You Are the First in History

Throughout the weekend, a total of 1200 participants from all around the world arrived in Cheongpyeong for the Global Top Gun Youth (GTGY) Workshop.

Staff members for the GTGY workshop—comprised of representatives from Universal Peace Academy (UPA) as well as the International Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) Headquarters and the FFWPU Japan, Korea, and USA national ministry teams—all met together for the first time on Saturday, July 30, as they prepared to answer True Mother’s call to receive over 1000 international middle, high school, and university students.

As students poured in from around the world, they were warmly welcomed by the staff and registered for what promises to be the global youth event of the year.

On the first day of the workshop, August 1, participants gathered for the official opening ceremonies, where True Mother came to address them directly. Prior to True Mother’s arrival, the GTGY participants prepared their hearts and minds to receive True Mother by learning to say phrases like, “Mother, we love you!” and “Mother is beautiful!” in Korean.

After welcoming True Mother, each region was invited to stand up and give rousing cheers and applause for God and True Parents. True Mother then spoke to the participants for 40 minutes on the themes of the Only Begotten Daughter, Jesus’s mission, and the opportunities and responsibilities open to all Unificationists.

Upon concluding her remarks, True Mother joined the participants seated before the stage and the ever-popular Apple Heaven band stepped up to play several energizing songs. Having recently recorded their first album, Apple Heaven concluded their set for the day by giving a copy of their album to each of the GTGY participants in attendance.

The opening ceremonies subsequently ended with an address by Sun Gil Cho, Secretary General of International Headquarters of FFWPU.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates daily as the Global Top Gun Youth Workshop continues in the weeks ahead!

True Mother’s Message

It’s nice to see you all. I wanted to see how beautifully you have all grown. You understand that it is historic and unprecedented that we can have such a meaningful day.

In the Bible, it says that when God created the universe, after he created Adam and Eve on the 6^th day, on the 7^th day, he rested. Evening passed and morning came—that described the first day. This does show not time per se, but represents some period; meaning that, were the period during which God created the universe not 6 days, but 12 days, he’d have rested on the 13^th day.

January 13, 2013 is the historic Foundation Day that opened a new era of Cheon Il Guk by True Parents. The number 13 is important. True Mother, who is standing before you, gave birth to more than 13 children, which is in the same vein as God’s creation of the universe. What do you think? The number 13 is important. This is something that no one in history has done.

God conducted the providence of restoration to save the fallen people for the long period of 4,000 years before he was able to raise the people of Israel. The Old Testament contains many stories, but it has no record of any one central figure who accomplished the providence of restoration in this way. Do you understand?

How difficult taking 4,000 years to send Jesus, his only begotten son, must have been for God! Then what happened? Mary, who gave birth to Jesus through the Holy Spirit, did not fulfill her responsibilities. None of the central figures around Jesus—Joseph, Zachariah and his family, Judaic figures, nor of course the people of Israel—fulfilled their responsibilities. Because of that, Jesus was in the position where he was unable to fulfill his mission.

God gave birth to his only begotten son. At the time that God created Adam and Eve, he created all of the creation in pairs. We cannot just have the only begotten son. Isn’t that so? That is why Jesus had no choice but to die and take the path of the cross.

I will come again! He said he would return and hold the marriage supper of the Lamb. You cannot have a banquet by yourself, can you? A partner is necessary. What he said meant that he would find the begotten daughter of God when he returned.

Heaven would not use the people of Israel again after they had not fulfilled their responsibilities. God would find the people in the satanic world who worshipped heaven, loved nature and loved people more than anyone else had in all of providential history. Christians today do not know that the 2,000 years of providential Christian history occurred in order to prepare for the birth of the only begotten daughter of God. They do not realize that. Therefore, God found the Eastern barbarians who worshipped heaven and loved nature. These were the Korean people, the white-clad race. They lived in a Chinese region and hated war, but Chinese people opposed them, so they went south, crossed the sea and came to the Korean peninsula.

Korea, our nation, is special, isn’t it? We hate war, but the Korean people have been through many battles over the years because of foreign invasions. During the middle of our 5,000 years as a nation, we experienced 1,000 years of the Goguryeo Dynasty, the finest era in all of our history. After that, we had the splendid culture of the Goryo and the Lee kingdom, also known as the Jeoson Dynasty.

Nevertheless, when was our country liberated? Though we were liberated, north and south were separated. We did not want that; foreign forces did it. During that time a spiritual group arose, centered in Pyongyang. They did not believe the returning Lord would come on clouds but that he would come in the flesh. They prepared accordingly. You have heard this before, but this is where Dae-mo nim played a substantial role. They believed that the Messiah would come to Pyongyang.

Under those circumstances, I was born as the daughter of God with no connection to the lineage of Satan. What verifies that? As soon as I was born, Satan found me and said, “Because you were born I will be destroyed. I will die. That is why I must kill you today.” There was a spiritual battle in which Dae-mo nim was victorious.

For people to play central roles in the activities of the spiritual group and do mission work was difficult once the communist regime emerged. They sent people to jail. At that time, the group had prepared everything for the Messiah, for the returning Lord. They had even drawn pictures of blessed families that would come in the future. By that time, I was six years old. Heo Ho-bin’s mother, who had been offering devotions [in the spiritual group] called me and gave a special prayer over me. She said that I was to be the returning Lord’s wife.

This was the situation, but the North Korean regime had begun to clamp down, during that time, assert control and turn toward communism. Already people who did not like communism had headed south, but we did not even think of moving south because we had received the revelation that the returning Lord would come to Pyongyang. You may not have known this, but my maternal uncle studied in Japan. After he graduated, he did not return to his hometown; we received a telegram that he had joined the army in South Korea.

