by Sam Harley
October 20, 2017
In the early 90s, when I was state leader of South Carolina, I got a phone call from a church sister. She told me about her younger sister Rebecca, who had joined the church, struggled a lot and left. Since then she had been married and had children, but now she was thinking of coming back. She gave me her phone number.
I went out to visit Rebecca in the town she lived in, in an apartment just like the hundreds I had fundraised in. I just asked her how she was doing and let her talk. She poured out her struggles, experiences good and bad, her hopes and fears.
Over several visits, she talked everything out. She was considering how to return. One day, as I was leaving, she wanted to give me something. The only thing she could find in her apartment was a bag of apples she had just bought.
I thanked her, plunked the apples in the back seat of my station wagon and drove back to the center in Columbia. A day or so later, there was a leaders’ meeting in Washington, DC, our regional HQ.
After the 5 hour drive, the meeting began. On the first break, I wandered into the kitchen to see how things were. Yoshimi was having a mild freakout.
“We need fruit for the lunch, but there is none! It is all gone!”
“Ah, I have some apples.”
“You do? Great!”
“One moment.”
I went to the car, brought the apples back, handed them to Yoshimi. They were quickly peeled, sliced, arranged on a plate and sent into the meeting room.
All the state leaders and the regional director, Rev Woo, had some. I told them where they came from.
Later, I called Rebecca and said “I think God has accepted your offering.” Her apples were whisked up about as high as they could go, to Rev. Woo, who reported directly to True Father. To get any higher, they’d have had to go to True Children or True Parents.
So from Rebecca’s apartment, where she was pouring out her struggles and repentance, that bag of red apples went into my hands, then right up to all the state leaders and someone who is one step away from True Parents.
For Rebecca, I think, this was affirmation that her heart of wanting to return was completely accepted. Sometimes, it seems, God is so eager to accept our offering that it goes way farther than we ever imagined.