Welcoming Address

Chung Hwan Kwak
President of FFWPUI

How are you? We are gathered here on this truly meaningful day to receive and experience the precious words through Hyun Jin Nim. I know that every one of you, without exception, welcomes Hyun Jin Nim from the heart, but I would like to say a few words to express our welcome to represent all of us. Yesterday, I attended the ChungChung region rally with Hyun Jin Nim where I gained many new realizations and received much grace through his words. Moreover, I felt a great deal of hope by the young Second Generation currently being educated and by the testimonies of their leaders.

Beloved brothers and sisters, why are we gathered here today? What kind of an attitude should we have in order to appropriately receive Hyun Jin Nim's speech? I believe that many of you may not have directly listened to or been directed by Hyun Jin Nim although you may have seen Hyun Jin Nim in pictures. It shows how much of a restriction and gap there has been between True Children and us in forming relationships. If any of you are thinking of evaluating or judging, "What kinds of things will Hyun Jin Nim say? With what perspective will he speak?" please erase them from your minds completely. You should bear in your minds even more that True Family and True Children are not someone we could judge or evaluate.

There was one more thing I was grateful for yesterday. Hyun Jin Nim moved to America at the age of four. How could he learn the Korean language? However, I believe he has made enormous efforts to learn Korean. It may not be perfect, but I felt much gratitude as I saw Hyun Jin Nim directing us in Korean. I especially hope that this could be a time not of judging Hyun Jin Nim externally but of pondering deeply about the essential relationship between True Family and us.

You and I, together with the unfortunate history of the human Fall, have been born as the descendants of false love, false life, and false lineage. By the works of life of True Parents, we received the grace of engraftment and the precious blessing to inherit eternal rebirth and true life. We should bring to fruition all the blessings and become the owners of Cheon 11 Guk as True Parents have blessed us to be. In order to do so, we must form relationships with the True Children of the precious True Family. To understand the reason why, we should ask the question, "Who are True Children?" God has been leading this long history of providence in grief because He longed to see True Children. True Children are the grandchildren that God has been anxiously waiting for. How much would True Parents love, value, and cherish those True Children? Nevertheless, True Parents have sacrificed their whole lives, suffering and dedicating all their time and love for our sake, to love us and to save us.

We are in the position of debtors who have taken away all the love and grace that were for True Children. Therefore, we cannot be engrafted onto True Parents just by saying that we believe, follow, and attend True Parents. We must be recognized by True Children who are our eternal elder brothers and sisters, and have the key to let our lives bloom and take root. Our lives can only be guaranteed when we as younger brothers and sisters are recognized by the elder brothers and sisters. Many of you would know that the relationship between my family and Hyun Jin Nim's family could be a special one; however, it is not the essential relationship. What is the true relationship? The only way for all of fallen humanity, including me, to be able to be born again is when we become heartistically one with True Children and be acknowledged by them. I wish for you to spend this day deeply thinking about this fact.

True Children are different from us. From birth, they could not spend much time with or receive much love from True Parents; nonetheless, they feel True Parents' toils in their bodies, hearts, and souls, and they are filled with desires to offer all their filial piety to attend True Parents. Through Hyun Jin Nim's speech, we should realize our relationship with True Children as well as the difference between True Children and us. True Children were born as the true sons and daughters, and we were born in a false position, trying to engraft ourselves onto what is true. The meaning of a sincere welcome on our part, I believe, is to have the mindset that "We will learn true faith, determine ourselves, and repay our debt" and to obey the words with our lives.

I will not take more time. With such hearts, let us offer up a big round of applause to thank and welcome Hyun Jin Nim, who has put aside his busy schedule to lead continuous meetings for almost 24 hours to become one with us.