Foreign Missions: 1975-1985 -- The First Ten Years

Nancy Neiland Barton
May 1985

Foreign missionary Jack Hart and IRFF representative Chatchai in Thailand, in April 1981. The children are eagerly waiting to taste some chocolate nuts, made by the owner of a coffee shop.

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the Lord.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The Lord replied, "My son, my precious child. I love you and would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
Author Unknown

And you, foreign missionary, have you had such a dream? Have memorable scenes of your life in the mission field flashed across the sky of your mind? You, too, decided to follow God and our True Parents and had the encouragement that they would be there with you at all times. Recalling these last ten years of your life, did you notice that during your most troubled times you, too, were lifted by your God, your True Parents, held in their arms, and carried?

You had many dreams, before you left for your nation. You dreamed of restoring your mission country, offering it to Heaven through True Parents. Armed with the truth of the Principle, and the love of God and True Parents, you were so full of life and enthusiasm when you went out. It seems your dreams have remained strong within your mind and heart during these years, for many of you are still walking the path of the pioneer missionary, which appears to have now widened into a road....

Ten years is a long time. Countless stories and incidents retold from your lives could evoke laughter or tears. Yet what has it meant to wear that glorious title, "foreign missionary"? It is easy to conjure up the rather idealized version of what a missionary does: shouting God's message across the plains and mountains of your country, longing to embrace each man, woman and child and breathe life into their waiting souls. But it wasn't that easy, was it? And there was often no glory attached to your title.

Many members have prayed for you, not realizing the hardships, the indemnity that came across your path, not realizing the depth of suffering you endured to offer the progress made in your nations. Not every story can be told, but in this tribute to the investment made by Heavenly Father, True Parents and each of you, some of the typical and some of the not- so-typical events which comprised your daily lives during these first ten years of worldwide activity will be shared.

Spring, 1975. In three different corners of the world, the young men and women of the Unification movement of Japan, Germany, and the United States chosen to brave the elements of the unknown world had gathered for training in their respective nations. Each had been given such a precious title: foreign missionary.

Nearly 300 different sets of footprints left from the warmth and security of their spiritual homelands, and the love and comfort of their national leaders, in the largest wave of missionaries sent out by the Unification Church at one time.

(Previously, the European nations, Canada, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, India, several Middle East nations, and several South American nations were pioneered. With the exception of the European and the first four nations listed above, these countries were sent more (or new) missionaries to supplement the work already underway, or to start a new stage of work because the first missionaries had had to leave.)

God was about to take them on a journey. Most of them did not turn back. And no matter what happened on the other side of their rainbows -- even if for some reason they had to leave the mission field and are now serving in a different assignment at this time -- they will never be the same.

Digesting a Different Culture and Surviving

Father's vision is so broad. He looked forward to the time when each missionary trinity would make an economic foundation, contact professors and theologians, engage in media work, help develop natural resources, found or manage schools -- the list of his plans goes on and on. By sending his representatives to every country possible, he was planting seeds which would even to rally help in the building and creation of the Kingdom of God on earth. But initially he kept almost silent. In his wisdom, he did not outline all these plans before they left. He knew that before he could direct them in such activities, they needed to first contend with daily survival. He knew that they needed time to digest the language, the culture, the problems with unity, the hardship of overcoming themselves. And in a sense, he kept all of us guessing about why they were sent.

However, when Father gathered all the foreign missionaries and national and state leaders to hold the first World Conference on the occasion of his 60th birthday, he no longer kept silent about why he sent out the foreign missionaries.

Father said then that if he had not sent out foreign missionaries, he would have been accused by the people in spirit world that their nations on earth never had the chance to hear the Principle. However, shortly after the missionaries departed, the Unification Church in many established nations -- especially the United States during the Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument campaigns -- went through incredible persecution. True Father was grateful when news of our movement spread throughout the world and stories and warnings of the impending danger of "Moonies" appeared in the newspapers of all other continents. Father could say with confidence that the government and the people knew of our missionary activity; therefore, there was no way he could be accused.

He further commented:

I was hoping that as soon as you reached the mission field you would be faced with enormous persecution and suffering. Then you would have had absolutely no time to worry about internal difficulties. You would simply have had to unite and face the situation. I was hoping that you could all experience this, and many of you actually did. I knew that 1975 was a very severe year of persecution, and I knew that in 1976 we would hit the peak of persecution. I knew that was the pinnacle we had to pass over. That is why I sent you out in 1975.

You must have had to overcome many cultural barriers: there was one American, one Japanese, and one German, each thinking differently on the basis of his own upbringing and standard. That in itself is already history-making. No one can find at any time in human history that three people coming from such contrasting cultures as Japan, America, and Germany came together, trying to pursue a common purpose and goal. Why? To save the country and people. It is a virtually impossible task, yet backing you was an organization and a leader who believed it could be done.

True Father knew well the silent suffering that each missionary had experienced. In fact, although all missionaries had dearly longed for some words from True Father, such communications had been few and far between.

I left you practically all alone for the past five years. I wanted you to be able to come back and write your experiences. I wanted to create an enormous manual of instructive material for future history. You have that text within yourselves. This was one goal of sending you out five years ago.

At that conference, True Father asked each of them to write their testimony of missionary life. He requested them to include how they achieved unity and adapted to the language, culture, and customs of their nations; also to describe all spiritual phenomena experienced by the missionaries themselves and their native spiritual children; and to record what and how much was devoted in prayer, concern, or care for the sake of one person's salvation. He also asked them to express how they viewed the problems and future of their nation from the viewpoint of a spiritual parent. These testimonies, excerpts from which appear in this article, have been called by Father "The Acts of the Apostles" of the Unification Church. When he commissioned these testimonies he already had some idea of what they would contain.

Even without hearing your report directly, I can understand it. I know each one of you suffered. Your report will be the record of suffering for the sake of God: You suffered; you may have been imprisoned; you were mistreated; you were persecuted; you shed tears; you may have even had to run away from the eyes of the authorities because you wanted to remain in that mission field. Every one of you has a record of suffering.

The First Shock

Many foreign missionaries later said they were full of anxiety during the plane ride to their new homeland. Romantic adventures perhaps filled their mind, but at the same time, fear threaded itself around their hearts. What would it be like? What would they find? And even more importantly, what would find them? Many later confessed that they were sure someone would cut their throats, that they would be robbed as soon as they stepped out of their hotel, or that they would catch malaria or another dread disease simply by breathing the air!

Many countries were much hotter than the missionaries originally anticipated -- the waves of heat hit them as soon they stepped off the plane, virtually drenching them. In some nations, the humidity level matched the temperature. Energy was immediately sapped, and reality began to set in.

Yet stepping off the plane for the first time was a historic moment that each of them personally shared with Heavenly Father. One sister said that just before she left the plane and stepped on the soil of her country, she felt like Neil Armstrong stepping on the moon for the first time.

A new world. So many unusual sights and sounds. The waves of the ocean pounding the shores of an island dotted with thatched huts, tea plantations as far as the eye could see, the windy silence of the desert, luscious trees of fruits not found at home, the chords of loud Latin music filling the air, the tempting pungency of curry and saffron, the vivid colors of jacaranda trees.... These were some of the beautiful things which beckoned them to embrace the uniqueness of God's nature in this new land. But the vast majority of missionaries claimed that they were internally and externally not prepared for the shock of seeing the terrible poverty in their countries.

