Cham Bumo Gyeong: Episode 62

Cham Bumo Gyeong

Book 3: The Beginning of True Father's Public Course and the Founding of HSA-UWC
Chapter 2: True Father’s Journey to South Korea and His Course in Busan
Section 4: Pioneer Outreach, Pioneering in Busan
Section 4: Pioneer Outreach, Paragraph 14

Section 4. Pioneer Outreach

Pioneering in Busan

After arriving in Busan in January 1951, True Father moved around for half a year, living here and there as a refugee. In August he built a mud-walled hut with his own hands in Beomnaetgol, moved into it, and prepared to receive new members. He climbed the mountain every day and prayed tearfully, with a yearning surpassing even that of God who has continually worked to restore His lost children. As a result, members came to him in small groups, responding to revelations they received from God.

On May 10, 1952, the day when True Father finished writing Wolli Wonbon, Original Text of the Divine Principle, Gang Hyeon-sil, a second-year student at Goryo Theological Seminary, joined him. She was followed by others, including Rev. Lee Yo-han, a young man, already a Christian pastor, who joined Father on December 1. In this way, heaven sent prepared believers to True Father. By January 1953, the number of members had increased, but at the same time, opposition from the families of some members became severe. Consequently, True Father left the mud-walled hut in Beomnaetgol and moved to Sujeong-dong, later moving three more times.

1  I lived in Busan for three years as a refugee during the Korean War. While I was there I could hear the voices of many people who had promised to meet me, crying out to me. Because I was not able to meet them, my longing heart for those people was indescribable. It was a good opportunity for God to train me so that, as His Son on earth, I could experience the longing heart of God for humanity.

I did not shed tears because I missed my parents, nor did I stay up all night pining for them. The question was how I could complete the restoration of Cain and Abel in accordance with the Principle, which was a stepping-stone for the providence of God to move forward. It was not possible for me to do this with my own family or relatives. I had to establish a victorious foundation with people who were not my own blood relations. I established the tribal-level foundation based on making a foundation with people from other clans. Then I had to advance to the level of the people of Korea.

2  When I lived in Beomil-dong, Busan, I offered sincere prayer conditions with all my heart, and waited in yearning for those who should be connected to God. Spiritually I could see them coming, but in reality they had not yet come. I had no choice but to wait for the right time. When I was living in Beomil-dong, there were at most three members, including myself. So I communicated spiritually with the ones for whom I yearned and meanwhile lived with the mountains and valleys as my friends.

3  When I lived in Beomil-dong, I so much missed being with people that I sometimes talked to myself. Spiritually I could hear people talking, as if they were behind a thin paper wall. I could hear them, but I could not see their faces. If only that paper wall were removed, the multitudes could come to me.

I could hear the voices of the people I longed to meet; that is why I missed them so much. From morning until evening, I longed for people to come. It is a very noble thing to long to see others. Once my heart of longing to meet people reached a certain degree, they began to come looking for me.

When people are treated with that kind of heart, since they are spiritual beings, even if they want to leave, it is as if they are glued to the floor and they cannot get up. It is an unusual phenomenon. They become completely absorbed in what is happening around them.

You must know that there were such spiritual works in the early days of the Unification Church. You too should have such a longing to meet people. You should not worry about your spouse and children. You have to yearn to meet people for the sake of the Will.

4  I am not teaching you thoughtlessly when I say, “With the heart of a parent, shed sweat for earth, tears for humanity and blood for heaven.” This is how I have lived. Try witnessing to people according to this teaching. Test whether what I say is the truth or a lie. If you do not have members, open the door and long for them. When you do so, you will hear people coming. Long for people the way I do. Then ways to reach them will open up. When Gang Hyeon-sil came to Beomnaetgol for the first time, I had the heart of a parent yearning for my lost children.

5  When I lived in the mud-walled hut in Beomnaetgol, there was a rumor circulating about me, “Satan’s ringleader lives at the top of Beomil-dong. Christians, do not go there!” Even when we held our own worship services, everyone in the village church already knew about it and spread rumors, warning people not to go. But I was never discouraged. When I went to pray on the mountain, I would often catch Satan spiritually by the collar and fight him. I fought him saying, “You cannot defeat me in this battle. Someday you will surrender to me.” That was how I got started.

