Gil Ja Sa Eu publishes "A Testimony to God’s Word, In Regard to Divine Principle"

A Testimony to God’s Word, In Regard to Divine Principle is a lifetime compilation of history, theological brief, devotional guidance and memoir by Mrs. Gil Ja Sa Eu, 80, who is one of the earliest living disciples of True Parents. Mrs. Eu and her late husband, Rev. Hyo Won Eu, were among the first three couples blessed by True Father in 1960. She has devoted more than 30 years to teaching the Divine Principle and refining various systems of instruction, which are still continuously used in certain communities of the church.

The new book published by Myong Won Media in Seoul, at 474 pages, is being sold for $30 per copy in the United States. Each of the 97 short chapters in this remarkable book is titled with a topic from the Divine Principle or a facet in the historical experience of the messiah, yet what is unique is the wealth of anecdotes and personal messages from True Father himself, much of which will be new to most readers.

For example, readers of True Father’s autobiography will learn of his trips as a boy to the sea shore to catch eels, and he was skilled at trapping wild birds. He says he loved doing it and didn’t mind running eight miles to the water. Eu explains in the chapter, “True Father Receives His Calling from God” another reason: due to the Japanese control of the farming produce, many in his village were on the edge of starvation.

“During this period, people in Korea did not have much to eat. So the younger children would say to Father, ‘Older brother, I want to eat some meat. I want something sweet.’ They didn’t have anything to eat, because the Japanese people took everything,” she reports, and “He caught many birds with such traps, and the children would eat roasted bird meat to their hearts’ content.”

Every chapter it seems has a gem of insight that humanizes True Father even as it illustrates the extraordinary achievement of every day of his life.

Soon after True Father arrived in the United States to personally lead the movement, he got the order from God that he must meet President Richard Nixon. She writes that he had no clue how to do this and cried in tears every night, but to his family and to the church members he showed not a hint of self-doubt. As she explains: “…Father prayed with many tears. Father cried when he prayed, but he couldn’t cry in front of Mother or his children, let alone in front of the members. Why? Because Father was the hope of all hopes, Father thought about how we could follow him if we saw him shedding tears because he was worried or because he didn’t know what to do… Father told us that he told Mother, his children, and us that he was confident, but then he would turn around and shed tears. We were dumbfounded when we later learned this. At that time, the people around Father were recommending that he not meet President Nixon.” Having learned this, it casts a nuance on Father’s broad, radiant smile in the photo of him shaking hands with President Nixon early in 1974.

Mrs. Eu expands on the notion some have heard at seminars that God experiences life through the bodies of people who are aligned with his ideas. As she explains: “Father once said, ‘God grows together with humans!’ What kind of amazing thought is this? I could not understand how a perfect being such as God grows together with humans. So I asked Father, ‘Does God really grow like a child? Christians will think we are crazy when they hear this. They keep persecuting us, because we say different things, but now you say that God grows? Then Father said, ‘God of course is perfect, but love cannot be felt unless there is a partner. You will know this if you have children. If your child is five-years old, you will have to play with your child as if you are a five-year-old as well.’”

We learn that True Father had to struggle with all the emotions that we feel in the course of life. He had to force himself to forgive Kim Il Sung of North Korea before meeting him at the historic reunion in December 1991. His attitude is recounted by Mrs. Eu this way:

“Before Father went to North Korea to meet Kim, he went to Hawaii to offer Heaven the last prayer so he could overcome his hatred for Kim. ‘I can’t hate him even if the whole world hates him and accuses him of being a murderer. If I hate him, too, he cannot be saved. Then what kind of heart will I have to have when I see him? Yes, I will go there as his father who gave birth to him. People might say, ‘Kim Il Sung is a murderer, execute him, shoot him,’ but if his father were there, he would still say with the heart of a father, ‘My son is a bad person, but I still want him in front of me. ’ Kim Il Sung’s father would do anything to save his son’s life. I will go with that kind of heart.” She concludes that the trust created at that meeting in 1991 was possible only because Kim could feel Father’s sincere love.

Mrs. Eu concludes her book with a discussion of the meaning of the words, “Hoondok,” and her prediction that our movement is entering an age of Hoondok in which the leaders who continually read True Father’s words will gain ascendance over those who do not. In her book’s promotional tour through cities on the East Coast she has been referencing what she refers to as a Hoondok revolution that has been gaining momentum in Southeast Asia for two years.

This book is bound to have great impact in the circles of serious devotional practice of our movement. Without question this is the book of the year. Make that book of the decade.