Just back from Korea. Here is a little video from the iPhone with some highlights, spent some of the flight back messing around with imovie:

Diary notes: video explanation

7.30 Saturday morning 10th July:

True Parents have just arrived by helicopter out of the blue and are talking to a few hundred of us. Father’s checking to see which of his close disciples are here. He ends up staying with us until 2.30pm. He mentions how he hasn’t slept the night before. Finding it hard to keep up with his train of thought. True Father is like a cosmic encyclopedia. And he is jumping from topic to
topic before I can deconstruct the English translation…but he must be the sweetest grandfather in the whole world: completely at ease and full of the brightest energy. It’s not easy for me to sit for so long when I don’t speak Korean. But eventually I realise that Father’s main motive for being here is to just be together with us for as long as possible. That’s when I really get it, and catch this 90 year old man’s heart for his disciples, his children.Several times he asks if we are hungry and that he should get back to Yeusu, and then he decides to stay longer, talk more, sing more, etc. You get the sense of how he has been through so much in his life that nothing phases him. At one point he said about his life (amongst the hundreds of different things he shared about) “….I couldn’t go forward as I planned to, I was a man alone, but God supported me and you supported…”

giving us his time

Here is a link to the message Father gave on the 8th July in front of several thousand up on the mountain top:

http://www.slideshare.net/familyfireplace/july-8th-2010-proclamation-full-speech

Peace TV:

I heard from Peter Kim, who I bumped into in the new Coffee shop in Cheong Pyeong, that True Parents were very happy after hearing from Rev. Song about Europe. Especially True Mother was happy to hear about the younger generation in our community, and I think they noticed how many came as part of the European group for the event on the 8th July. She asked Peace TV to talk to Rev. Song to do an item on us, so I was called in with Geros Kunkel from the European Youth Dept. to their studios a few hours before my flight back to London.

Geros looking like a TV presenter - ready to give the GOOD news

Mr Kim Seog Byung - CEO of Pyong il Communications Ltd

I’m at the departure gate at In Cheon airport, waiting to begin my journey home after 2 nights in Korea. It’s pretty crazy to think that I invested a lot of time and effort just to be in Korea for a couple of days. I did this kind of visit only because True Parents invited us; otherwise I would have stayed at home.

I knew that coming to Cheong Pyeong, I had to be ready for anything and to expect the unexpected. This paid off, as the originally planned visit to the Cheon Bok Gung on Friday had been suddenly cancelled (according to the announcement just before the big event on Thursday morning) and True Father wanted all international visitors to participate on a 2-day Original Divine Principle workshop. It’s a good thing my flight home is tonight, after the workshop finished.

The workshop was intense. There was a lot of shim jung expressed, although not always logically conveyed. I caught myself thinking, “I don’t have to be here – I can do whatever I want, relaxing or resting somewhere else, instead of enduring the difficult environment of this workshop.” Nevertheless, I quickly rebuked such thoughts: “I’m here to attend True Parents. True Parents want me to receive this content. So I will invest to receive this content as sincerely as possible.”

As you can imagine, it wasn’t comfortable. I was sitting on my bottom almost all day, listening to English translation through my mobile phone radio. When my mobile battery died, I had to quickly find a socket to plug in my charger. It was especially hard staying focused (OK, I mean awake) when the climate was hot and humid, and especially yesterday when we had very little rest and had had a long, hard day. I had beef with some of the statements (e.g. “The argument between creation and evolution is finished!”) but nevertheless, I took things with a healthy pinch of salt and tried to digest as much as possible, without getting information indigestion. Rev. Yoo poured his heart out and made me think about who True Parents are and what they have accomplished.

If there’s anything I’m taking away from the past couple of days, it’s to take the word more seriously. Rev. Yoo explained that the ODP isn’t something to be memorised, rather something to become. Of course I should still study the word, as understanding the content will help me to embody the content. Thus I will strive to study the word more – especially the 8 designated scriptures bequeathed to us by True Parents – and pray to embody it more in my life.

Here is Father’s speech at the:

“Convention to Proclaim the Word that Firmly Establishes the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind.”

July 8th 2010 proclamation full speech

View more documents from Family Federation.

