How God Led Me

Don Harbour
June 2010

My wife's name is Judy and my son's name is Insung, both whom I love with all my heart. I participated in the 74 Couples Blessing Marriage Ceremony, which occurred right after the Washington Monument Rally.

I will be giving you a brief testimony of how God led me to meet True Parents and how he prepared me for my present mission. It's my prayer that brothers and sisters, especially the second generation Unificationists, will be inspired.

At 16 years of age I was very depressed, not knowing what I wanted to do with my life, feeling that I had no special talents. I grew up in a small town called Conyers, GA. It was there on a lonely country road while waiting for my school bus that God first spoke to me. A strong voice told me, "Don, something very great is going to happen to you". Every cell in my body told me that God had just spoken to me and that it was true, something very great was going to happen. I became very excited and hopeful for the future. At this time the Vietnam War was beginning and I thought the great thing God was telling me was that I would go to war and win the Medal of Honor. To make a long story short, upon arrival in Vietnam I volunteered for the most dangerous job the 173 Airborne had to offer and that was Recon, in hopes that I would fulfill God's plan for my life.

In Recon, we worked in six man teams being sent out to gather information on the enemy's strengths, base camps, weapons, etc. Normally we would be working in the North Central Highlands, a very mountainous region with beautiful valleys. Very quickly I learned it doesn't take courage to shoot someone but it takes a great deal of courage to lead when the point man in front of you just got killed or had his legs blown off. This is where I began learning about sacrificing yourself for the sake of others.

There was a time our team was ambushed and everyone in the team was wounded except me. I remember trees falling around me as I tried to bury myself in the stream bed. We had called in Gunships on our own position in order to survive. There were many times God's voice spoke to me and saved my life. On one such occasion, I was walking point and His voice told me to go to the rear security and make sure no one was following us. I gave point to the man in back of me and set up in rear security. It wasn't a few moments when I heard a loud explosion. I ran back to my team only to find out the man who took my place had his leg blown off from a booby trap. If God hadn't spoken to me, it would have been me.

Another time I was running through a rice paddy chasing a NVA (North Vietnamese Army) soldier and the only way to get a clear shot at him was for me to go through a hedgerow opening. As I ran for the opening, two hands pushed me into the side of the hedgerow. I quickly turned around expecting to see someone but there was no one. About this time another soldier on my team came out of the wood line and did not see me but ran through the same opening that I had previously tried to run through and was killed. The opening was all wired with high explosives. Again that would have been me if God had not intervened. There are many such stories where God had saved my life that I could share with you but I would like to focus on the last experience that led me to True Parents.

It was during monsoon season when heavy rain was falling that we walked into a NVA base camp unknowingly. After exchanging fire and having one of our men wounded, myself and another man in our team began chasing some NVA soldiers up a stream bed in the mountain. It wasn't long before we found ourselves in the middle of their Main Base Camp, which was established on both sides of the creek. Immediately small arms opened up followed by machine guns. My partner was hit in the leg and was crawling down the mountain trying to escape. After a short firefight a chi-com grenade was thrown beside me. When it exploded, I felt myself being thrown into the air down the stream bed. It all happened in slow motion for me. I now was crawling down the stream bed thinking they will now be able to shoot me in the back. I must have passed out because the next thing I remember was being thrown on a chopper and both machine guns were firing along with the soldiers. They were extracting me on the side of the mountain near the stream where I was hit. I thought surely we would be shot down, but again God had other plans.

Upon arriving back at base camp, I felt myself being laid down on a cold metal table in an underground bunker. As my eyes moved around the room there were dead soldiers being piled in one corner. There was a medic I knew. He told me my wounds were so bad that I wouldn't make it. He asked me if I wanted him to personally notify my parents? I suddenly found myself waking up in a hospital in Japan. A surgeon was standing over me saying how glad he was to see me awake, that they had lost me and by some miracle I came back. After he left, I heard a voice repeat the same prayer I had made before being wounded, that is, I prayed to God that if He would get me out of Vietnam alive, I would do missionary work for the rest of my life. I knew God was reminding me of my pledge and expected me to keep it. He also repeated again that when I returned back to America, that something great was going to happen to me. At that time I knew that something great had more to do with God's work than a Medal of Honor.

In 1974, I met a missionary who taught me the Divine Principle and I knew without a doubt this was what God had been preparing me for; the Reverend Dr. Sun Myung Moon was that "something great" that was going to happen in my life.

It is now 35 years later and I have kept my promise to God. Without God's protection and guidance my life would have ended in a small stream bed far away from home.

For the last 17 years, I have served our True Parents as an International Instructor of Self Defense for Tong Il Moo Do, Father's Martial Arts. I have worked in over 35 countries teaching the military, police, Special Forces, Embassy Guards, Presidential Guards, SWAT teams, in addition to Martial Arts Schools. I not only teach martial arts but more importantly I teach Character Education. I have been Blessed by God to have witnessed to millions of people through the media about our True Parents. As a Martial Arts instructor my students listen to me when I teach about God and True Parents. What a wonderful way to do God's work.

Truly God is Great. He had a plan for my life and He made it happen. How much I owe God and True Parents, I can only hang my head in deep gratitude and tears of repentance.

Much love to all my Brothers and Sisters.