Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 185

Cham Bumo Gyeong
Book 7: True Parents’ Course of Suffering and Victory
Chapter 1: Suffering and Victory during the Japanese Occupation and in Communist North Korea
Section 5: Gathering Lost Family Members, 40 days in Pyongyang
Section 5: Gathering Lost Family Members, Paragraph 13

40 days in Pyongyang

True Father arrived in Pyongyang ten days after he was liberated from Hungnam Prison. Even when many people were leaving and hurrying to the South, he searched for 40 days to try to find all of his scattered disciples. Even though his hometown of Jeongju was not far away, he did not go there to meet his parents and siblings. This was because he felt he absolutely had to go the path of restoration through indemnity, which required him to love Cain first, and love him more than Abel. And so it was that, accompanied by Kim Won-pil and Pak Jeong-hwa, Father finally departed on the road to South Korea.

8  Just thinking of Pyongyang made me shudder, but when I left Hungnam Prison I went back and visited the city. I did this because my church family members were there. If I were just an ordinary person, I would have ignored Pyongyang and gone directly to visit my hometown. However, I knew that in that city were my church family members whose heart had gone out to me when I entered prison. I acted as I did on heaven's motivation. Accordingly, I went back to Pyongyang and searched for each of the family members who had been with me when I was doing ministry there.

I also looked for those who had left and had even come to oppose me. Of course, they did not leave me while I was in Pyongyang; the only reason they left me and opposed me was that I had been sent to prison. They were people who had pledged to believe in me before I was imprisoned. Since they had not notified me that they wanted to sever their ties, as their teacher I still felt responsible for them. Even though some of them betrayed me, they had once pledged in front of God that they would believe in me, and I felt that vow still stood. If they were to oppose me directly after I had located them, then heaven would let them go. But since heaven had the same regard for me as before, until they personally denied me, I was determined to take responsibility for them as their teacher. 

This was why I scoured the city for all those scattered members. When I could not go directly to meet some of them, I sent Kim Won-pil. Because of all this, I was unable to go to my hometown. Still there was one person I could not find, even though I went around searching for her for a week.

9  When I left Hungnam Prison, there were four people who came along with me as my followers. Jesus died alone, but when I emerged from prison, four people joined me. We walked from South Hamgyeong Province to North Pyeongan Province, through the most difficult mountainous terrain in Korea. From the coast of the East Sea, we walked over Geumgang Mountain and Seorak Mountain in the Taebaek Range in Gangwon Province and then through the mountainous area of North Pyeongan Province.

At that time, the North Korean People's Army was retreating in disarray through the Taebaek Mountains. We went through a territory crawling with soldiers. Our problem was that we were traveling south while the soldiers were escaping north. Why did we take such a path? If we had gone around the soldiers, we would have lost four or five days. On the other hand, it was a situation in which they were retreating and shooting the prisoners they had with them. So as we passed through this dangerous zone, I said to my followers, "What could be dangerous for people who have just left prison? We should be able to go anywhere." So, we deliberately chose that route and finally arrived in Pyongyang.

While living the life of a refugee, I searched for the original group that had gathered around me when I ministered in Pyongyang. I could not forget those who had shed tears for me when I was sent to prison, and because I had promised that I would find them, I kept on searching. At that time, I heard that the Communist Chinese army would soon enter the city, but I still went in search of an elderly lady I had so far been unable to meet. After I learned that the lady had died, we evacuated.

10  In North Korea, the Communist Party persecuted all of the churches and tried to get rid of them, but we remained to the end. In those days, I did not call our group the Unification Church. It was just a group I was teaching. But even after I left the prison, I had to continue my ministry. Therefore, when I arrived in Pyongyang, I first tried to meet all the family members who had been with me there. 

I was in prison almost three years, and because of the communist persecution during that time, church members could not openly practice their religious life. Indeed, they had gradually gone underground. So even though I was freed from prison, I could not continue my ministry as I used to. Still, before traveling to South Korea, I managed to meet almost all the family members who had been with me in the past.

I can vividly recall the moment when those members shed sorrowful tears as I was led away to prison in shackles. I had been sentenced to five years, and when I said to them, "Take care and let's meet together again five years from now," they wept. Even now the memory is vivid. After I came out of prison, I searched for everyone I could think of—the old and the young—for the sake of gathering again the family members with whom I had made a relationship based on the Will.

11  After I left Hungnam Prison and went to Pyongyang, I sent a messenger on three separate occasions to a man who had been a member of my group. The first time, the man turned away my messenger at the door. He visited a second and third time, but the man snubbed him each time. The principle I adhere to is that I must invest myself with highest devotion until God instructs me to stop. Until then, I just cannot give up. While everyone else was escaping to the South, I continued to try to contact this man, sending for him until the evening of December 2. Therefore, I completely fulfilled my responsibility toward him.

Wherever I go under the sun, I have nothing to be ashamed of. I have been upholding the teachings based on heart. In Pyongyang my heart was pierced and wounded many times. So I did not want to leave until I had removed all those wounds. After doing that I had the conviction that I was ready to connect new people in the South with God. That is why I left Pyongyang that very night. Leaders must carry out their responsibilities diligently like this.

Even in a life-or-death situation, unless a leader completes the portion of responsibility that God entrusted him with, his path will be blocked. You have to bring a clear resolution and tie up every relationship you make with people. You see, whether I am in this world or the next, I must stand in the position where the ancestors of that person are able to sympathize with me and, at the same time, the descendants of that person will be able to sympathize with me. Because I thought like this, I searched for that particular former member.

12  I left behind all eight of my siblings. Even when I was in prison in North Korea, I could foresee the future political situation. Accordingly, after I came out of prison I went to Pyongyang and stayed there for 40 days. My hometown was only about 110 kilometers from there, so two days would have been enough time for me to travel home. But during those 40 days, instead of visiting my parents and siblings, I searched out every person I had previously worked with for the Will. I went here and there, seeking out those people who had once pledged their lives to me before heaven. I gave no priority to caring for my parents and relatives in my hometown, but instead looked for each family member at the risk of my life.

13  When I was in Pyongyang, I could have taken the two-day journey to meet my older brother and brought him with me. However, I knew that if I did not make the condition of loving my country more than I loved my older brother, I could not have a clear heart to bring him with me. I knew that if I did not make the condition to love my country more than I loved my parents, I would not have a clear heart to bring my parents with me.

This is the requirement of perfect restoration through indemnity. In order to become Abel, one must love Cain. Then, in order to attend True Parents, one must first attend the parents of Satan's world. That is why I did these things. That is why when I came out of prison I attended elderly women. The fundamental Principle of Restoration is like that. I left the prison and gathered together grandmothers to form a trinity. I set up three children from Satan's world who were able to carry out mother-son cooperation. You also need to act in this way according to this principle.