Ocean Providence Education for FFWPU Youth

As a Strategic Preparation to Solve the Global Food Crisis and to Unite the Youth and the World under True Parents

Purpose

It is an age where economic and political instabilities, geopolitical power shifts, and climate change are causing more and more food crises in many parts of the world. During such a time, the Family Federation for World Peace & Unification must act. We must let the younger generation of our movement know about True Parents’ endless devotion in the ocean and lead them to inherit and take on the grand project of solving global hunger.

The Resolution of Global Hunger is a global project and will give the FFWPU youth a substantial goal to utilize their potential and unite under one cause and effort, which completion will substantially prove the arrival of True Parents of Humankind to the world.

This document summarizes the urgency, the principal aspects and goals, and practical methods of ocean providence education for FFWPU youth.

The Urgency of Ocean Education for Youth

The global food crisis situations are rapidly deteriorating due to climate change and global economic and geopolitical instabilities. The population is in the decreasing trends in advanced countries while the underdeveloped countries continue their increasing trends. Global starvation has been worsening since 2014, and due to production and logistical problems during the 2020 pandemic, the starving population increased drastically.

It is predicted that climate change will cause an overall reduction in global food production and recent studies indicate that over a billion refugees will be displaced by causes related to climate change such as sea-level rise, droughts, and famine. Many of them will try to cross national borders and will embolden nationalism and racism, which will lead to political instability and potentially develop into regional conflicts. Global political and economic instabilities disproportionately place more strain on the poor population and the food crisis will most likely worsen worldwide.

At this time, FFWPU must prepare to continue True Father’s plan to solve the global food crisis. This plan is called the Ocean Providence. However, with the limited scale of foundation in marine industries we have today, we cannot hope to implement Ocean Providence at the scale necessary to resolve the global food crisis, which True Father described as “the most pressing problem” of humankind.

When I look at the world situation, I feel that securing sufficient food supplies is the most pressing problem. Solving the food crisis cannot be put off for even a moment. Even now, some twenty thousand people around the world die of hunger-related causes every day. We cannot afford to be apathetic just because we and our immediate families are not facing hunger. (As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, Chapter 7, page 315)

The future economy of the world, the food problem of the world, the survival of mankind will be solved by the ocean. This time of study can determine the future life or death of mankind. (God’s Will and the Ocean, Chapter 14, Leaders' Conference June 27, 1983)

On August 1st, 1994, a few months after FFWPU was inaugurated, True Father described His detailed plan of creating a global network of families to collectively implement the ocean providence to solve the global hunger problem. True Father repeatedly said that all unificationist families must participate in the ocean providence in some way, in order to solve the global hunger problem once and for all.

Especially in the United States, True Father always led the Unificationist members to train in the ocean. However, most of the second and third-generation youths have not seen how much True Parents invested in the ocean. If we fail to let the younger generation know about the Ocean Providence, there will be no one to inherit and complete this crucial global project, and the world will continue to suffer from starvation and turmoil, not knowing that True Parents of humankind had arrived on earth.

Key Aspects of Youth Education

There are inequalities that exist in this world that people who have spent their lives in developed countries may not feel and understand. Those that grew up in wealth without seeing the suffering of the world tend to grow up with compassion deficiency. In addition, those that grow up only focused on their own immediate surroundings tend to overreact to personal difficulties but be apathetic to other people’s problems.

Without feeling the depth of the problems of the world, we can never understand the heart and the suffering of Heavenly Parent and True Parents of all humankind. Without understanding the heart of True Parents, we would never understand the providence and thus can never make appropriate decisions.

In general, what people see and experience in their youth can greatly affect the depths of their hearts and the understanding of the providence when they become adults.

What must we teach the youth such that they can understand the providence that True Parents desire us to complete? Ultimately, someone must solve the starvation problem by implementing the plan called Ocean Providence that True Parents had started. However, before taking action, we must first understand Their Hearts in order to understand Their Plan.

First, the youth of FFWPU must be taught to be concerned about the problems and suffering of the world. They must learn to see the world and understand the absolute reality from True Parents’ viewpoint. The most acute manifestation of human inequality is the state of starvation. Morality and logic have no meaning in the world of starvation. We must understand that True Parents felt the suffering of all starving children every day as the parents of all humankind.

A true global leader is someone who is able to embrace the world in his own bosom. A person who has no interest in the problems of the world cannot become a global leader, no matter how well he might communicate in English.

