How I advanced myself and won the right to be Blessed to Hwa Yeop Kim a 777 sister and inherit a nine year old daughter at the same time!
My Story
The Autobiography of Ronald E. Pine
777 Blessing Couple
My friends know some of the amazing and incredible events in my life. We have lived through amazing times and had many incredible experiences. They encouraged me to write down meaningful episodes and events, and I do so accurately and truthfully for the benefit of posterity. I feel this information is important for my decedents and really for anyone seeking to live a life centered on God, and for those who study the Divine Principle and other teachings of Sun Maung Moon. Because some parts may be hard for you to believe, let me say, “It all really happened.” I believe it is important for people to know how God and Satan were active influencing a life’s course; my life’s course. I prevailed because God’s hand in human affairs is very strong. In the Providence of Restoration History, God is absolutely determined.
To begin with early experiences; I still carry with me childhood memories of going to bed hungry. My Father was an alcoholic. He often used his income to for alcohol instead of for food for our family. I had an older brother and older sister. We often had two‑week old bread and sugar for breakfast. Those experiences greatly influenced my work habits. From the age of 7 I would collect soda bottles to get money. Due to my early years living with hunger I have always worked to make sure I have some money in my pocket.
Since I was an early member of the Unification Church, my story is also part of the early history of the Unification Movement centered around the life, teachings and work of Sun Maung Moon. At the age of 16 Rev. Moon encountered Jesus on a mountain top near his village, where the young boy had been praying all night. God chose Rev. Moon to fulfill the Second Coming, the fulfillment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth which was begun by Jesus; today the foundations for world peace. After 9 years of praying and studying Rev. Moon began his mission at the end of WWII when he was 25 years‑old. He began by himself but he was never alone, acting on the guidance he received from his Beloved God. Rev. Moon shared his vision with many people, hoping they would join him in the restoration of the world. I can testify that God was helping him to gain followers. Rev. Moon found that others had been prepared by God too, others were guided by God to help him, others were prepared so that when they heard Rev. Moon’s teaching, it resonated with things they already learned, and they were inspired to help fulfill the original ideal through which God began the creation of the first man and first woman. I believe the members of the Unification Church were born to meet Rev. Moon. There was a hand‑of‑God destiny involved, some felt they were hand‑picked by God and the Spirit World. This was especially so in the early beginnings of the Church, when Rev. Moon had few helpers. And it was especially true in my case.
One story about my coming to understand my destiny to meet Reverend Moon comes from my Mother. Soon after I joined the Church, I went to visit my Mother to give her the good news. When we met I showed a picture of Reverend Moon and she just stood their staring at his picture without saying a word. Ten years later she attended the Parents’ Workshop in New York at the time of the historic Yankee Stadium Rally (1976). The members then were overwhelmingly young people in their 20s. Many of us attended the event in the bleachers with our parents, listening to the speech by Rev. Moon.
SPIRITUAL REVELATION TO MY MOTHER IN 1954
The next day my Mother invited me for a cup of coffee and told me this story. In 1954 she was sitting upstairs working on her sewing machine when a spirit appeared to her in the window wearing a long white gown and he was sweating blood. My Mother had chains wrapped around herself but they flew off. Then the spirit pointed his hand directly at her and told her “Keep your family together and take care of your youngest.” (The youngest was me.) Then she said the spirit who appeared was Reverend Moon. I asked my Mother why she waited all these years to tell me this. She said she had wanted first to see this spirit in the flesh Reverend Moon, which she did, at Yankee Stadium, so then she decided to tell me what had happened to her in on the second floor with her sewing machine in 1954.
Another reason I tell members that we have been prepared during our lives to meet Rev. Moon something that happened between my father and me in 1964. We were having a religious discussion on the front porch. I was 14 years old. I straightened myself up before him and declared “I am going to meet the Lord of the Second Advent in my lifetime.” I think for both my father and I it was unexpectedly strong words coming from a young man who had never shown much interest in religion. Many years later my Father asked me if I remembered that discussion. Indeed I did remember it. Then he asked me if I believed Rev. Moon is the Lord of the Second Advent. I said “Yes I do!”