A first glimpse of a tiny country in Africa:

I looked along the streets, observing the people. Most vividly I remember a fat, bare-breasted woman who had huge pots of beans and other foods that she was dishing out to some children. There were hundreds of black people on their way to work. The unpaved and uneven roads, the ruddy soil -- everything was plunged into the red light of the rising sun. For me, it was a special atmosphere, as it was the dawn of our mission, too. With a certain anxiety, I made my approach into the city. I envisioned a big city center with at least some skyscrapers. (My search for skyscrapers was needless!)

I'll never forget my first walk across the big market of the city. At first! I didn't know what was going on -- such a swarm of people, a loud babel of voices, and a smell that made me feel sick. But something inside told me that! I should be able to handle it since I was assigned to work in this country. So I set a condition to walk through the market. I must confess, the first time! I held my nose. Most difficult was the problem of the lack of toilets. "Lack" is not the right word, the toilet could actually be anywhere, in front of any door along the street. Both men as well as women make no secret of this practice.

And from the Middle East:

Toward the evening I wandered out on the streets for the first time and a completely new world opened in front of my eyes: The brown mud and stone houses looked as if they had no roofs. The people who passed by seemed very wild-looking to me. They wore turbans, and around their hips were girded big crooked daggers which gave a rather militant impression. Women, on the other hand, were dressed all in black and wordlessly flitted through the streets. I was in a different century! I felt Abraham could have walked here or maybe Moses, but then I saw that empty tin cans were scattered all around and I knew I had not traveled back in time. Nobody seemed to care about picking them up.

I dared to make my way deeper into the city. Barefoot children wearing skirts and little caps roamed through the lanes; the intense aroma of baked bread permeated the air. The sun could not be seen anymore. The clouds had faded into numerous hues of red Never before had I experienced a sunset of such intensity. The whole city was suddenly plunged into a symphony; from over forty minarets throughout the city, muezzins summoned the people to prayer. The people quickly hastened to the mosque and soon the melodious recitation of the Koran could he heard from the loudspeaker.

Once the initial shock or even repulsion had gone, what was it that bridged the chasm in their hearts to want to stay, to want to restore that nation?

Oh, what a pressure in my heart! I wanted to burst or run away, but where could I go? There was nobody I knew. On the contrary, all the people looked at me with the same hostile eyes. Lonely, I walked through hot roads to the lake just outside the city. During earthquakes this lake had swallowed many people. As a consequence, the atmosphere was dark and sinister. Behind me a vast field of ruins looked devastated and ghostly. God's grievous heart. How could He live here all the time, with the dead people, the dead city, the dead country? I thought, "I have to do something for You, since You are more miserable than me. I have to hold out, at least."

Father expressed the heart of a pioneer in the following way:

You will want to sustain this pain for the sake of your mission, and for the sake of the people whom you need to save. Then cheerfully, you kneel down and pray to God, comforting Him, and God will approach you and embrace you. He will call you His child. He will be able to feel that you understand Him. At that particular moment you can truly experience the heart of God.

As foreign missionaries they had to adapt to their new cultures and abandon some things which they felt were "right" from their own. In some areas of the world it is proper to kiss a person on both cheeks as a greeting. In other cultures a person is insulted if a guest doesn't have something to eat at his home, no matter how humble the food is. No matter what kind of upbringing the missionaries had, learning to embrace new customs sometimes brought about embarrassment, and feelings of repentance if by some chance they had offended their hosts:

At dinnertime I had one of my first experiences with a different culture. In this cement-floored home -- more like a but with an open patio -- our host spread a cloth on the ground and then placed the meal on it. But when this elderly lady sat down to eat the meal, I noticed that she forgot to bring the eating utensils. Since I was her guest I didn't want to say anything and just waited. To my surprise, she began eating with her hands after her short prayer, and I was even more astonished when she looked at me and expected the same thing.

She looked at me and asked if I had ever eaten with my hands. I replied that I had not She told us that she eats this way because "it is the way Mohammed (Peace be upon him) ate." She asked, "Did you know that this is the way Jesus used to eat?" Her question was almost like a challenge to me; I tried to be gracious about thrusting my hands into the bowl of rice curry placed before me.

For the missionaries in one nation to find each other upon arrival was often quite a task, having been given only their names. Sometimes it was a matter of hours; sometimes it took a matter of months. They discovered each other in some very unusual ways. One Japanese brother found his American sister in a library because he recognized her 1800 Couple Blessing ring!

Sausage factory in Zambia, 1979.

Efforts to Create Unity

It was God's and True Parents' dream that three sets of those footprints would meet within each nation and become one. But True Father also knew just how difficult this goal would be to achieve. He even said that "brothers and sisters drive nails into each other's hearts which makes the pain unbearable," but he also said that this is the very point at which a person can realize the pain that God and Father have been sustaining all this time -- not for their own sake, but for the sake of the world. One German missionary wrote:

American self-confidence encountered Japanese pride; openness against taciturnity. And another seasoning, in addition to the already well-spiced dish, was German stubbornness. The whole encounter was framed by completely strange and, in every respect, unusual surroundings.

One is used to blowing his nose in a noisy way; for the other this shows terrible manners. Another one has to switch from chopsticks to a knife and fork. In America, it is noble to put the left hand under the table while eating. In Europe this is considered extremely crude, and the European custom to leave both hands on the table `armed" with knife and fork is condemned by the Americans as horribly barbaric. Someone eats his soup noisily, while in the West people try to eat as noiselessly as possible.

In the West people express joy and suffering; in the East it is a mark of good breeding to withhold emotions. Something that sounds agreeable in the German language means something disrespectful and insulting in English. In the Oriental view of what a woman should look like, one of us may have definitely been too tall, and the other not thin enough.

Simply everything was confusing. The language difficulties did not allow our hearts to express themselves as they desired And our personal characters -- which were not rounded to begin with many sharp corners that seemed to jut out all too often.

We each were tested to such an extreme degree; I had never imagined it possible. I had such pride in myself and my "old continent" -- such typical arrogance; such obstinacy and lack of modesty. If/ had realized these foibles at all before, they were but pins pricking my heart and conscience to get me to give them up. In the mission field, they became stakes -- the pain forcing me to break free from the old

Yet another sister expressed how, when there was lack of trust, harmony was impossible to create.

Disharmony was in the air so many times and I could not speak my mind -- my heart was full of spiritual junk, troubles, accusations, and self- accusations. I never could stand to live in friction with someone. Usually I tried to compensate. Now I could not do it -- I was without words, without language. Only relentless attrition. Someone else was also there: God. But even with Him, I did not get along so well.

At first we maintained external kindness, but after a while we could no longer pretend in front of each other. Mistrust, the poison of the soul, sneaked into our hearts. Why does my brother look so strange when he talks to me? Why doesn't my sister say goodbye to me properly when she leaves the house? Why is he so long in the bathroom, and why do the two of them talk so much when I am not there? Mistrust is the greatest evil.

Father uncovered the key to unity in his conference speech, something many missionaries had learned only after many painful months or years:

There is only one secret, one way to become one. You must do it without words. Silently serve. Simply try to serve each other. That attitude alone can make people unite.

