Aim to learn Father’s message to Mrs. Huh Ho-bin
Aim
* To learn Father’s message to Mrs. Huh Ho-bin
* To understand why a prepared group failed to recognize Father
Materials
* The Secret Message, by Chris Garcia (A Cloud Of Witnesses -part 2)
*Sun Myung Moon: the Early Years, by Mike Breen
*Visual Aids
– Father writing a letter in prison
* Children’s worksheet
* Materials for writing Father’s message – white cloth, soil or brown paint, water, fish bones, toothpicks or needles, water containers
* memory cards
Lesson Outline
1. Review the previous story
2. Tell the story
3. Discussion
4. Activities – worksheet, memory game
5. Review the lesson
6. Prayer
1) Review the previous story
The Inside Belly Church – In 1946, many Christian groups were expecting the Messiah to come to Korea. One group was The Inside Belly Church. Mrs. Huh Ho-bin, the church’s leader, received revelations from Jesus and her belly stated shaking. It was a sign that the new Messiah would be born on earth through a woman. Jesus explained new details about his life. For example, he never had good clothes or enough food to eat, even on his birthday. Because of this the members started making clothes for Jesus and the new messiah. Mrs. Bin was also told that she would meet the Messiah in prison
2) Tell the story
A summary – One day, communist soldiers arrested everyone in the church and put them in prison. Father was in the same prison, next to Mrs. Bin. He secretly sent her a note: “The writer of this note has a mission from heaven. Pray to find out who he is. If you deny everything you have received, you will be released.” But she didn’t. God could not protect her and later she and all the other members died. As a result, all of the preparation to receive Father was lost.
Extra information from Mike Breen’s book
On August 11, 1946, Father was sent to the the police station It was 11 p.m. when he arrived, and the other prisoners in the crowded cell were asleep. In the morning, the cell chief, the prisoner who had been there the longest, looked him over.
“Let this man come and sit here next to me,” he instructed the others in the cell. “He is someone special.” To everyone’s surprise, when Father sat down beside him, the man bowed respectfully.
“Now I have met the man I wanted to meet,” the man said. He introduced himself as Mr. Hwang, and explained to Father that he belonged to The Inside Belly Church which had received revelation that they would meet the Lord in prison. The leader, Mrs. Huh Ho-bin, and the other group leaders were in neighboring cells. “Last night I dreamed that I saw her bowing to someone, and when I woke up this morning I saw the person was here in this cell. It was you.’
“Your group is specially prepared by God,” Father said to Mr. Hwang. “I will take all responsibility if you deny to the authorities your experiences. Just deny the facts and you will be released. Please tell Mrs. Huh to do the same.”
When the prisoners were gathered at midday to eat, Hwang conveyed the message to Huh. But she refused to accept what he told her. Hwang himself denied the revelations at his next interrogation and was released.
Shortly afterwards, Huh’s husband was transferred to the same cell as Father. He gave him the same advice as he had given Hwang, but he said he would follow his wife. Moon tried for a third to persuade Mrs Huh to deny her beliefs. He smuggled a note to her. The message, written with mud using a fish bone as a nib on a piece of white cloth, said:
“The writer of this note has a mission from heaven. Pray to find out who he is. If you deny everything you have received, you will be released.”
After Huh read it, the note was discovered by a guard. Moon was exposed as the culprit and was severely tortured
Father tried three times to tell the group to deny their beliefs, but in the end he could not persuade them to change their minds.
3) Discussion
1) Father tried three times to persuade the church members to deny their beliefs. What were they?
* He told Mr. Hwang to tell Mrs. Huh to deny her beliefs and she would be released
* He told Mrs. Huh’s husband to tell her
* He sent her a message on a cloth.
2) Why did Mrs Huh not take Father’s advice?
* She didn’t expect the Lord to reveal himself in this way. She was expecting Jesus to tell her what to do, not a young man in prison with her
* She didn’t pray about the message. If she had she would have received guidance
* She thought it was better to suffer than deny her beliefs
3) What can we learn from this story?
* Even if God gives us many revelations He can’t tell us everything. We have our own portion of responsibility. We need to be humble and be ready to do what God wants even if we don’t understand
4) Activities
* Children solve the code to find out Father’s message
* Children write Father’s message on a cloth using suggested materials.
* Children colour the pictures
* Play the memory game to reinforce the story and learn some korean words
5) Review the lesson
Discuss with the children what they could learn from this story. Conclude by talking about the two key points from the lesson
a) To Learn Father’s message to Mrs. Huh Ho-bin
– Ask each child to repeat the message Father wrote
b) To understand why a prepared group failed to recognize Father
– They were unable to change their ideas about how the Messiah would appear to them, and they didn’t ask God for guidance.
– They thought it was better to suffer, than deny their beliefs
6) End with a prayer