Why at age 14 was I so certain? How could I know then I was destined to meet the Messiah? I believe those words came out of my mouth when I was 14, for the hearing of my father, and for my own hearing. Sometimes it is important to listen to your Self. Especially when you are discussing God with your father, or with anyone, because we can be inspired to say things which may surprise us and afterwards we wonder, “Where did that come from?” God foresees our path and the general course of our lives. Of course we determine our exact course by the choices we make. I have lend that God is very persistent. Whet he intends will hap sooner or later, and God never gives up until all his words/ideals are accomplished. The only reason they fail to be accomplished is we humans fail to respond, fail to keep our promises, fail to listen when God speaks, fail to even care. We are generally deaf, dumb, blind and crippled. God is so persistent that sometimes, when we go off course, we experience God guiding us back around in a circle so we can face that trial again, a second chance to take the right path. God foresaw the strong possibility that whenever I acted by my faith in God then conditions, call them opportunities, would be set up for me to be guided and to choose paths which would bring me eventually, after learning through my experiences, serve the Messiah and help him restore the Family of Humanity on the Earth. So in my discussion with my father about God, the strong words which came forth from my mouth were God’s guidance to me at age 14 to set me on my course.
For these reasons I say we were born to meet True Parents. Everyone is loved. Everyone is chosen. God needed a few at first to get the work moving. So I had the tremendous privilege to meet and serve Rev. Sun Myung Moon, yet it was an awesome responsibility. One might think that to meet the Christ one’s life would be bliss. Far from it! He taught us that True Love is living for the benefit of others, sometimes even at the expense of one’s self. That is not easy! True Love is a difficult path. But it is exciting, and after enduring all the difficulties, never giving up, then True Love is quite rewarding. I had many adventures, endured many tests of my faith, was faced with huge challenges, yet learned so much and receive many blessings, as we, my brothers and sisters, helped Rev and Mrs Moon lay the foundation for world peace. The question for we who choose a life of faith and service is: Will we stay and serve our whole life? Are we willing to go through difficulties and disappointments? Will we give up in the middle? In my case it’s been 48 years now. I feel especially blessed and am very grateful to have been Blessed into the historic 777 Couple Marriage Blessing Group.
During the summer of 1966 I was sitting in the American Legion Park in my hometown, Stockton California, in the early evening. There was a full moon. Suddenly, I looked up to the moon and saw another bright circle of light in the sky. It was almost as big as the moon. What was so unusual was that everything was circling around this bright circle of light. It was as if I was on a merry‑go‑around with everything around me circling this bright circle of light above me in the sky. After a few minutes the experience ceased and the bright circle of light was gone; leaving only the moon in the night sky. The same phenomenon happened again in the same park in the summer of 1967. However, this time when the bright circle of light appeared in next to the full moon, it did not spin, and then it disappeared.
During my teen years of 15 to 17, my parents attempted many times to introduce me to religion. We attended the El Dorado Baptism Church (which at that time was an all white congregation). I remember attending Church meetings only a few times. My Father was not a religious man. He was raised by a stern father, Squire Grant Pine, who had been a Nazarene Christian Minister for 40 years. My Father use to complain about how his father forced him to be home every night for the 8:00 pm family Bible reading; so during his teenage years he lost attraction to religion, and later in life he became an alcoholic. However, during my senior year in high school, my father converted to Christianity and attended the Baptist Church. My parents tried to get me to come to church and receive the baptism; but I refused. My mind was focused on working and saving money so I could buy a chopper motorcycle. By the age of 18 I found a chopper for sale by the War Lord of the Gypsy Jokers Motorcycle Club. They were a sub chapter of the Hells Angels. Three weeks after purchasing my chopper I was out riding in Louis Park when I passed 30 or more of members of the motorcycle gang called the Diablos. I drove past them. When I drove out of the park I passed them again, and there two guys walked into the road and flagged me down. So, I pulled over to say hello. One of the guys straddled my motorcycle and said he was going to rip off my headlight. The other guy was questioning me as to where I got the motorcycle and if was I friends with the former owners. I explained that I did not know what they were talking about; I was just out riding my motorcycle. At this time I knew I might have to fight so I started to get off my motorcycle. Then the smaller of the two told me to calm down as he was a former friend of my older brother, Martin Pine; both had been at Franklin High School together. Then he explained the reason they wanted to know about me and my bike was they had a gun battle with the Gypsy Jokers just a few weeks back and the guy who then owned my motorcycle shot and killed one of their friends in the Diablos Club. So they thought I might be a friend or a member of the Gypsy Jokers. But I was able to satisfy them that I was merely a purchaser of the bike and they let me go. I met up with this club again a few weeks later and they asked be to join their club. I declined, but I gave a ride to the president (named Spider). I noticed he walked with a limp so I asked him about his limping. He showed me that he had a sawed off shot gun strapped to his leg. These were the kind of people in my universe in those days.
RIDE WITH THE HELL’S ANGELES!
Remember, at this time in my life I was not interested in any church. I was not at all religious. However, two of my friends, Johnny and Manual Costello, where Jehovah Witnesses, and they talked about religion all the time. I was not interested but that did not matter to them. However, about 2 weeks after my encounter with the Gypsy Jokers, Johnny and Manual did persuade me to go with them to the Calaveras County Frog Jump. I was just out riding on a Saturday morning when we met and they told me they were on their way to the Frog Jump. So, I said I would follow their car. It was a case of the religious leading the non‑religious, you see! But they led me to “Hell”. I found myself going to historic Angels Camp, California, (which is where the famous Frog Jump event at the Calaveras County Fair is held. We found the town to be occupied by angels, but unfortunately they called themselves “Hells Angels”! When we arrived in town we saw hundreds of members of the notorious Hells Angels Motor Cycle Club.
As soon as I pulled into the parking lot some Hell’s Angels flagged me over to tell me to park my motorcycle with theirs. I agreed thinking my bike would be more safe near theirs. After two days I came back to get my chopper to leave, but before I could go I met a man and woman who where cooking breakfast and they offered me a meal; so I sat with them for awhile.
Whenever I made motions to leave they kept urging me to sit and stay longer. From where we were sitting I could see a large gathering of about a hundred Hell’s Angels. Soon two of them walked over to our camp and asked me if I wanted to go to a party up in the hills. I was young, dumb and stupid so I said “Yes, let’s go.”
We walked over to our motorcycles. One the guys wanted to ride on the back of my motorcycle, since, he said, his bike would not start. I agreed. We drove out the parking lot and headed up into the foothills. The other guy had a Harley and was driving faster ahead us. But he went around a curve too fast and he hit a camper truck head on. So when we rounded the corner we were faced with this horrible accident. I pulled over to help. The driver of the truck was standing there crying. We walked around the truck and saw our friend laying on the ground with the truck front wheel was sitting on his chest. His head was crushed; brains flowing out. I immediately said “I’m leaving.” I hopped on my bike took of by myself.
HELLS ANGEL ACCIDENT SAVED MY LIFE!
Ten years after this event I was in the town Angels Camp again, having breakfast at a local diner. I was telling the waitress about my earlier experiences in her town with the Hells Angels. She told me that at the time when I was there, an FBI Agent who was trying to infiltrate the Hells Angels was found out by gang members. They threw a blanket over him and kicked the agent to death. The waitress’s story shocked me so. I realized then and there for the first time that I had been just a few feet away from that murder. That is what the mob of Hells Angels was up to while I had been sitting nearby having breakfast with that couple. It also hit me that those two guys who asked me to drive one of them into the hills was probably just using me to make a quick getaway. They had invited me to go to “another party up in the hills” but actually they were escaping a killing frenzy. I realized how my life had been at risk from those two Hell’s Angels. Looking back over it I realized there was no “party”. They were just using me to get them quickly away from the murder scene. I was more of an outsider around them, not a pledged member of the club, and they probably saw me as a risk, a potential witness to the murder which had occurred near me. Once I drove them into the hills where there was no one else around, they might have killed me or at least beat and left me to steal my chopper and continue their escape. However, I believe the accident where Hells Angel guy was killed in the head‑on collision was quite possibly karmic justice due to his probable involvement in the murder ‑‑ his desperation to flee, his speeding, his confusion, and the Spiritual World, Heaven if you will, took his life, while this accident had the effect of saving my life, leaving me hopefully wise to make better choices for my own life’s destiny. Leaving the restaurant, reflecting over what the waitress had told me, I was grateful I had not been killed. I had endured dangerous adventure ‑‑ a kind of indemnity and trial ‑‑ to reemerge to a future with changed potential ‑‑ to be guided by God ‑‑ guided unknowingly ‑‑ because even at that time, as I said, I had no interest in God. (Though I came to learn God is always quite interested in us.) I had ridden my chopper to a town called Angels Camp. I met up with angels from hell. But God’s angels protected me. God apparently had hope for me to be of service in the future. I would continue on, eventually connecting to God, but just then my life was filled with and surrounded by things which kept me in the dark, kept God and his purpose hidden from me. But I would find God later, and serve the Messiah in my lifetime.