And here are some pictures from some of us in Father’s event this morning, a brief personal account, and notes from Hyung Jin Moon’s talk a couple of hours ago:

Classic build up: lights went on at 3.45am (not sure why), had a nice naked wash and shave with a few others in the mens toilets, in the sink. Sat on a coach for 45 minutes, then it moved, went up the hill to the palace/museum. The time was 6am ish, the ‘convention to proclaim the word that firmly establishes the True Parents’ was due to start at 10am. Thankfully at the top of the mountain there was some breeze and the clouds were mercifully in front of the sun for some of the time.

arriving on the clouds, literally

Father was full of his usual poise and shared both deeply and humorously. He shared how he had just dyed his hair and how he always does before these occasions. I heard he had been up to 3.30am talking to his close disciples. As the sun grew stronger and I went to find the shade of a tree and take my jacket off in order to sweat less, I reminded myself that Father at 90 years old, had been standing at the podium for more than an hour in his suit.

Click on the pics to make them big.

Elisa Brann studying Father's speech as he reads and adds to it.

thirsty work

Keishin Barrett focusing on the Word

Jonathan and Alex study together on the wall.

After we had no buses so we (8000 people) had to walk down the mountain. Our calf muscles felt the gradient. And I was glad I had followed the advice of others and had not brought one of the boys with me. Not sure they would have handled the schedule and not sure how I would have managed carrying one of them down on my back….

Here are my notes from Hyung Jin Moon’s message to us this afternoon at the start of a 2 day Original Divine Principle seminar that father asked us all to join after the event today:

“True Father said today we should go back to our roots. Our unification movement tradition has a very short history of only 50 years and in that short time it has spread across the whole world, and of course as a result we have many limitations as well.

We want to go back to the core of True Parents revelation and the essence of the Divine Principle.

When I was in Brazil recently we read Father’s  autobiography in our morning study and we were discussing about our faith and our fate.

Our fate is connected to the path that we take. There are a series of decisions that we make that determine our future.

If you look back at your life you can see this reality.

WE MUST KNOW where we are heading. There is a biblical verse in Proverbs where king Solomon was looking out of a window and saw a young man walking on a path, and he could see that young man’s future. On one side of the path there was a very decadent town with a big red light district, towards which the young man was heading.

King Solomon compared him to a cow that is heading to the abattoir

However the young man did not see that future as he was thinking about something else, about happy thoughts of a very beautiful woman who had invited him to the town. So the young man was having a very sweet dream, but king Solomon had seen many men walking down this path and knew what fate he would have; that he would become trapped by this town of decadence. (this is somewhere in Proverbs apparently…no ref. was given…but William Haines helped me find it, he uses it in his lecture on the Human Fall. See the link to Proverbs 7 here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+7&version=NIV )

We can see from this that the path we are taking is always connected to our future. And when there is the opportunity to look down on that path with objectivity we can see where it will lead.

The reason I am telling you this story is that this young man did not realise that this choice he was making would effect his life so significantly.  There are many choices that come up in our life: these are essentially the paths that we chose to take in our life.

We have to always ask ourselves what is the path I am taking and where is it leading to. Brothers and sisters, we are seeking the eternal path. We are not seeking the transient or temporary path.

That is the path of seeking True Parents, which is eternal.  That is our bright and eternal future.

We are not to centre one generation or another. We have an eternal centre which is True Parents. If you look at Christianity, there have been many saints and church leaders, but they have always focused on Jesus’ eternal love, rather than their own significance.

If we forget that we will find ourselves going on the wrong path with out noticing it…

We will always be True Parents children….

….After my elder brother past away I started to doubt whether God existed, and with that kind of mind I started studying religion, and then I started training……

When I go before True Parents I do not go as an adult, regardless of however many responsibilities and positions he has bestowed on me. When I go into the room, Father does not see an international president, but he sees his youngest son, and that is when I feel the greatest freedom and love. I don’t feel the need to have to prove anything to them and this is the most precious quality time for me.

We should get rid of thoughts we have that put us in the context of some official position when we are in front of True Parents. Of course it is important to be mature in our actions and in our words, but as Jesus said in order to go to the Kingdom of Heaven we need the heart of a child.

Through this important proclamation today there are a lot of expectations….

It is because of this 120 day workshop which has just been completed that a war could be prevented between the North and South Korea. Even the sinking of the naval ship did not bring about war. Because these leaders who went through the 120 day workshop and united with True Parents and continued through out the 120 days faithfully (from UK: Constance Rennie and Haesul Fagcang) an important condition could be set by True Parents.

We do not know what conditions are being set by this 2 day workshop that we are starting now on Father’s request, we do not know how big a condition can be made by even the offering of a pigeon.

