A Report on True Father's Health to Members Worldwide

Hyung Jin Moon
August 19, 2012

Hyung Jin Moon – August 19, 2012

Good morning, everyone. First, I would like to give thanks to God and True Parents. We also have to give thanks to those who have come from a long way across the seas. To the True Children I would like to give thanks because they have come such a long way. Please give a round of applause.

My older sister Ye Jin Moon and her family are here. Please recognize them. And my sister In Jin Moon. My younger sister, Jeung Jin Moon are here, and Yeon Jin Moon just left for the Britain. Please applaud for my two younger sisters. And Sun Jin Moon's family is here. And also Kwon Jin Moon's family is here. Right now in the hospital surrounding True Mother, there is Kook Jin Moon's couple, and the daughters-in-law are there. They are staying with True Mother during this time.

I would like to give thanks to all of our brothers and sisters across the world. Many, many brothers and sisters from all countries, whether it's Brazil or Russia or any other country, are offering Jeong Seong and prayers -- an incredible amount of prayers for the sake of True Parents. And so today my words are not just addressed to the Cheon Bok Gung but to all members around the world. So let's give a round of applause to all members around the world.

Bodies Connected to the Providence

We need to remember that Father is not just a normal person. Father's body is not just a normal body. About 10 years ago in America, Father went through a very difficult situation with his health. I think many members already know about this, but at that time Father had to have heart surgery because water [blood] kept coming in. On the day that he went into the hospital, the Iraq war began. [Rev. Moon probably had heart valve surgery.]

[Hyung Jin Moon's emotion overcomes him.]

My older brother is telling me to take deep breaths.

True Parents' minds and bodies are always connected to the providence. If we look at the world today, there are many dangerous situations. In 2005, Father predicted the pan-Pacific age, and he said that particularly the island nations are in danger. He said that Russia and China may use their overwhelming strength to take over the island countries, that this kind of a time may come. Seven years ago he predicted this. And now we are witnessing that reality. We see that Chinese citizens landed on Senkaku Island, and the Japanese police took them into custody. That is a situation where there's a great possibility for conflict.

You have seen the statistics that Kook Jin Moon gives in his lecture "Strong Korea." Even now Korea and Japan are having conflict because of various issues, whether it's the Dokdo [Island] issue or other issues. Actually these free countries need to unite as one to stand up against the countries of communist dictatorships: They need to defend themselves against this challenge. This is a very important period in that sense. But instead we are fighting over a small island, and that's what the world is witnessing. The United States, economically now, is just standing by quietly.

In the Divine Principle words we see in Part II the prophecy about the third world war. Depending on the human portion of responsibility that war may be an actual war, or it may be a conflict of ideologies. But the Divine Principle says that a third world war must come, one way or another.

In this incredibly important time, Father, who is responsible to save the world, pushed himself way beyond his limits. He went back and forth between Korea and the United States. And as soon as he would arrive, he would have assemblies, and he would speak for three hours, four hours, and he would have Hoon Dok Hae for 13 hours, 14 hours, 15 hours. I've been attending True Parents for the last year and a half, and this is how it has been continuously.

It may be confusing, so I will make references according to the solar calendar. On July 16th, Father returned from Las Vegas to Korea. When he was still in the plane, he contacted Korea and told all the members to gather in the Cheongshim World Center. I'm sure you remember, and you all attended there. Then at that event he sweated as he spoke for three or four hours, giving us his words. And then the next morning he spoke again at Hoon Dok Hae. The workshop for the Original Divine Principle was going on at that time, so he received the participants in that workshop.

Lungs of a Coal Miner

Then from that time his health seemed to be a little bit strange. As I was attending Father for a year and a half, when Father would catch cold, or when he would have a slight fever, or when he would be feeling bad, I would see him recover many times, dozens of times. When it was difficult, then he would take a rest; after that, the next day, he would come to Hoon Dok Hae again and would be very active and animated. I saw that many times.

But this time Father continued to cough. He was coughing a lot. We did not think that it was such a serious thing. Who could have predicted it would have become like this? He was just coughing a little bit. But he continued to push himself, 10 hours' Hoon Dok Hae, meeting the Itinerary Workers for 13 hours and then at Geomundo Island. He would push himself beyond his limits constantly. He was so active that it was difficult for even a young person to keep up with him.