GOD SENT AN ANGEL TO HELP ME TO BECOME RELIGIOUS
After witnessing the terrible accidence, I left the Frog Jump to head straight down the mountain road to Stockton. After a short time my motorcycle stalled; so I had to pull over and wait to see if I could get it working again. Another motorcycle rider saw me and pulled over to ask if I needed help. He was clean cut and riding a 750 Norton motorcycle. He helped me make a few adjustments until my bike started again. He said he was headed my way and that he would like to ride along side of me. After a few miles my bike stalled again, and again we got my bike running. We reached a Shell Gas station in Angeles Camp and he thought my gas was likely bad. He urged me to dump it and replace it with fresh gas. But I told him I could not do that because I was out of money. I was completely surprised by his kind gesture of paying $10.00 for gasoline.
We took off together and stopped at a local store where he bought two beers. We sat and talked for awhile. Soon he was giving me quite serious advice. He said that my life was like riding my bike on a narrow fence. That I could fall down off into the dark side. He said if I continued to keep my chopper and keep riding with the likes of the Hells Angeles, then I would fall into the realm of darkness and never get out. I was amazed that this stranger would care enough to suddenly warn me about my direction in life. We continued riding together all the way to Stockton and he led me to his house. The time was not right for me to go in, but I told him I would come back and see him again in three days. I wanted keep this new friend who had shown me such kindness and seemed to care about my well‑being. I noted his address. Three days later I returned, but I could not find him. There was no such address or house with a man living there who had a 750 Norton motorcycle. I went door to door asking about him, but no one knew of whom I was speaking; not of him or his motorcycle. I thought I was having a Twilight Zone experience. It shook me up internally and got me to thinking about what our meeting was really about. I was thinking that this stranger who came along, paid for gas to fix my chopper, and who gave me such a strong warning about the direction of my life ‑‑ he must be either a very faithful Christian, and/or an angel on God’s errand. It was a life changing encounter because after this experience I decided to begin visiting churches to search for answers about how I should live my life. I really believe he was an angel sent to help me because what he said changed my life and the disappearance of his house and street defied all logic! So I became a definite seeker of Truth.
With all this drama in my life I began to read the Bible, or at least attempted too. I knew the Bible was important. It seemed a good place to start. I went up to my bedroom, sat down and opened the Bible to page one. I tried to read but all the printed words began swirling around. I set the Bible down and picked up another book. No problem with that book. I could read it just fine. So I picked up the Bible again and the words still moved all over the page. Tried another book to test what was happening to me, and again I could read it; the words stood still as they ought always to do. So I gave up, at least for that night, on Bible reading. There was some barrier to my reading my Bible. This was the reason that at that time in my life I still did not know much about Christianity.
I kept riding my motorcycle for about another year and then one day, when I was returning from an all night party near Tracy, I crashed my bike. It was around 4.00 PM. I was going about 80 miles an hour. I ran off the road and crashed in ground that, fortunately for me, was muddy, and that was the only tangible reason that I had no broken bones, but still I was bedridden for a few days. It gave me time to think. I still remembered the warnings the stranger had spoken. It took this accident and brush with death for me to finally follow the his advice. I sold my motorcycle for $600; paid back $400 my parents had loaned me, and I purchased a 1959 Ford for $200. (See picture).
During those years I did not go on dates with girls. I was very shy and something inside of me always guided me away from women. I had many opportunities to meet girls but I always felt it wasn’t right. One time a woman at my sister’s party offered me a ride home. Instead we went to her house and she undressed and asked me stay overnight. I left and walked home. I had about a dozen such opportunities where women offered themselves to me and I always declined.
