This poem by Continental Director Chang-Shik Yang was read at the Seung-hwa Ceremony for Alevtina Ogai. She was a member from Uzbekistan who came to American to work in Wyoming as a volunteer for the victory of True Parents’ speaking tour. Alevtina was born on December 29, 1951 to Korean parents who had been forcibly exiled from their homeland to Central Asia in 1937 as a part of Stalin’s ethnic purge.

Educated as a mechanical engineer and fluent in several languages, she was a respected community leader when she joined the Church in 1995. She never married, preferring to wait for a deeper understanding of life and a man of purity. Alevtina was matched to an American member and arrived in the United States on March 15th—seven days before her passing into the spiritual world. She immediately went to Wyoming and began working for the True Parents’ 50-state speaking tour. Due to a fatal heart attack Alevtina passed away in the Wyoming church at 7 p.m. on March 21st. With permission from her family, her Seung-hwa Ceremony was held March 27th at 3:30 p.m. Dr. Chang Shik Yang, who was attending True Parents as they arrived for their speech in Wyoming, officiated at the ascension service.

Alevtina worked day and night along with the support staff from San Francisco and that region for the victory of the Wyoming program. When True Parents received the report of her passing, they reacted with a sincerity of love and personal concern that was astonishing. At first True Parents considered having Alevtina buried at a Won Jon in Korea. Ultimately though, they gave permission for the Seung-hwa Ceremony to be held in Wyoming as an official American HSA-UWC Ceremony.

At the same time, Rev. C. J. Brown of the New Kingdom Church of God in Christ who along with members of his church learned of the passing of this missionary sister decided to make Alevtina a saint of their church. Rev. Brown attended the Seung-hwa Ceremony and also gave a monetary offering from his congregation. Rev. William Ephraim of the Progressive Church of God in Christ in Colorado Springs also attended the ceremony and offered his dedication. He mentioned that Jesus was working from in the spirit world, cooperating with True Parents, who are laboring to rebuild Christianity.

We pray for Alevtina who has gone as an offering for the victory of the True Parents’ speaking tour, hoping that she will be a precious example for members in the United States and throughout the world.  

Oh! Alevtina Ogai

Beloved daughter, daughter of Korea

Early one fearful morning in 1937,

Amid a mid-winter snowstorm, throngs of Koreans in the tens of thousands

Were kicked out of their homes by Stalin’s jackbooted soldiers

And thrown out on to a nameless Central Asian plane.

Already at that moment,

Alevtina,

You were a seed of your Korean father,

Encompassed in the circumstances of your destiny,

Holding the pain of history in your bosom;

And on December 29, 1951 in a wintry Uzbekistan,

You let loose your cry toward a world steeped in misfortune.

After wandering in the Siberian wilderness searching for the time of liberation,

By fate, you met Heavenly Parents in 1995.

Oh beloved daughter, daughter of Korea, Alevtina,

You immediately committed yourself full-time at the end of the 21-day workshop,

Embracing the Father and Mother you had found again – embracing the True Parents – and embarking of your own will another suffering path,

What has happened to you now?

You came thousands of miles to join True Parents’ U.S. speaking tour, choosing Wyoming, the weakest state.

Then one day, March 21, 2001, you were smiling and running to visit Christian ministers,

When at seven o’clock that evening darkness suddenly surrounded you.

In one final hour, you fought alone with no one around.

The pain in your heart that you alone experienced,

Clutching your breast and as you fell to the ground in pain,

Crying out to Heaven and fetal-like on the Earth.

How afraid you must have felt. Did you tremble in fear? Were you scared?

Oh, the heart that you gripped as you struggled and rolled in pain,

That was the heart of a people broken in two.

It was the heart of the Father who carried a wounded heart for six thousand years.

Oh, shikku, who went directly on the path to heaven,

Clutching that heart,

And not leaving behind so much as a word.

When I heard the news in Kentucky

And reported to Parents with a trembling heart,

Father gazed quietly at the distant mountains, saying,

"Yes, these things will happen."