If we can think like that we will go down one path, if we look cynically and with disinterest we will go down another path. How we take this short workshop is a decision we will make.

That young man thought he was going to be with the beautiful woman for just one night and he did not realise how that one night would have a big effect on his life course, …for us this one night , and two days workshop will also involve us making a decision that will effect our path and our future. Let has have that kind of awareness and heart.

Let us look into our hearts and either have king Solomon’s perspective , or the blissfully unaware perspective of the young man who was oblivious to the choices that he was making regarding his future.

Let us go on a path of seeking True Parents in our life.”

Connie Rennie and Haesul Facgang (click to enlarge)

A couple of days ago [Ed: this was written May1st] we got the announcement that because Western members didn’t have so many opportunities to see True Parents, we would be the only participants of the workshop invited to visit the Cheon Jeong Gung museum for the Wedding Anniversary celebrations. I couldn’t believe it!

But the second part of the announcement was that we might not be able to enter unless completely dressed in white; including shoes and bag. Hmmm… a problem. So after a complete fail of an attempt to fit into the clothes of the Japanese sisters, (!) I and a couple of sisters went on a shopping spree.  After about two hours, we all looked like pure white angels; as you can see in the pictures, of course.

So at 5.30 in the morning, 45 of us packed ourselves into a bus and were on our way. As our bus rolled past towns, villages and then mountains I reflected and prayed preparing myself…

Outside the museum gate (click to enlarge)

Our bus arrived. We exited and walked towards the museum. It absolutely towered over us! Never in my life had I felt so small. As we walked through the first set of gates I was brimming with excitement. Through the second set of gates, which are protected by two female figures. I felt like the time when Frodo enters the White City by boat, which is guarded by two kings… the moment was so peaceful and sombre, there was a silence that seemed to descend.

Unfortunately I couldn’t bring my camera into the museum, so I can’t show you how beautiful it is. But I couldn’t believe our movement had created a building like this. It’s in these moments, that a young member from the Western world realises just how big our movement is!

stairway to heaven ...

At first we were in a side room watching by projector, but for some reason we were shuffled out of there, and moved into the main hall where the first part of the ceremony took place!!! Best seats in the house!!!

At the forty day point of this workshop True Father was meant to visit, but after a week of stress and confusion it was announced that he wasn’t going to come. Why? I think because he was disappointed in our attitude as a workshop. Many of the leaders wanted to go home back to their personal missions, and were hoping True Father would let them, instead of extending it to a 120 day workshop. True Father didn’t want to come to a workshop where nobody had faith and desire to stay. I admit… I was one of those who had that attitude. So when I stood waiting for True Father to enter, I asked myself, so what attitude should be my attitude when I meet the messiah? One question came to mind; ‘How do I become like you?’

True Father entered, supported by True Mother, and followed by True Children and True Grandchildren. Seeing the three generations together, the young Grandchildren offering presents, some of the youngest finding it hard to concentrate! It was such a beautiful sight! I am moved to tears just remembering it! And I prayed that the Grandchildren could be cared for much more than the True Children were. I regretted that the whole family wasn’t there. Even though I could not fully understand the meaning of the ceremony, it moved me deeply. And I knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. I was sooooo incredibly lucky to be there, in that room, with that family…

I feel so happy to be here in Korea. I am experiencing many things that I know I never would have been able to had I continued university. Maybe in 2013 all of this will not be possible anymore. Thank you everyone! I miss England a lot!!!!!

* Cheon Jeong Gung: Museum, conference and banqueting rooms dedicated to exhibiting memorabilia from Unification Movement’s history. Inaugurated in June 2006.

Connie Rennie (right) Outside the Temple

(Don’t forget  – you can click pictures to enlarge them!)

Dear brothers and sisters,

On the 14^th of March I answered True Fathers call to come to Korea for the special education session for world leaders. I don’t really qualify because I’m not a leader, I’m not a graduate, but I was passionate, about the idea, I’m under 48, and I got the go ahead from President Song, so here I am! I am in the Ginseng factory surrounded by some of the top leaders of our movement!

Music Ministry in the new temple

This, believe it or not, is my first time in Korea! And I am so happy to be here. There are around 700 participants, 20 of which are European. At first translation was a real issue, but now that that has been sorted out, it is possible to understand the lectures and there is a lot to be gained from them!

