A Father is Moved by Daughter's Home Church Work

Hanna Jaeggin
January 1982

All my life I had been dreaming of doing Home Church. Years ago, while walking the streets of London, I used to look into windows and observe the people inside. I was able to meet them and make friends with them. Those days I never knew that God and the True Parents already had Home Church in mind. So when my mission was changed from M FT to Home Church, I felt so excited. At the same time, I also reflected deeply about whether I was ready to take responsibility for the lives of those people.

My area is in the Bronx, New York. Originally, God made the creation with a good purpose in mind, but through seeing this corruption I began to feel God's desperate heart.

When I first came to my area, I was kind of afraid to knock on the doors. Each door is so precious and each relationship is so important. If the people are negative in the beginning, it takes a long time to change that feeling into acceptance -- not just of me but also of our True Parents. So I made 360 cards, which read as follows:

"Hello, how are you? We hope you are fine. We are the Neighborhood Volunteers of the Unification Church. We'd like to help you, for free. If you are tired, sick, elderly, just call on us. We'll be there. My name is..."

So I put one at each door. This gave me more confidence to knock on the doors. During this last year, I put inspirational cards on all the doors five different times. Some of the people collect those cards, and when I would come to their door I would see my cards hanging on their wall. Without knowing it, they had put the words of the messiah on their walls.

Also, from time to time I would invite some little girl from my neighborhood to accompany me. When people see children, they feel more relaxed and free to open their doors.

And these little girls love to meet other children. Through children, we can gain the parents' heart.

From my whole area I chose 12 disciples to serve, as Father and Rev. Won Pil Kim instructed us to do. I just tried to fit in with whatever they were doing. If they were eating, I would serve them food. Sometimes I would wash the dishes, sweep the floors, help with the laundry, take out trash, give a massage, etc. -- all in the most natural way. With some people I was able to ask questions, and they could open up their hearts more deeply. In this way I could find out their nature, their point of happiness and the missing link in their lives.

My first three disciples live very close to each other. The first is a member of a church choir, a divorced mother with two nice girls, 10 and 12 years old. She loves people and has an open heart and mind towards anyone. From the first moment, our hearts could connect. She invited me often for dinner. I would come and help her cook and clean. Around Christmas time, her two little girls went along with me to sing Christmas carols to the people. Also, we gave out little packages of cookies, home-church made. It is so wonderful when Home Church people can serve others.

She, however, is very contented in her church, and only higher truth will be able to change her mind. Until now, she has not yet come to a workshop, because she is so busy on Sundays, singing in the choir and attending Bible study meetings. Her capacity for love is much superior to mine, and she is able to embrace anyone. When I see Father, I always wish she could be there too. Someday she will.

A young Indian theological student rents a room in the same building. He is a very active person, although really bound to his beliefs in a dogmatic way. One brother gave him a lecture, but he disagreed on many points.

Yet, he is touched by our activities, and in his heart he knows that this is exactly what Christianity is supposed to do. Also, he is moved by our prayers. Through Rev. Kim's internal guidance I learned that we really have to be humble in front of people who have a lot of experiences in their faith and traditions.

My third disciple is a Baptist Sunday school teacher. She is already 60 years old, yet she is taking up theology at school. Recently she told me about her plan to start a Bible study class and asked me to assist her.

Last year she invited me for Christmas. All her family is black, and I was the only white person. She bridged the gap between the races. She knows so clearly that Christianity is not living up to its teachings and needs to be revived.

The most wonderful blessing was Rev. Kim's visit to my Home Church area. He came to the Sunday school teacher's house, with such a humble attitude, asking her questions about her experiences. She could really open up to him. How touched she will be, the day she finds out that one of the messiah's first disciples visited her home.

One 80-year-old lady has nobody in the whole world who cares for her. She spends the entire day just looking out of the window at what is happening in the street below. Her house was so dusty because she cannot bend down. When we were collecting canned goods for the food drive, we sang a song for her, and she said, "Where are you from? Did God send you? Who is teaching you to be good to me?" We replied, "It is Reverend Moon." The lady responded, "I want to meet him and shake his hand."

