Melbourne, Australia's Churinga Witnessing Team Constantly Brings People

The mission here in Australia, established almost a year and a half ago, is expanding; there is excitement and much activity in the air. July was packed full with blessings.

Our “Churinga Team,” which has existed for five months now, goes witnessing in the streets of Melbourne for ten hours every day, and many good contacts have been formed. Constantly they bring interested people into the center, many of them coming during the day to listen to the lectures of the Divine Principle. It is amazing how often we meet foreigners in the streets who have already met the Unification Church in Europe, in the United States, and sometimes even in Japan. The Principle follows people all over the world; once they have heard this powerful message of God they can’t forget it, even if they want to.

Perhaps there is a little surprise in the name of our team, “Churinga.” It describes a symbol with thirteen concentric circles and is derived from the old myths and rituals of the Aborigines-the native people of Australia. Several thousand years before the white settlement started, the Aborigines, very dark-skinned and tall people, came from South East Asia to live here.

They are not integrated into the society of the white people, and there are several problems, mainly of racial and social kinds. Today the Aborigines live in the far “outback” of Australia in their own communities, often connected with mission centers and in reserved area.

Only the Divine Principle can provide the possibility of solving these problems and at some stage these

people of ancient times will be found by the Principle and they will be members of one great family. So “Churinga” is an old symbol for the origin of all life; it describes so much the purpose of our team: to give life to many Australians. Thirteen million wait for salvation in this continent.

Because the cities are far apart-five-hundred miles and more-we intend to have mobile teams as soon as there are enough members in the centers; they will work along the same pattern we have established here in Melbourne.

In Adelaide our second center, established now almost four months ago, is expanding; new members have moved into the center and the girls are already strong fighters for our Father. We welcomed new members here in the Melbourne Family as well.

It is a privilege to work for our Father here, and we desire so much that He is really happy when He thinks about Australia and sees the mission progressing. We thank Him for all His love and guidance.

Again we were able to expand the mission here in Australia. On the 29th of August we opened a new center in Perth, almost 2000 miles west of Melbourne. We are grateful that Father told us to go out to establish the third center and we are confident that within a short time we will have a family there as well. The population of Perth is 500,000. It is the capital city of Western Australia, the largest state of all six here. Never has there been real unity; since we have centers now in three states; Victoria, South Australia and West Australia, it will be a base to achieve this unity in the future.

We feel the urgency so much. Australia’s society is very weak-a rapid decline becomes obvious. The recent strikes have caused an unemployment rate of almost three percent. The Communists work hard to get more unions under their control; the average Australian doesn’t realize the danger. There seems to be complete ignorance about the tactics and the intentions of the Communists, and we find hardly any sense of responsibility. But deep down in their hearts the Australians long so much for real love and acceptance. We realize that they all have a very strong longing to fulfill the Father’s plan.

Recently we did pamphlet work in the three main shopping centers in the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne; we were able to hand out thousands of leaflets. We experienced the most different reactions coming from the people but in general the response was very good.

In the last month we had not only an increase in our membership, but a new nation is represented in the family here as well. A boy from Canada was approached here in Melbourne, who understood the Principle and joined us. We look ahead with confidence.