Many people are unsure of the purpose of this workshop, considering the unusual way in which we were invited, and the conditions set. But as far as I can tell, True Father is really preparing us for the year 2013. In this final push of the providence Father wants to share as much as he can with us, and push as far as we can go.

Hyung Jin Nim's support of Father

brought tears to people's eyes

We wake up at 2.30 in the morning every day, in accordance with the schedule of the World President. Our morning consists of Chi Gong exercises for half an hour, meditation, 210 bows, 1 and half hours of reading Cheon Seong Gyeong, half an hour lecture… and then we can have breakfast! This is the example of the World President. Hyung Jin Nim came to realise the importance of conditions while studying the world’s major religions. He wants to set the WORLD STANDARD of conditions, and for this reason he wakes earlier than any other religious traditions! On top of that Hyung Jin Nim has three special disciples called ‘Hung-sa’s.’ I guess you could compare these guys to Jedi Masters or something because of their spiritual power! His three Hung-sa’s join Hyung Jin Nim in his devotion, and set so many conditions in order to create a foundation for the protection of Hyung Jin Nim, which was so often not there for True Father and the True Family.

My witnessing team just before we left with TPs car

Rev. Eu

As well as new traditions, we are receiving a new expression of the Word. We are privileged to have Reverend Eu giving ODP content and because I have never heard before, and have wanted to since I heard about it, I am so happy to be here listening! In today’s lecture I was moved to tears by the depth of understanding about God, and also because I have done so little to deserve this truth, that Father received at such a high price. I feel so unworthy.

But it’s not all theory you know! On Sundays we are forced to leave the lecture room, and go out on the street to witness! With my lack of Korean skills, deep communication was not really my goal, so I ended up handing out leaflets advertising True Father’s autobiography. After having witnessed about him all morning, the afternoon was our time to meet the man himself! We all went to the new Cheon Bok Gung Temple! It is sooo beautiful! I was just bubbling with excitement! And the moment we were waiting for, Father entered, tenderly supported by Hyung Jin Nim.

I was so moved…tears just started running down my cheeks. I looked to my right, I was not the only one! A whole row of young Japanese sisters were also pulling out the tissues! It was such a beautiful moment, where we could share common feelings, even from such different backgrounds. I was so happy to see this beautiful relationship between Father and son, but on the other hand, I was sad to think of the lack of contact we have with True Family in Europe. I was sad to think that when I go home, how far will I feel from the True Family and Providence?

"Western members"

With True Parents' car

Young peoples' sharing

Anyway it was a really beautiful day and we will be seeing Hyung Jin Nim again this Sunday! So I am really happy to be here, even though it is incredibly difficult. I cans see that it is not just us youth who are struggling. Even leaders who have been leaders for many years are once again facing themselves, having to ask the questions, How much do I love True Parents? How far can I go? How much am I willing to give? We are all fighting with these questions, and they are the questions that will guide me through out the next few weeks of my life here in Korea! Stay tuned for more reports and pictures!!!

Your sister, Connie

Sorry for carrying on with this topic but I guess I am on a bit of a roll. According to the Principle in order for the Messiah to be born both a foundation of faith and a foundation of substance need to be made. As we all know, this was established first by Jacob and Esau which is why eventually Jesus was born as a descendant of Jacob. Along the way there were a number of times when the messiah could have been born but wasn’t because the necessary conditions hadn’t been made. The reason why these conditions need to be made is actually very practical. The messiah comes to establish the kingdom of heaven by bringing a new and complete expression of truth bringing enlightenment, and forgiveness of sin and salvation through bringing rebirth into God’s lineage so that people know and feel that they are God’s sons and daughters. Of course this is quite radical stuff and the danger is that he will be rejected and killed. So it was important that a religious society should come into being which was also tolerant of people with new ideas no matter how controversial. This is more likely to happen when there is a tradition of accepting, respecting or at least tolerating ‘Abel-type’ people instead of persecuting, imprisoning and killing them. This why the focus in Judaism is not on believing the right thing, but behaving in the right way, namely observing the law. Thus the importance of the rule of law, not men. So that no matter how disagreeable and eccentric and obnoxious a person may be in his opinions, as long as he doesn’t break the law, he remains a free person protected by the law. This incidentally is what the word freedom means – free to do as one likes within the dom (dom is the old Anglo-Saxon word doom meaning law hence doomsday is judgement day).

