We have not heard Mother speak often in the past and the Today's World editors are grateful to be able to offer Mother's words here as we have in the past few issues. After giving her speech "True Parents and the Completed Testament Age" to an audience of guests in Las Vegas, Nevada, Mother spoke at length to local church brothers and sisters, offering them guidance and encouragement. Here are excerpts from her comments.

Don't you want to deliver this speech to every single person in this world without exception so no one can say, "I didn't have a chance to hear the truth? [Yes!] How old is Father? [Seventy-three.] Getting up toward eighty, right? How many more years do you think Father will be in this physical world? What about another one hundred years? [Yea-a- ah!] I appreciate your heart, yet if Father lives in this physical world too long, it means Father will have to endure a lot more suffering and persecution. Do you have the confidence to say that you will give nothing but joy and happiness to Father so that he can spend the rest of his life without any difficulties? [Yes.] How would you do that? Those brothers and sisters who belong to the Las Vegas church, raise your hands, please.

Tell me about the entire state of Nevada. What is the population of the entire state? [One million.] Well, Unification Church ministries started earlier in this country because missionaries came before Father and Mother arrived here. However, the main thrust of this ministry really began in 1971, when Father himself came to this country, and this year is the twenty-third year of our ministry since his arrival. Yet, even though you have one million people here, when I came to this city, I found not even twenty Unification Church members in this state. In twenty-two years, you gained only about twenty members. If you want to restore the entire population of this state of Nevada, how many more years do you think you would need? This is a serious matter. Man's physical life is limited.

Isn't this year a special year? [Yes.] Why so special? Because this is the dawning year of the Completed Testament Age, the new age. What is the meaning of the Completed Testament Age? True Parents and what? This is the time when we can live with True Parents and God together.

Suppose you live with True Parents and God together at this point. Do you think God and True Parents feel comfortable with us? Even at this very moment when we look at the world, we see so many people, thousands and thousands of people dying, passing from this world into the spirit world without hearing the words "True Parents," without learning about God and True Parents. Sooner or later, without exception, we will all have to join the spirit world, won't we? Then, suppose as individual blessed couples you join the spirit world. Will those ancestors and spirits who have already gone there before you, welcome you because you are a blessed couple? Many of those spirits who have gone there before you will criticize you, accuse you, and even curse you by saying, "At one point you and I were living together in the physical world during the same time period. Because you didn't teach me about True Parents, didn't give me a chance to learn about True Parents, I didn't learn about them and I went off to the spirit world in ignorance.

"If you had only told me about True Parents while I was living in the physical world, I would have done something much more valuable for God and True Parents than I was able to do. I would be here in the spirit world in a better position. But because of you, I didn't have a chance." That's the way they will curse you.

Our individual life doesn't begin and end with us. It is always interrelated. Vertically, our life must be connected to our ancestors and to our coming generations. In other words, we must live our life in this world with three generations together: grandparents' level, parents' level and children's level. Based upon that experience and foundation, we also must expand our spiritual life. In other words, we need a lot of spiritual children with us, and have them together with us in the spiritual world. That is the only way we can have enough space in which to live when we join the spirit world. Otherwise, though we are blessed couples, if we join the spirit world without experiencing this kind of life in the physical world, including keeping our spiritual children together, we will live in the spirit world alone, having just one little spot to stand on, without anybody around at all.

Is that what you want? Do you want to live your life without sacrifice, comfortably, in luxurious circumstances? Or do you want to live your life poorly and humbly like a beggar? Which way is better? Do you want to live your life just for yourself and pass unchanged into the spirit world, or do you want to devote your life to humanity and have many good people surrounding and supporting you? Second choice? Well, we have been living in the New Testament era up to this point, and now the new era, the Completed Testament era, has started. Our lives must change, don't you think? Even today, while you watched the audience come, listen to my speech, get inspired, excited, and applaud enthusiastically, didn't you feel great?

