Chambumo Gyeong - 085. Overseas missionaries After outreach work in Korea began to take root through the 40-day witnessing campaigns, True Father was able to turn his attention to other countries. In 1956, the year after his incarceration in Seoul's Seodaemun Prison, Father offered prayers at Gapsa Temple, a famous Buddhist temple on Mt. Gyeryong in South Chungcheong Province. While praying, he sensed that Japan would soon once again be in a very important position in Asia. Because the Soviet Union and China were supporting North Korea, Father knew that if Japan stood on the side of communism, Korea would be seriously endangered. Hence, he realized that he needed to send missionaries to Japan to begin to deal with this potential threat. By loving Japan, formerly the enemy of Korea, he would establish it as an object-partner nation on God's side. Herein lay the reason he sent missionaries to Japan, despite the difficult circumstances.
At the same time, he also determined to send missionaries to the United States, which was in the same position as Rome at the time of Jesus. He planned to establish the United States as the central nation in his worldwide mission work. 1 I have truly attended people with the same devotion as I would show if I were attending my own father and mother. Furthermore, in order to make a foundation to restore the society and nation, I have done the same for people I do not even know. According to this principle, I cannot worry only about my own country. Even under the most severe persecution, my prayers and interests were not for Korea alone. I also had to work hard to send missionaries to Japan and America.
When I sent the first missionary to Japan, there were no diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan. Unable to go through any normal entry procedures, this missionary had to be smuggled into Japan on a small boat. As for America, you cannot imagine how hard it was to send even one missionary there. No one could imagine that we could send missionaries to America at the time. Even under such difficult circumstances, I decided to send someone to America to sow the seed of the Principle. I worked day and night to make this happen. The principle of providential restoration works from the outside in. For a country to receive glorious blessings from God, I needed to create a situation whereby the providential Will would come into that country from the outside. (015-072, 1965/02/13) 2 When the Unification Church attempted to register as a church in Korea, there was a big struggle in the government. That was in 1963.1 knew that such a day would come, so in the late 1950s I made a condition before heaven to prepare for it. This is why I sent out foreign missionaries. I prepared, knowing that if Abel is constrained Cain can lead the course of restoration through indemnity.
Long ago, Cain killed Abel, but now we could form a Cain-type altar based in foreign nations in order to support and save the Abel-type altar. In order to make such unseen connections between countries in different parts of the world, even though we were chased and beleaguered, we sent missionaries abroad. Taking a serious risk, we sent three people to America and one to Japan.
In Korea, the Unification Church grew despite opposition from the Liberal Party of Syngman Rhee, which controlled the government. That regime thought we would disappear. They never imagined we would prosper as much as we did. Behind this growth, however, there is a history filled with bloodshed. There are so many stories that defy imagination. I anticipated opposition on the national level, so I had to make internal preparations to deal with it. The condition I made was to send missionaries to America, Japan and even Germany. (016-064, 1965/12/26) 3 We need a strategy to do world-level work. The mess that the world is in has to be straightened out centering on True Parents. In order to go through the course of restoration through indemnity on the world level, we have to fulfill our portion of responsibility. Having established a national foundation through the 40-day outreach campaigns throughout Korea, we sent missionaries to countries around the world.
We built our foundation in Korea, which is like Israel in Jesus' day, and then we went on to build a foundation in America, which is the center of the world, much as Rome was in Jesus' day. Our situation is different from that of Jesus, who was beleaguered by the religious leaders and people and bore their persecution. You know how the things I spoke about for the last few years have turned out. It would be an honor if we could die fighting against billions of evil spirits and have our bodies buried in the land of Canaan. (013-212, 1964/03/15) 4 We have to accomplish the mission, not only for Korea but for the world. In order to develop the Unification Church, I had to send missionaries to Japan and America even while being persecuted by the Liberal Party of Korea. Unlike today, in those days the Korean government opposed and persecuted us. So I sent a missionary to Japan on a smuggler's boat. But I did not feel any guilt about that at all. This is because I looked at the situation from the perspective of God's providence. If I had not done that, we could never have made the victorious foundation we have today. (019-141, 1968/01/01) 5 In order to save Korea, and then Japan and the world, I needed to find a way for our strong religious teachings and philosophy to be adopted by the people living in the major cultural centers of Japan. The question was how we could educate the Japanese people and establish ourselves in the subject position, as opposed to going there and being condemned. I believed that this was the only way Korea and Japan could overcome communism. The young missionary who went to Japan and lived there in hiding pioneered the Unification Church and established that new foundation.
In Japan, we focused more on making inroads with Japanese leadership than on creating a nationwide movement. Somehow we had to connect Japan and America to Korea. The Japanese Unification Church began in this way, with the purpose of influencing Japan. (110-167, 1980/11/17) |