The Words of the Fiala Family
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The Words of the Fiala Family |
The first World Tuna Tournament, August 24-30 attracted about 80 boats filled with fishermen eager for a chance to win one of the three prizes totaling $100,000. After seven days of dawn-to-dusk fishing our brothers and sisters emerged triumphant, catching 30 of the total 34 tunas netted in the tournament. All but one of the prize-winners were church members, and the recipients of the top two prizes donated the money to local charities.
After the tournament, Father explained to family members his vision of fishing as a way of life and a method of training in our church. Father was especially eager for the international leaders to participate in the tournament.
Many arrived around the middle of August in Boston, where Father has been fishing all summer, to get some practice. Father kept them to a rigorous schedule -- to bed at 9:30 each night and up again at 2:30 a.m., to be out to sea by dawn. European, Korean and Japanese leaders came to fish as well as heads of our families in Canada, Brazil and Australia -- New Zealand.
The tournament was quite widely advertised, but in the beginning, other fishermen were hesitant to sign up, afraid of being ridiculed for joining a Moonie-sponsored activity. However, once someone broke the ice, the word spread, and eventually 60 non-family boats registered for the contest. Official check-in points were established in Boston, Gloucester and Provincetown, Mass., with impartial judges to weigh and measure tunas: therefore, nobody could say that the Moonies rigged the tournament.
Our Father's boat, the "New Hope," set out very early each morning surrounded by nearly 20 additional family boats. Father himself did not fish, but rather sat in his favorite spot -- the head of the steps -- and directed the activities of family members. It seemed that wherever Father's boat went, there were tunas. The boats of non-family members would hang around the edges of our fleet, hoping to net some tunas that might escape Father and our brothers and sisters. They could observe how he works, and after seeing so many tunas caught, they concluded that "he must be doing something right!" Christopher Fiala, a church member who fished in the Great Lakes a boy and covered the tournament as a reporter, interviewed some non-family members who caught the big fish.
The only non-Moonie to win prize money, Mr. Larry Cordero, caught a tuna on the last day of the tournament. "Fishing is a sport for me," he told Christopher. "I took my 22' boat out there alone, for seven days. It was brutal. All week the fish kept coming to say hello, hello, hello -- and I was praying, praying, praying. I used everything and anything to try and catch them. It is sheer endurance out there."
It would appear that the non-family members who caught tunas in the seven days must have laid some spiritual conditions. A local fisherman who joined the tournament "just for the fun of it -- and the money too" put out a lot of effort in order to hook one tuna. "We've been getting up earlier in the mornings," he commented, "doing more fishing and less talking -- more meditating like the Moonies' He left the port at 3:45 a.m. and returned after 9:00 p.m. each night of the first three days.
"We earned this one," he observed. "We put in one heck of a frustrating three days. Each day there were fish pulled in all around us."
In addition to Father's boat, the "New Hope," our family fleet includes such names as "Sea Hope," "Go Hope," "Go Happy," "Go Rich" and "One Hope." Other fishermen have a field day with names. One seaman was heard calling his buddy over the marine radio: "This is No Hope to Hopeless, come in please!"
This tournament was the occasion of the inauguration of the "One Hope I," the first of the new line of fiberglass fishing boats our Father designed and which are being constructed in the East Sun Building. These are speedy 28' off-shore boats with outboard motor and a number of innovative features, such as anti-skid floor, more transom space, sturdier construction and a deeper bow keel which gives them a smoother entry into the water. In addition, its large flare throws water away from the boat, keeping the boat and its passengers drier.
Father has spent the past seven years planning the design of these boats. They could be adapted for other kinds of fish, but they are specifically planned for tuna fishing, since Father says that tunas are the prime target of our family's fishing enterprise.
By the end of the tournament, Father's boat had caught the most tunas -- four in all -- and qualified for one of the prizes. A boat Dennis Orme fished in, named "CARP," hooked the heaviest tuna, weighing 1,037 lbs. This and two other tunas tied for the record length of 9' 11". When the skippers of the top boats in each category drew lots for the prize money, Allan Hokanson, of Father's boat, drew the $70,000 prize, for the highest aggregate weight of tunas. The $20,000 prize was awarded for the heaviest tuna, and the $10,000 prize for the longest tuna was divided among three boats.
The top two prizes will form a scholarship fund for children of Gloucester fishermen. The Tess in Massachusetts has been printing reports that local residents fear the effects of the Moonies moving into the area. However, through the tuna tournament, Father hoped to draw attention to the fishing and marine industries, which have been declining in the United States.
Tournament chairman Paul Werner announced a long-range goal of the tournament to focus people's attention on fishing and inspiring America to revitalize the fishing and marine industries. He also emphasized the need to develop oceanic resources to contend with world hunger problems.
After the tournament, Father spoke for six hours to brothers and sisters at "Morning Garden," a lovely estate recently purchased in Gloucester. As usual, he explained the inner purpose of the event, after it was over. Christopher Fiala noted the main points of Father's speech.
Father emphasized the ocean as a way of life and the main thrust of our church's industry in the future and explained that the primary purpose of the seven-day tournament was to train church leaders and let them experience what life is like on the sea. Father said he has one regret -- that he didn't discover the ocean earlier in his life -- that he couldn't go the path we are going to go. Our path is to pioneer the ocean as a way of life and a livelihood. Since the ocean is relatively untainted by fallen man, our members can realize their heavenly character on the sea, unencumbered by fallen standards. He also said that in the future he might not even talk to anyone who hasn't been a fisherman. Father asked the leaders gathered for the tournament if the seven days on the ocean had changed them, and they answered yes. He requested that they stay with him for ten additional days on the sea. In competition among national leaders Austria came in first, Germany second and Holland third.
The ocean is a different world, he explained. It changes people. You can build a true love relationship on the ocean. In the future Father is thinking about forming husband-wife fishing teams.
The ocean is to the Unification Church what America was to 17th and 18th century religious groups, who were persecuted. While people all over the world are retreating from the ocean, we are the only group going full-force to develop it. He also pointed out that the ancestors of the white people were pirates. Pirates controlled the world at one time. They robbed people, but Father emphasized that we want to help others. "We are risking our lives for the sake of other people," he said.
On the land, blacks and whites are fighting over diminishing resources, but on the ocean, they are willing to save each other. On the ocean begins a new history. The minerals that have been exhausted on the land haven't been touched on the ocean.
"Even now, young people need a vision; they don't know what to do with their lives: Father observed. "Young people will have new hope. They can join your venture and go out to sea. If you take your spiritual children out to sea, they will all become members. "Riding a boat is the best thing for your spiritual health. In one year, think how much you will be changed by heaven! You will be in a new world, your world. No one will understand it but you -- and Father, of course. God has reserved this blessing for last. The ocean is the country of hope -- a brand new world to pioneer."