Testimony of joining the Unification Church: My life had just changed forever

Anne-Marie Mylar
August 2011

At 7 years old, my priest was convinced that I would become a nun. At fifteen I wanted to lock all the head of states in a single room and only free them after they had created a plan for peace upon mankind.

At 20 years old, already a practicing registered nurse in France, I met with my priest and ask him questions he could not answer. Confused about my future I prayed to God on a regular basis, especially on my way to and from work, while driving I sang the same song over and over and I would cry as I sung.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi: miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi: miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccáta mundi: dona nobis pacem.

One evening in September of 1972, feeling lonely I drove for a couple of hours after work to see Monique, a friend of mine, also a nurse. When I arrived at midnight, she had a guest, Genie, an American girl. Genie was speaking about God in ways that I had never heard of before. Cautious, I nevertheless purchased the book she was promoting and promised her to contact Jacques, a friend of hers in Paris, if I had any questions.

About a month later, after having read a couple of chapters of Divine Principle, I went to Paris. It is a very big city; I had never been there before. It was an adventure, a little scary. I went by train on the first weekend of November. I arrived on a Saturday and managed to arrive safely at the address indicated to me. Even though I had read beyond the second chapter, The Fall of Man, Jacques wanted to go over it again for some reason. So, we did.

I had a boy friend; I was going to stay with him that night. Jacques knew that. So we read about the sexual fall of Adam and Eve. Instead of loving family, the first ancestors gave the beginning of mistrust, fornication and selfishness. So it was not that God kicked them out just because of some fruit, it was the first ancestors who went against God. Throughout the history we are see the fruits of what they saw at the very beginning.

That day I realized that my life was forever changed. The questions that could not be answered by my priest, started to get answered within the first couple of chapters. I was overwhelmed and calm at the same time. I had wanted to live a life that would create a peaceful world and I had found the person and the teaching who could make it happened.

This was November 4th, 1972. That night, I found myself alone in the corner of a closed train station at midnight trusting that God would take care of me if I would make the effort to understand and live my life as he wanted. I had traveled to Paris that day for the first time in my life to meet a group of people who called themselves "The Family" (Unification Church).

To this day, I have never read a more powerful revelation than the "Divine Principle". I remember what points impressed me the most. No other teaching explained the root of evil and the principles of God's creation that clear, so your life can be transformed.

I have never met someone more determined than the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Throughout his life, there was no obstacle that could stop him in investing all his energy for achieving God's will and bringing world peace.

In Christianity God has been portrayed as a fearful God, an authoritarian God, a God of judgment. But Rev. Moon says, that first and foremost God is a parent. As a parent, would you want your children to be afraid of you? No parent would want his children to be condemned for eternity to suffering if they break our rules?

"God, the Creator of all things under the sun, is the true parent of all humanity. He is not a parent existing only for a certain religion, a certain race, or the residents of a certain region. You may call Him by any name, be it Jehovah, Allah, or any other. He certainly exists, lives as the true parent of all people... He carries out His providence through history in accordance with the principles and laws of nature that He set up at the beginning of time."
Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon

I look at our world and wish that an effort was made individually and collectively to study his teaching. What do we have to lose? We live in a world of conflict that we do not seem to be able to resolve. Those of us who are kind and compassionate feel powerless to relieve the pain of millions, so why not listen to a teaching that may give us the tools we need to build an everlasting peaceful world.

I am a member of Unification Church and a proud follower of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, ever since. I have reached the 60 year's old mark -- I have been a Unificationist for 39 years, blessed with my husband for 29 years, and a mother for 21 years.

I am a cancer survivor and after my recovery I dedicated my life entirely to fulfill the dream of world Unification -- a world where people of all faith, race and nationality, will live together as "One Family Under God"; a world of strong and loving families where children are raised and learn to live in true love. In such a world all social problems (crime, misuse, distrust, corruption, hunger and wars) will naturally disappear.