Where faith is the hardest, Christians are the strongest – Part I
It is necessary that persons in this story have absolute anonymity. However, to make the story read more easily, fictitious names have been assigned. This is the first of a two-part story. To read Part II after March 18 click here.
First visit
We in the West are concerned about the economy: whether or not our job will last, if we can pay for our house, or how we can afford that new car or washing machine should the necessity arise. Meanwhile, Christians in North Korea suffer cruel punishments, imprisonment, and even death just for being a Christian or owning a Bible. