War and received medals in recognition of his service; because he had raised Korea’s prestige in the world with the work of the Little Angels; and because he had contributed to the work of South-North reunification and international good will. I shouted to myself inwardly, "Thank you, Heavenly Father!" I was thus dramatically liberated.

This was only possible because the True Parents supported making made settlements with the creditors possible. Don’t you think we should all give a rousing applause to the True Parents who saved this son from certain death!

This is not the first time that the True Parents have saved my life. I was once a victim of a kidnapping in the fall of 1985, when I was serving as president of the Washington Times.

Father’s Victory Over Communism movement was unfolding as an irresistible force in America; so, to destroy the Washington Times, which stood at the center of the Victory Over Communism movement, they started by kidnapping me. Since this was a politically motivated kidnapping, the objective was not money but rather to eliminate me.

I was put in handcuffs and driven to a hideout about two hours away from the city, where they began to torture me. It looked as if my death were imminent. I thought over carefully to myself what I must do not to die in a cowardly way.

The kidnappers had said that they would kill me at midnight. They tried to intimidate me by saying, "We are going to stuff your body in the barrel downstairs, fill it with gravel, and throw it in the nearby lake. Neither the FBI nor anyone else is going to ever be able to find your body."

I was in such an exhausted state that I fell asleep when I closed by eyes. Suddenly I could hear the sound of a barrel being moved downstairs. I thought to myself, "Oh my God! It is midnight! This is my last moment!" whereupon I jumped up, lifting the three chairs I was bound to into the air and crying out with all my strength three times: "Chambumonim Mansei!"

Several startled kidnappers sprang toward me, saying, "Do you think the police are going to hear you and come to help you? You crazy fool!" They cursed me and beat me and again applied the electric shock torturing machine on me. I lost consciousness. I could not tell how much time had gone by!

While in a dazed, half-conscious state, someone was shaking me to wake up. When I opened my eyes, it was True Mother waking me. It was a vision in a dream.

"You cannot be sleeping now!" she said, "You have only the next 12 hours to save yourself. By whatever means you must get out of this place if you are to survive. Do everything in your power. Father is praying for you at this moment. Believe in Father."

This was Mother’s message to me. When I awoke I realized it was a dream. I was filled with gushing energy and found the courage to take on the scoundrels. I called over the headman.

I said to him, "By whose order are you doing this evil deed? Don’t you know that the Washington Times is the favorite newspaper of President Reagan? The FBI is going to work on the kidnapping of the president of the Washington Times within two hours and they will have this place surrounded within 12 hours. Don’t you know you are going to be surrounded in a short time?

Kidnapping is a more evil crime than murder. Do you know that? All of you are going to be shot dead on the scene. You will probably shoot me and kill me, too. Why must you and I die? You can live and I can live. Let me go free. I will promise you that, no matter what, I will not report you to the FBI. Do you want to die or live? You decide!"

Power came flowing through me, knowing that Father was at that moment praying for me. The ruffians’ faces turned ashen and they asked for some time.

Father was in Danbury Prison at this time. Upon hearing the news from Mother by telephone, Father had been praying all night, hunched over on his bed.

On the morning of the second day the gang leader came to me. He asked me 10 times, "You are really not going to report us to the FBI?"

"What I have promised, I keep!" I said.

"The car is ready," he said. Then they returned my watch, given to me by Father, my necktie and necktie pin, which had been given to me by Mother, polished my shoes and led me outside where a Lincoln was parked. These ruffians who had stuffed me in the back of the car in handcuffs and beat me mercilessly the day before were today treating me like a company president. They lined up in two columns and bowed as I left. I had become a conquering general.

"Pardon us. Please allow us to cover your eyes!" they said as they placed a blindfold gently over my eyes. After dropping me off at LaGuardia Airport they were gone in a split second. I had recovered my freedom without a single penny taken from me.

Father received the report from Mother that I was safe. He turned to brother Takeru Kamiyama saying, "Now I must get some rest," and began to snore immediately. Brother Kamiyama reported that he had never seen Father snoring in his sleep in such an exhausted state before in his entire life.

In this manner the True Parents had saved my life once before. This was the second time. I owe everything to the True Parents.

I was imprisoned on July 20, 2004, at the Seongdong Detention Center while I was undergoing the original trial. This is the same day of the year that Father entered Danbury penitentiary. Is this not a strange coincidence?

On May 20, 2005, I was given a 5-year sentence and moved to Anyang Prison while undergoing the appeals trial. And as I mentioned earlier, on November 3, 2006, I was given a suspended sentence by the Seoul court of appeals and released from imprisonment.