My training in college was in graphic arts (printing). It was difficult to find such a job in Stockton and I realized I needed to look in a bigger city, so I went to San Francisco to find a job. The company I worked for was California Office Supply on Sixth Street and Mission Blvd. I sold my car for $200 and found an inexpensive place to stay at the Plaza Hotel. It was just across the street from where I worked and it was the cheapest hotel I could find.
A BANK ROBBERY IN QUEBEC
In San Francisco I took my meals at a local restaurant. There I met two guys and we became friends. One day Charles said he and the other guy were going to drive to Los Angeles and then onto Texas, and they invited me to go along. Being still young, dumb and stupid, I said yes. These guys where driving a new Plymouth with license plates from Quebec Canada. Here we were, driving down I‑5 to Los Angeles. We stopped at a rest stop to use the bathroom. I was standing their urinating next to Charles when he looked over at me and said “I was involved with a bank robbery and we shot and killed the guard.” That was a shocker. I decided to leave these two and get back to San Francisco. When we arrived in Los Angeles I was driving the car when we pulled into the hotel parking lot. Charles got out of car but he left his wallet on the front seat. So, I picked up his wallet and put in my pocket. Then we all went in to check into our rooms. I made sure Charles was on the 7th floor and I was on the 5th floor along with our other friend, because I intended to sneak away. When we went into our rooms I told the other guy about what Charles had told me about a bank robbery and a killing of the guard. I told him, “I am leaving right now and I am going to do it by taking the car, because I do not want to have anything to do with a man who confessed to me about robbery and murder.” So the two of us left then and stopped in Stockton, my hometown. We stayed there about one week during which my friend managed to meet a new girlfriend who happened to carry a gun. These two used me unwittingly to drive the car while they entered a man’s house and tried to rob him. I got angry about being used like that so I decided to leave him and use the car to get to San Francisco to return to work. The lesson for me in this adventure was to realize fundamentally I did not want to be involved with bad people and I should try harder keep away from them. I remembered what the mysterious biker friend had warned me about falling into the dark realm.
Charles told me about robbing a bank, I had no idea if what he said was true. After all, a lot of people I knew said a lot of crazy things. Yet to get away from Charles I found it necessary to leave by taking what Charles said was a stolen car; so I did realize I was taking my chances, being caught in what was likely a stolen car. Yet the car with the Quebec license drove me quickly out from a bad situation. But at the time I felt the best thing for me to do was to leave Stockton and get back to work in San Francisco. So here I was riding on the fence, able to fall into darkness on either the evil side or the less evil side.
Soon after I got back to San Francisco, I was working, and my father suddenly showed up at my job for a visit. We went out to the parking lot to sit in his car and talk. He told me that his friend, Jack O’Keith, the Stockton Chief of Police, had contacted him about me. They had been friends since youth; they had been in Boy Scouts together. Jack O’Keith told my father that the car I was driving was linked to an armed robbery by two men in Quebec in which a guard was killed. Not even the FBI knew the identities of these two guys. He told my father that he did not think I was a suspect in this case because he knew I was never in Quebec. However the Stockton police had spotted me driving the car which was linked to the crime, so Chief O’Keith called my Father. My father came to take me back to Stockton to meet with the Chief to help them learn about the two guys who committed the crime. I told Mr. O’Keith that I had the wallet of one of the men so I could provide all of his ID information. I promised to tell them everything I knew, but I asked them to let me return to work in San Francisco. My dad’s friend negotiated on my behalf with the FBI so I could avoid arrest. The FBI came to San Francisco three days later to interview me. I gave them Charles’ wallet and car keys. It turned out Charles had been a deserter from the Marines and he lived in Texas. Fortunately for me my intuition told me to get away from Charles, and while I was plotting to get away, his wallet showed up on the car seat beside me, and I put it in my pocket. It turns out my better judgment to get away at that time saved me from getting caught up in their lives of crime.
