Hyung Jin Moon
May 23, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea
Transcribed by: Jacinta Moreau / Regina Shin
Proofread / Polished by: Karen Katayama / Bruno Klotz
Yeon Ah Nim’s Welcoming Remarks:
Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! It is really great to see you all again!
Many people came up to me and said, “Last week Hyung Jin Nim looked so lonely without you!” So, I am here with you and with my dear husband again. I am sorry that I was not able to be here last week. I hope that you have a wonderful week, for your family and for yourself as well. Brothers and sisters, always remember that God and True Parents are always with you, wherever you are. Aju.
Hyung Jin Nim’s Welcoming Remarks
Brothers and sisters:
We have some amazing news! There are thousands and thousands of books that are being sold here in Korea. When True Father’s autobiography was released, just a couple of weeks ago, it was 38th on the national list of books. It was number thirty-eight. But then very quickly it skyrocketed to number twelve, and we checked it today, and it is now number three nationwide! Out of all the books, every single book, it is Number Three in the nation! Amazing! That is why we wear our sign with pride.
On Friday True Parents called us out to feed us mandoo because my wife was still recovering etc. I wore this (necklace with Unification sign) to the Mandoo House, the dumpling store. I thought Father was going to say something because usually he doesn’t like men wearing necklaces. And here I was, a man and wearing a necklace! So I went to Father, I had this necklace on, and I said “Father, look at our sign,” and he said “That is beautiful, boy!” He was so happy to see it!
We ended up walking around with it and showing everybody: “This is our Unification sign.” We were showing off the pride of our Unification Church. Let’s give it up for Unification Church, brothers and sisters! We explained to people, “This has ‘Chun-oo-eh-gi’. That means it has the power, the energy of the entire universe right inside, and so when you wear that, it has tremendous power.”
Brothers and sisters, we are in the age when society is now looking at us differently. It is now interested in True Parents’ life and story, so it is even more important for us to be proud of who we are, Unificationists, and to be proud of our tradition.
This is one of the things we are starting here. A lot of our ministers will be wearing this (necklace) in the coming days. The Two Rivers Choir is already wearing this, as you saw. Don’t they look fantastic with this! Let’s give a huge applause! OK, we are going to go to the Cheon Seong Gyeong now.
Today’s reading is from page 1027. Father speaks about his experience at Hungnam prison. This was when he was incarcerated for speaking and preaching the word of God. He says this,
“One time I had to dig a tunnel. We became so hungry while we were working that I could not lift the tool that my hand was grasping. We were on the verge of collapse. When we heard ‘Lunch time!’ you cannot imagine how wonderful that sounded to our ears, and you cannot imagine the feeling of that moment.”
This got me thinking about how God has walked the providential course for 6000 years, so many thousands of years waiting for children who can inherit His true love, who can give and receive with Him as partners. How thirsty He must have been for that! When I saw how Father was so elated to hear the bowl of rice coming after toiling and suffering and working, being imprisoned for something he didn’t even do, it really reminded me of God’s course, how God has been suffering and toiling for the day that True Parents can come, for the day that somebody can inherit their true love and give and receive with them as equal partners. And then how happy He must feel when finally that thirst is quenched.
Then brothers and sisters, that also got me thinking about the service. When we come to service, that is really what we are doing here. We may be a minority in Korea, but there is a saying, “With God, we are a majority”. Let’s give it up for God! Let us come to service with that kind of mind, with praise, thanksgiving and gratitude, not focusing on what is wrong in our life. There are many obstacles and challenges we face. We can’t focus on those and dread the future. During the service, when we come together to worship, brothers and sisters, let’s throw that out. Throw that out of the window! It is time to focus on the goodness of God. It is time to focus on the hope in your lives. It is time to focus on the fact that He has a plan for each and every one of us and that He has instilled within us His divine plan, His providence. It is time for us to remember that this week.
If we do that during this service, if we return that in gratitude, in praise and thanksgiving, then I believe this week is going to be better. It is going to be brighter. We are going to get more things done, and we are going to be even more blessed. If you want to be blessed, let’s give it up for God.
Brothers and sisters, once again, welcome to our service, and let’s start with that kind of attitude. Thank you so much.