In Palestine at the time of Jesus there were many different ‘Judaisms’ such the priestly caste focused on the Temple, the nationalistic Zealots, the Essenes, followers of John the Baptist, and at least two disputing parties amongst the Pharisees. This plurality of religious views and opinions is typically Jewish but it also created space for the messiah to come with his own ideas and compete for followers. Unity on the other hand would have meant uniformity and made it impossible for new ideas to have a chance. The main problem Jesus faced was that he was regarded as a political threat by the Jewish priestly class who were charged by the Romans with keeping the peace and stopping insurrection. The title ‘messiah’ had strong political overtones which is why Romans relished in executing them and why Jesus was crucified under the title “The King of the Jews.”

So who created the foundation for the lord of the second advent to be born? This had to be done on a much bigger level now, uniting Hebraism and Hellenism which are the Abel and Cain cultural streams respectively. This happened in the United Kingdom where there has been religious pluralism and freedom, more or less, for 300 years. Unlike the French enlightenment which took a decidedly atheistic turn, the great philosophers of the English enlightenment sought to achieve a synthesis between Christianity and philosophy and science. Thus the empiricist John Locke while also articulating and developing the theoretical basis of liberal democracy and religious toleration also published a book called Reasonable Christianity. One of the other great empiricists who also showed the limitations of rationalistic deism was Bishop Berkeley. Indeed the English enlightenment was quite religious and included several prominent churchmen such as John Wesley. In Scotland in what was known as the ‘Athens of the North’ there was a stunning constellations of great minds, all members of the Scottish enlightenment characterised by a thoroughgoing empiricism and practicality where the chief virtues were held to be improvement, virtue, and practical benefit for both the individual and society as a whole. The most well known are the gentle sceptic and empiricist philosopher David Hume and the economist Adam Smith, but there were many others as well such as Robert Burns and Francis Hutcheson. Although as individuals they were not particularly religious they all recognised the functional importance of religion for civilised society. This synthesis between Hebraism and Hellenism continued in the UK with the fruitful interaction of science and religion – Darwin’s ideas of evolution were readily accepted by most nineteenth century clergymen and Christian scientists – and the Christian origins of even socialism and the trade union movement which on the continent were associated with atheism.

Thus were the principles and traditions of a religious liberal democracy – the rule of law, due process, separation of powers and functions of government, freedom of speech, freedom of religion etc. – established and spread and multiplied throughout the English speaking world and planted in Korea after its liberation from Japan. Without this western oversight Korea would probably have become an oppressive, closed, xenophobic society again in which it is very doubtful that Father would have had a chance. So even though Father was persecuted in South Korea, he was not killed. Even if he was imprisoned unjustly, he was later released. In America too, even although Father was persecuted and even sent to prison under a miscarriage of justice, he was allowed to do whatever he liked within the law which protected him. Even though he was a foreigner he was not deported. No other country in the world in the past or present would have allowed a foreigner to do the sort of things Father has done in America. So the foundation to receive the messiah and enable the messiah to start and continue his work without being killed was established in Britain and multiplied and spread throughout the world.

True Parents arrive

The purpose of this temple is not just to open another big venue, but to create a place where people can come to offer their devotion and sincerity and practice a heart of true love. It is a spiritual hub and sanctuary which can help committed members to develop spiritual energy.

Here are some more pictures from yesterday’s opening of the mega unification church temple. (If you click on the pictures they will get bigger.)

True Parents wait to start calligraphy

In Jin Moon

Kook Jin Moon's family

Kook Jin Moon has been working in Korea for 5 years now developing the Unification Foundation that Father set up about 20 or 30 years ago to support the church infra structure.

glowing video boxes?

outside

prayer room on first floor

me outside the first floor entrance to the main hall

Yeon Ah Moon (right) and Ji Ye Moon (left)

HwaJin Song and Thomas Johans

HwaJin is now works in  Human Resources for the HQ church in Seoul and Thomas recently arrived to live in Seoul to be with his wife (sorry don’t know her name.) One of the local pastors asked his father in law if he could help as staff for the opening.

living love ministry team from Manhattan

The very cool Living Love ministry team were in Seoul too.

Last night was a long night. In a room with lots of elder european brothers. A few times in the night I really thought I could have been in a jungle with a bunch of lions and tigers growling. We got to the peace palace at 6am. After 1 hour sitting on the floor waiting for pledge to start at 8am decided to go and sit on the chairs in the back with Daniel Bessell and Jack Corley.  That was a saving grace. Big screen too so we could see everything fine and still walk by the time everything was finished.

