I don't know about you, but I was profoundly affected by these visits to the Southwest. When I heard that Mrs. moon and her family has expressed a desire to visit 100 universities throughout America, I was somewhat stunned. We had been at a meeeting with Father and Mother. Father had spoken for hours. He was giving us the big picture all day long. He had finished speaking and we were packing our things, then his voice came back on the microphone, almost as if an afterthought. "By the way, Mother wants to give her speech on 100 college campuses." There was a pause and we all went silent. Then, the other boot came down, "And we must be completed by mid-April. Mother and the True Children will draw straws and arrange their schedules."

I thought to myself, "How can we go back and gear up the members and tribal messiah couples who are already working so hard?" I'm sure that Father and Mother know exactly our situation as well as they know the situation of the True Family. Their schedules and areas of concern are much greater than ours. After all, their direct central figure is Father and Mother. The fire doesn't breathe any closer than that, excepting God maybe. Can we begin to understand what kind of daily pressure that extends into their lives?

The first thing that I did when I got back home was to type up 15 pages of notes, from our meeting with Father and Mother. I knew we had to spread as much positive inspiration as possible. I was surprised to see that not many people had much difficulty with the direction. In fact, some were excited to get back on the campus.

So we had a community meeting with Rev. You. Until now he was still very much under the shadow of our former Korean elder. It was all new for him. His first question was, "Who can host the first event?" The silence was immense as we all looked at each other. I was very curious as to who would respond. My husband ventured that Dallas should be first, but Rev. You very quickly said that Dallas should be last. He wasn't trying to dodge being first, but something in his heart directed him to say that Dallas should be last..

Then, someone from the Louisiana community put up his hand and said, "Well, if no one else will do it, we will." Five pairs of grateful eyes swiveled in his direction. I thought to myself, "How fitting that we begin in New Orleans." It was not until Rev. You began to talk about the cities in relationship to one another as part of a growth process that I began to fully see why.

Of all the events that we had when both Father and Mother spoke in our region, New Orleans was by far and away the worst. This is not to say anything against the leader there, it's just the reality of that city's environment. If there is any city in America which exemplifies Satan's dominion, it is New Orleans. The whole economy is based upon the fall.

What is Mardi Gras? Every year people come specifically to gratify every urge their physical body demands. They eat, they drink, they expose themselves or encourage others to do so. On and on it goes The music, the food, the night clubs all cater to taking care of selfish, physical, temporary desires. What more could Satan want? Life is degraded completely in this city, year after year, all under the banner of a "celebration!" Celebration of what? Of who?

That's absolutely a celebration of Satan's dominion. Like the pre- formation stage after the fall of Adam and Eve, Satan reigns supreme. In that stage, Satan knows how to push every button and control the environment. When Mother came to New Orleans, we couldn't do anything right, even though we sincerely tried. We couldn't get the right hotel and had to take a hotel with a ballroom much larger than what was appropriate. To make it worse, the original hotel was right on the bus line which most of our minister contacts use. The other hotel was way off the bus line. Most people don't drive in New Orleans because parking space is so difficult to find. The tourists occupy most of the parking areas..

We couldn't get the cooperation of the staff. They almost called the police at one point. We were all on the brink of a nervous breakdown by the time Mother arrived. You could cut the tension in the air. Of course, Mother notices all these things. The audience was so spaced out by the atmosphere that she had a difficult time reaching them. You can imagine how it was afterwards when Mother met with us afterwards. She chastised us.

It wasn't that we didn't work hard to make a successful event. We spent a lot of money on that campaign and we went all out visiting and calling people. However, the atmosphere of that city is so fallen that to make a breakthrough, any kind of breakthrough is a major deal. Victory does not come easily there. It doesn't even come with great difficulty. That's no excuse. We still should have found a way to do it, but if you don't understand New Orleans, you don't know what's going to hit you in the face when you enter that realm.

Having spent so many years there, giving birth to babies and fundraising on Bourbon St., I had forgotten what the city is really like. Jun Sook Nim felt it the minute she stepped off the plane. I could see the tension in her face and I froze inside. "Uh, oh," I said, this is going to be a long, hard night. Well, it wasn't as well attended as we had hoped.

We were all very shocked. We had poured ourselves out in this campaign. What happened? We should have expected a tough time. When Satan wins one time he has power to do it the second time. That is why human history has taken so long to get to this point. When central figures carry out their role, they not only have to succeed in their time, they also have to make up for mistakes of the past.