The 837 days that I spent in prison were a time of rebirth for me. Thinking about the experience now, I am pierced by the realization filled with gratitude that I was sent to prison instead of to hell. I have honestly come back from prison a new person. I have been completely reborn. God gave me a time to shed tears of repentance.

When I first entered prison, surrounded by iron bars, I thought, "This place is really hell on earth!" They take all the clothes that you came in and give you a prison uniform used by numerous inmates before you and old rubber shoes. A rotten smell permeates the clothing.

The cell I was put in measured 78 square feet. Six inmates are put into this one cell. The cell was so small that when we slept, we had to lie on our sides to fit. When we went out for a court hearing, we were handcuffed with two sets of cuffs and bound with heavy rope. Then three persons were linked together by rope. We looked like a string of dried fish hung for sale in the market.

My first thought was, "I understand now how someone can commit suicide! It is just this kind of despair that would drive a person insane enough to take their own life!"

At the time of the rally at the Busan stadium, the then-mayor of Busan, Mr. Sang Hyun Ahn, came to pay his respects to True Father. Mr. Ahn later killed himself in prison by hanging himself with a rope he had fashioned out of his undershirt. Inside the prison cell not a single thing made of metal, not one nail or needle, can be found. No belts of any kind are allowed as a precaution against suicide by hanging.

If one did not have a life of faith, it would be all too easy to fall prey to suicide. At first I also despaired. I thought. "Is it necessary for me to keep living after undergoing such indignity?"

At that moment I started to think of Father’s time in Hungnam prison. This was my salvation.

Compared to the Hungnam prison, this place was still a paradise! I thought of what Father had said, that in his prison cell "You could not get a single sheet of a straw mat even if you were willing to give a million dollars." I could see in my mind the image of Father, barely clothed, lying on a straw mat.

Father’s cell floor was either made of concrete or hardened earth. At least I had a blanket to sleep on and one to cover me. My cell, small as it was, still had heated floors.

Every day in Hungnam prison your life was in danger. That place was a prison in name only; in fact, it was an execution camp for political prisoners. Today, in South Korean prisons, as long as you are not convicted of murder there is no danger to one’s life.

In Hungnam prison everyone was starving to death. In South Korean prisons they may be feeding you barley meal, but you could not eat the entire ration.

In Hungnam prison you were subjected to inhuman forced labor designed to kill you. The camp operators tried to kill you each passing day. Their whole purpose was to kill you off. In South Korean prisons there is some labor, but not for the elderly or infirm.

Father voluntarily slept by the waste bucket (toilet), which everyone else tried to avoid. The spot next to the bucket was normally the place assigned to the newest inmate in the cell. Father slept next to it till the very end. I looked high and low for a bucket so that I might lie next to it, but I couldn’t find one anywhere. The prisons in South Korea today all have flush toilets.

I realized I am not even in a prison. Compared to Father’s prison, this place is like heaven! Every day I became thankful.

At Hungnam prison an inmate would sometimes die during mealtime after having put some rice in his mouth. When this happened the inmate closest to him would take the rice from the dead man’s mouth and put it in his own mouth. If that place was not a living hell, what could be? Yet in this place Father took half of his meager rice ration and gave it to the dying inmates around him. Could I do as Father had done? I could not even come close.

No one ever saw Father lying down in the cell. This was because Father stayed up late into the night praying and again awoke before anyone else in order to purify himself by washing and praying again. What kind of bathing facility could there have been in such a place? Father put aside the cup of water given to him to drink in the evening and used that to wash his entire body.

Could I do one thousandth or one ten thousandth of what Father did? Not in the least. Actually, having lived inside prison, I can only testify that Father was indeed great. He was the messiah, the savior of the world. I was a failed student. Even under the worst unimaginable circumstances, when Father was coughing up blood, he never prayed to God pleading for help.

These words are found in the Cheon Seong Gyeong: "Heavenly Father already knew and was heartbroken over my situation, so how could I drive a stake in His chest yet again. I was busy trying to comfort Him. Heavenly Father, please do not worry over me. This son will not be defeated here in this place." This was Father’s prayer.

The Cheon Seong Gyeong also tells us: "When Father was subjected to unbearably brutal beatings and bitter suffering, Father would worry that Heavenly Father would be put in a wretched place so he would grit his teeth and tell Heavenly Father ‘my grievous suffering is nothing.’ And when tears fell from Father’s eyes, Father would worry that tears might fall from Heavenly Father’s eyes. Father is the one who made Heavenly Father bow his head and offer gratitude to Father!"