As he went on like that, the cough became more serious, and gradually the people around him started to become concerned. On August 2nd of the solar calendar, he visited the Osan School. Do you know the Osan School? In our history this is a middle- and a high school. He suddenly said he had to come to Seoul and visit the Osan School, which is located hear Hannamdong. That was a weekend, so there was no staff or teachers there. But he just sat there in the lobby, called all the leaders of our church, and told us to speak about the history of the Osan School. He had the leaders of our church report on that.

On that day, the cough was very serious. Every time he started speaking, he would start to cough and he couldn't begin speaking without also beginning to cough. People were saying, "Mother, I think that cough is becoming very serious." People were very concerned on that day. Then Father went to the Cheon Jeong Gung, and he continued to cough. And Mother said, "This is too serious. Let's go to the hospital." She said to Father, "Let's go to the hospital."

But you know about him! You know how his personality is, what an incredible personality he has. He doesn't listen to anyone. Mother continuously was saying, "Please, please, Father, let's go to the hospital; you need to go to the hospital." In any case on August 3rd, without anyone knowing, Father was admitted to the Holy Mother Hospital [Gangnam] in Seoul. No one knew about this, just the people who immediately attend Father. The hope was that he would be cured of his cough very quickly. [Soon Ae Hong – Dae Mo Nim – was treated at Holy Mother Hospital in September 1979.]

He was admitted to the hospital on that day, and the doctor did a number of tests. What was found in one part of the body was that Father's lungs are different from a normal person's lungs. Coal miner's lungs [Emphysema]. The doctor asked, "How is it that so many particles have entered into his lungs?" The explanation was that when Father was in Hungnam Prison, he breathed in ammonia as he was moving the materials [burlap bags of ammonium sulfate fertilizer] there. When we told the doctor about the Hungnam Prison experience, the doctor said, yes, that's possible that he was affected by that.

But as you know, the lungs' function is to provide oxygen to our bodies. If there are a lot of particles in the lungs, then what do you think? Can oxygen go to the body easily, or would it be difficult for oxygen to get into the body? It would be more difficult than a normal person for the oxygen to be absorbed. So in that situation, when the lungs' function was weakened, there was pneumonia, which made it difficult for Father.

When he first was admitted, three or four times a day he would breathe through an oxygen mask. The nurses would apply the mask to him so that he could breathe in better oxygen. Of course, he was taking medicine as well, and he was on an IV at that time; he was also being given nutrients and medicine through the IV.

At that time when he was in the hospital, the Olympics were going on. We watched Father and saw him watching the Olympics, and we thought he seemed weaker than usual. When he would take our hands and walk, it was more difficult for him to walk at that point.

In any case, he was there for 10 days. You know how urgent he is: All our members know about Father. His character is always very urgent. He wants to go someplace. He gets angry if he wants to go someplace and he can't. In any case, he said, "It's like being in a prison here. I feel like I'm in a prison." He was scolding people around him, "I feel like I'm in a prison." He needed to stay there until he was completely cured, but his character is so incredible. Even the doctor finally approved, and after 10 days Father returned to the Cheon Jeong Gung.

Pushing Beyond Physical Limits

But he promised Mother that he would rest. He made that promise, that he would not go back and forth, and Mother made sure that he promised that before she took him to the Cheon Jeong Gung. I remember that day. But as soon as he got into the car -- he was still connected to his IVs -- he said, "Where's the helicopter? I want to go to Geomundo." The moment that he got into the car!

We said to him, "Father, you can't take the helicopter now. You need to rest." So he returned to the Cheon Jeong Gung on August 12th and he rested for a while. Then at 10:00 p.m. that evening, he started coughing. He got out of bed and received a lot of revelations at that point. He did a special ceremony then, covering North, South, East, and West. He spoke a lot of words. It was important that he not speak because his lung function was very weak, so he needed to stop talking, but he kept speaking through the night.

He rested a little while, and then he got up in the morning. It was difficult for him to walk normally, so he was in a wheelchair, still connected to the IVs. He said, "Go over there." The people attending him together with True Mother took him to all the corners of the Cheon Jeong Gung, to the east, west, south, and north. He went outside the Cheon Jeong Gung, to all the major points of the Cheon Jeong Gung. Not only a person who is 93 but also a person in a very weakened state, he did this for hours and hours; he pushed himself far beyond his limits. He feels the urgent responsibility to save the world.

