FFWPU International Headquarters' Heavenly Tribal Messiah Academy

From left: Hajime Saito, special Cheon Il Guk envoy to Cambodia, Director Jin-hun Yong and two members of his tribe

The Heavenly Tribal Messiah Academy is a component of the FFWPU International Headquarters. Its director is Rev. Jin-hun Yong. Mr. Hyun-yong Cho, one of his assistants, agrees that the academy is both a think tank and a do-tank. “Tribal Messiahship started full scale in 2015, first in Asia and then in other areas. At some point, within our international headquarters, came a call for a structure that can provide education, guidance and inspiration and collect empirical data and testimonies. The HTM Academy was thus launched in October 2017.” Members are encouraged to contact their regional HTM Academy. “We have branches in the seven regional groups, and some regions actually have several branch offices,” Mr. Cho added.

Rev. Jin-hun Yong is traveling around the world; this is the do-tank aspect of the academy. “He gets out there, despite his language limitations, and inspires members all over the world that they can do it. He invests in both the spiritual and strategic aspects, including building and caring for his own tribe,” said Julian Gray, who works in another department of the international headquarters. “The academy provides the theory, more precisely, the detailed theological background that tribal messiahs need to start and conduct their activities properly. It must empower blessed couples to believe that they can achieve the status of tribal messiahs.”

“The HTM Academy educated us about the difference between traditional witnessing and tribal messiahship,” commented Rev. Hajime Saito, special envoy to Cambodia, based in Battambang. “Traditional witnessing means finding John-the-Baptist figures; we still need to do that, but through that we only restore the elder sonship. When you bless 430 couples, you restore parentship, which is much deeper. And when you have at least twelve heavenly tribal messiah victors, you start to believe in the restoration of kingship, or national restoration. We’ve long heard of this theory; it is now real.”

Questions raised by tribal messiahship are both theoretical and practical. For example, Why should we do it? We may have a strong desire, motivated by our faith and the promptings of our original mind. But in some cases, the motivation is in conflict with other desires: I first want to focus on the unity between my spouse and me and in our family, or I should first liberate and bless my ancestors.

Mr. Cho said, “In Europe, blessed couples are sometimes discouraged by the heavy pressure. They are paralyzed and must be liberated. In Korea too, couples complain and voice their struggles, but they more

naturally feel a connection with True Parents. Everywhere, people must be motivated.”

Another question is, What for? National messiahship is crucial for the sake of restoring a nation. Twelve victors are a foundation to restore the nation. But suppose you live in a nation hostile toward FFWPU or one with few members or an unsupportive national leader.

Director Yong completed his 430 couples in Battambang. When he visited there for the second time, he was surprised to see dozens of young people living in the center, all of them children of recently blessed couples. “Director Yong had never seen this pattern elsewhere,” Rev. Saito explained. He wants to advocate this pattern. We have to guide 430 couples to complete the forty-day separation and three-day ceremony, but then we should deeply invest in their children, who are much better educated and able to make a difference. Most of our 430 Cambodian couples are poor and could not study much; but almost all of their children completed high school or college in Battambang. If we guide their children to the matching and toward a happy family, they will realize all their dreams. Rev. Yong will stress this good practice, which he saw in Battambang.”

“Where” is also a theoretical and practical issue. Ideally, at the deepest level, we should be victorious messiahs in our hometowns, with our relatives. But many members feel that their hometown is the last place they’d succeed, so they do it elsewhere, even in another country. Right now, statistically, you are more likely to be a successful messiah in rural areas in a developing country than in Tokyo, Seoul or New York.

That is one of the areas in which HTM Academy is useful. Among the books it has published (see excerpts on pages 34–43), is one of testimonies, including some by blessed couples who were successful in secularized urban areas. Check with your region’s HTM Academy for the book collection or download the books by name from Amazon[dot]com to a Kindle app on any device free of charge.

Questions about methodology (how to do it?) are also both theoretical and empirical. Standardized and universal procedures should be adapted to the local situation. Information about good practices is helpful. Absolute faith does not mean absolute dogma. The HTM Academy stimulates our curiosity and provides tools to make us more creative and to learn from others.

Even the timing is both theoretical and empirical. We know of the deadline and of the push to focus on, 2020. At the same time, the dedicated tribal messiah knows that it is not a short campaign, but a lifelong vocation that requires much follow-up.

Franco Famularo, FFWPU leader in Canada sees three roles for the HTM Academy: it provides education. It helps share testimonies and best practices and it should mobilize human and material resources to help global development.

Anne Inoue supervised the English translation and editing of the four-book Heavenly Tribal Messiah Collection, in collaboration with FFWPU-USA’s Publication Department and the FFWPU International Headquarters. “The Hoon Dok reading passages gave me a good idea of how to approach maintaining my faith and teaching tribe members how to maintain their faith,” she said regarding Heavenly Tribe Hoon Dok. Moreover, “I was very inspired to read the twenty-five testimonies from different people to see their various approaches to outreach and caring for their tribe members.”

Finally, she praises the materials on methodology. “I found a lot of information in volumes two and four about how to organize and run a mission center. After reading them, I felt that if I were dropped in a mission area and had to make everything new from scratch, those two books would be immensely helpful in knowing what to do.”