Unification News for May 1997

The New Hope Farm Experience: A Testimony

by Shiva Chandra Neupane

I am from the Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal. 1995 was a historical year for me. I came to New Hope Farm in Jardim, Brazil. When I arrived in Brazil I met True Parents at New Hope Farm. Rev. Zin Moon Kim introduced me in front of True Parents and I offered my simple bow. True Mother asked my name, where I was from, and received my gift of a traditional Nepalese wooden frame and some herbal tea. True Father was smiling. One night I had the opportunity to give testimony in front of True Parents and all members in New Hope Farm. I feel so grateful to have been given such an opportunity in my life.

I come from a Brahmin family which is the priestly class in Hinduism. My entire lineage are priests who worship at temple every day. None of my family members knew that I became a Unification Church member. I decided by myself to join. I heard a rumor that the Unification Church exists so I visited the center in Kathmandu in 1989. They told me, "The messiah is coming so we need to purify ourselves through him." Then I attended 7-day workshop in New Delhi, India. During the workshop I couldn't imagine a unified world, or that God is our father. I felt that Divine Principle is absolute science, logical, and that True Parents life is unique, not a written philosophy book. He brought new things such as the blessing. True Parents show the life example. However, I couldn't understand that he was the messiah right away.

Through Divine Principle I felt that I have to follow in order to recognize him, and I wanted to purify myself. Then I decided I needed to join the church. After that, the blessing was difficult for me because my culture can never accept another caste or a foreign woman to become my wife. True Father matched me to a Japanese sister. I began to think how to integrate and build a relationship with her in the context of my culture. It was so challenging for me. My parents did not believe that I was married to a foreign woman, looking at the blessing picture. They wanted to push me to marry within my own culture. It was very difficult to make a good relationship with my parents during that time.

In 1993 my spouse, Tsuneko Nishijima, received from True Father a three year mission to work in the Commonwealth of Independent States with W.F.W.P. So I also wanted to go to another country as a missionary. Finally, I was chosen to go to Brazil; I felt that God had saved my life.

I never before had lived in a foreign country. Nepalese people are very isolated. If they leave the country, they never come back because life in Nepal is very difficult due to poverty. I feel that I am chosen to work for God and True Parents even though I had visa problems and not even one dollar to pay the visa fee. I decided to go to Brazil with my faith and strong desire to work with True Parents to realize the Ideal World.

During the first year, 1995, New Hope Farm life was very interesting. We grew vegetables, built bamboo huts as sleeping quarters, and dug water wells. Every day we went to the field to dig and plant, irrigating by carrying baskets of water from the river. I had never before experienced group life with international brothers and sisters. We worked together and lived together, sometimes in very hot weather (40 degrees celsius) and heavy rain. We continued working in the field. New Hope Farm life felt like the labor camp. Through this experience I could understand True Parents way of life as a pioneer.

True Father visited the farm often, 1 or 2 weeks at a time. True Father especially loved fishing in the two rivers bordering the farm. True Father spoke to us many times at Sunday service, sometimes for 4 or 5 hours, explaining the New Hope Farm project. He said that without loving the soil, animals and plants, we could not love God. We needed to work hard with blood, sweat and tears to solve the world's problems.

President Yoon Sang Kim taught us fishing and boat riding. He taught us the Korean language every morning and evening. I learned fishing, boat riding and horse riding for the first time in my life. Actually, we were called by True Father as pioneers of the second 40 year course. True Father said, "We should be leaders of our nations." Many members left because of visa problems and the difficult farm life. We were a small family in the farm. We had many opportunities to share with True Parents: lunch, fishing and singing songs together. This was the great opportunity of New Hope Farm to be close to True Parents.

I feel that it is my destiny to be here. My ancestors prepared me to meet the messiah and receive such blessing. I had many spiritual experiences at the farm. My relatives who are in spiritual world came to meet me in my dream. Sometimes True Parents visited Nepal in my dream. Through this I felt the spiritual world supporting me and God's desire to train my heart to fulfill His will. I must grow and inherit heavenly tradition to transfer to my culture and society.

In August 1996, True Parents gave 29 ambulances to towns within a 200 kilometer radius of New Hope Farm. Father sent UTS graduates as missionaries. At the same time True Father asked President Kim to buy land. True Father wants to feed the world, initiate the hobby and tourist industries, and establish a new education system and heavenly culture to guide the second generation.

I understood True Parents heart through New Hope Farm. It is a great blessing for me and my country of Nepal. I need to have Father's heart, Father's mind and Father's motivation to become closer to Father with absolute dedication to end God's suffering. I need to bring His message to the world, especially to Hinduism. God created this world as one unity and harmony. God has given us freedom and responsibility to fulfill through our absolute faith, love and obedience. By uniting with God and True Parents' heart we can build the new Kingdom of Heaven in this place, New Hope Farm.

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