Hyung Jin Nim’s Prayer
Thank you so much, Father, for allowing us to pray for this nation of Korea and for former President Roh Moo Hyun. We pray that he may be in a safe place in the spirit world. We pray that he can truly grow in the spirit world and become one of Your Abel good spirits there. Father, we pray that You may also awaken the nation of Korea so that they may understand their providential significance. It is so easy to fall into cycles of depression and negativity with all the situations around us as a nation.
But, Father, let Korea understand that they are not simply just one nation amongst many, but that they are the Fatherland of faith, the place where You have prepared our True Parents to come. Father, let them understand that identity in this time when their identity is being shaken to its roots. Let them understand that this is a holy land, a sacred land, a land of tremendous providential significance, and let us understand and become true Cheon Il Guk owners so that we can help this nation and other nations to understand True Parents and open that land of glory that you so desire. We thank You for all these things, and we pray with our hearts united as one, as central Blessed families. Aju.
Interesting Story:
I heard an interesting story about a mother and her daughter Isabel. They were sitting at church one day, and the pastor was very inspired. He was talking about a certain topic, and the sermon went on for 30 minutes, for an hour, an hour and half, and he kept on being very inspired and kept on preaching. Isabel became very visibly disturbed, she was getting a little impatient and frustrated. Mom kept on saying: “Shh, he is speaking!” Finally, Isabel pulled on her mom’s arm with an angry face and said: “Mom, give him the money now, so that we can go!”
Main Sermon:
Brothers and sisters, today I want to talk about “United we stand, divided we fall.”
Of course, we know that phrase. In order to live the blessed life we must protect our community and also learn to work together as a community. You know that the phrase “United we stand, divided we fall” is a tremendous phrase. This has so much meaning for us in this stage of our development as the Unification movement. If we are to unite and really move the nation in this last phase of the time when True Parents are here, then it is so critical that we are able to persevere through our unity. If we stay scattered we will not be able to do the great things that God and True Parents desire for us to do while they are here on earth. This is the really important thing. Today it is crucial whether we unite as Unification Family or stay scattered. This will determine our fate in this era of liberation and complete release.
Let’s look at some of the World Scriptures today. Let’s read from Matthew 18:19 -20:
“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by the Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.
God’s presence is there in our community when we gather, when we move with a common purpose, when we throw away our individual desires in order to live like that, adopt and understand that God’s desire is to work through us and our potential, that what He wants to give us is real life. The community is really the place of protection. It’s the place where God’s presence is, it’s the place where God moves the world. Here in Matthew we see this today.
Let’s take a look at Islam today. Let’s read the Koran 49.10 together:
“The believers indeed are brothers; so set things right between your two brothers, and fear God; so you will find mercy.”
Once again the believers and the united community are brothers, and the divisions in the community need to be overcome, so that we can understand and find mercy from God. We can see and hear this in a refreshing way from our Islamic brothers and sisters.
Let’s look at Buddhism today. This is from the Dhammapaha 194. Let’s read this together:
“Happy is the unity of the Sangha. Happy is the discipline of the united ones.”
The Sangha in the Buddhist community is one of the triple jewels. The Sangha is the community of practitioners and the people that support those practitioners, the monks and nuns, in those communities. The importance of the community is that it is the place where the discipline and teachings are actualized.
Let’s take a look at True Father’s words. This is from True Father’s words 153rd volume, page 183. Let’s read it together:
“You must realize that you are one family member centering on God. You have to think about how precious the phrase 'family member' is. Please let us not forget this extraordinary heavenly meaning which is hidden in the name 'family member.' Heavenly Father, we earnestly pray that You will make us one and let us become soldiers of heaven who can go out and fight adoring Your day humbly on our bended knees in front of Your Will.”
Father is reminding us today of how precious the name “family member” is.
I heard a story about a father who was passing away. He was in the last stage of his life. He was on his deathbed, and he had two sons. He called those two sons forward and told them: “I want you to bring six sticks.” So they went out into the forest and gathered six different sticks. He told them: “I want you to bundle these up together and I want you both to try to break them.” They each tried to break the bundle but couldn’t. So they tried it together but still couldn’t break it. Then he told them: “Separate the sticks so they are single and then try to snap them in half.” They could easily break each one of the sticks in half. It was so easy.
Of course, we understand the parable of this story. Together you cannot be broken but if you separate then you will be vulnerable and you will be easy to break. It’s the same with us as the Unification Movement. The Unification Church is really not that big, especially when we look at the demographics here in Korea. We are only about 14,000 members strong. We have to stick together, but not just that, but we also have to bring new sticks into our bundle, so to speak, so that the Unification Movement will be stronger and harder to break.
