In Memory of Sun Hyang Willett

Seonghwa

May 10

Written By Youth and Young Adult Ministry

Sun Hyang Willett

Spouse: Joe Willett
Children: Sunder Willett
Birthdate: July 31, 1952
Blessing: July 1, 1982
Ascension: May 07, 2024
Seonghwa Ceremony: May 11, 2024

Sun Hyang Willett (family name Hwang) was born on July 31st, 1953, 4 days after the Korean War ended, as the youngest child in her family. One day when she was 15 years old, she was hiking up a mountain with some friends and felt the need to use the bathroom, but for some reason, instead of just going off the trail like she always did she felt like she wanted to use an inside bathroom so she pushed her friends to hike back down the mountain and look for a house. The first house she came to, she knocked on the door to ask to use the bathroom. It was at this house that she had her first encounter with the Unification Church. After this she continued to come back to learn about the teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and converted to Unificationism.

When she was older, she enlisted in the South Korean army to support her family, ultimately becoming a sergeant. In 1979, she was matched and engaged to Joe Willett, a young security guard at East Garden in NY. Joe later said he was a bit nervous upon hearing that his fiancé was a both sergeant and a marksman in the South Korean army. She moved to America in 1980 to start missionary work sharing her faith, and would be Blessed in marriage to Joe with 2075 couples at Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1982. They stayed in New York for many years before moving to Georgetown, Kentucky, near Joe’s hometown of Lexington. Soon after she was extremely grateful to adopt her son, Sunder, in 1993.

After moving to Georgetown, she tried to get a job at the local Toyota plant but was unable to. Following the example of many of her friends she determined to start her own business of selling flowers and continued doing so for 25 years. She felt that speaking English as a second language was actually an advantage in making sales because it helped her get past people's guard and also made it harder for her to take no for an answer.

While maintaining her business, she always continued to share about her faith to friends, neighbors and customers. She would later say that her business was an extension of her ministry and that she tried to teach her customers how to live good lives. She often shared with her customers that being honest in business was more important than making quick money and that God rewards honest work. Ultimately, the value of marriage was most important to her and she always shared about it. She always told her customers to listen to and respect their partners and that they should always try to work things out instead of separating.

Later in her life she felt called to share marriage rededication ceremonies with others. She visited numerous churches and met with clergy from multiple denominations and faiths to share with them the value of the marriage blessing. In 2017, she and her husband Joe were one of the first Unificationist couples in America to bless 430 couples in rededication ceremonies. After hearing about the stress and job pressure first responders often face and the correspondingly high divorce rate they experience, she and Joe embarked on a years long project to visit all 120 counties across the state of Kentucky and offered marriage rededication ceremonies to hundreds of police officers, firefighters and other first-responders across Kentucky.

She was driven by a desire to share God's love with others and felt that this was her way to make a contribution for God to the world. In her private life, she devoted herself to studying God's word and praying for her family, friends, neighbors, and everyone she met in her ministry. Sometimes her prayers would go long into the night to include everyone on her list. Her other passions included gardening and cooking, especially for others. She was always trying to serve others and was known for bringing gifts or food when she visited others.

In 2023, she was overjoyed by the birth of her first grandchild Eli and was able to hold him a few weeks after his birth. She was always so excited to hear updates about how he was doing and looked forward to seeing him grow up.

Sun Hyang Willett experienced a sudden heart attack on May 6th and ascended to spirit world early in the morning on May 7th, 2024. Shortly after her ascension, her daughter-in-law woke up from a dream in which she was told that Sun is just fine now and not to worry about her. While her family is shocked by her sudden ascension, they also know that she is probably looking forward to continuing her ministry and sharing about God's love in the spirit world.

Sun is survived by her husband, Joe; son, Sunder; and grandson, Eli.

The Midwest Subregion will be hosting her Seonghwa Ceremony this Saturday, May 11, at 3 p.m. EST (2pm viewing). See the address below.
If you are unable to attend in person, you can join us via Zoom
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82336631628Meeting ID: 823 3663 1628