If you are guaranteed to be able to restore more lives, can you bring more people than this to my speech? If you work harder to restore those people, can you bring more of those people with you to the spirit world to surround you? Do you think, if you are fully aware of these facts, you could just sit around or would you work harder? [Work harder.] You couldn't stand still, right? From now on, I don't want to hear, "Yes, Mother, I will work harder," just by word, but I want to see your results, your actions.

Father has given the example countless times during these years. From True Parents' point of view, they completed their mission, everything is accomplished. By now, Satan has totally surrendered to True Parents, therefore, when God looks at True Parents' situation, He feels really sad because True Parents are still working hard on the front line. True Parents don't have to do this, but still they are doing it. Throughout his life, Father never slept more than three hours a day. Even now, he is living that way. Think about it. It's easy to talk about, but we are not just referring to one or two days or a couple of weeks of living like that, but his entire life has been spent this way.

Let's look deep into our hearts to examine what kind of life we have been living up to this point. Perhaps because we grew up in this country and society is set up this way, our life has been easy. Even though you have directions from Father, specific teaching from Father and myself, many times you get influenced and affected by the environment and surroundings. You allow yourselves to be swayed by momentary urges. For example, if you want to swim, you go swimming, if you feel tired, you go to sleep. Only after doing all these things you may feel, "Oh, Mother said I should do this; this is my mission, so now I have to think about my mission." Even though the mission should be our priority, you do you own things first and your mission is often considered secondary, not primary.

Right now I feel totally exhausted, because today I realized that this city of Las Vegas is the base of many crimes and decadence. It is sometimes considered the dungeon of hell. When I felt the heart of God wanting to restore even this hell back to heaven, I became sorrowful and was in tears during the speech which you witnessed. I became very serious and shed tears many times, giving all my energy to the audience to inspire them. Spiritually and physically I am totally exhausted at this point.

I cried today during the speech whenever I thought about God's situation and the situation of Father, particularly Father's life course. He has been fighting spiritually and physically throughout his life against negative society and against all kinds of spiritual attack. Through all this persecution he had to abuse his physical body. Many times he disregarded eating, sleeping or resting, all of which was needed by his body. Because of this, Father has been dealing with fatigue and lack of sleep and difficulty all his life, yet Father's conviction has always been absolute. "I, True Father, I am the one who can liberate God's agonized sorrowful heart. I am the one who can save all of humanity. I am the one who can eliminate Satan from mankind." That's why when I thought about it, I couldn't stop crying.

I am truly hoping that you can understand even one tenth of the seriousness of my heart. I think back to the times Father and I have spent in the past, all of which have been on a very difficult path, the path of indemnity, and all the persecution and the negativity we had to deal with. I think of that past time period and how finally, upon that foundation of indemnity True Parents won the victory and came forward with the glorious proclamation of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age-it is truly the greatest blessing for mankind.

Therefore, if we are truly genuine Unification Church members, we cannot stop crying, bursting out in joy and sorrow and sadness. If we truly understand, we must have enough heart to cry, not just because we feel sad, but also, because we have received this glorious blessing of the Completed Testament Age, we should have the heart to feel joy and happiness. We should cry out with joy! You blessed couples must not forget for one second of your life that you are responsible as blessed couples to create the environment, create the world, so that True Parents feel comfortable and True Parents can live in joy and happiness.

In order to be that kind of person, we must fulfill our mission responsibility, not just for our own sake, but, gratefully remembering that we are only here because of our ancestors' good work, we must in turn take responsibility for our mission for the sake of our children and coming generations too. We know we have the physical ability to do this. However limited a time we may have in this physical world, we must do our utmost day and night to create a foundation so that God and True Parents can live comfortably in joy and happiness. Can we do that? [Yes.]