Our True Father is a hundred-fold, a thousand-fold the messiah. Indeed, Father is the only begotten son of Heavenly Father, and I am but a sinner. I experienced in abundance this chasm firsthand.

At Hungnam prison Father received from the Korean Workers (Communist) Party an "Outstanding Worker Citation." Can this be considered anything less than a surrender document from Satan? There was not one day that Father failed to fulfill his work quota of 1,300 sacks of fertilizer. When a member of his work detail became sick, Father let that person rest and did the labor of two or three persons.

Seeing that Father fulfilled every day his work quota, which was designed by the Communists to work him to death, they began to fear him as a superhuman. During the Korean War, when there were bombings by American B-29s, the inmates would instinctively huddle around inmate number 596 (Father’s prisoner number) like chicks around a mother hen. Everyone near Father came out safely.

Father bore the cross through his life at the Hungnam prison and indemnified all the sins of mankind. The place where the messiahship of True Father was manifested so clearly was the Hungnam prison camp.

I cried out many thousands of times, "Father, I am sorry. Father, forgive me." I was only able to live there by the grace of True Father. The lessons of Hungnam prison saved my life. Father is truly the messiah, the savior, and the cosmic True Parents of mankind.

At Hungnam prison Father attracted 12 disciples who would be willing to die with him without even preaching one word to convert them.

My brothers and sisters! I don’t even dare to utter the words that I experienced prison like Father. I am but ashamed. Father lived in the real hell of Hungnam prison for two years and eight months and still he was victorious.

My dear brothers and sisters! My prison time of two years and four months was a most precious blessing to my life of faith. During this time I was able to realize two deep repentances and awakenings.

The first realization was that even though I have been living a life of faith for the past 48 years, I have not attended the True Parents properly. I believed that I knew Father well, but I did not know him at all. The True Parents are so great, but during the past 48 years I have disappointed Father many times.

While I was in prison there was not a single day that I did not spend in repentance. And I changed each day. How? First, Father’s image kept growing larger, and Bo Hi Pak kept growing smaller and smaller. Father’s image kept growing larger and larger until it was larger than the cosmos. Then, I realized that Father is Heavenly Father. And the more I read the Cheon Seong Gyeong, the more I realized that True Parents are "Heavenly Father made visible to our eyes."

If Adam had not fallen, then Adam’s body would have been the visible Heavenly Father.

That failure was repeated over and over again, until finally, after 6,000 years, true Adam was completed in Father. Heavenly Father was using Father’s body and dwelled there.

It is clearly written in the Cheon Seong Gyeong, "Heavenly Father used Rev. Moon’s body." It goes on to say, "Adam was created as the body of Heavenly Father made visible and Eve was created as the wife of Heavenly Father made visible."

I was but a child without wisdom before Father. In Father’s eyes how much like a foolish child I must have appeared. I cried out many thousands of times "Father, I am sorry." I shed countless tears of repentance. There is no better place than prison to do penitence.

Second, I repented for being so full of arrogance. My brothers and sisters! The marrow of my bones was pierced with the realization that during the 48 years that I attended Father my faith had become more and more self-centered and without my knowing it I had grown arrogant.

The haughty thought that during the past 48 years I had given my youth and vigor and done as much as anyone had sprouted within me. This was Satan.

I translated Father more than anyone else. I attended Father on the mission to Pyongyang. I attended Father at the conference in Moscow. I attended Father in the meetings with U.S. presidents.

This emphasis on I, I, I -- this was Satan. If "I" is put in front, then everything becomes susceptible. And one feels disappointment from trifling matters. The faith that has True Parents at its center is a faith leading to heaven; the faith with oneself at the center is a faith leading only to hell.

One day it felt as if an explosion had gone off in my head with a great bang, and my face turned blazing red. What was going on! "What have you done for you to be so boastful? What have you accomplished? Everything was done by Heavenly Father and the True Parents. Was it not a great honor bestowed upon you to allow you to be present at those times?"

This realization came upon me all of a sudden while I was reading the Cheon Seong Gyeong. Afterward I could not keep still. I wanted so much to fly to Father immediately and beg his forgiveness that I could not help weeping bitterly. I am living now because Heaven saved my life. I am living because Heavenly Father gave me back my life. My life does not belong to me.

After this realization sank in, I felt as if my body could take flight. The dregs that had accumulated in my heart were all swept out. My heart became bright and clear like the sky in autumn. Limitless peace and happiness gushed forth.

We may not be cognizant of it, but the reality is that our every action, everything that we do, is made possible by the power of Heavenly Father and True Parents. There is no such a thing as "I." There is nothing that we can boast about. The thought that I accomplished something, this attitude is Satan. "Heavenly Father and the True Parents are saving my life. I am not living my own life." This realization is more precious than any amount of riches.

