Would you just tag along with someone else or are you going to try to become the center? Those who now understand and want to act as a leader rather than a follower, raise your hands. I am thinking very seriously that each of you should become the center of your own home church. So far you have worked very hard and found one thing: even when we work hard the fruit of our witnessing is often dispersed and leaves little benefit in the center. We have done all kinds of pioneering work and witnessing on the streets, but somehow the people who come into the Church do not understand clearly and soon leave again. Then we get some more people and then they leave. The results do not remain here for good.

Early last year, you were each given an area of 360 homes. If you really visited your area at least once a day then by this time you should know where everyone in the neighborhood lives and what kind of persons they are. If you go for ten days then all your effort remains there and doesn't go away somewhere else. If you visit there for one hundred days then one hundred days of effort remains there. It does not disappear, like the people you meet street witnessing. . . .

Now that we have been persecuted so much yet continued to work with total dedication, we are finally going to succeed in this country. People are bound to come to the Church, listen and understand the Divine Principle, and become members. You have experienced how every person has ups and downs and how people drift away because they are confused or tired. So far in witnessing you might pour five or six months into one person and then when he leaves he is impossible to find. But when you have a home church you can go to his home and talk with him for a few minutes and he will come back.

Other people may not come to the Church right away, but they will observe your work 365 days a year, even for three years. Then they will be convinced that you are here to stay and that what you do is absolutely right. None of your effort will be wasted. You are guaranteed that everything you invest will bear fruit in your area. Even if it is difficult at first, people will understand later. In the meantime God will reside in each home when you visit.

When you visit your area, the old ladies there will watch you, and when you come back often they will want to know who you are. After many frequent visits they will say, "They are really persistent. They keep coming so regularly. Actually they are more devoted than my own grandchildren." Many older people are now disillusioned and disheartened by their own offspring, but if you keep visiting you will attract their attention and you are certain to leave a lasting impression on them. The young people would say you are better than their own brothers and sisters, and the parents will say you are better than their own children.

As time wears on people are sure to have a deep, positive impression of you. The old folks will talk with each other about you and say, "These Moonies are wonderful people. We want to help them." They are bound to be curious and ask what you are doing this for, and when they know you are a Moonie they will ask you what Reverend Moon is like and what he does. But if you only go once or twice to your areas you won't arouse any interest. . . .

Is it better to establish large indemnity conditions or only little ones? You didn't know about that until this morning, did you? If you are now going to do that as if you were crazy then that's very encouraging and God will be happy. I told you almost a year and a half ago to visit all your homes, and now I am assigning you to establish a church in those homes. You will soon learn exactly how to do it through your own personal experience in establishing a center. You may not know the Divine Principle well enough to lecture to other people so I had a video tape film made of the lectures. All you have to do is push a button and two or three hours of lectures will come through in clear, natural way.

Can you say, "Father, I have no one that I know in my area?" If the average family in your area has three members then there are more than 1,000 people in your area and there is bound to be someone you know who likes what you are doing and who wants to work with you. When you go to your area you can tell the people that there is a movie of 1800 couples getting married in one ceremony and invite them to see it. Maybe the grandparents won't be so interested, but the young people of marrying age would certainly like to see what happens in such a ceremony. Now that you are a Unification Church member yourself you can judge what the people will be interested in seeing. When they like something and are excited, you can tell them that there is an even more interesting movie to see and soon they will come a second time.

The home churches may be small to begin with, but after a while many folks in the area will drop in for a while to visit and see the films. When you know many young people who play instruments they can get together and form a band, and whenever an older member of the family has a birthday they can all have an enjoyable hour entertaining them. Record all the birthday dates in a notebook and on those dates go there to play for them. If you keep track of all the birthdays of the members of the households in your area, you will be going to three birthdays a day!

As you get acquainted with them, they will be fascinated with you as a young person who is completely different from what they usually see. They will invite you to visit often, and even invite you to stay overnight. When they see you often during the year they will invariably know your value too. They heard about Moonies a long time ago, but now that you are visiting them in person all year round they will realize that you are jewels of young people. When you have a place with games like Ping-Pong and a pool table, it will become the club for young people in the neighborhood. If the circumstances are fitting then you can go horseback riding, and when there is a wedding then people can celebrate there in a fantastic way. . .

