The Words of the Robbins Family
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The Words of the Robbins Family |
On
the Rock of Tears. John Robbins is standing in the back row, left.
We all have a relationship with True Father on some personal level. We each need that, not only to survive, but to receive life elements from him.
Several years ago, I had the great fortune to live with and directly serve the True Parents and their family on the East Garden staff. I saw Father on a regular basis, many times in quite intimate settings, and also when he would speak at Belvedere or the World Mission Center.
I saw True Father as a husband, as a parent with many children, and as an accomplished leader of our worldwide movement. But there was a big gap in my understanding of the heart of the man Sun Myung Moon. For years I've prayed to narrow that gap, to understand Father's life in relation to mine. But how was Ito accomplish this?
In
the museum one can see photographs of the cardboard but and the
foundation rock Father used to build it.
A unique opportunity came recently when I visited Korea with the Ninth World Media Conference. Unexpectedly, my prayers were answered one day when several of the staff members visited Pusan together.
It's a short, one-hour flight from Seoul to Pusan. The flight provided me some time to think of my expectations and to reflect upon my life with True Parents. The old familiar questions arose: Who am I? What have I accomplished? I had no idea what a profound impact upon my relationship with True Father this trip to Pusan was to have.
We arrived at the Pusan airport and took a cab up the winding hillsides to the museum where True Father's treasures from his early days in Pusan are kept. We started our tour with a prayer. We saw the actual table and oil lamp used by True Father to write the Principle. Our guide, a Korean CARP member, explained the historical significance of the area surrounding the museum by pointing to the pictures hanging on the walls.
A
prayer in the chapel built on the spot where the cardboard but stood.
Up the hill a short distance from the museum is a chapel on the spot where Father built his cardboard hut. The hut no longer exists, but a rock which formed one side of the hut stands in the museum encased in glass. Across a small alley there is a water well dug by True Father's own hands that is still in use today.
As our small group started up the steep slope behind the museum toward the Rock of Tears, our spirits began to soar. When we began praying together, I thought that this might be the time for some real spiritual phenomena. But nothing dramatic happened. The heavens did not open, nor did I experience any burning bush.
Instead, as we looked out over the city of Pusan and its harbor, with the vast ocean beyond, the dramatic circumstances of Father's situation after the Korean War began to fall into place for me. Our guide explained that every night, Father came up to this rock to pray that the Principle could be spread all over the world.
What started as a small thought in my mind -- about Father as a young man -- began to overwhelm me. There he was, only 31 years of age, younger than I am now. His country had been torn apart by war, and every city but the one he was in had been overrun by hostile forces. He himself had been in prison for two and a half years and had barely escaped to the South with a friend on his back.
The
lamp and table used by Father to write the Principle.
Father's living situation on the hillside was no better than that in a refugee camp. He had no central figure to direct him, no one to support him or even encourage him to go on. He could have easily given up, and the world would have never known. Yet True Father kept the vision and proclaimed that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Another shocking realization about True Father's greatness that came to me from heaven was that during that very period, his first wife was badgering him to love only her. In other words, even his own family was trying to persuade him to abandon his calling, trying to drag him down. Surely he was all alone in keeping such faith. I'm positive everybody thought he was crazy.
Yet, not only did True Father write the Principle during that period in Pusan, but he also began the providence for world salvation. As I stood on that simple hillside and pondered these things, I was humbled and felt closer to True Father than ever before. I now felt I knew him as a young man, and I could put his life into perspective with my own.
As I walked back down the hillside, the thought resounded in my mind that "the monument to our True Father's faith and love is yourself." From that war-torn time, Father brought his message to you and to me. That is the true miracle of Father's life.