The missionaries in one African country felt unity was vitally important and did everything in their power to unite. These three representatives felt "married" to one another, and each night after sending their new members to bed they stayed up until two or three a.m. and sometimes later to talk over their problems, the work for the future, etc. They felt that until they all agreed on a decision or a goal, they simply could not, and would not, go to bed. Through arguments, tears, and especially prayers, they grew in love for each other, their mission, and their missionary life. When one of the three missionaries went through an especially difficult time and locked himself in his downtown office, the other missionary brother brought him a sleeping bag and sat outside the office until he unlocked the door, accepted the sleeping bag, and accepted his brother's love.

Obviously language was a problem for many missionaries, and many of the Japanese brothers had an especially hard time with it. Many of the German missionaries already knew a bit of English or in some cases knew Spanish or French. Among themselves, however, the missionaries had to be able to communicate, and many times they sat together with two or three dictionaries -- trying in English or the native language. At the beginning, it sometimes took them hours to share just a few ideas, and even then, the missionaries were not sure whether they had been understood or not. Yet even if a missionary knew or had studied English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Swahili, or any major language of the country, he or she then had to train his or her ear to also deal with the variety of dialects and native languages of the country. Being misunderstood was a constant frustration.

Since language is a most effective means of expressing our will or heart, if we can't use it proficiently we have no way to make others understand. There are also times when, even though we feel we have communicated, people misunderstand us. Language is the means by which we can convey our character to others. If we use it poorly, we may sometimes show ourselves to be men or women who have nothing which is attractive to others. Sometimes people entertained such a feeling about me. And when I sensed people had such feelings about me, I was overwhelmed with sorrow. Sometimes I tried to break an oppressive atmosphere by using gestures or smiles. However, in most cases, this only made things worse. I could sense people thinking, You fool!" I felt so sad. I came to see that Heavenly Father has never been able to express Himself no matter how much He desired to do so and I can., to empathize with his suffering so much.

Missionary goes on a camel ride in Iraq.

Studying the National Character

How did the foreign missionaries learn to unite with the heart of the people and learn how to love them? The missionaries had to study the national character of their people hard and long. They had to dig beneath the surface to discover the true nature of their spiritual children. Yet this often brought great resistance on the part of those they were studying. One brother who worked in Southeast Asia explains:

When I first began witnessing, I saw that almost everyone was happy to talk to me. They were even willing to speak about whatever subject I wanted to talk about. It seemed almost too good to be true. Wherever I went, people sat and spoke to me. If I gave them my address, many times they would actually come to visit. Yet as the months passed, the picture became darker and darker, because it became clearer and clearer to me that the positivity and smiles were an elaborate, complex cover, masking fear and deep insecurity.

I finally could see that the smiles were not an expression of their joy, but were instead an expression of their fear and their inability to face reality and themselves.

The standard these people are trying to reach is so incredibly high. Of course, no one knows how to reach the ideal. They always want to be happy. They never want to hurt anyone. They always fail, as have all people in history. Yet in this nation, the people accuse themselves again and again f r their inability to reach the standard of their hearts.

As a result, the people criticize themselves and everyone else, too. When I first arrived, I thought there was no criticism, but now I can recognize that it is within every level I also realize that it stems from a critical attitude toward themselves.

All the customs -- much of the culture, to a great extent the language, and particularly their expressions -- are used as protection. There are many expressions and customs which mean, "Stay away. Leave me alone. Don't pry. I want to be alone. Look at my outside -- not my inside."

The land of smiles and relaxed living? It is far from that. Internally, people experience almost excruciating turmoil because of their inability to meet the standards of their hearts. As they seek the ideal, they must protect themselves from the truth they learn about themselves. They think it is too terrible to face.

When I could understand these few facts, 1 could begin to love this nation, for I could see its heart of suffering. When people smile. I know what they really mean. When they laugh, I know often it is simply to keep the tears away.

Jette Jensen overlooks the town of Julianehab, Greenland.

Visa Problems

For all the foreign missionaries who could stay in their nations, there were many missionaries who could not remain in their mission countries, and they began the life of gypsies. Often going from nation to nation, finding no home, and wondering how to pray and invest their hearts in a place that wasn't really "theirs," these missionaries could not help but think of the people from their assigned countries. They prayed for a chance to meet at least one person, witness, and raise that person up in order to send him or her back to restore the country in their place.

Yet many of these foreign missionaries felt that by not staying in their countries they had failed. One point True Father had impressed upon them before they left for their nations was to anchor themselves there for three years, no matter what. But visas to many nations were not easy to obtain and sometimes after only one or two weeks, the government officials felt that a tourist had seen all he could or should see, or that a businessman doing market research could certainly exhaust the territory within three months. Not only were visa extensions denied, but in some cases officials escorted our missionaries to the borders to make sure that they actually left the country.

It was impossible to obtain missionary visas in most countries; however, finding a reason to stay in a country was essential. Many missionaries were able to secure work permits and jobs; some became embassy workers, airline employees, or journalists. Their work or school environment then provided a natural place to meet people, and with a certain amount of caution in some cases, they became friends with their fellow workers or students, slowly introducing them to the Principle. Since Father had also suggested that missionaries teach their native tongue to people interested in learning German, Japanese, or English, many missionaries did this. In fact, quite a number of members joined through this connection.

In some cases, with the help of God's guidance and the spirit world, missionaries were able to renew their tourist, business, or student visas far longer than was normal.

Yet some missionaries who were legally in their countries were accused of being spies from the CIA or their government, and out of fear, immigration officials in their mission countries deported them. Some brothers and sisters were discovered to be missionaries from the Unification Church, which caused them to be imprisoned and/or deported. In several cases, amazing victories were won and those who were deported could reenter their nations later. But this was unfortunately the exception, not the rule.

In 1978 True Father called most of the foreign missionaries who could not stay in their original countries to London and asked them to help assume the home church responsibilities of the seminarians who were returning to the United States. Each of them felt accepted again by True Parents, uplifted, carried, and very loved. They had the chance to invest their hearts in a small nation -- the "nation" of their home church area in England. For many it was a turning point in their life of faith and a boost for their self-confidence. After that, however, True Father brought them to America to participate ill 40-day training, after which he reassigned them to new countries. Grateful to have this new chance, these foreign missionaries started over.

Senegal in 1977.

Overcoming Different Moral Codes

During the early years, it was impossible in some cases for the foreign missionaries to live together in a center because of finances, moral codes (men and women not married to each other living in the same apartment or house was often strictly forbidden), or danger. Witnessing, too, presented many risks, often being extremely dangerous.

My first African spiritual child was born through countless tears cried by both of us. His rebirth took place in a humble hut of mud in the midst of the slums.

The political situation of my nation allowed us no freedom. No freedom to witness. No freedom even for the missionaries to meet. Yet God did not stop. He ignored this fact and He brought about the spiritual rebirths of five native people.

Because of this, the three of us missionaries decided that one night in October of 1975, we would hold a meeting with our members. Each missionary and each native member knew the danger we all faced. We decided that we would make a Holy Ground and that would be the common base for our meeting, but even that was dangerous and Satan was always watching, always near. In our country we had to establish our holy ground three different times because it was destroyed twice -- by bulldozers! Each time it was established it was done at the risk of our lives.

God pulled invisible strings in the hearts of many people. And He gently pushed our missionaries to sometimes quite unusual places and circumstances to meet these people and witness to them. The missionaries, being of three different nationalities, had such different cultural backgrounds and different spiritual upbringings. It was hard enough to tackle trying to merge the three heritages into one; but as well, they had to find out how to teach the people from the mission country as they embraced its own unique culture and environment.