As Unification Members we have a mission here in Korea. This is what we are trying to do. This is what all the members are becoming owners of. We are here to testify. We are here to change the nation of Korea, not by means of politics or business only, but in faith, in belief.
This is a real mission for us: On behalf of True Parents, to proclaim the word "True Parents", the coming of True Parents, the importance of the providential role of this nation of Korea, to have the Korean citizens understand the importance of this nation as a holy land, to re-identify and re-set and so re-define their own identity as Korean people and to be able to move this land so that it can bring a new light of inspiration to our Unification family and to the world. It is only in moving together that we can do this.
This last year President Lee Myung Bak, the current president here in Korea, was under fire for a misunderstanding between him and the major sect of Buddhism, the Chogje order. There were many circumstances that led up to a peaceful demonstration in front of City Hall. Actually it was on the news all over the world. About 50.000 Buddhists including thousands of monks, gathered in front of the City Hall to demonstrate against religious discrimination.
In this administration there were some issues that came up towards non-Christian organizations, one of them the Buddhist organization. So the Buddhist tradition came together and wanted to make a statement. There is a psychology behind peaceful demonstrating. At this particular event, where 50,000 lay and monastic Buddhists came out in front of City Hall to demonstrate against religious discrimination, they wanted a statement of apology from the President that stated that he is not discriminating against Buddhism as a religion in Korea. There were issues like not including any of the major Buddhist temples on the GPS system for cars, even though they included fishing areas. They didn’t include any historic Buddhist temples that are thousands of years old! So they were under fire for practicing religious discrimination.
The head monk of the Chogye order was searched; his car was stopped by the police and searched in a very humiliating situation. This created a huge uproar in the Buddhist tradition. They really demonstrated against the current administration.
So, this situation was going on. They gathered 50,000 of their leaders and lay people to demonstrate for religious freedom. They were using the psychology of demonstration. They wanted to make the statement that Buddhism is a real force, that you cannot ignore this major religion here in Korea. The result was that it evoked a statement of apology from the President and a more sensitive treatment of non-Christians in the land of Korea.
Now, understand that the demonstration psychology was effective because they did what they did. If they would have placed one monk on one street in every city around Korea, it wouldn’t really have had a big effect. If they had split and scattered then the result would not be the same, because the people walking down the street would see only that one demonstrator, demonstrating on a street. But when doing demonstrations in these situations, there is that psychology that the group organize in a common, concentrated location. If they have a thousand people they don’t scatter them in a thousand different cities or villages. They localize them. They bring them together, so that there is a more visible demonstration.
This is one of the important issues of our tradition as well. This is really the effect that the next stage temple, the growth stage temple, is going to have for our Unification Church Tradition. Here we are going to have a much stronger, visible, peaceful demonstration of our faith, of our education, of what we believe in, of our message. This is why it is going to have so much more impact. We are here on a side street in Korea but when we move to the Chung Bok Goong that is in the middle on Yongsan-gu, the Tongil sign will be that big on that building, and it will say “Unification Church” right on the building, proud and strong. It is going to be a real demonstration of the Unification Tradition growing and improving in society, gaining respect and becoming mainstream in society.
I was talking with a sister here this past week and met her family. They donated about 12,000 US dollars for the growth stage temple, so their name will be on the wall. They were expressing to me that they had a very hard financial situation. The husband is Japanese, an incredible individual, such an inspiring person. The sister is Korean. They were explaining to me that this is actually an extremely difficult offering that they felt compelled to do. They told me that they were in the process of moving to a smaller area but they really felt that they wanted to be victorious in offering this, so that they can really participate as owners in the building of the temple.
The sister said that she was really struggling a lot in her own situation, also having children, etc. So, they didn’t know what to do. But after they made the offering, she said that she had a dream. She said: “In that dream I saw us, as Unificationists, walking into this incredible building, where people from all over the world were there. We were actually proud of being Unificationists and could bring people to church. We didn’t only bring them to small buildings, we brought them to this really proud place, where we can show our faith and educate them so that they understand what an Unificationist is and can become an Unificationist themselves.” She realized then that in that dream the spirit world was telling her to be proud of participating in creating that reality.
