Aspiring to a Noble Life, and interview of of Aeryun Lee Hokanson - Part 2

Question: How did you come to understand True Parents’ value?

When you read True Father’s words, you know who he is; he is God’s son. Through his teach- ings and directly experiencing his love, I can testify that True Parents are… They have the mission of the savior and messiah, but I was able to experience their parental love. They showed me their parental love. I can testify that they are the true incarnation of true love, true parental love.

Spiritually, somehow they knew my thoughts, what I was thinking. Early one morning, while I was driving from my home to North Garden [in Kodiak, Alaska] during a fishing tournament in the winter, I was thinking, “I wish I could do Hoon Dok Hae with True Father like the leaders do,” but then I forgot about it. Yet in the middle of preparing breakfast, the door between the kitchen and the dining hall, where True Parents were doing Hoon Dok Hae, flung open. I was standing in front of the sink washing something. The Hokansons and their oldest children, daughters I turned my head to the left and there was True Kim and Leah with True Parents Father at the end of the long table looking at me, laughing and saying, “…so that you can hear.”

Wonju was reading and True Father said to leave the door open. Mrs. Inoue came and opened the door. He was telling me to listen to the word. I mean, it could have been anybody else standing at the sink at that time. Who knows, there were many other people in the kitchen, but I was there and True Father was telling me to listen. So what do you do? Do I keep standing there? I had other stuff to do. I pretended I was listening, but finally we were making too much noise and they had to close the door.

Because I am not a natural cook, I usually have to put in extra effort to cook for True Parents. Sometimes I would feel quite burdened. Especially since True Father does not have set mealtimes. You never knew when he would eat, so preparing food is very difficult. If you make it early, you do not want the food to get cold, and when he is ready to eat, you do not want to be late and make him wait for you. So we keep reheating the food, back and forth, back and forth. After a while, it no longer tastes good.

One summer True Father said, “The kitchen staff feels as if the kitchen is hell. I will set meal times for you.” So True Mother came to us and decided on meal times. I do not even think that lasted one day, but I was surprised that they knew exactly what I was thinking.

It is the same with True Mother. She knows my thoughts. Whenever I was thinking about her, she would respond to me and would even take me out to spend time with her for half a day. Not through words, but just by spending time with her she was responding to me and answering my questions.

Question: What would you usually do with True Mother?

Once she asked me to guide her in shopping in Kodiak, in town, but I had never gone shopping there, so I was taken aback. For twenty years, I had never gone downtown! The only place I would go was to garage sales or to the Salvation Army. She actually knew more than I. She bought me clothes, we went to McDonald’s and she took me up to Pillar Mountain to pick wild cranberries.

Anyway, back to the mealtime: True Father could not eat at a set time because True Parents had only one single thought—the work to liberate God, nothing less, nothing more. They were of one mind to accomplish God’s will and connect humanity back to God’s heart.

True Parents came to Kodiak right after Young Jin nim passed away. I was surprised to see that they did not look any different from the last time I had seen them. For normal human beings, when a child dies, human couples cannot cope because it is too painful to lose a child—to the point that their relationship as husband and wife suffers and many couples divorce because of it. I was surprised to see True Parents did not waver. They did not show their pain. I realized that because they are the True Parents they are the parents of humanity, not just of one child or of just the True Children. It was the same way with Heung Jin nim, and others.

The only interests they have are Heavenly Parent and Heavenly Parents’ will. Each day Father’s focus was on how much more devotion he could give than he had given the day before. Therefore, if he had lunch at 1:00 p.m. today, the next day he would not eat until later, so he would feel hungrier. If he went to bed at 1:00 a.m. yesterday, he would go to bed later today. That was how True Father lived. True Parents were only interested in making more conditions and laying more foundations.

Their only concern was God’s will. They had only one single mind, for humanity. True Parents are True Parents.

I never saw them complain. True Father was aging, in Kodiak, where especially when fishing, it can be very cold and uncomfortable. However, I never saw them complain or being negative. I never witnessed that. Back then, I took it for granted because they were True Parents. Now, when I look back and think about it, I think that always being completely focused and so absolute is impossible.

One time, we were fishing in Karluk [a tiny community on Kodiak Island] and True Father’s boots were leaking. We did not even know about it. He had water getting in his boots and we had to walk a long distance. However, he said he was happy because he paid more indemnity.

Another time in Karluk only about two or three guests—including Peter Kim and Rev. Park—the staff and the True Children were there. We were all in one trailer with one bathroom. True Father went to take a shower and we had just arrived from the town of Kodiak. True Mother came out and told us, “Do you know what True Father did? Father could not find a towel to dry himself after showering. He used the bathroom floor rug instead.” If you are True Father’s wife, you could get upset at the situation, but she didn’t. She just casually said that and left. So what would become of us? There were many other, more terrible situations than that, but I cannot make them public. [*My mom was laughing the whole time she was talking about these things.]