I WAS ARRESTED IN BERKELEY
At this time I attempted to sell the new Plymouth to my friend Ron Darryberry who lived in Berkeley. I visited him at his work place to show him the car. At the same time the FBI had me under surveillance taking pictures of us inspecting the car. That evening I was at Ron’s apartment when he asked me to give two women a ride home. So we left when at the same time two undercover police came to Ron’s room to buy drugs. The clerk downstairs told me these men where police so I ran up to Ron’s room to warn him. When I entered the room the police arrested me and we both went to jail. We where questioned by the police and then they let me go. The police completely misunderstood my relationship with Ron. They thought I was bringing drugs up from Mexico to deliver them to Ron. This of course was not true. I was just Ron’s friend. I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This situation and the others before were instructional, if only I would learn from them, and my mind was searching for a way out of bad friends and bad girls, risky adventures and risky rides. I few days later I met and spoke with some people from the Unification Church. For what they had to say and teach, I was quite ready.
A lot of my stories are quite incredible; I mean that literally ‑‑ hard to believe. I know that when I’ve told my stories to my friends, and my spiritual brothers and sisters ¼ well they smile politely but I could tell they were not always so sure if they could believe me or not. My story is so unbelievable. (But many of the members of the Unification Movement also have hard to believe stories, and particularly those who joined in the beginning of the Unification Movement had amazing spiritual experiences.) My story, my experiences with God and Satan, would make a good movie, I think.
TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE
I joined the Unification Church late in 1969 in Berkeley California. After my few days in my new life I was asked if I would fast for 24 hours every Wednesday for the upcoming 777 Couple Marriage Blessing. So I said yes, wondering how difficult it would be to go without food for 24 hours. It was difficult to fast for people I didn’t even know. In those days I still worked at the printing company in San Francisco so my first fasting day I finishing my shift when it is time to break for lunch. So here I was sitting with a bunch of guys who are eating their lunches and I am sitting their without food. That was awkward. The next hardship I returned to the Church center, where I lived, but there was no dinner. I went to be bed with my stomach growling. The next morning we had breakfast and I swear to this day that was the best breakfast I have had in my whole life!
THE LOUISIANA STORY
I had been matched by Rev. Moon with a woman named Gabriella Rodriguez. Rev. Moon matched us to be Blessed together in marriage. However, she broke the engagement. A few months after Gabriella rejected me, I was told she left her church mission as a state leader; she had moved out of the church center and moved to New Orleans. I did not take our engagement lightly because I felt it was from God. So it was natural for me to purchase an airline ticket and fly to New Orleans to find her; to ask her again to please reconsider and attend the upcoming Blessing with me in Madison Square Garden. I found her apartment, but she was not home. So, I waited all day for three days for her return. When she showed up she was furious with me. I explained the church leaders were concerned about her and asked me to come and to see if she would please reconsider her decision. We went inside her apartment to calmly discuss the matter. At that time her former boyfriend came to the door and asked if she was all right. At the same time a police officer came to the door asking me why I had been sitting outside her apartment for three days. I explained that I was there at our Church leaders request and that I was her fiancé. Gabriella promptly said I was not her fiancé, so the police officer told me to leave or I would be arrested. It was emotionally for me very distressing and heartbreaking; I went outside to my rented car and cried out to God to know how anyone can endure this much suffering and emotional pain. My utmost effort to save this matching was clearly ending without reconciliation. But I still held out hope, because I felt Rev. Moon had showed us in his life that God never gives up, so how could I? I phoned her a few days before the next matching at the Madison Square Garden Blessing time, but she refused to reconsider. I even told her I would wait for her until another Blessing Ceremony which would follow in the years after the coming one at Madison Square Garden.
MY SECOND MATCHING
I did attend the matching ceremony again. This time a high church leader, Col Bi Hi Pak, accused me, in front of True Father, of having initiated the break of the Blessing with Gabriella. Needless to say, after all I went through and endured to try to change her heart, I was outraged. I did something no one ever does or is supposed to do, especially in front of True Father; I yelled out three times ”
I NEVER BROKE THE MATCHING, NEVER!”
According to the security guard, I was yelling so loud they could here me all the way downstairs at the entrance door. Finally, Reverend Moon said he believed me and said, “Ron. Calm down. Do not hit Col Pak.” True Father said he would give me a second chance and then he matched me to a sister named Anna. This sister worked on Mr. Kamiyama’s fund‑raising team.