A Man Protected by Heaven

I remember that day that even when he was lying down, he was not comfortable because it became more and more difficult for him to breathe. He could not lie down normally. He had to sit because when he would lie down, it would put pressure on his lungs. So he would prefer to sit, to breathe that way. But it was very uncomfortable for him. You could see that he was uncomfortable.

That night Father could not sleep. Every 30 minutes or hour, he would get up and try to change the way he was lying down. Mother would see that, and she said, "Father, I don't think your body is very healthy." In any case, we did our best, and Mother convinced him to go to the Cheongshim Hospital. Very suddenly he went to the Cheongshim Hospital. He went out even before we could join him.

At that time there was an oxygen tank, and he needed to breathe through the oxygen mask. When we got there, the doctors and nurses were doing their best to help him, but it was becoming more and more difficult. The doctors felt that it was more and more difficult for them to care for him. So that day when Kook Jin Moon returned from the United States, we had a meeting at the Cheongshim Hospital. They were giving him an oxygen saturation test to see whether enough oxygen is getting into the blood. The doctors confirmed that the body was not absorbing oxygen as much as it should.

Many people felt that Father would be comfortable at Cheongshim, but Mother said "No, we need to go to the Holy Mother Hospital. They have an intensive care unit, so he needs to go there. If this gets any worse, then we need to move him to Seoul." Mother made that decision. In that situation Father was very weakened, and at that time he was eating rice gruel, very soft rice soup. Because his lung function was weak and he could not breathe normally, doctors were trying to feed him the rice gruel in order to give him more energy. But on the way to Seoul the gruel that he had eaten went down the wrong pipe, and it went into the trachea. Because he had pneumonia, this was a very dangerous situation. As soon as he arrived at the intensive care unit, they immediately gave him artificial respiration with their hands.

Then Mother said, "You should all go to Hannamdong because Father is going to be here." But as soon as we arrived at Hannamdong, we got a call saying, "Quickly come back." So we returned to the hospital very quickly from Hannamdong. We arrived in the ICU; Mother was waiting, and we waited for about an hour there. Then the doctors said that if Mother had made that decision to come to Seoul even half an hour later, then Father would have gone to spirit world that day. That is how serious it was. But Heaven protected him, and just at the right time he was moved to Seoul.

Stabilizing Oxygen Saturation

We had a small opportunity then to stabilize Father's situation. Oxygen was not being absorbed as it should, so an oxygen tank was placed next to his bed, and he was given an oxygen mask. But even that was not enough. He had less than 80 percent saturation of oxygen in his blood. In other words, more than 20 percent of oxygen was not being absorbed by the body, so it was a very dangerous situation. The oxygen mask was not enough, so they had to go to the next stage.

The next stage was to pump Father's lungs with a machine to move the lungs to their maximum extent. This is an artificial respirator. So Father used an artificial respirator, and the oxygen saturation began to rise to a stable level. So we were a little bit encouraged by that. [Father had to be intubated to use the resperator – a tube was put in his mouth and down his throat to get air into his lungs. The intubation tube makes it impossible to talk.]

I'm sure our older members have experienced something like this: When you go to the hospital and you are connected to a respirator, you know that a tube is inserted and a device is placed to keep the mouth from closing. That is what Father needed from the first day. He had a tube in his mouth, and he could not speak because he needed to recover. Of course he was receiving medicine by IV.

We feel a gagging reflex when something goes down our throat, so when you have a tube in there, think how uncomfortable it is. It's difficult for old people to endure this. When they are connected to a machine, the breathing is not natural because the machine is forcing the breathing. The throat is very painful. So from the first day Father was given medicine [anesthesia] to put him to sleep so he would not feel the pain.

Undergoing Additional Operations

I have seen how Father has overcome all difficulties, whether it's a cold or anything in our church, so I felt that he would probably get out of bed in two days and say, "Everyone, gather together and have Hoon Dok Hae." This is what I expected. But for people who are old, I could see that their health can deteriorate very suddenly. As Father went to the second stage and was breathing through the respirator, the doctor called True Mother and us to the conference room and said to us, "He's been on the machine for a day or two. Now the pneumonia bacteria is in the bloodstream and has gotten into the kidneys. Now the kidneys are not able to function normally [renal failure]. He is not able to create urine, so in that situation the blood itself becomes acidic and itself becomes a poison." So Father needed to be put on a dialysis machine.

