The Words of the Takimoto Family
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The Words of the Takimoto Family |
The
Takimoto family. From left to right: Ryoko (sister-in-law, age 27),
Masami (brother, age 29), Misaku (father, age 56), Yuuko (niece, age
2). Kazue (mother, are 54) and Sumiko (are 27).
Miss Hisako Takimoto is a member of the Shinjuku church in Tokyo.
I met our church for the first time when I was on the way from my house to the nursing school I was attending. At that time I thought that true love didn't exist, yet I knew that my own mind was fraught with contradictions. When I heard the Principle I was very impressed, and I felt assured that I had finally found the truth I had been looking for.
My physical family and my friends were surprised at the change they saw in me. I had found hope in my life, which made my beliefs solid all of a sudden, and thus I was becoming more and more animated. My mother, who had an intuitive mind, soon found out that I was going to a Christian church. Because of her faith in the Buddhist sect Sokagakkai, she was so strongly against my having been converted to Christianity that she had to lie in bed out of anxiety.
Consequently I could not help but pray. Church members sympathized with my situation, but I saw that most of the other members who had heard the Principle around the same time I did were already working diligently for the church. I felt left alone. Besides, I soon became busy with my schoolwork, so I could rarely visit the church. Therefore I led a prayerful life in my room, shedding quantities of tears every day.
It was only in response to my family's unanimous recommendation that I had entered nursing school; I myself had always wanted to go to the university. I was living in constant agony at home, so I consulted a church leader. I said, "I'm thinking of quitting school. I want to become more involved with the church and give up trying to restore my family. The church leader answered me by saying, "It's better for you to graduate from school with good grades and pass the national examination for your nursing license. And after that you should continue to try to restore your family."
I was too busy and still too far away from gaining an understanding of my course in dealing with my family to visit the church leader very often. I had to continue leading a suffering life, always thinking, "Why was I chosen? Maybe I was witnessed to by mistake." If I had not already known there was a spirit world I would have wanted to die.
Finally one day I visited the church, crying. "I can't continue anymore. I have reached my limit. My mother's attitude towards faith is totally different from mine," But the church leader kept telling me, "You have to practice filial piety towards your parents. You have to serve them." Sometimes he told me this kindly and sometimes sternly.
By believing his words, I gradually began to show my parents what the teaching of the church was by serving them daily, giving shoulder massages to my mother, and helping her clean the house. Every day I shared with my mother what I learned at church, and one day, on her own account, she came to me and asked, "What did you learn at church today?" A person of deep faith, my mother was impressed by my explanation about Heavenly Father, and she promised to visit the church someday. I'm sure she felt something good about it through her intuition.
In the meantime I graduated from nursing school and started working at a nearby hospital. I introduced some of my friends to the church and even did some witnessing on the street. However, one day my parents, who still did not understand the church very well, had me transferred to a hospital where most of the employees were opposed to the church; there I was heavily persecuted. As a result, I experienced many limitations physically as well as spiritually, and eventually I became very ill and had to be hospitalized.
I found it difficult to keep up my faith. Yet I still wanted to return the kindness of my parents, who had brought me up so faithfully, by teaching them the reality of God's situation. My sincere intentions helped me get the better of my difficult circumstances. My mother continued to lead her life as sincerely and wholeheartedly as she knew how, chanting her Buddhist prayers every morning and evening and living for the sake of others. I knew she always sacrificially served me, but I also knew she had really not comprehended enough about the church, and I ardently desired that she should know the Principle much more thoroughly.
As my heart fervently tried to reach out to heaven, many spiritual phenomena began to happen to my family, such as revelations and dreams, through the guidance of the spirit world. My father and brother were shocked when my grandparents, who were in the spirit world, came down and spoke to my mother. My father and brother were always skeptical of spiritual phenomena, but they witnessed this experience firsthand, so they could not help but admit the reality of it to a certain degree. My mother even had a dream of Father before she knew about him. Through these and other experiences she gradually changed her attitude towards the church.
Later, when I moved away from my home, I made a constant effort either to call or write a letter to my parents once every 10 days, and I sent a present to them every year on their anniversary. As it is recommended by Father to restore through the number 120, I fulfilled three consecutive 40- day prayer and cold-shower conditions for them.
The main turning point in the course of the restoration of my family came when my brother married a Christian woman. My sister-in-law, knowing that my family still opposed me in my faith, came to support and assist me. She later attended Unification Church services and eventually became a more devoted member than I. My niece, now two and a half years old, always offers very lovely prayers and makes everyone in my family feel the presence of God's love.
My mother eventually began attending our Sunday service every week. Moreover, my father and my brother responded to my earnest pleas and visited the church as well. My father eventually watched videotapes of the Principle and became very positive toward the church. He testified at a Parents' Association meeting the other day: "I have come to know the true value of the Unification Church and am now learning many things from my daughter." Eventually everybody in my family attended Principle lectures and became church members. I owe this to the sincere prayers of my church leader and all my other brothers and sisters. I always remember to send the family magazine Shintenchi to my relatives. Now even my aunt and uncle support our VOC movement and church activities.
I never stopped offering tearful prayers to God until my entire family had accepted His words. Now when I can experience love and joy in my home, I feel as if there had never been such things as the suffering and agony I went through in the course of the restoration of my family. My present joy and happiness is sufficiently great to enable me to forget all the pain I experienced.