6  When I was in Beomnaetgol in Busan, there was only one other church in Beomil-dong. That church had heard that we were good people, that we knew the Bible well and that we had attended church in the past. So they tried to witness to us. I listened to what they had to say. When they spoke, I listened to them very carefully. They thought that I would surely become a new member of their church and on the first day they were happy and simply left.

Predictably, the next day they returned. I said, “Let me ask you a question.” But they could not answer it. So I commented, “Would Jesus not know such things? It seems the Bible does not teach you well enough.” I did not speak this way because I thought I was better than them, but because they did not know the Bible accurately. I told them, “No one can say there is a problem with the Bible itself; the problem is that you do not know it well. If you do not know the Bible, how are you going to witness?” I continued, “I do not go to any church. But would you listen to what I know about the Bible?” And I began talking.

At first, I did not say anything that they could not digest. Usually, I would look at the situation and if they were argumentative people, I would take a totally different approach rather than confront them. After speaking like this for several hours, they began to listen to what I had to say.

7  During the days I spent in Busan as a refugee, I built a house in Beomil-dong, and three of us gathered there to pray and witness. When I spoke to the other two, I imagined that I was not doing so for just those two people. I thought of us as not just three people, but 30 million people. At the time I was speaking to only a few people, but I imagined that I was giving a speech to millions of Christians and all of humanity. I spoke wholeheartedly, shedding sweat, as if the whole town were listening to me. On Sundays, the neighbors would say, “Ah, that young man is doing it again.” Even sitting with them knee to knee and whispering they would be able to hear me. However, I spoke so loudly that women at the well 150 meters away could hear me.

One lady who attended the village church happened to hear me when she was passing by. She began coming to my house every Sunday, where she stood outside and listened to me. She felt uncomfortable coming into a room filled with young men. Finally, one day she came inside and noticed how pitiful the room looked. The words I was speaking were big enough to shake up the world, but our reality was miserable. Nevertheless, I talked about uniting the world and said, “God is our Father and we are God’s sons and daughters. The kingdom of heaven will be realized and hell will be destroyed.”

8  There was a well in Beomil-dong, and people came to draw water from it. When they overheard our Sunday worship, they were confused, thinking, “There are rumors that the people in that house never fight with each other, but these days it seems that they are fighting.”

On one occasion, a student from a theological seminary came to visit me and said, “In history, people even greater than you have also dreamed of uniting the world, but they could not accomplish it. How can you, in this place, think that you will bring unity?” While I was talking with him, I thought about how I looked and realized that I must surely look pitiful. Who would believe the big things I was speaking about in a house built so poorly that people could hear water running through its little drain beneath the floor? My guests ate and dressed better than I did, and had a higher standard of living, so they would not believe what I taught.

When that seminarian heard what I was saying, my words sparked a hot debate in the area. People who talked with the seminarian said, “That man up on the hill seems so naive. He does not look like the kind of person who would say such things, yet his words are incredible. He speaks of turning the whole world inside out, and heaven and earth upside down.” They said, “His place is so shabby and miserable that it is a place fit only for spirits to live. Yet he speaks of formidable things such as moving the whole world with one hand, unifying Korea and uniting the world.” These were the rumors going around. Even people in neighboring villages heard about me and said, “At the village well we heard people say that there is a remarkable person living on the mountain, although he is a young man of few words.” As the rumors spread, more and more people came.

9  During my time as a refugee, looking out from Beomil-dong I could see the many ships in Busan Harbor. I thought to myself, “The time will come when I will make a ship of my own and sail into Busan.” Looking at the big ships moving in and out of the harbor, I could not help thinking, “When will the day come when my beloved sons and daughters can cruise on those big ships and guide the world? When will their circumstances allow them that freedom and equality?” I thought of God, who has held this same hope for tens of thousands of years, a hope that will keep growing with each passing day. Now, amazingly, I stand on the bow of my own boat as it sails toward the ocean.