That really gave me a lot of strength. That really inspired me tremendously. Here in this land of Korea we had about 16.000 members in the 1970s, and it has decreased to about 14.000 members in 2005. We have decreased as a church organization! As a religious movement we have not been able to witness and show society that we will be substantial, that we will be permanent here in this land of Korea and in the world.
Here in Korea we have about 300 plus churches now with an average of about 20-50 members per church. Those are extremely small areas; 20-50 members including Middle and High School students. Sometimes we have two churches on the same block. They are very tiny, almost as if we were scattering them. Think of the Buddhist demonstration. If they were scattering all their monks they really had no visible strength to show.
But now we are starting to unify and gather our strength, so that we can show the world that we are becoming more substantial. We can become more confident that we are not as small as we thought. There is this sister that we brought to Headquarters Church. She was attending a church that had about 20 members; her daughter really didn’t want to go to church at all. When they came to Headquarters Church the daughter was elected as the High School students’ leader, as a women leader!
When we talked to her mother she said how inspired she was to see her daughter being inspired to come to church. They were at a church where they were used to seeing just a couple of people gathering, and this is our Unification Movement! But then the daughter was so surprised, coming to the Headquarters Church and seeing thousands of Unification Members every week. She became more confident in herself as Unificationist, saying: “Wait a minute, we are not just 20 strong, we are a couple of thousand members strong, we actually live this tradition!”
This is what is happening. In the same way, we must remember this phrase at this time: “United we stand, divided we fall.” When we come together and truly try to make a stand for True Parents and our blessed families that have sacrificed until now trying to make a stand for our message to be heard, that is something that requires tremendous confidence and willpower.
In the USA there are always a lot of hurricanes and flooding in the southern regions. Whenever this flooding comes the people in those cities have to come together and try to block the flood water. The way they do that is to get sandbags that act as a levy or a wall against the rising waters. They don’t necessarily block the water but they redirect it to different, safer areas. Think about this principle. If the sandbags are scattered out and there are big holes in between it has absolutely no chance of holding back a river, let alone turning it to a different direction. It’s only when the sandbags are placed together, when their strength comes together, even though they are individually small, only then can they change the course of a flood.
This is the same principle. If we are truly to change the tide of our status and our presence as the Unification Movement in society and in the world then it is so important that we come together and don’t scatter our strength in different areas and waste energy while trying to fight this enormous onslaught but unify our strength so that we can direct this tide and torrent into a more positive area. I believe that these changes are happening in our Unification Movement. The individual sandbags might be small but when they are placed together the wall becomes more powerful every time. By supporting each other, by holding this way, this can be greater than the force of the opposing power. That is the current situation here, not only in Korea but in other nations of the world as well.
Many times we have talked about how Korea is in the most blessed situation. We have True Father’s autobiography being number one, we have election systems that are being implemented in our church, and we have financial transparency. These are great steps in a society. They look at us as a growing and developing Unification Movement. When we stand together like this then we have the power and the chance to change this tide and our destiny.
I was talking to a minister at a small counseling session this week. He is a great minister, a young, blessed child minister that has been a minister for over a decade. He told me something like this: “Now I feel that this is the last chance we have. This is my path. I followed my father who was also a minister. I chose this path because of my father. In my life I wanted to do something so that the Unification Church can be proud of itself. That it can be fully recognized in society while my father is here. I believe that this is my last opportunity to do that.” And I told him: “Moksanim (Korean for minister), I also believe that this is MY last opportunity. It is the last opportunity for our movement to make a positive change for the course of our history while True Parents are still here.”
We made big changes in our church and in our image and how people look at us. This chance won’t come again if we loose it now.
I heard a story given by Aesop. Of course many historians debate this but it is said that Aesop was a Greek slave about 500 BC who wrote many fables and stories. One of his fables is called “The Four Oxen and the Lion.” This is a story where the lion is trying to hunt these oxen down. He wants to hunt and eat them. But he is very frustrated because every time he tries to attack these oxen they put their tails together and point their horns out in all directions. They do not allow the lion to penetrate the wall of horns. But one day the oxen have a quarrel. “The grass is fresher over there,” said the first ox. “Let’s go over there.” The second one said: “Oh, I don’t like that place, I don’t want to climb that hill. The valley over there is better. Let’s go over there.” The third one said: “I don’t want to go either way. If you go that way it’s dangerous, the lion is going to be there. We should stay here.” The fourth one said: “You guys are wrong. Why are you scared of lions? I will lead you to better pastures, come follow me and we will go to a better place.”