For instance, how does one teach the Principle to someone who questions why only Judeo-Christianity is discussed? Missionaries in the Middle East faced this challenge, and began to read and study the Koran in order to share with Moslems the many similarities their teaching has to the Principle. One missionary wrote that when a girl in Central America becomes 14 or 15 years old, her friends and her parents start to urge her to have a child. The emphasis is on having a child, not necessarily on getting married. It was a frustration for missionaries to teach people who have a moral code which conflicts with such a key point of the Principle.

Yet back on the other side of the world, their fellow missionaries in the Middle East had quite a different set of circumstances to break through. How does a man witness to a woman when the Islamic society strictly forbids any type of male-female relationship outside of marriage, and virtually every foreigner is suspect?

And how should a missionary explain God's dual nature to someone who looks blankly when his or her teacher talks about molecules and atoms? Some people in third world countries are not so well educated; therefore, the concepts and words used had to be adapted to the individual situation. Expressing one's heart in a different society so that it was not misperceived was a challenge. The methods of witnessing were so different from what the missionaries were used to; the culture of the country had to not only to be taken into account, but adopted.

For all the hard work our missionaries expended in winning people, often the first native members had to pay extraordinary indemnity and were not always strong enough to withstand Satan's temptations and persecution. To lose a spiritual child was a crushing blow to the missionaries, since through these experiences they realized they may not have known how to love the person, or the people from this nation -- sometimes expecting too much of them, sometimes expecting too little.

In many countries, the family structure is very close-knit and is an important unit of the society. As a result, new members often had a hard time separating themselves from their families, or from their parents' desires for them. The families of many of our new members still expected their sons or daughters to give them financial support. One nation developed a very successful business, giving modest salaries to members so that they were still able to give some money to their families each month; the families became quite positive as the parents learned more about our church and often became involved in our work themselves. Some nations promoted a Unification Church Parents' Association which worked to bring parents and children closer to Principle, and closer together in heart. Consequently, these parents gave tremendous support to our work and their blessing upon their children's involvement. Some parents even made it a practice to come to our church center to pray before going to work in the morning.

In some situations where the foreign missionaries had to be careful and witness underground, Satan's attack was strong; new members sometimes left and even betrayed the missionaries. This often resulted in a missionary being deported or jailed. On occasion, ex-members used voodoo and other such practices against our missionaries, who found the power of those evil forces very difficult to break.

Often because of the disunity between the foreign missionaries, members saw no harmony in the church and consequently left. They often did not have many other brothers and sisters in the faith to talk to. They had never seen True Parents and perhaps they didn't feel confident that the situation would improve. They may not have been able to see the Principle in action, or the hidden victories of restoration. Until unity was made it was nearly impossible for the foreign missionaries to give a single standard, a single tradition to new members and guests. And to strive for that standard, the missionaries had to abandon much of themselves.

When members left, the missionaries tried hard not to allow the situation to paralyze them and they always worked to find ways to reach the people. Because it was often dangerous to meet guests, some missionaries taught their students while driving or riding in a bus, or deep in the forest, or on the beach of a secluded island -- wherever it was possible. The missionaries in one nation even traveled through the countryside teaching guerillas who were conducting a revolution.

A frustration often encountered by the foreign missionaries was that when they taught someone who responded well to the truth, the person still clung to the desire to live in a developed country because he or she had absolutely no desire to help his own nation, and no hope in its future.

Despite this, there were many prospective church leaders among the new members in different nations. After some of them attended 40-day or 120-day training sessions, a great number of them wanted to return to their homelands and help to officially establish the Unification Church or the One World Crusade there. In fact throughout the years, approximately 40 percent of all missions have officially established the church in their country.

Three missionaries united in prayer at the holy ground in India.

Persecution

As our church was established in many nations, and especially as it became more well-known, missionaries and members were often severely persecuted. Yet it seemed that for all the persecution, God was able to claim some great victories. One such case happened in Brazil.

Persecution was a byword for many missions. Over thirty foreign missionaries spent some time in jail for various lengths of time. Countless others were brought to security police offices and questioned for hours or even days. Each foreign missionary who was imprisoned has a unique story. One, slightly reminiscent of the story told in the movie Midnight Express, told by a missionary jailed in a Middle East nation, follows:

The official asked me who had sent me to the country and what was my purpose here.... He motioned to the policeman holding me. They immediately sat me on the floor and lifted up my legs. Tying them up, they proceeded to strike the bottoms of my feet with a very hard stick somewhat larger than a broom handle. It all happened so fast; I was taken completely by surprise, never expecting such treatment for teaching people to love God They hit me about 20 times and then walked me up and down the hall for ten minutes so my leg muscles wouldn't react

... They brought me again to the official and for a time I could not speak, my mouth was so dry and my jawbone was shaking up and down. It was strange -- I still felt happy and peaceful and held no ill feelings toward this man. He was just doing his job. Then I humbly said that Reverend Sun Myung Moon sent me to this country to see about the possibility of helping Islam and Christianity unite. As soon as I spoke these words, this official motioned for my captors to take me away and put me into solitary confinement I assumed that since under torture I had said I was a religious person, he believed I was no spy.

... The reality of still being in prison with no freedom to teach the Principle hit me hard and I repented to God for my situation. I can honestly write that! never prayed for my own safety or feared the future; I really felt that I was completely in God's hands. But I did pray extensively for the safety of my spiritual children. I spent the next three days in solitary confinement, without any idea of what would happen to me. Only at mealtimes would another human have contact with me, when the guard stuck some rice and perhaps a small piece of mutton through the tiny opening in my door.

I prayed deeply; finally it came to me that I would probably be released on the third day, just as Jesus was resurrected on the third day. Sure enough, just after I finished fasting for the three days, the guard came and took me out of the cell to be photographed Then I was taken away in a police car. They informed me that we were on our way to the deportation prison. This was a prison where they put everyone who was waiting to be deported -- hardened criminals, murderers, and innocent foreigners who did not want to work anymore.

Two hundred men were inside. There was a courtyard with very high walls and barbed wire covering the top. The door itself was the most scary part, for it seemed just like a small metal opening of a baker's oven. You nearly had to crawl through it. I surely went from one extreme to another. I had just been in solitary confinement for three days; I had been in a small bathroom-sized room with central air conditioning that was so cold I was forced to remain constantly wrapped up in the one blanket they gave me. Now I was placed in an open courtyard, so congested that during the nights we could only lay blankets on the cement floor and sleep side by side. By day we had to sit with legs crossed against the side wall, to avoid the direct sun.

Three completely overflowing holes in the ground served as toilets. The first time I tried to use one of them there was so much human waste along the standing area and so many flies covering it. I vowed not to eat so that I would not have to use the toilet.

Finally I was taken back to the solitary confinement prison of the secret police. Here they left me for two weeks. During this time I could do nothing except eat, sleep, pray, and develop inner discipline. I would easily have sacrificed two days of food in exchange for a rag and some soap to clean my cell Slowly my teeth and gums began to swell and bleed from lack of fruit and a lack of something to clean them with. Once they gave me steel wool to clean my plastic dish and I used it on my teeth. This was a terrible mistake, for steel wool immediately starts to rust when it contacts water. My health deteriorated; however, I had decided from the beginning that this was my personal blessing, for I was being given an opportunity to experience the suffering of Jesus and our True Father -- they also were tortured merely for teaching people to love God

Indian village near Antigua, Guatemala. Rev. Chan Kyun Kim (second from right).