When Jun Sook Nim met with us afterwards she chastised us, Her first question to us was "How many of you have ever missed 5:00 pledge?" That question will always get a healthy show of hands, unfortunately. From that point on, she gave it to us about our standard.

Whenever anyone says anything about Father's and Mother's standard, we all just have to shut up. It's a good time to just check everything out and clean up everything. Not everything she said that night fit the members' situation exactly, but what happened was simply that she reciprocated on the level that God could touch our offering, which meant chastisement. At least through that we could divide ourselves.

I spent the whole time driving back to Dallas struggling with the desire to go on or just quit. We all felt pretty low. Then, Rev. You went straight to Austin and began to work actively in the central position. He was on fire, giving more confident directions and going directly onto the campus. We all took heart and started working again.

Austin was a much better environment. Somehow, we could go more freely on the campus and talk to students. We focused on ticket confirmation and second or third calling. We realized that if we got a signed ticket and called twice, we could expect about a 10% response. To fill up the room meant more than 1,200 confirmed and called tickets. We made the flyers and newspaper advertisements a backdrop to saturate the area. To our surprise, we filled up the room. We had 118 students at the event and this was a 100% improvement over our first event. Many of the same people were all involved, but what a difference of result! We began to realize that a very important lesson was being revealed to us.

Jin Hun Nim was the speaker at Austin. Afterwards, he spoke about how we have to think about the future. If we work hard now, we can do anything we want in the realm of God's heart in the future. It was almost as if Moses were there saying, "We got away from Satan's direct realm in Egypt, but think about what lies ahead. Go forward, go forward."

Houston then became the growth stage city. The growth stage is always difficult. It is the point of crossing over. Had Adam and Eve originally crossed over in their youth, they would have rejected Satan's temptation and gone on through the completed stage to dwell with God. However, they fell at this point. This is where God and Satan both wonder about human beings.

Can you imagine how we would have felt if everything had fallen apart in Houston? We had less than a week between the Houston and Dallas events. Our spirits would have been down in the dumps. We would have seen that empty commuter campus in Arlington and lost heart altogether. It was tough enough as it was, but because Houston was also a success, we could cross over into the Dallas event with enough confidence to pull it off.

In Houston we had even more students, 148, almost a 50% improvement over Austin. Afterwards, Kook Jin Nim spoke. Wasn't it fitting that he came to the Houston event? As you know, the 2nd generation of Joshua and Caleb crossed over with the remnants of the 1st generation (Father said that at least the mothers of 2nd generation children went into Canaan). How much more 2nd generation than the True Children can you get? He spoke about working harder and running faster. It was as if we were almost there, but he was warning us, "If you don't give it your all now, people will run right by you in the final moment and leave you in the dust."

Finally, we came to the Dallas event. We have never held an important event in Dallas. There has never been a science conference, never True Parents coming here for any reason. It is like the completed stage-- empty. We had less than a week to do it. We just got out there with our tickets and flyers and before we knew it, we were getting students excited about coming. Our campus was also new to us. Until now, we had been working on traditional universities where 80% of the students lived on campus. In Dallas, all the campuses are commuter style where 80% of the students come to the campus only to attend their courses. They leave soon after their courses, returning to home or going to a job. To find a student after 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon is a real effort.

One graduate student was able to secure a 250 seat auditorium, the only room we could get. It was hard to imagine how we could ever fill it up. However, we just decided that we were going to make this a campaign for the long haul and not get caught up in numbers. Numbers are important, but embracing the students, making friendships and relationships is even more important.

At the last moment, Jin Sung Nim came to Dallas instead of Kook Jin Nim. I believe it was for a specific purpose. God was looking at our effort. If we made even more effort than in all previous cities, we could receive a special gift from Heavenly Father. 115 students came and along with many other guests, made the auditorium full. There was just a happy relaxed atmosphere, so much so that it almost overwhelmed me.

After the speech, Jin Sung Nim spent time with the students, answering their questions and listening to their comments. Then, he spoke to us. Didn't we all feel that God was embracing us in that moment? It wasn't that he loved us more and the other speakers loved us less. It was just that we were able to fulfill the circumstances set before us. If you look on my diagram, you will see that the Dallas event is just over the line into the Completed realm. We just had a touch of being there.

