The Words of Kook Jin Moon
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The Words of Kook Jin Moon |
Kook Jin Nim spoke via internet while he was in Japan.
Good afternoon, everybody. I want to wish you all a Happy New Year. We had a very successful year 2009. Actually it was a very difficult year. There were a lot of difficulties in the Unification Church. We did a lot of difficult things to get over these. In Japan the government was really scrutinizing our church. They came and visited the church many times. They brought the legal status of the church in Japan into question, Is this really a church? We had to solve this problem. I worried a lot and I asked Father to help me solving these problems.
Also, Father asked me to solve the problem of the kidnapping of members in Japan, and in 2009 we made a lot of progress on this. So, the Japanese church is much more stable now with Father's help. I want to really thank True Parents for helping with this.
In 2009, we re-organized the church and the foundation in Korea. This was difficult for the members and for the ministers. It was difficult but now that we've done that, and we look at the church we can see that it is better than it used to be. There are new people coming, more people giving their tithes. We have a stronger financial base now. So, now we have a much healthier church than we had a year ago. And even with those difficulties, during this difficult time, we managed to raise the money for Cheon Bok Gung at the same time, and we are now getting ready to move into Cheon Bok Gung. This is an amazing achievement!
If we look at the church one year ago, and now we look at the church preparing to move into Cheon Bok Gung, we can see a big change in one year. I really want to thank all the members all around the world who worked so hard to make this move into the Cheon Bok Gung a reality. Of course our faithful members in Japan have been a big part of this victory. They have made big donations for Cheon Bok Gung. And our Korean members, too, have really sacrificed themselves to make donations for Cheon Bok Gung.
As I worked with the members on the Cheon Bok Gung committee, I came to know more and more about our members' heart and their devotion. I met a lot of you during the process of discussing how to build and how to use the Cheon Bok Gung. While I talked to you I could recognize the depth of sacrifice and devotion, how our members have sacrificed to make donations for Cheon Bok Gung even though their lives are very difficult. Members are living a life of devotion for the sake of Father's direction and for the sake of the victory of the Unification Church. I was very moved and grateful when I saw this.
We have to be grateful to all the members around Korea, from Japan and from all around the world who have given donations for Cheon Bok Gung. Now, as we get ready to enter Cheon Bok Gung, we need to remember all these brothers and sisters who have made sacrifice and made devotion to make this possible. We have to feel this from the bottom of our heart. They have made great sacrifices. We are the ones here receiving the benefit.
Now it is the time for the members of the Headquarters Church to take a lot of responsibility. Cheon Bok Gung is not a church just for the headquarters members. This is the headquarters of the Unification Church for the whole world, so when we work for the victory of this headquarters church, it is not only our victory that we are working for, but the victory of the worldwide Unification Church. If we cannot bring victory to match our goals and expectations, if we cannot match the goals and expectations of all the members around the world, that will be a failure, so we have to take our responsibility very seriously.
Why have all these members given such big donations? What is their reason? Our members all around the world believe that God and True Parents have called them to work for a larger dream, a larger purpose, a larger goal. That dream is not just so that the members at headquarters church, just the members in Korea, could have a nicer place to worship or do their work. The dream is bigger than that. These offerings are to support the realization of Cheon Il Guk, the establishment of Cheon Il Guk, the beginning of the substantialization of Cheon Il Guk.
From now on, we need to work quickly. We need to invest all our energy reaching the goal of 21,000 members at headquarters. In order to do that, there is a lot of work for us to do. While we prepare to move into Cheon Bok Gung, we need to remember the sacrifices of our brothers and sisters here in Korea and all around the world, and we need to work in such a way, that we can live up to the pain, the expectations and the hope that our brothers and sisters have invested. That's the heart that we must take with us when we move to our new headquarters.
We have a wonderful new place to worship, a wonderful new headquarters. We need to have a heart of gratitude and we need to focus on God's will, and True Parents' will in accomplishing what God and True Parents have asked us to do. We have to reach out to all the people in Korea, teach them about True Parents, teach them what True Parents have taught to us about true love. We need to teach them about true love as we have learned it from True Parents. And that way we can give all our efforts to return great joy to God by making Korea the nation that can attend True Parents and the nation that can embody Cheon Il Guk.
Let's make our effort to bring this into reality. Thank you.