Resolving Resentments of the Past

We have followed the many Christian missionaries who went out to serve the world. Father often talked about the sacrifices of the Christian missionaries, but stressed that our foreign missionaries should not to make the same mistakes they did. One sister in Africa explained:

There are resentments against the foreign businessmen in this African nation, but even against Christian missionaries there is a lot of resentment There are people here who say the Christian missionaries came and taught them to pray with their eyes closed, so that they could not see how the missionaries took away their natural resources. The missionaries often came with the idea that their own religion and culture was much better than those of the Africans. Africans have a strong belief in spirits, but the Christian missionaries often rejected these beliefs as superstition.

However, I especially admire the first missionaries' courage and readiness to sacrifice themselves. Most of them died from malaria. In spite of this fact, new missionaries always came. They were ready to give their lives in order to spread the gospel about the coming of Christ. Formerly West Africa was called the "white man's grave."

At one time, our missionaries in a Far East nation felt a desire to train their members and show the native people the tradition of service in the Unification Church. They decided to do a unique street-cleaning condition. The side of one particular Christian church in one of the major cities was avoided by all regular street cleaners as it was the place that many people would use as an outdoor public toilet. The stench was almost unbearable, but our foreign missionaries and members cleaned this area once a week. The Christian minister was amazed and touched by this service to the church community. He had met no one else who had ever become so involved or who had devoted themselves in such a way.

Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak meets members in Zimbabwe in 1983.

Establishing Economic Foundations

Although a certain remittance was sent to each missionary from their home nation for a number of years (and in some cases, certain missions still receive money from Japan, Germany, or America), Father desired that missionaries would use their ingenuity to establish a solid economic foundation, which, as time went on, would support the mission and members more and more. Ingenuity was a key word. Missionaries, therefore, became involved in an amazing variety of fundraising ventures. In one country, they started out by fundraising with chickens! However, in this hot country the spoilage rate was tremendous, so they quickly switched to biscuits. For a time, one West African country went with homemade pizzas door-to-door in the European community of the capital city. And what with demand often exceeding supply, they did handsomely. Some missionaries fundraised with peanut oil, others with native jewelry, flowers, tie-dyed shirts, leather handbags, homemade candles -- an inter- national assortment of products. African missionaries even did well with laser prints in the cities and in the villages.

Several missions sold ginseng tea in markets and fairs. Zambia started a sausage factory which is still very successful. Members from other countries were trained in Zambia and are beginning the same kind of business in their own nations. Zaire created a typing business and the secretarial skills of several of our talented sisters there helped to earn money. Photo businesses were started in several countries with very good success. One nation in Central America had a flourishing furniture-making business. Some foreign missionaries sold hand- crafted items from their nations to people in their home countries. Other nations have tried and succeeded with chicken farms, bakeries, candles, a take-away (convenience) store, and restaurants. Several Japanese brothers began martial arts classes or schools.

After the first three years, each missionary in the country assumed one of three responsibilities: church work, fundraising work, or journalistic work. Several of the Japanese brothers initially left Japan as correspondents for Sekai Nippo. Several of the American missionaries who had a desire and talent for writing came to the United States to train as foreign correspondents for the (now) New York City Tribune. Later, Free Press International was set up and a small network of correspondent work was started. During the birth of The Washington Times, about one-third of the missionaries came to New York for training as correspondents. At that time, missionaries and members from many different countries switched to journalistic work -- whether they went out as correspondents or remained in America to work on one of the newspapers.

Just as the missionaries have friend- ships with many of the professors and scholars from ICUS, PWPA, and IRF, some of our correspondents are in contact with fellow journalists who have attended the World Media Conferences.

Assistance From Good Spirit World

Because communication to many parts of the world is not very rapid nor absolutely reliable, Heavenly Father seemed to develop His own very effective system of communication. During the years, He often inspired the missionaries with the... Ante directions (i.e., the Home Church concept and method) he was announcing in the United States. The missionaries put these directions into practice before receiving any official information from headquarters, and were always amazed that what they had thought was a true revelation -- which they should perhaps write Father about -- was God's plan all along!

Many missionaries also felt God's personal involvement in their lives in the mission field -- His tenderness and concern. Many have commented that they felt protected and shielded from much harm and danger. They felt the existence of the spirit world closely, realizing how much their work was hindered or helped by their belief in the spirit world. They came to understand that their attitude determined how much they would be able to attract the assistance of good spirit world.

Missionaries and native members had many experiences of spiritual phenomena in the form of dreams, visions, and clairaudient experiences. Shortly after arriving in his nation, one brother went to see a Moslem holy man. This man had absolutely no idea of our missionary's identity, but said:

Your motive for coming to this country is very different from all other white people. Your group is most pure. You will save many young people here. But your group is most severe. It is hard to be a member, but your spirit is most pure.

Missionary to Thailand presents sandals to Buddhist ladies at the Kab Cherng Refugee camp in Thailand.

Blessed Couples Arrive

When the missionaries went to the field, all Japanese brothers had just been blessed in the 1800 Couple Blessing in Korea. The majority of the American missionaries had also participated in the 1800 Couple Blessing. Often husband and wife were both missionaries, sent to different countries. Several German foreign missionaries were in the 777 Couple Blessing; however, the majority of them had participated in the February 1975 Blessing.

The advent of blessed families added another amazing ingredient to missionary work. Japanese wives went through training before joining their husbands in the field, and most became pregnant quite quickly. They found themselves going through morning sickness and the usual missionary diarrhea often at the same time. In the case of American missionaries, some wives went to the nations in which their husbands were missionaries, and in a limited number of cases, the reverse occurred.

Many of the single missionaries were blessed in the 2,100 Couple Blessing in Madison Square Garden, and since then most of their mates have gone through training and gone to work in the nation of his or her spouse.

A landmark in building the worldwide foundation of blessed families was laid in Seoul on October 14, 1982, when representatives from every continent around the world were matched and blessed. With such an array of black and yellow, brown and white, black and brown, and black and white couples, one could see that the colors of humankind have finally begun to melt together. Many blessed babies from these unions have already been born. And God's dream of a One World Family has become much more a reality.

Indemnity in Different Packages

The Principle beautifully explains many points by which we should live. In the foreign missions, the necessity to act upon those Principles became essential, but facing them and putting them into practice was difficult. As one foreign missionary put it:

My responsibility, I have discovered, is simply to make a base in myself so God can work through me. All my cleverness and charm in fact only got in God's way. My brother, on the other hand, in spite of his external appearance, opened the way through pure motivation and sincere perseverance for God, and brought a result that it still multiplying to this very day.

Foreign missionaries were sent for many reasons, the central one of which was to restore a nation to God's side. However, each of them had to realize that absolutely nothing can be restored unless indemnity is paid; and, especially during the first years, indemnity came in many different packages.

Missionaries had to pay a great deal of physical indemnity. The heretofore unknown effects of malaria became quite commonplace to those who lived a missionary life. A number of missionaries were also stricken with bad cases of hepatitis, jaundice, and cholera -- even cancer. One brother was bitten by a rabid dog and had to undergo a painful series of shots in his abdomen for treatment. After taking anti-malaria medicine, another missionary brother suffered the side effect of deafness in both ears. Luckily, his hearing was restored in one of his ears, but even now, he cannot hear in the other. Sometimes because of lack of money, foreign missionaries were forced to fast, or at best, to eat very poorly, thus not get- ting proper nutrition. Several foreign missionaries almost died during those sick- nesses. Many times they were all alone with no other missionaries or members to help to take care of them.