From that time to today, I have never lost peace and happiness in my heart. In this manner I cleared away the faith that leads to hell. I have come to really know that Father’s eternal truth -- to live for the sake of others -- is the true path leading to Heaven.

I did not speak one word of complaint during the two years and four months. Heaven was constantly in my heart. "Unification Church members must be able to turn any hell that they are placed in into heaven."

It was a good opportunity to put into practice this teaching of Father’s. The faith of taking on the position of the servant with a parent’s heart and shedding sweat for earth, tears for mankind and blood for heaven! This faith taught by Father is the faith that leads to Heaven.

Indeed, if it had not been for the path of prison how could I have secured such a great awakening? That is why the past two years and four months have been a great blessing. And I have returned with my spirit completely recharged.

I concentrated on two studies while in prison. One was the study of the spirit world and the other, the study of the history of Christianity.

The study of spirit world was mainly through investigation of the works of the famous spiritualist Emanuel Swedenborg, who traveled, explored, and experienced the spirit world for 27 years and recorded his observations in volumes of books for posterity.

His writings about spirit world run into many thousands of pages. He was able to observe spirit world as if through a microscope. To my complete amazement, the writings of Swedenborg completely supported and testified to our Divine Principle.

For this reason Swedenborg was not welcomed by the existing Christian churches. He actually received severe persecution from them because he plainly and thoroughly exposed the errors of the beliefs and practices of the Christian churches for everyone to see.

Afterward, reading Father’s teachings concerning spirit world contained in Father’s Cheon Seong Gyeong, I could not help but be amazed again.

Although Swedenborg’s testimony about spirit world was very concrete, there was no mention of Heavenly Father’s providential vision. There was no creation, fall and restoration. In Father’s teachings about spirit world, from the purpose of creation to the Second Advent, Heavenly Father’s providential vision is as clear as day.

Swedenborg was a great 18th-century scientist who received the call of God to testify about the facts of spirit world throughout the world. But when we look back from the era of the Second Advent, just as Malachi, prophet of the Old Testament, and John the Baptist preceded the coming of Jesus, it appears that Swedenborg fulfilled the mission of the prophet testifying to the Lord of the Second Advent.

However, the spirit world that Father knows is on a qualitatively different level from the spirit world known to Swedenborg. Father is the sun standing at the center of God’s providence and knows God’s providence from the alpha to the omega. He has a penetrating understanding of spirit world. Father is not a witness of God’s providence but its central figure.

The reason I mention these things to you is so that I can tell you that the study of Swedenborg’s testimony about spirit world was instrumental in coming to an even deeper understanding of Father’s messiahship. Indeed, the grace of God flowed in abundance. In short, Swedenborg is like a star, but Father is the sun.

The second area of study was that of the history of Christianity. I joined the church because I greatly admired the Divine Principle, and my dream was to become a lecturer of the Divine Principle, as well as a missionary and revivalist. Since I was not a theologian, however, there was no way for me to discern how really great the Divine Principle is.

I studied the 2,000-year history of Christianity during my prison life. My textbook was "The History of Christianity," a three-volume work written by Dr. Paul Johnson, a famous British journalist and historian. Dr. Johnson is a respected scholar who has spoken at the World Media Conferences sponsored by Father.

I also studied Swedenborg’s True Christianity, which is a theological treatise. As I mentioned before, this book reveals as clearly as day that the Christian faith of the last 2,000 years has been treasonous to the true Christian faith.

Swedenborg severely criticized Christianity as a faith that tries to justify the crucifixion and death of Jesus by preaching the doctrine of salvation through the shedding of Jesus’ precious blood on the cross. He states that belief in salvation through Jesus’ atonement for one’s sins is "a faith that still leads you to hell."

Swedenborg also testified that the Apostle Paul’s theology was contrary to the teachings of Jesus. Swedenborg wrote that Paul’s teaching that "the requirement of good acts contained in the Judaic law was unnecessary and one could achieve salvation through faith alone." His theology of redemption through faith alone was responsible for sending countless Christians to hell.

Swedenborg upon seeing heaven came to understand that faith without deeds, that is to say faith without true love, is a dead faith. When Christian ministers hear a statement like this, it is enough to make them dumbfounded.

What is more, the aspirations for religious reform held by the reformer Martin Luther in 1517 had a good motivation but unfortunately he succumbed to becoming a second Apostle Paul. Consequently, all Protestant denominations in the world today practice the theology of redemption by faith, which is a betrayal of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Without practicing Father’s teachings of "true love" and "living for the sake of others," there is no salvation from hell. This is at the heart of Swedenborg’s testimony about the spirit world.