To be a global leader a person must think of the world’s problems as his own and have the pioneering spirit that is needed for finding difficult solutions. A person who is attached to a secure and fixed income, or dreams of having a pension after retirement and a comfortable family life, cannot be a global leader. To become a global leader a person must consider the whole world to be his country and all humanity to be his brothers and sisters and not be overly concerned that he does not know what the future may hold for him. (As A Peace-loving Global Citizen, Ch.8)

Secondly, the youth of FFWPU must know about the passion and investment of True Parents in their efforts to solve the starvation problem. True Parents even sacrificed their time with their family to instead pioneer the ocean with the Unificationist members. True Father fished almost every day and trained us continuously for decades in the United States, South America, and Korea.

I saw that the key to future food problems lies in the ocean and have endeavored to develop a wide range of oceanic businesses from nothing. I spent more time in the ocean than anyone else, thinking on the ocean, praying on the ocean, and struggled on the ocean. How much time and effort did I invest? You cannot imagine it. (The Unification Church and The Land and The Sea, June 1, 1991)

Thirdly, the youth of FFWPU must clearly understand the goals of True Parents. We can never understand the plan if we cannot clarify the goals. The goals of FFWPU are “World Peace” and “World Unification.” A world of peace is a world where there is no extreme poverty, starvation, and violence. A unified world is a world where materialism and atheism are eradicated, all religions are united in one, and every person in the world accepts True Parents as the parents of humankind.

Fourthly, the youth of FFWPU must understand the plan called the Ocean Providence. On August 1st, 1994 at the 20th Anniversary of Ocean Providence in America, True Father explained to members from 160 nations about the plan in detail, as “the fastest way” to bring world unification. It has been almost 30 years since then, but we must study the plan again and adjust the details as necessary to adapt to the change of time.

Finally, the youth of FFWPU must know what type of people they must become and which skills are necessary in order to complete the grand goal of solving global hunger. We must think of what we can do for the world in pursuit of the fulfillment of our original mind and make conscious choices of how to live for the world, rather than randomly make choices as though flowing through human society unconsciously.

Three Difficult Steps before Implementation of the Ocean Providence

A clear and substantive plan exists for World Peace and Unification. True Father had explained many times over decades through countless ocean training. It is in His autobiography (Chapter 7, “Solution to Poverty and Hunger”), Chambumo Gyeong Book 10, “God’s Will and the Ocean”, and “Pacific Rim Providence”. He also outlined the plan in considerable detail and clarity on August 1st, 1994 at Belvedere, New York.

The world would need a miracle for all countries to go beyond nationalism and unite to avoid the worsening of climate change. Likewise, there must be three difficult steps that must happen within FFWPU before we can even start to implement Ocean Providence at the scale necessary to tackle the problem of world hunger.

First, there must be a situation where all of the families of the FFWPU would learn about the details of the Ocean Providence. It is clear from True Father’s Words that all of the unificationist members must participate in the Ocean Providence in some way.

As you know, only one third of the surface of the globe is land; two thirds are ocean. Therefore, without knowing the ocean we can never have dominion over the entire globe. So every one of you, every member of the Unification Church, is required to take a basic training in Ocean Church, including navigation, repairing and so forth. (God’s Will and the Ocean, Ch. 14 Leaders' Conference August 26, 1983)

The ocean is our foundation for the future and we will all participate in some way or another in the ocean providence. (God’s Will and the Ocean, Chapter 11, True Parents and Indemnity)

When True Father was on earth, He trained all the leaders of the FFWPU through rigorous fishing activities, but unfortunately, the plan of the Ocean Providence was never clearly understood by the movement as a whole. For example, True Father initiated 30 sites around the United States for Ocean Church in 1980 saying that the era of ocean church had arrived, but most of these sites had failed. In South America, all national messiahs were brought to Fuerte Olimpo in Paraguay and were tasked to catch 160 fish in the national messiah workshops from the late 1990s. Even then, there are a very small number of national messiahs who had continued the Ocean Providence in their country of responsibility. Even though the internet has made it easy for us to access information like never before, it is still like a miracle for all the unificationist families to see the value of Ocean Providence.

Secondly, the FFWPU families must decide to participate in the providence. All leaders of the FFWPU have gone through ocean training with True Father in the past, but not many have actually participated in the Ocean Providence. In Yeosu, True Father trained 7,000 Japanese sisters in the ocean leadership workshop from 2004 to 2012, but only a few of them continued on the path of ocean providence. Most of us had given up on the providence. Another miracle must happen to change this trend.