True Parents looked well and happy. I had serious jet-lag still, but I do remember Father saying: “excuse me while I take some water. If I drink I am thirsty and if I smile it means I am happy. There, that is a short sermon.”

Barak Obamma sent a congratulatory message, and so did a number of other prominent people.

Later we had an early lunch down at Cheong Pyeong training centre. Most memorable bit: Kook Jin Moon was on the schedule to give  a toast. He got up and said: “I have a confession of faith to make. True Parents are  not only my physical parents but also my spiritual parents.” He went on to state clearly who they are as the returning Christ. Hyung Jin Moon did like wise in front of 1000 people. True Parents smiled, so I guess by what Father said in the morning this meant they were happy about this.

Hyung Jin Moon visits guests at True Parents birthday banquet

In the afternoon we had the opening session of the national leaders meeting. Kook Jin Moon, In Jin Moon, and Hyung Jin Moon all spoke. The spirit and message was strong and clear. Here are some of my notes:

“Our church policy is to declare True Parents for who they are, and if we do so perhaps Father will not feel the need to give marathon long talks, and then he can be more free to rest.”

“True Parents saved our life and that is why we declare them as our lord and saviour. We should get comfortable with that and start sharing that truth. I guarantee if you do, that it will change your life completely, and you will understand why people talk about being born again. Something changes inside of you, when you declare your faith.”

I could connect with the main message, but occasionally the case was not fully developed and some of the points were possibly not fully intended. Kook Jin Moon made the point that we are not here to be a social movement. But surely we want to be socially relevant. I think what he meant is that our primary purpose is to bring people to True Parents. Anyhow, that is when I started to feel v european. Talking with Daniel Bessel I realised that our default mode is to analyse, and when the rationale is woolly we get frustrated. My conclusion was that rather than get annoyed better to take on greater faith and then offer rational and thoughtful feedback.

One elder 2nd Generation Unificationist who must be around 30 now said to me in the bus that the denial of  our faith generally leads to people losing it. He said that many of his friends who grew up being encoraged by their parents not to let people know that they were followers of Rev Moon, and Unification Church members tended to eventually drift away. While those who were open and honest tended to find it easier to stick around.

The other thing I am experiencing here is culture shock. Was never so aware of that before. I always came to Korea thinking this is Father’s nation. But I think I have arrived at a point of separating the two out. So now I am becoming aware of how alien Asian culture is for me. I think it is an important step in coming to understand the people in a more real way.

There was the usual thing when we were waiting for the above mentioned speakers to arrive in the room. The shear number of people involved in getting the mics ready, calling on their mobiles up stairs to see when they were coming down, starting a song, rechecking the mics, etc. And on the 4th set of mansai’s today I was not giving it quite the 100%. Just all very alien to my cultural background. I am sure I could learn a thing or two if I open my mind to it. But, can’t imagine what it must have been like for True Parents to live in the West for so many years and raise their family there. I guess I realised Father is not Korean, he is the Son of God. Big difference.

Today was just registration and a brief orientation so I went into town to visit a friend who works at the Church Foundation office. Hoon Oh is responsible for organising Divine Principle education for all the employees of our church companies and now he has recently been given an extra job in human resource development.

Hoon Oh was one of our UK CARP stars back in 2005/6

While there I met someone unexpectedly at the reception desk outside Kook Jin Moon’s office, who I hadn’t seen for 8 years, she used to be with us in UK CARP back in the day.

I always get that experience when I come here, when someone says hello and my brain has to use all it’s RAM to quickly place the face and hopefully a name too: this time I had to ask the name: Ji Hi Park. She took me for a nice lunch:

Lunch with Ji Hi Pak...another old UK CARPie

and she shared a great story about how the spiritual world is working through people’s dreams:

1st: she had a dream about Pastor Hyung Jin Moon who was telling her to invite her friend to church.

2nd: She invited her friend who is one of her flat mates to church for Sunday worship.

3rd: The next four days her friend had a dream every night where True Father was teaching her.

4th: She gave her friend the Divine Principle book, and when she started reading, it fell out of her hand because she was so surprised to read what she had been taught the last four nights in her dreams. After picking it up again she read the whole book in one day.

Can’t upload the video blog, sorry. Korean YouTube won’t allow it because Google is in some kind of legal fix with S Korean internet law.