The first one said: “I don’t want to go anywhere. I will go to the valley. You do what you want.” So he goes off to the valley. The second one says: “I don’t want to go there, I will go the hill, and you do what you want.” And he goes to the hill. The third one says: “Fine, you can go to your deaths, I will stay right here and eat the grass here.” The fourth one says to him: “Okay, come listen to me. I will show you the better pasture.” But the third one says: “Just because you are older than me doesn’t mean I have to listen to you. You are not my boss. You go over there if you want.” The fourth one says: “I’m not scared of the lion. I will go.” So, they ended up separating, going on their own way. One went to the valley, one went to the river, one went to the hill, and one stayed in that place. As you can quickly guess the conclusion of the story, the lion was able to pick each one off and devour all of them.
If you look at this story, it is really division and the self-centered thinking that leads to the oxen’s death. They forgot that they were strongest when they put their heads together, when they worked together. When they divided and scattered they thought that they could do it alone. The lion ended up picking them off one by one, and they all perished. This is the same for our Unification Tradition as well. We must not be foolish and think that we can do it alone. We have to understand that it is only through our unity that we are going to be able to inspire the world. It’s only by our unity and by working together that we will be able to witness to the nation and share the message of True Parents: To inherit the true love of God.
We are in a central time in our history as Unification Tradition. It’s an amazing time actually. We have succeeded tremendously until now. But it is a time now that we have to see our reality. We have succeeded, but now is the time to go to the next stage while True Parents are here.
What can we learn today, brothers and sisters? We can understand that united we stand, divided we fall. We are here together in the land of Korea, and we are showing that the church is changing, it is growing.
I want to relay to you one of the most incredible developments in Unification Church history. It just happened on the 17th which was just a couple of days ago. In Kang-nam region, which is a region here in Seoul, the regional director retired because he is 65 years of age. So, we had one empty regional director’s seat. There was no regional director in that Kang-nam region. The request came in to elect a leader. As you know, the ministers have elected the regional directors in our Unification Church. This happened last year for the first time in our history.
But then the request came in to let all the regional directors submit a recommendation of who should be the leader in that area. So Kook Jin and I said: “Why not just let the members decide? Why not let the members who are true owners of those communities decide who is going to be their regional director?” We reported this to True Parents and we got the approval.
So, to the first time in Unification Church history, on the 17th of this month, in the Kang-nam region, the owners of the community, that is the community members who tithed for at least one year without skipping one month, came together and voted to elect the regional director. This is the first time in Unification Church history! (Applause).
This is the liberation of the members, not to be under the leaders anymore. Now the leaders have to pay attention, not only to the leaders above them and do well with them, but the leaders now have to stand in a position where they have to really serve the members. They need to learn to truly inspire the members and give them hope.
So, what did we do? Three candidates who were under the top ten ministers here in Korea were put on the candidate list. They were asked if they wanted to participate and decided that they wanted to. In the list we showed transparently the different data that is connected to each one of them: What kind of educational background they received, what kind of positions they had held and what kind of financial assets they held. This is transparency, showing to the membership that the leadership has to be accountable before the congregation. This is a huge step in our Unification Tradition. It is an incredible thing. I think this is one of the most incredible ones that I see.
We will continue to push in this direction so that the members truly become the owners and really are deciding and are able to shape the future of the Unification Movement. That is an amazing day. That is what the age of complete liberation and complete release is all about. I think this is really different from the indemnity period. If you believe that, then let’s give it up for God and True Parents. (Applause)
There is no greater pride than this. This is a very big change. We have now many other changes, as you all heard. There are the financial management changes and the transparent accounting; we show all the financial assets and how they are being used. That report is given every two months at the Headquarters Church to the congregation, in public. Even though VIP guests are there, they can see that report transparently. Also the media has changed and all those things give us great pride. It’s an absolutely incredible opportunity that we have in this nation of Korea; to be able to move the fatherland while True Parents are here. It’s an incredible time. It really is prepared by heaven.