But perhaps without exception the most common ailment was diarrhea -- the missionaries simply were not used to the food. This disease struck more than once, more than necessary, and -- more often than not -- at very awkward times!

Many foreign missionaries mentioned, too, that although they had laid conditions of tang gam in their home nations, they were absolutely unaccustomed to this kind of suffering, and that indemnity was almost squeezed from them. Many lamented later that because of their resentment at having to suffer and having to pay this kind of indemnity, it was often not able to be claimed by God and instead could be taken by Satan. Coming to the point of feeling grateful to suffer in these ways required for some great growth, great faith, and much time.

In many cases, before they understood the political situation, many missionaries didn't feel the freedom to proclaim to people that they were foreign missionaries and therefore just appeared to be teachers, tourists, businessmen, etc. But meanwhile knowing the inner purpose of why they were sent -- to bring people back to God by teaching the truth and to offer their nations to God -- brought about guilt and spiritual torture.

One great spiritual battle the missionaries faced was to overcome incredible resentment and the tendency to blame God and True Parents for their suffering, their loneliness, and their not being able to love the nation, the people, their fellow missionaries, or often even themselves.

Greenvilla, Australia 1984. Production team manufactures shoes, from cutting soles to the final packaging.

Challenges of Faith

Every country has its own unique history -- things that needed to be overcome in terms of restoring past failures or mistakes of political figures, colonial powers, former missionaries, etc. To discover what these elements were, the foreign missionaries often studied the history of their nation, and even the history of the Christian missionaries. But often poverty, colonization, slavery, and the resentment between tribes left such an imprint on the national history that it could be felt and had to be faced each day.

We have such compassion for people in the Third World We think of the cute little children in a village, and we picture ourselves as being some kind of hero, embracing them all That is not the way it is at all in the Third World Actually, what you meet up with when you reach out to the people is mostly hatred and deep resentment, bitterness. You run out with love, but it's like running into a stone wall of hatred Instead of arms coming out to welcome you, it's just rock.

The spiritual world here is characterized by deep resentment, by a sense of grudge, by bitterness. There are so many spirit men who died horrible deaths long before their time and who can't forgive. This creates a tremendous weight, a spiritual world that presses down upon everyone who comes here. The moment you get off the airplane, you can sense that the spiritual world is entirely different. It is darker, it is heavier. This is all around, and sometimes it bursts into physical expression and you hear about massacres and slaughters and terrible killings in the news. It is just a small expression bursting forth out of a great ocean of resentment and hatred that exudes from the history of the continent.

Challenges of faith are often easily discarded when the blame can be put on something external -- but many foreign missionaries discovered how precious the spiritual mountains were they had to climb:

I often hear from those missionaries who are not united with their fellow missionaries, "It is because we came to this country," or "It is because our country is such and such..." They are quick to criticize external things without looking at fundamental reasons for their problems. Essentially what matters is not environment, not anything external success depends on how deep one's internal relationship with True Parents is and how a person practices the Principle to inherit the heart of God We should also keep: repentful mind and reflect on ourselves every day. These are the essential points. As they are traditional practices within the Unification Church, we have to teach these points to members through internal guidance as we ourselves do our best to observe them.

The relationship between Cain and Abel is a problem that all members face in their life of faith. Yet when people of black, brown, or yellow skin had to listen and follow someone of another skin color, the result was not always positive.

Father mentioned this point in his conference:

You must become Abel. But God decides who is Abel and who is Cain. Abel is not there to play king. Abel is there to serve Cain and to become a sacrifice for the sake of Cain. When you go out to save Cain, you are the servant. You are in the lower position.

Only after you save him and turn around and bring him back to God are you on the frontline; then you are the elder brother and Cain is in the younger brother's position. But when you first go out, you cannot restore the birthright of the elder brother unless you go this path.

Once you accept such a cross (to save Cain) and bear it willingly, you can approach your parents. Unless you follow this, you will not have grafted into the Messiah yet. You must become a person loved by Cain If Cain hates you, there is no way for you to become Abel.

You are now in Jacob's position. Since you are American, Japanese, or German, you take all the wealth you have accumulated into you mission land. "You are my dear Esau. You are my elder brother. I look at you and I see the face of God. You are my lord; I come to serve you. This is yours. Please take it." That is the way you should be. That is our tradition. If you don't do this, no one can inherit anything from you. As soon as you live up to the true tradition of the Unification Church, I will give you the inheritance.

And expressed from the heart of a foreign missionary:

In Japan, we take the Cain/Abel relationship as a course of indemnity. With this mutual understanding, we somehow manage to work for God's will. Yet it is difficult for people to automatically be good Cains if they had a history of being discriminated against by another race and suddenly are faced with an "Abel" of a different skin color. Unless Abel becomes a true Abel, Cain does not obey him. In Africa there is a serious racial problem, which is also a matter of historical indemnity. Even if the native people accept the Principle and determine to live this way of life, when they have a white person as their leader and have troubles with him, they always feel it is a racial problem and they close their hearts toward him. It is inevitable. I have never had the feeling of being discriminated against. Therefore, I was happily working with the native members every day and I could not even imagine they felt discrimination or distrust.

But one day when a native member did something wrong, I scolded him. He replied, "You are a white person (a non-black) and you can't understand me because I am black. You scold me because I am black." When I heard this, I was so shocked I cried through the night; my tears were tears of regret. The black people seem to equate being scolded by a white person (or as in my case, yellow) with racial discrimination. They don't think first whether they might have done something wrong. They immediately think we are prejudiced Whenever I saw such an attitude in a native member, I always felt sad

Sometimes foreign missionaries did not love each other enough, and could not stand in an Abel position to one another. Sometimes the lack of love resulted in one member of a trinity leaving the mission, and in a few cases, leaving the church. Since True Father sent them as a trinity, some missionaries became disheartened because they realized that God could not love through them freely and, therefore, were overcome by a feeling of failure. It was then they realized that being a parent was not only necessary in a spiritual parent/spiritual child relationship, but should be ongoing, continuous, and practiced with each other. Unity and spiritual freedom was often achieved when the gift of forgiveness was either given or received.

Blessing candidates from mission countries at the matching with Father in 1982 in Seoul, Korea.

Moments of Victory in Unity

Many foreign missionaries learned the real meaning of patience. Patience not only with the long lines in the bank or the post office, or waiting all day to try to make an international telephone call. They learned patience with the incredible disorganization of the bureaucracy and the government of the nation. Patience with everything breaking down and having to wait weeks or months for replacement parts (if they came at all). But most of all patience with themselves and their spiritual growth through humility before God.

Overcoming these elements were happy moments, moments of victory. And there were many such moments in the lives of the missionaries; moments when they realized lessons in Principle and how to implement them. Moments of victory in unity -- not only among missionaries, but between missionaries and members -- even if it took a seven-day fast to come to the point of purifying their hearts. Victories in claiming the title of Abraham -- becoming the founding spiritual parent -- could come at any moment. When the encouragement to be loving changed into the desire to be loving, there were breakthroughs of substance.

I went to the market in order to buy vegetables. This market is spiritually and physically the most miserable place in the whole country. I had to make an effort to suppress my disgust. Then it came to my mind 7 am one of them. If the people are like this, I want to live the same way. If they can endure this stench, I want to breathe it through my nose with delight. If they walk through this sticky mud I want to do the same without feeling repelled I want to load my bag with the vegetables in the same way as they are doing. I want to walk in the footsteps of my people, and tune my heart with the same sounds."

