PeaceTV

The Eye of the Storm

Conference work during Africa Summit 2018

This is a transcript of a presentation at Africa Summit 2018 in Dakar, Senegal on January 18 at CICAD,

By Thomas Walsh

Good morning, brothers and sisters, this is the morning of a true victory celebration, not just in name alone, but what we have been participating in is more than a church gathering or some denominational group, but this is a world shaking, world transforming moment in history centering on our Heavenly Parent and our True Mother. The new Africa! It is amazing that we’ve heard True Mother, True Parents talk, and often guide us about the history of God’s providence, the Creation, the Fall and restoration, the movement of civilizations as God works to realize the ultimate ideal through ancient civilizations on through the development of the Christian and Atlantic Civilization and then the move to the Pacific Civilization. But when I heard True Mother speak on this stage here, for the first time for me, within that grand, providential narrative of God’s work through history, we see clearly the role of Africa. The highway of providential history has come to Africa at a critical moment so that God’s providential power and energy is present here. Beginning with our True Mother’s presence, Africa will be renewed and reborn.

They say a day is like a thousand years. I kept feeling each day was truly like a thousand years. It was a whirlwind in a hurricane, but in the midst of this whirlwind and this hurricane, there was a certain eye or center point, where somehow God worked. The program of this Africa Summit was truly blessed by God.

True Mother’s arrival

True Mother was welcomed like a head of state at the private airport, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sending a delegation. The next day, True Mother had a private meeting in the Presidential Palace with President Macky Sall. True Mother does not engage in, let’s say, ordinary chit chat, but just speaks directly the truth and speaks in a way that is not the evangelical fervor style. It is just clear, and straight and firm and in some ways simple and yet contains these nuggets of golden, diamond-like truths that are on the one hand somewhat shocking but delivered so gracefully.

The president listened for thirty or forty minutes and responded so graciously and warmly. You all saw the opening plenary the next morning; it was truly magnificent on this stage. And this venue, we felt, Rev. Camara, Mrs. Rigney, we felt almost as if this venue and this Radisson Hotel and the road here from the airport, and the airport itself were created for our True Mother’s visit. Truly amazing!

True Mother’s message was the highlight and throughout the remainder of the conference, every speaker that got up paid respect, of course, to President Macky Sall, of course, to [ex-] President Niasse but to Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, to our True Mother and to her message, again and again and again from every speaker.

Essential conference efforts

This was not a conference of just theoretical ideas. This was a conference of action. We covered a lot of ground in a short time. We had programs that addressed the New Village Movement, the Sae Maul movement from Korea. We had Sakena Yacoobi, a laureate of the Sun Hak Peace Prize who developed schools in Afghanistan for women and girls speaking as a Sun Hak Peace Prize laureate and with a moving video about the Sun Hak Peace Prize that introduced her. We had a representative of the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences talking about Climate Change and how to address the impact of changing climate realities and their effect on air quality, water quality and food security. These issues are increasingly effecting humanity. We had speakers talking about the International Peace Highway, this concept that True Parents have been promoting since 1981 of an international network, a global Silk Road, not just for trade or commerce but for bringing the whole human family together as one family under God.

We had speakers talking about Hyo Jeong Education and Dr. Kittell’s Character Education program. We had the IAPP meeting centering on the president of the National Assembly, who took direct responsibility for the IAPP session. Right, Sheikh Mansour? We sat in his office with Sheikh Mansour Diouf. Please stand up and be recognized. This is the man who led the Steering Committee and as you know, when you work for God with all your heart and soul and you work for True Parents,  it’s the greatest blessing in the world, but also we meet challenges. Sheikh Mansour also had to navigate very, very carefully—so many dynamics involved to make this possible, working with all sectors of society. He’s a brilliant man of God but also a brilliant navigator of the complex territory of life and reality as we seek to build the kingdom of God on earth. Sheikh Mansour Diouf!

Partnerships form

We had a session with religious leaders. True Mother, Archbishop Ndanga spoke. He got up there and he started teaching, Creation, Fall, Restoration. He taught about the Fall and the four fallen natures that resulted. It was just straight from the Divine Principle. He was like True Father at the blackboard teaching God’s word. We had to cut it short for this session; everybody had only about five minutes to speak and everybody wanted to speak. Archbishop Ndanga, Thank you. You really brought God’s word to this conference.

We had a breakfast meeting with about fifty government ministers, representatives of nations, particularly from education and agriculture ministries. When True Mother asked through the international headquarters for us to create MOUs to sign at that breakfast, we thought, Well, we’ll try but you know that’s not an easy thing to ask government ministers to sign MOUs on the spot. They will say politely and carefully, Well, I’ll take this back to our country and we’ll discuss it and let you know. I think out of that breakfast we came away with fifty MOUs. These are partnerships. We also distributed the International Peace Highway MOU, but we had to do it late in the day and I don’t yet have the results. I believe we will find we had many MOUs related to the Peace Road development. 

This was a magnificent conference. I wish I could cover it more. I wish I could show you the pictures. I would just say to all of you, and to our young brothers and sisters here, that you are part of the most exciting, the most challenging, the most powerful, world-transforming movement that the world has seen. And who do we behold here on this stage? She is leading us forward in a most mighty and powerful way.

We are much bigger than we seem at times and this was one taste of that. From this Africa Summit—and I think the leaders can testify—every spare moment, people were coming to me, to Mrs. Rigney, to Sheikh Mansour Diouf, to Rev. Camara—asking, How can we do this in our country? We need to develop IAPP in our country. We need to develop the religious leaders, the chiefs association, Hyo Jeong Education, Peace Road and on and on—the New Village Movement, coffee farming. All of this potential is there. So we need all of you and a hundred times more from each of you to take positions that develop as we are multiplying in these different areas.

The last thing I want to say is that these are not just separate pieces. Even, you could see, the Little Angels were brought here. This is all part of Heaven’s way, Heaven’s strategy, Heaven’s principle. The Peace Highway, Peace Road, bringing the world together on a macrocosmic level so that we are all interconnected from the tribal messiahship and the Interfaith Blessing, these are all part of one integrated, holistic, comprehensive system that the pieces and parts are coming together in a sphere of peace that centers on our True Mother at this time while she is alive and on earth. We devote ourselves and we will change Senegal, Africa and the world.

Dr. Walsh is the international president of the Universal Peace Federation.