In order to do this we have to be able to stick together, brothers and sisters. The construction of the growth stage temple begins in the middle of June, which is only three weeks away. The grand opening will be this December or next January. It’s just in a matter of months that we are moving to the place where we are going to be on a national stage. There the nation’s people will be able to openly come to the church and learn about our message of inheriting God’s true love, learn about God’s true vision, about True Parent’s course and the course of our brothers and sisters, learn about all the international couples that have married across the world etc. All these things the world will be able to become more substantially aware of, and they will be able to become Unificationists themselves.
In order to do this we need to stick together. It is in our unity that we become strong. It is in our unity that we can stand, not in scattering about. If we are truly able to do this, we can move to the next stage and have the incredible opportunity to witness to 21,000 new members. Here at the Headquarters Church we have 7,000 registered members, and we are setting a goal of 21,000 new members who make the commitment and become filial sons and daughters to True Parents.
This is a tremendous task, an incredible, seemingly almost impossible task that is in front of us. But so many things were impossible when we first started. The election system was absolutely impossible. True Parent’s autobiography was absolutely impossible when we started this ministry. With the church situation at that time, transparent financial management was absolutely impossible. Turning around one hundred million dollars in debts to fifty million dollars in profit was absolutely impossible. Turning around the nation’s media from negatively attacking our church to being completely positive in over a hundred articles was absolutely impossible two years ago. Everybody was telling us: "This was absolutely impossible." We have heard this comment quite a few times in our past two years.
So when we move forward to the growth stage temple we have this incredible mission that True Parents gave us of gaining 21,000 members in our church. This is almost more than our total current membership. You have to understand how incredible that goal is! But we have done things that have been impossible, that people have told us to be impossible. Those changes have been made by the blessing of True Parents and the direction of heaven. We know that we cannot do it on our own, and we are truly grateful. It is only in our unity -- “United we stand, divided we fall” -- that we can truly move the nation. This is a tremendous opportunity that we don’t want to waste.
Brothers and sisters, if we can move forward with this heart and this incredible mission and with a victorious mind, with our hopes and heads held up high, I do believe that we will live the blessed life and will inherit the true love of God, being a greater blessing to our families and to this great world. If you received this today let’s give it up for God and True Parents. (Applause)
Hyung Jin Nim’s Prayer
Heavenly Father,
Thank You so much for this day that You have blessed us with. Father, we entered into Your presence with praise and thanksgiving, with gratitude. Father, we know that You have done so many amazing things in our lives. After we met True Parents, our lives changed completely. Father, we may have become blessed with somebody that we have never, ever met. Father, we pray that we may understand this incredible life that we have lived. Father, we understand that we may have had tribulation and obstacles and hills that we had to cross but, Father, we know that each one of those things was planned. Each one of those things caused us to become stronger, to become more victorious, Father, to become filled with the overcoming power that You wish for us to have.
Father, we know that now in this incredible time, in this incredible nation, True Father’s life story and his word are now creating tremendous interest among the nation’s people; not just in our own desires but in reality. Father, we see that the autobiography is third bestseller nationwide amongst all genres of every single book that is published here and every single international book that is here as well. True Father’s word, his life is number three. It is creating a tremendous interest in this nation. Father, let us understand that in this hard time, in this nation of Korea, where people are losing their sense of identity, where they are losing hope in their futures, Father let us truly allow the Unification Movement to be that incredible beacon of hope, to be that amazing source of inspiration Father, the inspiration that has guided our own lives on our incredible path of faith. Father, we have seen incredible, astonishing changes that have happened in our church. The age of liberation is here and it is unfolding before our eyes and Father we pray that we may be able to lead the nation; we may be able to inspire the nation Father, to understand that this land is a holy land and truly to understand and pick up the mantle of this incredible providential work.
Father, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to be here in this nation. We know we may not be here forever or long in this nation but Father, while we are here, let us truly participate. Let us truly be Cheon Il Guk owners so that we can truly inherit your true love and be able to make an incredible difference in the lives of those around us. Father, we thank you so much for we know that united we stand and divided we fall. We pray that we may come together in unity into a common purpose to truly testify about the life of our True Parents, about the incredible preparation and providence that you have prepared and the incredible community that has lived and served and sacrificed for the world -- the Unification Tradition -- an incredible community! Father, we pray that this can be shown to the world, that we also may continue to grow and mature. Father, we wish that we can become greater in every single aspect so that truly we may be that incredible beacon of hope for this new era that You are preparing. Thank you so much. We pray all these things together in our own names, united here as one and around the world, as central Blessed families. Aju.