Finally we could upload the vlog. (thanks Rea!!)

Yes, Philip. It is a bit of a mystery considering the not insignificant contribution Britain made to the providential development of Korea. For example the Bible was translated into Korean by a Scottish Presbyterian by the name of John Ross who hailed from the small village of Balintore in Scotland. He became known as the father of the Korean church. In 1872 he went to China as a missionary and within a year was giving weekly sermons in Chinese and had built up a congregation of 100. In 1877, sponsored by the National Bible Society of Scotland, he started to translate the New Testament into Korean. He distributed it throughout the Korean community in Manchuria and many congregations spontaneously formed under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It was also taken by Korean converts into Korea itself where hundreds of churches were founded. Ross himself went to Seoul in 1887 to see for himself the fruit of his work. You can read more about Ross here http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-3949-Father-of-the-Korean-Church.htm Translation work was continued by the founding of the Seoul Bible House established in 1893 by the British and Foreign Bible Society. One of the main translators was the Anglican Bishop of Korea, Mark Napier Trollope, an ancestor of Ashley Crosswaite. http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/BishopTrollope.htm

The first Protestant missionary to Korea was Robert Jermain Thomas who was born in Rhayadar, South Wales in 1839. His church in Hanover, Llanover, sent him out on mission and he went to China with the London Missionary Society. While teaching in Peking, he met some Korean traders and heard that there were Christians in Korea who didn’t have Bibles. These were Catholics who had been growing in number since 1770 when a Korean envoy to China brought some of Matteo Ricci’s texts back with him. The same year, 1865, he set off for Korea with Chinese Bibles as an agent for the National Bible Society of Scotland. He travelled through Korea heavily disguised as anyone found with a Bible could be beheaded by the authorities.

The following year Korea was threatened with invasion by Russia. Two Catholic Korean leaders suggested that the Prince Regent should consult the French Bishop, who was a secret resident, on the best way to respond. He suggested forming a triple alliance between England, France and Korea. The Prince Regent seemed open to this suggestion at first, but the anti-foreign (or anti-Christian) faction in the State Council prevailed and the bishop was  executed in March, 1866 marking the beginning of the great persecution, which lasted until 1871, during which about 8,000 Korean Catholics and some French priests were killed. This was merely the latest, if worst, in a series of intense persecutions. So the argument that Korea was qualified to be the nation of the return of Christ because it did not persecute Christianity has always been rather unconvincing.

Despite these events Thomas travelled on a British owned merchant schooner up the river to Pyungyang distributing Bibles along the way. After an altercation with the Korean authorities the vessel was attacked but Thomas leaped into the river giving out his last remaining Bibles while shouting “Jesus, Jesus”. He was arrested and gave his executioner his last Bible. A few days later an edict was issued threatening arrest for anyone found in possession of a Bible. Many were destroyed but some were gathered up and their pages used for wallpaper. After a while people started to read the texts on their walls and through this the Holy Spirit brought them to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour and in this way a Presbyterian church was formed. You can read more about this here http://www.byfaith.co.uk/paulkorea.htm

So it would appear that Britain as the Eve and mother nation in God’s providence gave birth to Christianity in Korea, the third Israel. It also gave birth to the second Israel, the United States, and the first Israel in 1948. Unfortunately Britain was unable to do much more for Korea as contacts with westerners were violently rejected by the xenophobic Hermit Kingdom. Had Korea made an alliance with England and France it could have avoided 40 years of occupation by Japan. So perhaps it was Korea, not Britain, that failed to form the Adam-Eve-Archangel trinity and thus make a bridge to the messiah.

There is still more. In 1904 revival broke out at Moriah Chapel in Loughor, South Wales. It swept through the valleys and sparked off revival in parts of India. Word of the revival came to Christians in Pyungyang who were hungry for the Holy Spirit. Some of them set aside a week for fasting and prayer. Following a confession of sins there was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and what came to be known as the Korean Pentecost began.

So it would appear that the Presbyterian faith that Father’s family came to adopt came from this country. Of course it would have been nicer if he had become an Anglican. We would have a much more beautiful and deeper liturgy than the present rather spare Presbyterian one combined with Korean folk traditions. Still, I imagine this was the reason Father sent the first overseas missionary, David S. Kim, to Swansea in South Wales in 1954. Perhaps he wanted our movement to connect with its spiritual roots. And if that’s what he wanted to do maybe we should too.