Vying for Selection as One of the Seven New Key Strategic Nations

On July 17, the banquet for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the coronation of the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth and their entrance into Cheon Jeong Gung took place in conjunction with the ceremonial opening of True Parents’ special conference to select the key strategic nations for Vision 2020. On this occasion, Yeon-cheon Song, president of the blessed couples associations in Japan, and Ki-hoon Kim, regional president of North America; gave their testimonies.

History of selecting key nations

Mr. Jun-young Cha, president of the Segye Times, gave a report based on what Mother had said regarding the restoration of seven nations after True Father’s Seonghwa Ceremony. Originally, he explained, before True Father’s Seonghwa we should have restored a nation.

Ultimately, we proved unable to accomplish our responsibility of sending True Father to heaven on the base of a restored nation. In light of that, we must now repent, Mr. Cha explained, for the responsibilities that we could not accomplish. We must now offer to True Parents and to Heaven the accomplishment of the restoration of more than seven nations by 2020. He also spoke about the Cheon Il Guk Leaders’ Assembly 2016, at which the idea of restoring more than seven nations was proposed. Since April, Mr. Cha said, each region and its nations had begun the process of selecting nations and had gone through a preliminary round of selection. Emerging from that were twenty-one nations that moved on to the next stage.

Mother guides the process

True Mother then came to the podium and explained that those twenty-one nations must write a proposal of the goals they intend to reach by 2020. She spoke of the prepared people on earth in the Cain realm. Mother emphasized that all the preparations are complete in the spiritual world, but we in the physical world need to fulfill our responsibilities.

“Why are miracles not occurring among those in blessed families, to whom God has given all his blessings?” she asked the national and regional representatives. “We must offer devotion and pray sincerely to heaven and we must meet the tall order set by heaven,” was her assessment. Mother then offered to give away her ring (a jade ring made from father’s necktie pin, thus, representing father) and the outfit she was wearing at that time, which she cherishes. This outfit would represent her. We do not know who will receive these holy items; we do know that because they represent True Parents, they will bring great blessing and grace to whomever receives them.

Significant matters

Excluding Korea, the United States and Japan, all nations with the ten regions had prepared a Vision 2020 strategic proposal. Based on evaluation of those proposals, twenty-one nations proceeded to the next level and came to Korea. Under True Mother’s special management and with her support, a smaller number of

key strategic nations emerged from among those twenty-one nations.

Aims of the proposal process

Under Mother’s direction, a fair system emerged for the selection of nations. One aim of selecting key strategic nations was to strengthen members’ sense of mission toward Vision 2020 centered on True Parents.

The process itself called for all the members in each nation to contemplate a path toward national restoration. By querying the presenter following a proposal, those in the audience could draw out more information and offer comments that helped hone the 2020 strategic proposals that the nations had submitted. True Mother expects that increased interest toward the key strategic nations will arise in the hearts of our members all over the globe, side-by-side with their efforts to move their own countries toward national restoration.

Event program (Method)

After a lunch banquet, twenty-one nations presented proposals in Cheon Jeong Gung’s second-floor ballroom. Jin-heon Yong of the Strategic Missions Department within the FFWPU International Headquarters explained the schedule and gave a PowerPoint presentation about the evaluation standards. He then introduced the evaluation committee and participants.

Sixty people were involved in the overall process. Among them was the evaluation committee, comprising twenty-one prominent figures; eighteen observers, regional presidents and some national leaders. Everyone had to be punctual so that the process proceeded smoothly. Simultaneous translation allowed everyone to receive the same information at roughly the same instant. Materials used by each nation to present its case were in both English and Korean. Before each of the twenty-one national presentations, the relevant regional president spoke for five minutes about what strategic advantages that nation possessed that had compelled him to choose that nation.

A national representative then had twenty minutes to present the case for acceptance for that nation as a key strategic nation. At the conclusion of the presentation, questions, answers, debate and discussion took fifteen minutes.

L to R: Bakary Camara, regional president of East Africa; Rudolf Faerber, national leader of Zambia; Hod Ben Zvi , national leader of Israel; Umberto Angelucci, president of the Middle East region

Day one of the presentations

The first day’s schedule covered presentations by the Asian nations — Nepal, Thailand, Cambodia, the Philippines and Taiwan, representing Greater China — five presentations in all. At these passionate presentations, everyone had conspicuous interest in the process because regardless of what region the selected countries are part of, they had to be nations in which the unification movement had the greatest possibility of accomplishing national restoration.

Representing Nepal, Robert Kittel spoke confidentially about the external environment, such as Nepal’s Family Party, its nascent parliamentarians association and the revitalization of national messiahs.

Representing the Philippines, Julius Malicdem spoke of their establishment of the Family Party, their foundation for self-reliant tribal messiahs and the phases of their strategic plan.

The Thai spokesman expounded on the needs of his country and how those connect with true family activities. He expressed the view that Thai members have received positive support. He then explained how they are connecting inter-religious activities to national messiah activities.

The Cambodian representative spoke of making connections with high officials and leaders and creating a miracle through the national messiah’s efforts with the support of those major figures in Cambodia.