In our home were three generations of females to be the only daughter born into her [nuclear] family. My uncle had been the only son [born into those three generations of families]. My grandmother said she would go to see her son. We could not let her go on her own so, my grandmother, my mother and I ended up heading south. At that time, the 38^th parallel was already the designated border and armies were guarding it on both sides. The trip to South Korea was tremendously difficult.

Two years later, the Korean War broke out. When Father was 16, he received his mission from Jesus and assumed the role of the only begotten son. This was when Father had to fulfill his responsibilities at the growth stage, during which Adam and Even should have looked only toward God with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience under God’s realm of protection. During that time, Adam and Eve instead looked toward themselves, which led to the Fall. Father also had to pay indemnity for all the responsibilities that Jesus, the only begotten son, had not been able to fulfill, which was why Heaven told Father, who was in South Korea, to go to North Korea. Heaven ordered me to go south as He ordered Father to go to north.

You all must know this. True Parents’ position, reestablished by Heaven in the fallen world, could not have come about without paying indemnity. So what occurred? The conclusion is that Father went to prison. There, Father was in a situation in which he was to have been executed the following day. Heaven could not ignore this, which is why Heaven worked through the UN Forces in order for Father to return to South Korea. The historic work of the UN Forces would not have been possible without Heaven’s help. As you know, the US and the Soviet Union were on opposite sides [in the Korean War]. If one side [Russia] had voted [against sending UN troops] it would not have happened, but Heaven moved the UN to choose the side of Heaven. Do you know that? I heard that during your tour of holy grounds you will be visiting the Beomil-Joen (Beomnaetgol Memorial Hall), which is why I am telling you this history.

True Father fulfilled the restoration through indemnity that Jesus had not been able to achieve in his 33-year life course. True Father wrote the Original Divine Principle [not yet in English] in Beom-il Dong during the evacuation period. Explanation of the Divine Principle came after that, and today we have the Exposition of the Divine Principle. The one in the position of the only begotten son of God must find the word. I want to remind you that this made True Parents’ Holy Wedding in 1960 possible.

Indeed, you would not call the tortuous providence of indemnity “smooth.” Victory is possible not only through wars with weapons. We see this in the conflict between democracy and communism, in which victory was possible through a spiritual battle that entailed unspeakable pain and torment. The 6,000 years spent on the path to find fallen people entailed tremendous pain, more than what True Parents experienced. Because of that, True Parents wanted to remain in an unfavorable environment, which all others would avoid, in order to endure all the pain necessary to indemnify everything by themselves and thereby give God joy.

True Parents united, one in heart, and comforted Heaven. True Parents indemnified everything, while on earth. We hope that humanity’s 7 billion people come to realize that True Parents alone have done the providential work to prepare for the future by predicting not only the racial, religious and land problems, but also the global issues that are happening due to human ignorance. True Parents prepared and invested for the future in order to solve the encroaching food problem. However, that many mistakes occurred due to the ignorance and shortsighted judgment regarding the future of children that were supposed to follow and support True Parents is true.

When I look at all of you, I see Heavenly Parent’s and True Parents’ dream, which is one global family covering 200 nations.

To solve problems, those at the UN have made effort for the past 70 years, but they have not grasped the main point. All nations need to come together as one, but for that to happen, they need to come together centered on one goal, which they lack. Big nations just want to become bigger, and nations that have a lot, still want more. The state of our world today, including Europe, results in nations simply pursuing more of their own national interests. For 2,000 years, Heaven made effort to guide the Christian culture to bring forth the birth of democracy. This, in turn, was to usher in God’s era, True Parents’ era, and to bring the world together as one. At first, it went well, but today if we look at the state of the world—even America—the center of the democratic world, cannot solve its problems. Therefore, America’s consideration for its neighbors and the world is declining. Because of this, in 1971 True Father showed the direction to lead humankind in America, through the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. True Father’s first motivation to go to America was to remind America of its forgotten roots, which Heaven had prepared for 200 years. True Father enlightened America and said, “I have come as a doctor to heal America’s sickness. I have come as a fireman to extinguish America’s fire.” Many righteous people came to respect Father. However, during that time, communism took over two-thirds of the world. America had forgotten its original mission and stood at the crossroad on the course toward communism. In this condition, the Messiah, True Parents, came to awaken and save America, but in response, America did not welcome them. We can see America’s future from history, and looking at the global situation we are facing, as well as what will come of America if it fails to stand in front of the world and in front of True Parents based on the many blessings it originally received. Do you understand?

I can see that most of you here are in our 2nd and 3rd generations. Through True Parents, the realm of the 4th generation will soon develop. Do you think True Mother will still be on earth during the time of the 5th, 6th and 7th generations? You are the blessed children through your parents. You are blessed children. You belong to True Parents’ realm. Is that right? [Yes]. You live in the same era as True Parents. Your dream, True Parents’ dream and Heavenly Parent’s dream should be one. You are the true children and citizens of Cheon Il Guk in the new era and new history that came from True Parents. While True Parents are living on earth, you will be living witnesses and embody living history everywhere in the world and in front of these 7.3 billion people. I sincerely hope that you can become people who will guide and give the blessing to the 7.3 billion people on earth, so that they will live near the bosom of Heavenly Parent and True Parents.

You are the first in the history. True Parents are happy because of you. I am proud of all of you. Please do not forget that the blessing and love of True Parents will be always be present in all of your hard work in order for all of you to reach your dreams.