I filled my bag with many things and put it over my shoulder just as they did. Nobody looked at me like a stranger. Nobody shouted to me: "Chilita" (white). My bag was extremely heavy, loaded with vegetables and fruits. I could have taken a bus, but I wanted to toil as they did The handles of the bag dug deep into my shoulders, but I carried it for love. I felt that I was not only carrying my bag, but the whole country.

"I want to be fully responsible for this country, Father. I want to carry the debt and burden of this country!" I felt that I carried this country's sins in my bag, like a cross under which one almost breaks down. In tears I repented and I asked God to forgive my country for they knew not what they did It was so serious. I felt such a gratitude to go this way and to be in this position. But I felt so sorry that I was so incapable and insufficient, that I did not completely fulfill his will, and did not comfort His heart enough. I repented of my own debt and sin, and promised to assume the whole burden, however heavy it might be. I felt a certain relief in God's heart.

I thought the bag would have paralyzed my arm and my shoulders by the time I arrived at home. But it was peculiar that when I laid down the load, I felt a great lightness, and no pain at all. Heavenly Father himself had carried it for me.

IOWC members do social work in Goiania, Brazil, in 1983.

War-torn Nations

During these last ten years, many nations fell captive to aggression, and the missionaries felt helpless to do anything. Some were able to stay in their country; some were not. But for those that stayed, the title of "Abraham" took on an even greater significance:

Many times when our members witnessed, they were subjected to searches by the soldiers. While the soldiers were examining their belongings, the members would not say anything. They would just wait silently. The soldiers knew everything. Sometimes they found a Divine Principle book. They would ask our members, "Are you a Christian?" Our members would answer, "I am a missionary." Suddenly the attitude of the soldiers changed They began to ask, "Please pray for me!" This was always the case.

During the outbreak of war, nobody attended our Sunday service, although before this time about twenty guests had been coming each Sunday. We waited, hoping that possibly someone would come. But in the end, nobody came. One particular Sunday, I felt something unusual was happening.

It was raining. Yet it was not the typical downpour we usually had. The rain was more like a drizzle than rain, and it felt as if Heavenly Father was weeping. I rarely saw such a rain here. I intuitively felt that it might be signaling the end of this nation. I felt the day itself was sad

I proceeded with the service by reading Father's speech, translating from Japanese into Spanish. It was a speech that had something to do with Father's course. I chose it with the intention of connecting brothers and sisters with True Parents. I closed with the words, "We all may die, but I wish that each of us can be connected with the Messiah."

A little after I began the service, I heard rifles firing in succession about twenty meters from the church center. Then we heard the response to it. It was such an hysterical sound that it almost made me jump out of the chair and run away.

The center members momentarily shifted in their chairs. I usually am too sensitive to bear such a sound calmly, but I was able to restrain myself. I thought at the moment I should teach them to have great faith and rely completely upon God I pressed myself against the chair. When the speech came to an important point, the stuttering of the machine guns got heavier. The members could not hear my voice at all I felt it was Satan. I also felt it was a trial The only thought on my mind was that no matter what, I must continue to speak. The battle waged on. Bullets fell rattling on the roof. It became very dangerous. There was a possibility that bullets would even come into the windows. We moved the service into a back room.

The battle became more intense and moved directly in front of our center. We continued our service, transferring it to the dining room because it had no window. I felt we were engaged in a spiritual battle against Satan. Our four members were desperately listening to Father's speech. The electricity went out Lighting candles, we started the service again. It ended about one p.m.. I had a sense of victory that we had finished it

In the afternoon all of us wrote letters to True Parents. We were not sure we would even survive long enough to send them, but we wrote them anyway. My only thought was how to connect the young brothers and sisters with the Messiah, even to the end of our lives.

To observe the Third World on the evening news is different from living there. Once a person lives there, he or she sees the problems much more clearly and wonders how to contend with lack of food, moral attitudes, family ethics, with tribalism, occultism, hygiene, disunity of religions and races, political corruption -- even such things as the lack of good roads and the low quality of public transportation. There are laws still in existence which insist that people who commit adultery must be stoned to death, and their hands cut off if they steal.

The New Hope Singers of Zaire perform for Mobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire, and Samora Machel, president of Mozambique, in March 1984.

Abrahams of Their Nations

As a parent, one can't help but shed tears when the child comes into trouble. During these ten years, political situations caused that to happen more than once -- and in tears, the spiritual parents of these countries wept as their nations were taken over -- Iran, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Benin, and Nicaragua. There were civil wars and coups in Surinam, Upper Volta, and Chad among others. When national and worldwide conditions of indemnity must be paid, prayers and tears are not enough. And when the sacrifice that has been even willingly paid is not enough, Satan makes his claim.

But the heart of a parent is to even sacrifice his own life for his children. One foreign missionary gave his life for his child: the nation of Tanzania in Africa. Although the details of his death are not certain, it is believed that Masaki Sasamoto was killed by a bullet fired by the secret police on December 18, 1980. On the decision of his wife, Masaki was buried there. Father proclaimed him the first international martyr. Truly, he claimed the title of Abraham.

Because I have a parental heart, because I am thinking of your greater success and because I am trying to make you a historical person, I drive you out for even greater work.

When I was all by myself, I shed tears. Thinking about his own children going out to suffer, no parent is comfortable. I feel the same. But for the sake of righteousness and for the sake of the mission, we just have to do it. During times when the children don't notice, the tears of their parents flow. Whatever I ask is not for my sake but rather for your sake, your benefit, your future, your glory, your success, and your victory. I ordered you to suffer more, but all the instructions were wetted with tears.

The foreign missionaries have become, like Abraham, the ancestors of a new humanity in their nations. As Rev. Ken Sudo said in the sermon "Precious Pioneer," which he dedicated to all of them ten years ago:

Letters in the sand of the seashore will be erased by the surging waves, but the memory of the fact that you introduced True Parents and gave eternal life to your nation will never be erased by anyone. God can be proud of you eternally. How precious pioneer missionaries are. If your one life is given to a nation for the sake of God and human- kind, how precious your life is.

The missionaries fought bravely, and have come far, but the battle is not finished yet.

As you look at the future and capture this vision, you begin to realize just what a difficult task this will be. If you only look at your own position and how tired you are, then you take on a defeatist attitude. God and I cannot accept that. You can never be defeated. You are in the wilderness. If you stop your march in the wilderness, you will become the prey of the eagle; no other destiny will await you. You must cross the desert and finish the march.

For as each foreign missionary has a dream, so also does God. His dream is that as a family we can take up the cross and the responsibility of serving the world. His dream started a million years ago, yet it was only ten years ago that He was actually able to set His footprints as the true sovereign in the desert sands, the jungles, the bush, the forests, and the plains -- and through the children of True Parents, He could finally walk freely through His world.

Our movement has gathered great strength and confidence during these ten years. But we are in a different age now. Although there have been times of trouble when Heavenly Father carried all of us, showing but one set of footprints in the sand, it is now our turn to substantially help to carry the load of this world, and do our best to silently carry Him.

Foreign Missions

Happy 10th Anniversary 1975-1985

On this joyous occasion of the 10th anniversary of foreign missions, congratulates and thanks all the missionaries who were sent out to the field 10 years ago. We also honor those who pioneered nations before 1975. We wish for all of you God's blessing and protection, and we pray for your continuing growth and success in the future.