At a prearranged time everyone can come to listen to the videotape. You can go through the neighborhood ringing a bell or blowing a bugle and the neighborhood will know that you are playing a movie at the center; then they can come and listen. Once we are successful in home churches, papers like the New York Times will have a hard time selling in that area. . . .

Children today are turning against their parents' beliefs, so in each home the children will be interested. Even where some parents may be communist and reject us, every American needs to be enlightened and learn what life is about. They should know why Jesus came and know the purpose of all religion. When they understand the truth then America will begin to live once again. . . .

The Divine Principle videotape is very clear and by listening to it often you will become a great lecturer. Everyone who listens to it is amazed at what they did not know before. There is no question that you can bring a person to lecture everyday. We will start this on June 1. We still have two months to go and during that time please renew your enthusiasm. Go to your area and contact the people and plan where the best place for a home church will be. Once you become successful with one home in your area you can branch out and there can be as many home churches in your area as is practical.

There are 240 million American people who have never seen me and most of them automatically oppose us because of the impact of the media. But many of them will change their minds when they come into contact with regular people like you; after all, they are regular people also, not evil. Then no matter what the New York Times says, those who come into daily contact with you will not believe any evil stories. Once we have an impact on New York, knowledge of us will spread like wildfire around America. This is exactly why I told you that New York is our front line.

Whether you continue is the main thing. If you do then in one city on the first of June we will have 1,000 home churches. We must prepare to begin on June 1, having the vision and the objective in mind.

Where God Resides and His Course
3.19.78, Belvedere

Each person has 360 homes, and even if it is difficult to find people there it is necessary to keep revisiting. Street witnessing has not been effective because it is difficult to find again the people you meet, but the people in your areas all live there and most of them will stay. When you meet good people, ask them if they have a friend who might be interested. It is not easy in the beginning but it gets better once you get started. In the beginning you must spend three to four weeks to find three people.

This is the order in which to work: go visit each of your 360 homes and pick out which ones are positive (A), not so bad (B), and negative (C). Then you will have forty to fifty houses which you can visit every day. Out of those choose 12 and then the three best to concentrate on. Concentrate on one house where you can go and live. This will be your home church. The first three very good homes are difficult to find, but after that reaching out to 12 is easier. If you faithfully do that with lots of prayer and heart, finding three families in forty days is not difficult. Within one week you should be able to find a house in which to live.

When visiting your houses you can offer to help the people with some chore or task. If you meet a policeman in your area, explain to him what you are doing: "I am witnessing to these people for the sake of England and the world." He can help you in some way.

From morning until night each of you must concentrate on witnessing. Think all the time about how to bring three people in forty days. By the time you visit your 360 homes you will know who is a communist, who are the good people and what each family does. By the time you have been in your area for three weeks you will be saying, "Good morning" to nearly everyone. At first they may not understand what our faith is or what we believe in, even after you try to explain, but they will know that you are a Moonie and a good person. Then they will begin to invite their relatives to come to their home to meet you.

People in your area will talk about you to their friends in ten other homes: "We have a very friendly young person visiting our home almost every day. He is a Moonie and very nice." if they all talk to their relatives and neighbors it means that 3600 homes will hear about us and word will really spread. There is a Korean saying, "Words, which do not have feet can travel a thousand miles." Even if people are not deeply religious they will recognize you as a good person and word will spread.

Do not witness so much in the street because you don't know anything about the people you meet. A nice person who says he is interested may actually be a communist. This was our experience in Japan. Members witnessed and worked hard on the street but no one listened. If a person came up who said he wanted to know about the Unification Church, of course they were very glad to bring him to the center. Such a person might stay as a member for some time, getting much information from doing jobs like typing letters and bookkeeping, but then go back to the communists. There have been a number of members like this in Japan who acted very dedicated, but then left.

If you witness to people in their own homes then you can know who they are but on the street you can never tell. If people walk up and say, "I am interested in the Unification Church," they could actually be dangerous. This is why, after long experience, we are going to visit homes. Witnessing in a specific area brings a better result and is better for security.

Those of you who have been members for five years, stand up. How many spiritual children have you brought in that period? imagine how many people you could have restored in those five years if you had visited people in your 360 homes every day. Our goal is to bring one person every month. If you visit 360 homes for five years then chances are that all 360 homes can be restored. How did you work before? You went out on the street but in five years you only brought two people, or ten people at most. This method has not been effective. If you visit your area every day then in one year you can make a relationship with every household. When there is a birthday you will go and celebrate with the family.

