http://www.truelove.org/ucbooks/smmspeaks/2011/20110424-TP_Speaking_Tour/201104024-Speech_Eng.htm Firefox: http://www.truelove.org/ucbooks/smmspeaks/2011/20110424-TP_Speaking_Tour/201104024-Speech_Eng-firefox.htm History: by Taekon Lee The Era of Universal Peace: God’s Providence and the Abel UN] In 1935, while his homeland o...f Korea was ruled by imperialist Japan, God gave fifteen-year old Sun Myung Moon the mission to end human suffering. From that day until the end of the Second World War in 1945, he invested everything to understand God’s will for humankind, and the principles by which it might be fulfilled. While still a student, Sun Myung Moon had become involved in the movement to free his country from Japan’s domination; he was arrested by the Japanese police and tortured almost to death. At 26, he crossed the border into communist North Korea in response to God’s call. He began evangelizing but was arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and served two-years and eight-months in a brutal concentration camp, where prisoners were systematically worked and starved to death. After surviving hellish conditions, he went south with thousands displaced by the Korean War. By 1951, Rev. Moon was in Busan, a city on the south coast overflowing with refugees. He stayed at a laborer’s shelter, where he began to write down the principles that would form the basis of the doctrine of the Unification faith. He began his church from a hut that he built from army ration boxes on the side of a hill in Busan’s Beomnaetgol district. Three years later, in a humble house in Seoul, he put up the sign “Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.” This was the formal beginning of the Unification Church. Within months of launching this mission, an explosion of growth in membership occurred, as students and professors joined from Ewha Woman’s University and Yonsei University, both well-renowned in Korea. Since those days, Rev. and Mrs. Moon have inspired men and women in nations far from their native land, in accord with Rev. Moon’s original experience with God in the Korean countryside. Whether Rev. Moon is speaking to one person or ten thousand, he fervently conveys the heart and will of Heaven. On global speaking tours, he poured out his heart to his fellow human beings, rich and poor alike. He has spoken in the halls of power, in the parliament or congress of at least ten different nations, and at the United Nations. He has always done his best to convey God’s love and a vision of the human potential, in the hope that those hearing his message will be transformed. The cold war era: Rev. and Mrs. Moon organized a common stand against communism, in Korea, Japan, Central and South America, and other parts of the world threatened with the totalitarian political system. In so doing, they felt responsible to bring an end to the cold war. The Washington Times, which Rev. Moon founded, played a pivotal role in this. [Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States] [Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of the United Kingdom] Rev. Moon has planted the seeds of peace always hoping and believing that others would join him in helping them germinate and grow. His major projects include the Middle East Peace Initiative and interfaith activities to engender cooperative harmony among religious leaders; Business initiatives to equalize the distribution of technology; Educational institutions to foster global thinking; Media organizations that champion responsibility and moral values. The 21st century, a new millennium begins… Rev. Moon unveiled a number of initiatives that he hoped would promote reform of the United Nations. Rev. Moon has advocated the installation of a bicameral system in the UN through the installation of an interreligious council, and the creation of peace parks in disputed areas (including a soccer field straddling Israel and Gaza)—to assist the United Nations in fulfilling its great mandate. Rev. Moon has sought to reveal God’s suffering over the sorrowful situation of the human race, and the hope that knowing God’s love brings. Believing that the solutions to our deepest problems will be found in reconnecting to God, Rev. and Mrs. Moon spend time in prayer and study of scripture, and encourage this as a way of life. Rev. Moon is no stranger to life’s challenges. He speaks his mind and this has made him a controversial figure. He has been unjustly imprisoned six times—by the Japanese who’d annexed his homeland, in Korea, and even in the United States. Yet he has always responded to persecution and misunderstanding with the heart to embrace those who have stood against him. [Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, International President of the Unification Church] With such true love, True Parents have bestowed their blessings on humankind. They have found and proclaimed the truth to us. Through this assembly we must, more than anything else, come to