Aim to know the background to Father’s experience with Jesus

Aim
To know the background to Father’s experience with Jesus
To learn some facts about Father’s experience with Jesus.

Materials
* Story – A Teenager Hears God’s Voice, by Linna Rapkins
* As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, by Rev. Sun Myung Moon
* Sun Myung Moon, the Early Years, by Michael Breen
* visual aids – a large picture of Father meeting Jesus
* children’s worksheet
* picture cards of Jesus

Lesson Outline
1. Background information about the story
2. Tell the story
3. Questions to discuss
4. Activities – worksheet, picture cards
5. Conclusion
6. Prayer

1) Background to the story
* Tell the children some background information. Father’s family belonged to the Chinese religion,
Confucianism, but they converted to Christianity when he was ten years old. Today’s story takes place in 1935 when Father was 15 years old (16 according Korean counting). He studied the Bible and became a Sunday School teacher. But life was difficult. He saw a lot of suffering around him.

People were very poor. Many were farmers and life was hard. People were not free because Korea was occupied by Japan. Five of his 13 siblings became sick in one year. There wasn’t proper
medicine and they died. This made him think more seriously about life and death. He couldn’t understand how a loving God could let people suffer so much. He increasingly turned to God in prayer to find answers. On Easter morning when Jesus appeared to him he had been praying all the night.

* Read some extracts from Father’s own words to give a background to his experience with Jesus.

2) Tell the Story
* Ask the children what they know about the day Jesus appeared to Father. Then tell the children the story – A Teenager Hears God’s Voice. The story doesn’t say that Father only said yes the third time he was asked. Insert this into the story to make this clear.

Some facts for the teacher to know
* Certain events caused Father to think seriously about life and death and turn to God in prayer for answers.
– He saw the skeleton of his great-grandfather
– 5 of his siblings died in one year
– Animals died suddenly
– A student of his own age committed suicide
– Korean people suffered greatly under Japanese occupation. They had to give food to the Japanese,  but had little food for themselves.

* He always got up early to pray before he went to school. He didn’t prayer for more clothes or food. He prayed that he could understand all about God, all about Jesus, and all about the world. –
When he was 13 he prayed for wisdom greater than King Solomon, faith greater than St. Paul and love greater than Jesus

* On Easter morning 1935 Jesus appeared and explained that he was not meant to die. He told Father he had been chosen to complete Jesus’ mission. Father at first said no, but finally agreed the third time when he realized there was nobody else who could do this. 

* He had many questions about God, but God would not answer directly. He had to discover the answers himself, then ask God if it is true. Only then would God would answer him. Father asked “Who are You? What are You like? Why are You there? Why did You create us? What relationship are we supposed to have with You? “God answered “We’re supposed to be like a Father and a son.”

Father asked “So what went wrong? Why don’t we have a close Father/son relationship? Why aren’t we one big happy family? What it Satan? Who is Satan? Where did he come from? You are only good. Satan is bad. You wouldn’t create anything bad, would You?”

God answered “No, I wouldn’t,” answered Heavenly Father, but He had to leave it up to Father to find out what had gone wrong. God couldn’t just tell him the answers. Father had to figure it out himself, and then ask if it was true. 

Father asked “Then how did evil get here? Couldn’t you just destroy it? You’re all-powerful. Why do you let evil stay here? Why?” God didn’t answer Father asked Satan “What did you do against God? What did you do to Adam and Eve?”

After asking many questions Satan admitted his crime. He formed a love relationship with Eve and separated mankind from God
* Father’s compassion for the sorrow of God and humankind helped him to fight against Satan’s lies and darkness and bring forth the light of truth.
* Father was the first person to understand that God had been suffering because of what Satan had done. He also was the first person to know Satan’s crime. It took nine years before he fully understood. Then he was ready to share his discoveries and begin his mission 

3) Questions to Discuss
After reading the story, ask the children these questions to test their memory and understanding. This is also preparation for them to answer the questions on the worksheet. After discussing the answers the children should answer the questions on the worksheet and colour the picture.

1)Name one thing that caused Father to think more seriously about life and death
– he saw the skeleton of his great-grandfather,
– 5 of his siblings died in one year,
– animals died suddenly,
– a student of his own age committed suicide,
– Korean people suffered under Japanese occupation

2) What three things did Father pray for when he was 13 years old?
– wisdom greater than Solomon,
– faith greater than Paul
– love greater than Jesus

3) What did Jesus tell Father about Jesus life?
– He was not meant to die

4) What did Jesus ask Father to do?
– Continue the mission of Jesus to build the Kingdom of God

5) Did Father say yes immediately?
– No, only when he was asked three times and he realized there was no one else who could do it

6) Write 3 questions Father asked God
– Who are you?
– Why did you create people?
– What is our relationship with you meant to be?
– What caused all the suffering in the world?

7) Did God tell Father everything?
– No. he had to work it out himself, then ask God if he was right.

8) What did Father learn about God?
– God is our Father and we are his children, but God has a suffering heart, because of Satan’s crime. Satan formed a love relationship with Eve and separated mankind from God. 

* Discuss the seriousness of Father’s acceptance of his mission. Why did Jesus and God need Father? What did they want him to do? If you had been in Father’s place what would you have said?
Why?

4) Activities
* Answer the questions and colour the picture carefully
* Look at the pictures of Jesus. Which one do you think looks most like the real Jesus? Why? Put  the pictures in order of the most to the least like the real Jesus. According to Heung Jin Nim in spirit world this picture is a realistic face of the Jesus. It is in a Russian Orthodox church.

* Play the memory game with the cards 

5) Conclusion
To conclude ask each person what they could learn from today’s lesson. Refer to the lesson aims:
* To know the background to Father’s experience with Jesus Because Father experienced tragedies and saw a lot of suffering he turned to God for answers. 
When Jesus appeared to Him he was deeply searching for those answers

* To learn some facts about Father’s experience with Jesus. He learned that Jesus wasn’t meant to die and that God is a suffering God.

6) End with a prayer