You may meet many people in the parks but most of them do not stay and those who do often have many problems. You know that Abel-type people are always busy and don't hang around parks, while those who have nothing to do go to the park all the time. We want to witness to the best people. We don't want 1,000 people who always follow a leader; we want one leader who can lead 1,000 people. Always think that you can find one man in your area who can lead all 360 homes.

The Start of the 40-Day Witnessing Condition
7.4.78, London

When you meet the children you can ask to meet their parents, and they will tell their parents about the interesting person they met. If the children insist, then the parents will meet you. If you sing well, then you can sing a beautiful song about America, even with tears rolling down your face, and the people will surely come to look. Their hearts will be softened and they will pay attention to you. If there is another garbage strike in New York then you can borrow a car or van and pick up the garbage for your people. If you do it for free you will have no competition. Certainly they will pay attention to you then.

They will invite you out to eat and ask all about you. You can tell them that you have no set place to sleep, that you stay with whoever invites you. Do you think this is impossible? You can do anything. Then you can talk with them, and discuss something you know about, in any area, even poetry and literature. There are unlimited things to do; it is only because you lack desire and will that you have been unsuccessful. There is no one right way, no requirement for preaching like a minister with a Bible in your hand.

When you meet an elderly woman you can tell her you feel as close to her as to your own grandmother. You can tell her that you used to drop in on your grandmother for lunch without notice, and ask the lady for lunch. Tell her it doesn't have to be a nice meal, just crackers or bread, things which anyone has. Take cake or something nice to her next time, telling her you thought about her after she received you so warmly, and you might say, "When I prayed about you I felt you were a good, spiritually enlightened lady, so I wanted to come speak further with you." Then cut the cake up to share with her, and even feed it to her. It is quite acceptable for a grandchild to do that. What kind of scrooge would refuse that kind of gesture? if you find that her kitchen is a little dirty and unorganized, just walk right in and clean it for her. Tell her that you do this all the time.

If you visit certain people who treat you badly and chase you away again and again with a broomstick, people will ask what is the matter. Next time, go early in the morning to the house of an especially nasty man before he gets up. Bang on his door and tell him that you are back again. When he comes to the door to get rid of you, grab him and demand to know why he is an enemy of the Moonies. "What's wrong with them anyway? You only live for yourself and do nothing for the community, but we Moonies are giving everything for the sake of America. If we don't do something soon, America will have even worse problems."

Before you go, plead with God that you need to get even with this person and that he can't push you around in your area. Then God will say, "Go ahead," and when you go He will support you. Don't do this foolishly, but dramatically. Then the neighbors will agree with you and wonder why that person is so antagonistic toward the nice Moonie. At some point he will ask what you are up to anyway, and you can say, "I was hoping you would ask that. Please come with me and listen."

Don't worry about how you are treated. If someone mistreats you seven times then he is probably a person who does the same to his own family. His relatives will say you are courageous to be nice to him, that you are the only one to stand up to him. When you get even with him then everyone else will follow you instead of him. There is no way you can lose.

Plan ahead and practice what you will say when you bang on the door: "What's wrong with what I am doing? It's better than what your son does, who is always getting arrested. I only try to guide him in the right way. What's wrong with that? The Moonies are living for the community and America." You can anticipate what he will say back again and plan how you will reply. When everything follows your scenario then you can have confidence and joy. Then when you dance for joy it will be much more fun than disco dancing.

You can wear a Santa Claus suit to your area and draw a crowd of children and announce what you have brought, and then when your Santa Claus work is done take off your suit and talk to the people. The spiritually guided people will readily recognize who you are and what kind of high spirit world you are linked with. They will be able to judge who is right and who is wrong, who is the prophet and who is the wicked man. There is no limitation on how you can reach the people to save them, so why not use every way to do so? When you can give a speech and refer to the different people in your area, it will leave a deep impression. Certainly they will remember you. If 360 homes have recorded something about you, it will remain as your treasure.

If the parents in one house keep on persecuting you, their sons and daughters will eventually come to your side. You will become close to their sons and daughters and they will invite you to come when they are head of the house.

The Abel's Path from the Providential Point of View
12.30.79, Belvedere