Next came the Taiwanese presentation representing Greater China. In the beginning, Taiwanese members

received a great deal of persecution and endured difficulties but through their continuous efforts, they were able to overcome and received acknowledgment as a mainstream religion. Through organizations like the Pure Love Alliance and by cooperating on activities with the government, they have been able to connect with prominent members of society. They feel great hope toward achieving national restoration.

On the second day, Seong-tae Jo of the FFWPU International Headquarters presided over the meeting. In the morning, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire and Benin of the West African region gave their presentations.

The DR Congo spokesman said that despite the difficulties of civil war, their members continuously witness, bringing in new members and building additional blessed families. He also spoke of a religious group prepared by heaven whose three hundred thousand members believe in a revelation that the new Messiah would come from Asia.

For Côte d’Ivoire, Ivorian members proposed that they become models of development in their country through their community efforts and that they accomplish national restoration based on their members being models and on UPF activities.

The Cheon Il Guk special envoy to Benin, Sasaki Tatsuo, gave Benin’s presentation. While speaking of the history of our missionaries’ work in the country, Mr. Sasaki broke into tears. Those on the evaluation committee offered profuse words of encouragement. Members from the other regions also expressed words of support.

Yeon-ah (Choi) Moon and Dr. Thomas Walsh intently listening to a presentation in Korean

Song to begin the afternoon

Mr. Seung-man Bang, head of the Family Department in the international headquarters, sang and danced to get the afternoon session off to a graceful start.

From the Northeast Region, Russia and Ukraine gave presentations. The Russian representative spoke of the difficulties faced due to recently enacted laws, adding that the communist influence on the world is heavy. He spoke of bringing success through new beginnings among young people and using Hoon Dok family churches.

Ukraine, owing to the efforts of three generations of Korean national messiahs, has a clear member education system and structure that emphasizes cooperation. The national spokesman explained how a substantial vision of victory would arise through their exerting their cultural influence over Ukrainian communities.

South American nations then presented their cases. First, the Brazilian spokesperson explained how their course has focused on one-on-one witnessing, home groups and oikos [A masculine Greek noun, oikos literally means “house” or “dwelling” but is used in religious circles to mean “befriending a person and not witnessing to him or her until the time seems right.”] He added that members are striving toward

Cheon Il Guk through witnessing.

The spokesperson for Paraguay and Bolivia spoke of the high standard of their central members, with whom they will focus on witnessing at universities and striving for continuous growth. During the South American question-and-answer session, a North American representative promised to provide support to our South America churches. The atmosphere was such that regions could become one and unite to bring about Cheon Il Guk.

The second day concluded with the committee having heard from eight countries in three regions between 9:00 in the morning and 6:00 pm. On the third day, they heard three presentations in the morning and five in the afternoon.

Speakers gave presentations covering two nations in West Africa. The first was Kenya. The Kenyan movement plans to expand its tribal messiah activities and to witness to entire churches through church visitations. The presenter spoke strongly about the Principle of Creation and its educational effectiveness. He suggested we change the way we think as we move toward 2020. Ki-hoon Kim, president of the North America region and Dong-ho Cho, president of the West Zambia was the other West African country. In Africa region during a question-and-answer Zambia, the tribal chiefs have a great influence, session so they are witnessing to these chiefs under the theme of “One Zambia.” Their members have already formed a connection to a tribal chief that has half a million members in his tribe. They promise they will convince the people of this tribe to follow True Parents first.

The last nation represented in the morning was the Solomon Islands in our Oceania region. In 2010, the president, who remains in office, declared Cheon Il Guk an ally. Though it is a small nation with only 600,000 people, the possibility of explosive witnessing there is great.

The first presentation in the afternoon was Iceland. This country is very significant in the history of the providence. The presenter spoke of mission history and the love and devotion Iceland gave to Jesus and Jerusalem. They said they would achieve victory through conveying the peace ideology, morals, and values to VIPs.

From Europe, spokesmen for Albania and England gave presentations. Albania’s history includes a long period under an extremely harsh communist regime. Now, our members there use a variety of methods to witness to young people, who have grown up in a culture of greater religious tolerance. He spoke of their strategies for strengthening members through clear Divine Principle education and having influence over the nation through the ambassadors for peace and the parliamentarians for peace. The presenter for England was the national leader, Matthew Huish, a second-generation Unificationist. He spoke of keeping their pride as an important country in the providence by re-educating the blessed members and maintaining a good relationship with Parliament members to bring success by 2020. He also said that England will send young missionaries around the world.

The last region was Central America. Costa Rica’s second-generation members have been working hard in their activities. The spokesman explained their use of one-on-one witnessing, home groups and other witnessing methods to strengthen their foundation for tribal messiah outreach.

The representative for the Dominican Republic gave the final presentation. He spoke of strengthening tribal messiah activities through the education of young people and home group activities. They have adopted the slogan, Bring in one new member per month. All the members are confident about achieving this goal.

On the final day, three nations who were not vying for positions, nevertheless presented their strategies for national restoration. A final banquet took place in the evening.