10  Busan was a gathering place for refugees. Therefore, it was also the place where the most fervent Christians could meet each other. Not only that, it brought together people I knew from my school days in the church in Heukseok-dong, the time of my church in Pyongyang, and the time when I was involved in a church in Seoul. These were the circumstances under which I began our church.

After I was released from prison in North Korea, I restored four people. These were three women and a man. The man was in the position of the Archangel. There were three elderly women, Mrs. Ok Sae-hyeon, Mrs. Ji Seung-do and Mrs. Lee Ki-wan. Lee Ki-wan had been living in Seoul. I brought these four people together in Busan and made a new start. I found a house in Sujeong-dong and we started a church.

Pioneering in Daegu

Once new members came flocking in, True Father turned his eyes toward the outside world, instructing Rev. Lee Yo-han to meet with well-known pastors and spiritual leaders. On July 20, 1953, he gave encouraging words to Gang Hyeon-sil, saying, “Do not forget that the living God is on our side and cooperating with us.” He directed her to take just one change of clothes and go to Daegu and begin pioneer witnessing there. Daegu would become the first place where the Principle was taught in public.

In mid-August, he also sent Rev. Lee Yo-han to Daegu. His plan was for Rev. Lee to build a church on the foundation laid by Missionary Gang. Our Daegu church took root gradually, and started holding services that gathered 30 to 40 new members, despite persecution and opposition from Christian churches.

11  During the early days, I led a single church. From that beginning, I gathered a few members and had them visit spiritually prepared people all over the nation. Among them was Missionary Gang Hyeon-sil, whom I sent to Daegu. Before she met me, she had been the young lady responsible for the Beomil-dong Tent Church. Other than that church there were only Buddhist temples in the Beomil-dong valley. She heard a rumor that an unusual young man was living in a house at the very edge of town, so she came to witness to me. That is how I met her, and God worked through that. She came looking for me every day. After some time, she decided to leave her tent church and join the Unification Church.

With that condition, I sent her to Daegu to witness. I sent her to Daegu because that region was like the Jerusalem of South Korea. I sent her out empty-handed. There was a reason that I sent her out to witness without even giving her money for a train ticket. It was because in those circumstances the spirit world was compelled to help her. When she arrived in Daegu, she had no place to go. So the spirit world guided her to meet someone who was prepared. That is how the Daegu church began.

12  I told Missionary Gang Hyeon-sil, “Go to Daegu as a pioneer witness!” When she first went out pioneering, she cried as she witnessed. Then God confided to her, “You have just arrived here, and you are crying, but I have worked for thousands of years while harboring bitter pain.” She had been about to leave, but after hearing God’s voice she decided to stay and endure. When I think about it, God did not listen to anything she had to say about her situation. He just told her to pioneer and witness to people. Given those circumstances, when I sent her to a certain place on my behalf, someone was waiting for her with tickets for her transportation, and further along the way, another person was waiting with a feast.

13  When you go witnessing, it will do you no good to just sit down and worry. It is not a mission you can fulfill with money; you have to make conditions of sincere devotion. On that foundation if you pray sincerely, God will guide you. Further, if you work hard until your feet get sore and blistered, God can work through that.

Listen to Gang Hyeon-sil’s testimony. She went to Daegu to do pioneer missionary work without knowing anyone there. Did anyone welcome her? How hard it must have been for her when she was wandering around on the streets. She was lamenting about her hard luck and praying, “O Lord, where should I go?” And God said, “Are you complaining after just one day? You are far from reaching the heart of your Father who has suffered for thousands and thousands of years!” He meant that she had to go through more hardships. It is not easy to meet God or to find the Will of God.

14  When I was visiting Daegu, there was one month during which the church had to move 13 times. Once I came to town, everyone knew who I was. Christians carried my picture, and whenever they saw me they made a great fuss, saying, “There is that Moon so-and-so.” Everywhere I went, the churches were in an uproar, saying, “Kick out that ringleader of heresy!” The whole city would growl and try to kick me out.