After two days of us getting prepared for the Blessing, Anna took me aside and said she was afraid to go to the Blessing. She said the problem was not me, that I was a nice guy but she was afraid and would not attend the ceremony with anyone. Therefore, we immediately went to meet Mr. Kamiyama and Anna said the same thing to him that she was afraid and would not attend the Blessing. I cannot begin to described in words my pain and agony I was having to endure a third time. I was rejected in 1975, I was rejected by Gabriella in 1981 and then rejected by Anna in 1982. Not only that, I had been fired from my job as President of Going Up Press by Dr. Pak. He believed I had broken my matching and also that I was falsifying and forging corporate documents. Dr. Pak believed statements from other jealous leaders who said I was stealing money from Going Up Press. With Dr. Pak receiving so many damaging false reports, my fate was sealed. To make matters worse a reporter from the New York Times contacted my sister and interviewed her by telephone. A few days later an article was published whereby they said that I paid $50,000 under the table to Dr. Pak. Both the New York Times reported this and the Wall Street Journal published the article as well. The truth is I gave $400 to Mr. Sang Kil Lee twice to help him out of a financial problem he had, and that is what my sister Linda had told the Times reporter.
This then was a very low point in my life. These conditions where literally impossible to live with. How I managed to preserve myself and stay faithful are beyond words and even beyond my own understanding. Truly only God knows about my blood, sweat and tears at that time in my life. As Jesus said: “Who is my brother and sister, who is my Mother and Father”. For me only God and True Parents.
THE DAY GOD SPOKE TO ME!
One day just about four months before the next matching in Korea I was sitting in Mike Shea’s room talking about the upcoming Blessing. I said to Mike that my dream was to be matched to a sister who was originally Blessed in 1975 in the 1800 group, but who would need a husband because of spousal difficulty like I had suffered through. Mike listened to me, and then he left the room; just then I heard a clear voice in my spiritual hearing, “How about the 777?”. I immediately thought no, do not be so vain to think I could be matched and blessed in marriage to such a high‑level of early dedicated members. That was a special group, of very early members, the group for which I, as a new member, had fasted. I considered them to be very high because of the devout dedication to the building of the Unification Movement from almost nothing. I was thinking these words “How about the 777?” in my head were my own thinking, yet I found myself arguing with myself over the appropriateness of the notion that I could be matched to a woman who had already been matched in the historic 777 marriage blessing.
Those words came in a dark moment in my life. A ray of hope. I laid down to rest and put a wet towel over my eye’s because I had been crying. When I did that a Korean woman appeared before me in the spirit comforting me from all the pain and suffering I was going though.
A few months later I found myself at the airport check‑in desk to pick up my ticket to fly to Korea for the next Blessing which was to be held there. I turned and who did I see but Gabriella standing their to get her ticket. I felt this was a huge injustice. She had broken our Blessing and caused me so much accusation from leaders, and such internal pain. I got angry and turned and walked toward the exit. Two of my friends (Keith Anderson and Galen Brooks) stopped me and said, “Don’t walk away, Ron. This is test from Go and you must overcome it. Even through you have no sin in Gabriella’s case, and this must seem unjust to you, you must win over this test.” Thanks to my meeting with them and their encouragement I turned back and got my ticket and flew to Korea.
THE LAST PART OF MY SAGA IS THIS
This was to be my third matching. True Father again would choose a spouse for me. I wondered if I could really show up for it. Already my heart had been torn apart over and over again. I was sitting outside of the Little Angeles Academy, anguishing over the issue of accepting True Father’s matching a third time. I wondered if I live through another breakup and failure. I can’t convey the intensity of the waves of emotional blackness and real pain ‑‑ a heart‑ache ‑‑ that I was feeling. This decision was so difficult you could torture me or throw in jail and that would be easier to endure.
Next I saw Gabriella standing in the parking lot. I walked over to her and asked her why is she was here in the parking lot. She told me she could not go inside where the matching was taking place, until after I was matched, because she had broken our blessing, that was the rule. All of a sudden I felt closure on my difficult relationship with Gabriella, because justice was being done, and rules were being followed. So the darkness fell from my heart and I had hope for my third matching. This helped me a great deal in making up my mind to go inside.