Another lady whom I serve a lot is from a Jewish background. She was struck with polio when she was ten. One of her feet is almost numb, and that leg is very skinny. So I started giving her foot massages and washing her feet in hot and cold water. It reminds me of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, just like a servant of servant. Through some misunderstanding, she became a bit negative, but because of the foundation of service, she cannot completely cut me off.

Together we made plans to cook for other lonely people in the building, and together we go to serve them. Once, after I had not visited her for a few days, I found her waiting in the hallway for me, even going out to the street and looking for me. Through her I realized how much the people need us, externally and internally.

One apartment building has 20 families on each side. Between them, on the ground, is a small circular garden which for lack of care had become overgrown and filled with refuse. One afternoon, several neighborhood children and I borrowed garden tools from various neighbors and began to clean the garden. When the schoolchildren came out to play, some offered to help us. People peered out their windows or stopped along the street to observe us. "You mean you are planting flowers here!" they would exclaim.

A man invited us in for juice and said, "I don't believe in God, but when I see you young people doing such a wonderful job, such as gardening for people in a strange building for free, I feel you must be inspired by God." I could testify to him about Father and tell him that on my own I would have never done such a thing, but that Reverend Moon was the one who had inspired me, through his teachings.

I heard about a girl who had to sell candles for her school. We went together throughout my whole area, selling candles and informing people about the clothing drive and the banquet. It was a very joyful experience, and the girl was very happy. Some people were surprised to see a Moonie selling candles for the Catholic Church, but they have to get used to the fact that the Moonies are everywhere.

One week, the birthday of two of my contacts fell on our center's fundraising day, so I had no time to bake a cake. It was a good chance for one of my Home Church ladies to serve others, so she made two cakes. One woman who received a cake took a portion for herself, gave me some for the center, and wondered what to do with the rest. "Why not give it to the children playing outside, the ones who helped with the gardening?" she wondered.

So we got paper plates and plastic forks and took some down to the children. They were so happy that someone would share a birthday cake with strangers.

Many people ask me why I left such a beautiful country as Switzerland (where I was raised) to come to the Bronx. My answer is that this is the place which really needs help. Even my physical father could understand that point deeply. He had heard many negative rumors about our church, but in his deepest heart he trusted my judgment more than the newspaper articles, so he came to New York to find out what I was doing.

He asked if he could stay with us for a month; our center director offered him the guest room. He ended up staying twice as long as he originally planned and helped actively wherever he could. That included delivering newspapers, cooking breakfast (he went beyond his limitations, for he did not know how to cook), wrapping flowers, doing the dishes and sweeping the floors. The brothers and sisters in the center became like his children as well.

Although he speaks just a few words of English, he accompanied me when I went to visit my contacts. Some people invited him for dinner or lunch, and we had good times sharing about Switzerland and its traditions. My father told how much I had changed since I had joined the Unification Church: I had become a much better person, he said, more stable internally and more joyful and constant. He said I had acquired a kind of filial piety and respect towards my parents which I had never shown before. The Home Church people were really amazed by such a testimony.

My father is a very traditional man from the countryside. He was impressed by the two-day workshop he attended. After hearing about the three blessings, he told me, "It is difficult to change an old family, but I want to see what you do with your life. You are like an example to me."

Even now, one year after my father's visit, people still ash me about him.

True Father has said,

"On the vertical level, you must be able to love your parents and children; on the horizontal level you must be able to love your brothers and sisters; and in front of you and behind you, you have to adjust yourself to all people, in order to solidify your foundation in the center. This will be the Kingdom of Heaven for you."

I cannot be proud yet of so many people in my area who really understand the internal meaning of Home Church and Father's providence. It takes time, just as everything in creation needs time to grow. We have to go through many struggles; but once we understand that if we leave them, these people have no hope and that by themselves, their struggles have no purpose, we can see the real value of Home Church. Then we never want to leave our people.