Through the study of "The History of Christianity" by Dr. Johnson and Swedenborg’s book, "True Christianity," I acquired an unshakeable confidence in the knowledge of how great a teaching our Divine Principle is and how great our Father, who is the author and lord of such a great truth, is and that our True Father and True Mother, who are the manifestation of true love, have the capacity to be the True Parents a hundred times and a thousand times over.

The confidence to rescue Christianity is ours. I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that through my training during the last two years and four months I have returned completely equipped with all the means necessary to lead the existing Christian churches to Father. If this is not the grace of God, then what else could it be? How else could I have uncovered this precious treasure but by going through prison?

Apostles of the Completed Testament Age! Our competitors are the apostles of the early church of 2,000 years ago. Apostles of the Completed Testament Age! Today there is something for which all of us must repent together. As all of you know, the public ministry of Jesus lasted only three years before Jesus had to suffer the undeserved and bitter sorrow of execution on the cross. After Jesus’ resurrection his pitiful disciples began their march toward Rome.

How wretched they were. At that time the Roman Empire encompassed practically the entire world. This is like trying to smash a boulder by throwing an egg at it. It was the egg that was smashed, and the martyrs fell one after another. However, the early church apostles did not cease advancing even as they stepped over the bodies of their fallen comrades.

I remember a military song from the days of the Korean War. "Forward, forward! Over the dead bodies of our fallen comrades." The apostles of the early church were indeed a heavenly army that did not fear death and that had no match on earth. And then finally the cross of Jesus conquered Rome 280 years after his crucifixion. In 313 AD, Emperor Constantine kneeled down before the Christian church. Christianity had conquered the Roman Empire. Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

The only means of transport in those days was the horse and cart. It was a time when cell phones and broadcasting, never mind the Internet, were unimaginable. One year today is like 100 years from that age. Under these circumstances, the apostles of the early Christian church conquered the Roman Empire, which is to say practically the entire world, in less than 300 years.

The True Parents, in the era of the Second Advent, by themselves, while they are still living, have conquered the world within 50 years of establishing the church. The U.S. Congress, the White House, the Kremlin of the old Soviet Union, the UN General Assembly, all opened their doors to the True Parents.

Father prayed for America with President Nixon in the White House. Who is the one who has traveled all 50 states of the U.S. and 120 nations around the globe many times over, leaving no corner of the world untouched? Kim Il Sung sent a private airplane to transport the True Parents. The words spoken by True Parents have echoed in every corner of the five oceans and six continents.

However, my brothers and sisters! Let us think for a moment with our hands placed upon our hearts. Can we honestly say that during the past half century we apostles of the Completed Testament Age truly did work that would rival the apostles of the early church?

Is not the fantastic achievement of the past half-century a monument secured by the labor of True Father and True Mother alone? Even now, are not the True Parents and three generations of the True Family circling the globe? Were we warriors fighting inside the ring? Or were we spectators outside of the ring? I cannot lift up my head. I am too ashamed to call myself an apostle of the Completed Testament Age.

During the past half-century, most of mankind has been waiting with parched throats for the words of life. I have not completely fulfilled my mission of being a national messiah and my clan messiah. Have we been running with the spirit of the martyrs of the early church of 2,000 years ago? Is the flame of conversion of the Unification Church burning ever brightly? I am full of shame. I must repent again.

Our rivals are not the existing Christian churches but the apostles of the early church. Are we not the apostles of the early church of the Second Advent? Do we not have the mission to show the holy face of the True Parents to the 6 billion people on earth while the True Parents are still in this world? Do we not have the responsibility to have the 6 billion people drink holy wine while the True Parents are still in this world?

I have not returned from prison after two years and four months having accomplished all my repentance, but rather I have returned after being awakened from my slumber. I have emerged from the prison gates with the resolution that I must repent each and every day from this day forward till the day I die and that I must keep running every day with the "heart of a martyr." I cannot allow myself to die lying down in a comfortable bed.

From now on I must live in order that I can die well. A warrior should fall on the battlefield. I would like to be one warrior who falls to the ground while declaring the coming of the messiah.

My brothers and sisters who I love dearly! The True Parents have so warmly accepted this returning prodigal son that "my cup runneth over." I pray from the depths of my soul for the eternal long life and health and happiness of the Great King of Cosmic Peace, the Emperor of Cheon Il Guk, the Cosmic being, our True Parents.

Thank you.