When I walked into the matching room, Col Pak asked me, “Ron what went wrong this time?” (meaning with my second matching that was after Gabriella). Fortuitously Mr. Kamiyama had just arrived and he told Col Pak I was not at fault. He explained that the sister Anna rejected me and he had her letter. Col Pak then reported this to True Father who quickly matched me to a Korean woman named Hwa‑Yeop Kim. We went outside with her brother Kim Il to discuss the matching. She explained to me that she had been originally blessed in the 777 group in 1970, and she had a 9‑year old daughter from that first marriage. She asked me if that would be okay with me? I was floored. I remembered the voice saying “How about 777?” and I thought about a vision I had in 1969 when God showed me sitting on a picnic blanket next to a Korean woman. I can only say this moment was like emerging out of a deep darkness into the daylight.
At the time of my Blessing I was 33 years old and had been in the Church for 14 years. I now have three daughters who are all married (two of them as Blessed couples ‑ Youn‑Jee and Youn‑Soo) and my youngest daughter has a 2 year old son.
THE DAY I FOUGHT TO SAVE THE MESSIAH’S LIFE!
Yes, this was a day I was in a situation where I had to defend Reverend Moon; meaning I had to use my physical body and to fight two men who where determined to get up on the stage to disrupt True Father’s speech.
These two guys came around the corner and pushed the other security guard up against the wall. So I knew violence was coming my way. (Unlike a lot of members, from my youth I learned how to carry myself against would‑be aggressors.) As they approached me I raised my hand and stated clearly “You will be harmed”. That’s all I said. I wanted to give them a warning. When the two got up to me face‑to‑face I attacked them both. I knocked one man to the floor and I started hitting the other. Quickly both got up and ran out the hallway. I chased them all the way to the front parking lot and saw them off. Then I returned to my post to guard the door to the stage. When True Father finished his speech my responsibility was to escort True Parents to their car and to open the car door. However, those two men where standing at the front bumper of the car. So, I turned and attacked them in front of True Parents, chasing these guys away from the car. So Father had to open the car for himself.
This was my action to defend True Father from men who violently tried to get on the stage and do whatever their plan was. But I stopped them by fighting with all my strength and resolve. I am proud to have had the honor of risking my life to protect True Father!
MY MEETING TRUE FATHER IN MANHATTAN
In 1973 I was assigned the job to drive the President of our Church, Neil Salonen, from headquarters in Washington D.C. to Belvedere, New York, to attend the first European members workshop. This was my first trip to New York. After three days President Salonen ask me to drive him to the airport. So drove him to Kennedy Airport. When I dropped him off he gave me $100 and said, “Ron, go buy some new clothes.” So I drove toward Manhattan; the traffic was heavy; I was looking for a clothing store, and I had never ever been to Manhattan. So I pulled the car over and stopped to look at my map. While I was sitting in the driver’s seat studying the map, a man walked over to me. So I rolled down the window and it was Daikon, who Greeted me and asked, “Ron, what are you doing here?” I told him what I was up to and looked around and was shocked to realize I had by some extraordinary coincidence chosen to park directly behind True Father’s limousine. In the middle of Manhattan in the middle of rush hour in a town I had never been to before ‑‑ I stopped behind his car! It was just another one of those many confirmations that have shown up in my life that I was destined meet and to follow Reverend Moon throughout my life.
INCHON MOVIE
When our Church produced the movie “Inchon”, I said to my friend Peter Spoto, “We need to go watch this movie.” So we where late and had to run to the theater. While standing at the ticket booth Peter said “Ron, Father!” I turned around to look and sure enough True Father had just gotten out of his car and was walking into the theater. Well what a surprise! So we went inside hoping to sit next to him. However, it was dark and we could not find him so I said, “Let’s just sit here.” We sat down and looked around and realized we had inadvertently sat down directly in front of Father. Through the years I have experienced many such events where I would say let’s go here or let’s go there, and we would then meet True Father.
I was at the Assembly of World Religious in San Francisco with my wife when I said let’s go upstairs. In a short time while standing at my room door, True Father walked out right past my wife and I; this again another time where I just happened to meet True Father.
I hope and pray those of you who read my story can appreciate how it is a miracle that I lived and a miracle I met the Unification Church. God truly walked with me and led me on a blessed life.
Ronald E. Pine
777 Blessing Couple