Missionaries Sent Before 1975

*Lists the country from which each missionary was sent -- not necessarily the missionary's native land.

Missionaries Sent Out In 1975

In 1975, missionaries were sent to over 130 countries. Because some of them encountered sensitive situations, however, we are unable to publish the list of nations to which they were sent.

Japanese

Yutaka Abe
Tsukasa Akaishi
Kenjiro Aoki
Teruo Aratani
Katsumi Date
Tadayuki Doi
Hideo Haga
Masaaki Hagino
Mithinori Hasegawa
Junichi Hayashi
Yukio Hayashi
Jiro Hirano
Takeo Honda
Jhiro Honi
Katsuhide Ichikawa
Kazuhisa Ikemoto
Satoru Ishihara
Masashi Ishikawa
Toru Itagaki
Kenichi Ito
Kunio Iwaoji
Haruhiko Iwasawa
Naoki Izumikawa
Takashi Kagawa
Hideaki Kamiyoshi
Takanori Kanatani
Magoyoshi Kaneko
Tesuta Kaneko
Shinichi Kanno
Kazuya Kashu
Satoru Katsuda
Yotaka Khijhima
Naoharu Kimura
Kazuhiro Kiriyama
Shigekazu Kobayashi
Teruaki Komaki
Ryuzi Kuranaga
Makoto Maeda
Takao Maeda
Eiju Majhima
Hideto Maki
Hiroshi Matsushima
Isamu Matsuya
Shinichiro Mikuni
Norio Minihara
Masao Mine
Akira Mitani
Yasuaki Mitsui
Shoji Mitsuichi
Seiichi Miyazawa
Tokunen Miyoshi
Katsuhiko Mizoguchi
Yoshinobu Murotani
Kiyoharu Nagatomo
Mitsunori Nakagawa
Shigeyuki Nakai
Humihito Nanbu
Toyozo Narihata
Kazuto Nishijima
Toru Nishiwaki
Mitsuaki Nonami
Ryoichi Oba
Toshiro Obata
Fumio Oda
Takahiro Odawara
Tetsuo Ogura
Koji Ozeki
Hiroshi Sakura
Michihito Sano
Osamu Sano
Toshiaki Sasada
Tatsuo Sasaki
Norihiro Sasamoto
Masami Sato
Masayoshi Sato
Hideaki Sera
Makoto Shigehiro
Tomoyuki Shirao
Tanoichi Sogo
Kouya Sonoda
Naoyuki Takayama
Tadahisa Takeda
Michio Takita
Toshihiro Tanaka
Harunobu Tateno
Yoshinori Thuchiya
Hiroyasu Tomaru
Masahiro Uruga
Katsuhito Watanabe
Tetsuo Yamamoto
Morio Yamashita
Takashi Yamashita
Yoshihiro Yamazaki
Yukio Yatoji
Kazuo Yokoi

Americans

Helen Chin Alexander
Charles Anceney
Richard Barlow
Elizabeth Bateson
Barbara Beard
Bruce Biggin
Sandy Boshart
Claire Bartholic Bowles
John Bowles
John Brady
Gary Brown
Floyd Christofferson
Barry Cohen
Steve Conlon
William Connery
Richard Copeland
Mary O'Brian Cordill
Katherine French Cromwell
Tom Cromwell
Ray Bacon
James Davin
John Doroski
Nanette Doroski
Diane Frink Drucker
Kathy Bell Erickson
Mark Erickson
Susan Fefferman
Gary Fleischman
Gary Fleisher
Patricia Fleishman
David Flores
Jean Blatt Flores
Phillip Foster
Merlinda Skow Fournier
Gloria Frothingham
Susan Jacobson Gaztanaga
Mary Jane George
George Glass
Maureen Gottesman
Harmon Grahm
Nancy Callahan Hanna
Regis Hanna
Jack Hart
Darcy Turner Howard
Elizabeth Hunter
Evans Johnson
Mary Johnson
Charles Kamins
Wendy Baker Katakura
Jack Kibburz
Michael Kiely
Robert Kittel
Kathy Kuhl
Carmela Acohido Lim
Jim Mallory
Ray Mas
Peggy Warden Matsuya
James McCann
Gail Morey
Gregory Novalis
Chris Olson
Mark Paine
Linda Perry
Paula Petersen
Joy Schmidt Pople
Beverly Lee Ralph
Katherine Harting Rigney
Franette Palmer Roschuni
Michael Roth
Jim Spencer
Pamela Stein
Helen Ireland Subernat
Judy Sullivan
Jeffrey Tallakson
William Torrey
Sara Towe
Cathy Van Loom
Richard Van Loon
Russ Walters
Dana Watkins
Jamie Weber
Robert Williamson
Kevin Winter
Muhammed Yahya

Germans

Annerose Buth Adams
Ulrike Baecker
Gertrud Bauer
Annette Bierau Kamga Fotso
Bernhard Bode
Kathrin Boemboes
Annegret Bourreau
Bernd Brosio
Hermann Deidenbach
Eleonore Oestreicher de Watteville
Leo Dobmeier
Franz Josef Droege
Werner Elias
Rudolf Faerber
Margit Leising Felzmann
Guenter Fechter
Ottmar Graml
Doris Herr Grey
Monika Gros
Hubei Guntermann
Horst Hamp
Elisabeth Klima Heil
Reinhold Heil
Joachim Hill
Gisela Hoppe
Bernd Hutzelmann
Alixe Ruthart Ikehaia
Ulf Ingwersen
Marianne Kunz Irwin
Stephan Jaeger
Inge Jendraschek
Gabi Kampani
Renate Kaufmann
Sylvia Dick Kilby
Margot Kindler
Veronika Klepper
Ursula Langer
Gesa Jensen La Rocca
Beate Lauer-Schmaltz
Thea Jaschok Lepercq
Wilhelm Lichner
Ingrid Lindemann
Peter Loehndorf
Eva Stuedemann Mackin
Rosemarie Masumy
Mechthild Mathias
Hans Josef Mueller
Margareta Mueller
Rolf Nikolai
Gabriele Nuschennpichel
Monika Oehler
Wolf Osterheld
Fritz Piepenburg
Brigitte Regul
Juergen Reinhardt
Hanna Reinhold
Renate Sauer
Wolfgang Schawaller
Anton Scherbl
Rainer Schmiedel
Fritz Schneider
Uwe Schneider
Heidi Scholz
Friederike Schubert
Monika Selig
Manfred Sorgenicht
Peter Stichel
Kathi Bacher Stinard
Doris Stobbe
Barbara Joosten Stupple
Bernd Thoma
Benjamin Ullrich
Ulrich Voelkel
Uschi Warwas
Mathias Wiesner
Barbara Wilson
Gisela Winkler
Margret Winter
Gudrun Zander
Hedwig Ziegler

These lists of names and missions were provided by the World Mission Department, which admits the lists may unfortunately be incomplete, and, in some parts, erroneous.

Nancy Neiland Barton worked with the American foreign missionaries from the time they were in training at Barrytown in 1975. She was the American representative in the World Mission Department and served in several different capacities in that department together with Shinichiro Yoshida and Inge Rohrl under Rev. Kwak until after the Blessing in 1982 Mrs. Barton accompanied Rev. Kwak on the first world tour of missionary conferences held in 1979-1980. She is currently working on international publications and residing in Canada.