I'm sure you know that when dialysis is done, a large tube has to be placed into the body, which requires an operation, and then it takes out the urine so that other organs can recover. Approval and a signature were given for that, and the doctor was told to quickly do that. We went to see Father after that. Now Father had a tube in his throat, and he had IVs in his body for nutrients. He could not eat, so he was being given nutrition and fluid through the IV. Then they had to cut into his body again to place the dialysis tubes. So when we saw Father, we were very concerned. For an older person, even one dialysis operation is difficult.

The respirator had to force Father to breathe so enough oxygen would get into his body. But the next day, the doctor then told us that even though the machine was using maximum force, Father's oxygen saturation rate was still falling. He said that there was a final stage remaining. Modern medicine only allows for one more stage, and that would be to go into an artery in the leg, take blood from there, put oxygen into the blood, and then put the blood back into the body. Tubes needed to be placed in two arteries, one to take blood out of the body and saturate it with oxygen outside the body, and then another to put the blood back into the body. So more and more machines were placed around Father. He could not move. Sometimes the patient tries to take out the tubes, so he was placed in a deep sleep, and his body was made so it would not move. The situation kept getting worse like this, and he was deteriorating very quickly. It was shocking to us to see how quickly he was deteriorating.

Receiving Jeong Seong from Members Worldwide

In any case, in that situation by now all members around the world were offering Jeong Seong and offering prayers for Father's quick recovery. What I'm very grateful for is that in this situation all members around the world are concerned. Mother made a very wise decision to put out official statements so everyone could offer Jeong Seong when Father was in the ICU: "Let's all pray and offer Jeong Seong." This was the content of the first statement.

Even when that memo was going out, already the True Children were coming to Korea from around the world. Mother met them, and, of course, she would take them by the hand.

She would also massage Father's feet and say to Father, "Father, I love you. Father, I love you. Please be strong. Please get up and slap me on the cheek. Please get up fighting. Please rise up." Every day Mother would go down to the ICU. She went so often that the doctor said, "Now you need to let him alone. If he becomes too excited, then for a person of that age in that situation to become excited, it would be more difficult if his heart rate rises." Mother's visits were reduced to twice a day by the doctor's order.

What I was very grateful for is that the members acted very quickly to offer Jeong Seong and gave the "Chambumonim, eog mansei." We received many tweets and e-mails from members around the world.

Of course, still Father is in a very dangerous situation. He's still in the ICU. He needs to remain there. The next week is really very important. He needs to be there for at least a week. Some people say, "Oh, he got up and ate some gruel," but they don't know what's going on. Father needs to remain in his sleep. He has tubes in his arteries; really, he has so many tubes in him that you cannot put any more into him. He's in that kind of situation.

Two days ago Father was able to have a bowel movement. Now he's lying down, and so his bowels need to move.

Something is being put in through his nose. Just two days ago the respirator was at the maximum, of course, as well as the machine to oxygenate the blood before putting it back in, and now it is down to 50 percent. Now Father's oxygenation rate is at 97, 98 percent. That means that he is receiving enough oxygen.

From the moment that people started offering Jeong Seong, we were very encouraged. We saw that Father's infection was going down, that the swelling was going down. We saw that the respirator could be reduced to 40 percent of maximum, and he could still receive enough oxygen, even at that level.

Yesterday the True Family visited Father in the morning and again in the evening. We're really very grateful to see the work of Heaven, to see that Father has really improved a lot from the prayers being offered. We visited him last evening. The respirator was reduced to 30 percent, and Father was able to receive enough oxygen even at that level.

Now this morning Yeon Ah Moon and others visited him with Mother, and the situation is the same this morning as last evening. Father continues to sleep. There are still about 13 various machines attached to him. It's still very serious. Of course if we see him improve a little bit, we feel hope, but for a person of this age, the situation can change in a single moment. If a little bacteria goes in, things can deteriorate very quickly.

At least the next week is extremely important. That is the situation Father is in now. It is important for us to offer Jeong Seong. We should offer Jeong Seong, shouldn't we?