It has been more than one and a half years since I came to Europe to take responsibility for the Second Generation and European HARP.

Compared to Korea and Japan our main difficulty in Europe is connected to the relatively young age of our Blessed Children. There are not so many Blessed Children and they are living very far away from each other in many different nations.

The responsibility to educate the Second Generation is very great and important and I feel not really capable enough to do it. However, I would like to take this opportunity to share my heart and experiences about educating the Second Generation in Europe.

At the moment there are over 2,700 Blessed Children in Europe. Korea has already more than 10,000 Blessed Children and Japan has even more: 13,000! Even though the European Second Generation brothers and sisters are still quite young, there are already twelve Second Generation Blessed Couples.

A deep understanding of the need to educate the Second Generation is very much needed, especially when we think about our HARP members. The majority of the Western HARP members are Blessed Children. Their years spent in the middle and high school are most crucial to the development of their characters and towards their life of faith. Father always speaks about children of this age and has said that they should form one body together with True parents in order to be protected. Father also said that all members of the Second Generation should go through a seven-year formula course. I feel that we cannot overemphasize the importance of education of the Second Generation.

Education for the Second Generation should be an education of heart centered on True Parents’ heart and tradition. We need to guide all Blessed Children, who were born through the Blessing given by True Parents. All Blessed Children should be able to respect the sacrifices made by the First Generation and be able to grow up properly centering on Heavenly Father’s heart and tradition. As we know, the Second Generation of Israelites who arrived in Canaan after the 40-year wilderness course couldn’t establish their nation centering on heavenly tradition. Instead they started to worship idols and fell into materialism. Seeing the situation of our Second Generation from this point of view, they are in a very similar and therefore dangerous position. We are living in such an important time in which we can establish the Heavenly Kingdom together with our True Parents as Heavenly soldiers or fail in misery.

True Father has already prepared such a huge foundation through incredible sacrifice and hardship. All of these accomplishments are for the Second Generation to inherit. There are currently around 12,000 Second Generation Blessed Couples. In the future this number will increase dramatically, particularly in Europe. When we think about this, it is important that we prepare well with a good and precise education plan.

Some Blessed Children have come to me and said, "I know that we have to do the Pledge service every Sunday and beginning of each month, but my parents don’t do it; why should I do it?" Thinking about this, I always remember Father’s words: "Parents should set a good example in front of their children, they should have a good life of faith, a good prayer life and raise their families according to Father’s words." The Pledge service is a precious opportunity given by Heavenly Father and True Parents to educate our children centered on God’s Will.

On one occasion Father said, "If we don’t give proper guidance to our Second Generation concerning family and church matters before they are seventeen years old, they will be absorbed into the secular society." Therefore parents should become teachers of teachers. The standard of the life of faith of the parents has a lot of influence on their children.

Members and leaders need to understand the importance of investing in the education of the Second Generation. We sometimes neglect the importance of education because of the nature of education itself, which often brings few visible results in the short term. Education of the Second Generation is often neglected because of lack of financial support or difficulties in finding a responsible person for the education. For a ship to make a safe voyage, you need a compass and a marine map. In the same way the most important things we need are to find capable teachers and have a precise plan.

Sometimes I wonder when members say "We are taking good care of our Second Generation; we organize workshops two or three times a year and this is enough." We cannot be serious if we think such a way. Our church education can only be good when we have a day-to-day education program such as Sunday school and so on which takes place from childhood to adulthood.

The 40 Million Couples Blessing (Nov. 1997) was a great success, even though we thought it was impossible to do. Now Father gave a new direction for all members: we should bless 360 million couples by Jan. 1, 2001. When we think about that direction, we have to realize that we are living in a very important time. Also, very soon parents of the Second Generation will receive the authority to conduct the Blessing for their own children themselves.

We know that whatever Father says will come true. After we have accomplished the 3.6 Billion Couples Blessing, a great burden will be lifted from our shoulders. However, we still need to set up an education for after the Blessing. When we look at the ultimate goal of the FFWPU which is to establish True Ideal Families centering on True Love, we have to make a lot of investment especially for the Second Generation, who are our hope for the future of our movement. The main reason why Second Generation brothers have problems is because of their lack of heartistic relationship with True Parents.

The ultimate goal of the Blessing is to eradicate the satanic blood lineage and restore the lineage through engrafting onto True Parents. It is clear that we have to fulfill the next Blessing. But if we continue to have only Blessings and at the same time very serious problems are growing among the Second Generation and we are not able to show a good family standard to the world, the Blessing will have almost no meaning.

This is the time to practice serious concern and investment for the Second Generation here in Europe not only by words but by action.

Yun Jin Kim is the leader of the European Second Generation. Reprinted from The European.

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