I am telling you that if you keep your old bad habits and the way of life we have been living up until this point, we won't be able to save the two hundred twenty million Americans living in this country. Furthermore, there are five billion people in the world. We must have created a new lifestyle. How should we do this? Mother reminds us to think of Father's entire life up to this point. He has dedicated over seventy years of his life to God and humanity, and he has been constantly fighting against Satan, sacrificing his sleeping hours, his food as well as all kinds of personal privileges. Only Father alone has been fighting for the sake of God and humanity, and finally he won this victory of True Parents and the Completed Testament Age, which he is now proclaiming.

Yet when we look at the world, it is not completely ready for this message, but because of the foundation of victory True Parents have reaped, as I go around the country giving this special message to many prepared people from the outside secular world, they receive it like raindrops in the desert. They really feel like they are reborn by this truth. In this speech I harshly criticize America, saying she has failed, if she doesn't follow God's will she will perish-yet the people still don't shout against my proclamation, they quietly listen, despite that kind of judgment. They know this is the truth. They receive it and they are inspired.

For example, yesterday, a leader reported that he brought a guest, a VIP to my speech, and this VIP's response was, "I don't know why, but I feel happy. I am really excited about this speech." People who come to my speech, particularly those who are prepared, get excited and feel reborn. They feel they have now a new life to live. We are the ones now who must give birth to these dead people and give them new life so that they can become new people. This is the way we can also liberate God's agonized, sorrowful heart.

In order to do that, we must run from now on, if we have been walking in the past. If we have been running, from now on we have to fly. That's the only way we can do it. In other words, if we devoted ten hours a day for the sake of the mission we received from God and True Parents before, from now on we have to give even more than twenty-four hours a day to do our mission. Shall we do that? [Yes.] Are you sure that you promised me that you will do that? [Yes.] I am asking you, until 1995, are you sure you will do your absolute best to restore this entire country of America. Will you do that? [Yes.] I can't believe it. What about if I give you a little more leeway? What about until the year 2000? Will you do that? [Yes!]

By the year 2000, how old do you think Father will be? [Eighty.] Father, as you heard over the phone, is in Kodiak, Alaska. His daily schedule is so rigorous, so tight, that even the young brothers and sisters who accompany Father and serve him there all look for a few minutes here and there to rest.

I am giving my testimony. It was during this speaking tour in this country, as Father delivered this proclamation to the people of America, that I really became serious, really thinking about God's heart and Father's heart. How desperate Father is to give this message to the entire world! With that kind of heart, whenever I prepare to deliver this speech, I keep studying and reading and praying and I get new inspiration, new knowledge, new power and energy. I am telling you that if you do the same thing, continue studying this truth, this proclamation-praying about it and utilizing it-you will receive energy and power to go out and do your mission.

Father is the body of this truth, the very truth itself, therefore, Father didn't have to practice over and over when he was going around the country giving the message to twelve major cities, yet he put hours and hours into practicing, studying and praying before he delivered it in every city. Because of the effort and prayer he put into that speech, whenever he gave it, Father lit a fire under the audience people and lit up their lives. If Father prepared this way, what about us? How much more do you think we have to prepare?

When any mother becomes pregnant and gives birth to a child, it takes about ten months. Even an ordinary mother puts in a lot of prayer and effort for the sake of the baby. That's because it is the best way you can give new life to a person. By the same token, we received the mission to give birth to all five billion people on this earth. What kind of quality of work do you think we have to have in our daily life in order to complete this enormous mission?

In conclusion, I ask you to make a new determination today to drop your past, whatever quality of life that past contained-old habits, old ways of life-right here at this moment and have a new commitment to live life according to Father and Mother's teaching. If you have the conviction to be reborn today, and you want to prove it by your action, effort, and resemblance to True Parents in terms of your quality of life, so that you may restore this country of America as well as the entire world, and on that foundation you may join True Parents and God to rejoice, sing, and dance together with them, living eternally with True Parents-if that is your determination, please stand up.

(Edited for Today's World)