I can never forget the look in his eyes

As he gazed out the window, trying not to show his pain.

Oh, daughter!

Oh, beloved daughter of Heaven!

Yes,

It is a path that you had to take sooner or later.

Yes,

It is a path that we must all take at some time.

Only life doesn’t let us know when or where we will set out on that path.

Alevtina!

I’m reminded of words that Father spoke at East Garden

When the tour was about to begin.

"The fifty-state speaking tour is a matter of life and death," he said,

"After this tour, I will either go to my homeland or to the spirit world."

If someone had to go, it should not have been you.

There was one person who, as he set out on this tour,

Embraced a smiling child not even a year old,

Took a look at his older children as they slept, and

Looked at the children’s pictures displayed around the home.

His message to his wife

Was a silence

Far more eloquent than any words by a soldier going into battle.

A general setting out on an uncertain path, a battlefield from which he did not expect to return.

With the determination

Of Admiral Yi Soon-shin, who in his heart cut off the heads of his wife and children

So he would have no reason to return,

And penned the words, "To seek life is certain death; to seek death is certain life"

As he defended his country.

When the lights suddenly went out

During the speech in Minneapolis,

And an opaque darkness surrounded Heaven,

I reacted in an instant

To throw my body into the darkness

So as to protect Father.

Thankfully, it was just a prank by drug-clouded kids seen earlier loitering around the church.

The senses I once used in the student movement to fight tear gas and see through the opponents’ strategy

Immediately had me looking in all directions for the enemy’s next attack.

What would they do next?

Would there be rocks, bullets, or bombs?

Father, standing firm like a guardian pole, never lost composure.

A dozen gowned clerics and veterans of the Korean War protected him

As he continued to read his text by candlelight.

Those twenty minutes

Seemed longer than twenty years, or even ten times that again.

Shortly after that situation ended well,

And calm returned to the tour,

What is this we have now,

Alevtina?

I never dreamed this would happen to you,

Daughter of Korea,

Born in one foreign land and bringing yourself to another,

How could it be that you have gone?

You have gone to the place where your natural parents wait.

Your father and mother who could not stand to leave you alone,

They were tossed out into a frigid Siberian snowstorm

But survived despite the dire circumstances.

Yes,

I am proud of you.

Daughter! Sister! Shikku! Beloved!

Create a tornado, and go on the path of the Parents,

Not leaving so much as a speck of dust behind.

We raise a flag of commemoration to honor your noble filial nature.

America will lower the Stars and Stripes,

And I, in the name of the Continental Director of America, call on

Washington, Jefferson, and the fathers of this country;

I ask Jesus to show us the path.

Our older brothers!

With tears, I beseech older brothers Heung Jin Nim and Young Jin Nim

To take your eternal spirit in their hands.

I beseech Choong-mo Nim and Dae-mo Nim

To welcome you, beloved daughter,

Daughter who cleans every speck of dust from Father’s path, daughter of Korea,

As one who, now buried in American soil, becomes an eternal daughter of America.

Alevtina!

Daughter who leaves this world after a life lived in nun-like purity,

I name you Seong-nyo (Holy Woman).

May all America mourn you, praise you, and with an official HSA-UWC Ceremony make your way as smooth as silk.

On your grave,

We will record these words,

"Here lies Alevtina, daughter of Korea, beloved daughter who was born for the Will, lived for the Will, and passed embracing the Will."

We also record that you are the first sister from Family Federation in America to pass into the spiritual world following the Coronation Ceremony of God’s Kingship.

If someone should ask

On that strange path where you now find yourself,

Tell them, "I am the True Parents’ daughter, and I come as the blossom of love from the providential 50-State Speaking Tour."

If darkness should block your way,

Shout out for your way to be cleared, and wave the Tongil flag.

Show them the Father’s flag that has been placed in your hand. Speak of Mother’s love.

When we meet again,

We will always seat you

At the foremost position among American shikku,

And honor you as a hero, patriot, martyr, filial child, and holy woman

Of the 2001 True Parents 50-State Speaking Tour.

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