However, we all know that in our own individual circumstances, we have a long ways to go before we can proudly say that we live at that address called "God's Realm of Heart." If we are still dealing with issues from our past, then we are still like the slaves in Egypt. No wonder we can work so hard and never get anywhere. God can't touch where our hearts are at if half the time we are still struggling with problems that we had a long time ago.

Moses showed Pharaoh the miracles and curses so that Pharaoh could understand that God's power was with Moses. We also have to show Satan something or he just won't leave us alone. Slaves are very nice to have. You can suck everything out of them and they don't force you to back away. That's why Father gave us traditions like the 5:00 pledge, Sunday Service attendance and tithing. Father has challenged us to tithe 30% and who of us can show that? Only very rich people can tithe like that, so Father has some hope for us actually! We have to have that kind of hope as well.

If we don't use these traditions, we can never escape from Satan. He will always bother us. If you don't like to think of doing all these things as tradition, then think of it as your therapy. If you want to solve your problems, do what the therapist suggests. Don't Father and Mother appear at peace with one another? If they have it together and we want to get it together, then we have to take their advice. They have the road map out of the wilderness and we have to follow it. The map is the Principle.

A lot of us want the easy way out. If someone else will take our responsibility for us, we'll go for it. I have some serious news for you. Father and Mother organized this church and it is for our benefit in the long run. We might really dislike it, but just the fact that we are willing to deal with something which we dislike separates us from immaturity. When Father or Mother want to rearrange this Church, I'll be right there helping them, but I'm not sympathetic to people who want to pick this community of people apart, and I don't care what kind of "inspiration" they might have.

If we don't show that we are beyond pre-formation, how can we create our own foundation? I see the tribal messiah couples struggling with everything, especially their financial situation. The ones who are beyond that, who are able to give their time and money to the church, are the ones who by and large live by the traditions, especially vertical connection to their immediate central figure.

Jin Sung Nim confronted me about this last point specifically. He had no way of knowing how deeply his words affected me. It was just a casual conversation to him. He got in the car from the airport to go to the hotel. He asked me, "What Blessing were you in?" I answered, "8,000 at Madison Square Garden." He then spoke about how he had to fill in for the security personnel at that time because most of them were getting Blessed. I then responded by telling him that two team leaders which I had great respect for were on the security staff. He asked me their names and when I told him who they were, he brightened up. "Oh, those are two well respected brothers," he said. "They not only fulfill their mission, they have also developed themselves way beyond that, but they always went through the central figure, not around." If only he had known that I had been asking myself for weeks and months which way to go. After Rev. Lee departed, I felt, "Now is a good time to slip through the crack." I had the opportunity to go back to a seminary in Ohio which is my home state and complete a Masters for Ph.D. program. My lifelong goal is to get a Ph.D. in theology and explain these principles to the Christian world so that their mouths drop--something to do with my father being a minister.

However, I felt uneasy about leaving Rev. You with so many unresolved issues from the past administration.. After our event, I struggled for 3 more days, then I went to him and offered myself, for at least one year, to go throughout the region and lecture to anyone, anytime these principles. He was very grateful. I don't know if that is what will happen, but I made my offering and I am at peace within myself.

Most of you are better members than I am. You attend pledge, come to Sunday Service, tithe and follow the central figure. But, can we cross over? We need the 2nd generation to go over. Then, where are our spiritual children? We can't go to God's realm without them. We can't be comfortable about being good members if we haven't been successful in this area.

Some of you are leaving this region to go to your hometown. How about leaving behind one spiritual child? What a way to seal your time here. God can only enrich your efforts in your new home if you do so.

When we cross over and enter into the completed level of offering, God can much more freely reciprocate his heart towards us. Don't be discouraged by past times and words from the True Family. They can only speak to where we are at. Sometimes it is not personal. It is just the circumstances we are in. Tomorrow, we have pledge all together at 7:00 in the morning. It's Parents' Day. What a time to just clear ourselves and come before our Parents.

We have so much more to offer to them, personally and as a region. Maybe, God wanted this region to have a special experience because we are the number "8." If America is going to get a new start, why not here? What's wrong with that? Will the brothers and sisters in New York mind? Will the members in San Francisco mind? A new start here means a new start everywhere. You know, one flyer said, "Don't Come....If your open mindedness is just lip service." That's rather blunt. God is also honest. Maybe He would like to say, "Don't Come [into heaven]....If your love is just lip service."

Let's show Heavenly Father, let's show each other that our love is anything but that.

Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information