Many things happened in Karluk. The trailer that we rented had not been used in years. We went in and had to scrub the whole place and the bathroom was not working properly. If you flushed the toilet, the water would leak into the next room. The feces would not go down either. The water would leak into the next room. We had to clean it up with a rag and then sleep there at night. Yet even sleeping there in a sleeping bag was not easy. If you were to see photos taken of us at that time, photos, all True Parents’ faces were swollen from lack of sleep.

Question: The best moments for me were when I would cook with a cookbook because I wasn’t a very good cook, but True Father said that it tasted good even though I made many mistakes.

There was a time when I went fishing with True Father. Usually whenever True Father left for or came back from fishing we would all greet him outside. Each time, because True Father was a parent and was a person who overflowed with a parental heart, he would always ask us to join him. We were never able to go because we had to cook his food. One time, however, a Japanese cook came so we were able to go fishing.

It was silver salmon season and each person managed to catch about five fish. Around ten people were on True Father’s boat. That was the first time I went fishing in Kodiak. But I thought, “This isn’t fishing; it’s war.” It was a condition for True Father. As soon as the boat’s anchor goes out, the fishing poles come out. If there are ten people on the boat, the goal is fifty fish. If they caught fifty fish yesterday, the goal was to catch fifty fish in a shorter amount of time today. That is why it was not fishing but war. For the first time in my life, I did not get seasick. There was no time to get sick. Hence, all those leaders, who visited Kodiak with the idea that it is a novelistic place, did not even have a single second to admire the beautiful view or glance at the sky. We all completely focused on catching five fish, and as the fiftieth fish was being reeled in, the boat would already be leaving. True Father did this every day. Luckily, that day we had caught a king salmon so Father was very happy. It was the first time I had ever had such an intense experience. He based his goals on achieving a greater victory than yesterday. That was his condition.

Another memorable experience also showed me who True Parents are. One day True Mother called me and gave me a ring. The reason for this was that I had brought the then Kodiak mayor, Gabrielle LeDoux. We were friends even before she became mayor and I had witnessed to her. After she became the mayor, I invited her to visit True Parents. What was amazing was that she did not even come alone; she brought her daughter along. That was extremely significant to True Parents. The fact that the mayor, the repre- sentative of the people, had come to greet True Parents was more significant than all the other people on the island greeting True Parents.

She must have told them that I had invited her. Hence, True Mother gave me a ring. True Parents visited Kodiak often and it was meaningful for the mayor, who was in the position of the Cain-world, to meet True Parents with her daughter. I did not think of it much when I had invited the mayor, but to True Parents it set a condition and they were very happy. After that, True Parents rarely went to Kodiak anymore.

Question: Why did you move back to Korea?

During that time, True Father said many times that members in America should move to Korea. Just as when he told everyone to go to Jardim, we wanted to obey. Also, the more I studied True Parents’ words, the more I realized I needed to learn about the vertical relationship in order to build my relationship with and understand God’s and True Parents’ hearts. It was also hard for my children to understand the vertical tradition.

Miraculously, my husband got a job at Sunmoon University at the time I was thinking about this. Yet I was still waiting for a strong sign from God because it was such a big decision. We also needed a place to stay in Cheonan, which is nearby the school. I had been away so long from Korea; I didn’t know anybody in Cheonan.

So I said, “Heavenly Father, I don’t know anybody in Cheonan. How is this going to be possible? How is my big family going to move to Korea?” Then I got a phone call from New York. Someone I knew back in Korea thirty years ago, called me from New York out of nowhere just to say hello. How did she find my number? I still don’t know. I didn’t even know she was in New York. She told me her sister, Jeongsun, lives in Cheonan. Is this a strong enough sign to move to Korea? So I said, “Okay, that is enough. It must be God’s will.” So we moved to Korea and got an apartment, which was miraculously possible through Jeongsun’s friend’s friend who happened to be moving out.

Question: What are you currently doing?

True Father told wives to get a master’s degree and doctorate. Thus, I went through the master’s course in Pastoral Theology in Sunmoon University’s Theology Department. It was the best experience of my life. I was then asked to manage the international Wonmo Scholarship students at Sunmoon University, including the Korean Language Institute. This includes a hundred students from thirty different countries. Even though my income is half what it was at my previous job, I feel as if I have been prepared for this job, this mission. I am very happy to contribute to raising leaders of the next generation for the substantiation of Cheon Il Guk.