Sam Nagasaka
October 16, 2013
I have accompanied several True Family members on speaking tours of Japan. I would like to provide a few points about True Mother's tour that stood out in comparison to past tours. This was Mother's first visit to Japan since True Father's ascension, and it commemorated the fifty-fifth anniversary of the mission to Japan. She spoke in five cities and met with forty thousand members through rallies and Hoon Dok Hae. She healed members' hearts and brought a sense of unity to the movement by appreciating the foundation built through the efforts of forerunners and presenting hopes for the future.
In between the rallies, she enjoyed the beauty of nature in Japan, visiting the natural habitat of cranes on Hokkaido, the botanical park in Nagoya, hills covered with trees displaying autumn leaves in Karuizawa' and a garden of herbs in Kobe. She shared her heart for her homeland and taught us that we should appreciate nature and love our homeland as God's land.
Mother's messages reminded Japan that it has a leading role in the mission to bring world peace, that blessed families should live in happiness, taking care of their children and tribe, and that as a unified community we need to create an environment to make all these possible.
At every Hoon Dok Hae, there were presentations of participants' reflections from the rally, from members and peace ambassadors. Witnessing victors also testified, because Mother emphasized witnessing as a core pillar in building the foundations to accomplish Vision 2020. These testimonies were all quite inspiring; almost all were testimonies of witnessing to the members of one's family and relatives, not of street witnessing, or door-to-door witnessing. Members had tended to give up on those closest to them, such as husband, children, parents and close relatives. This failure to share faith and heart had been one of the heavy pains that held members' lives hostage. However, under the blessing of the time of the New Tribal Messiah, some members broke through to their family members and experienced the greatest liberation and happiness. It was significant that these success stories were recognized and treated with distinction. Members were encouraged to share them with others.
Mother also took time to celebrate the second-generation of our movement. In Tokyo, she held a banquet tor youth leaders and listened to the testimonies of blessed children with responsibilities as church leaders and CARP leaders. In every rally and Hoon Dok Hae, second-generation Unificationists presented various impressive, beautiful and refreshing types of entertainment. Mother encouraged them and reminded leaders and parents about the latent potential and the possibilities of the generations to come. She seemed to want to show hope in our movement through the maturity and beauty of those in our second generation.
Another outstanding point of this tour was that many members of the National Diet (Japan's legislature) came to show their respects to True Parents in public. In the past, many political figures came to show support, but did not seem comfortable to be in the public eye because of the social and national negativity against our church. time, however, many of them came to visit True Mother and speak publicly of their appreciation of True Parents and the Unification Church. Almost all stayed until the end of the program to listen to True Mother as she spoke to our members. Many of them attended with sincerity and appeared impressed by the spirit of the gathering.
During the twelve days of her stay, True Mother healed the hearts of thousands of members, and showed that hopes for the future were already there within us. As members praised the glory of True Parents, her presence brought confidence and a sense of unity in the community, the element most needed to kick-off toward the goals of Vision 2020.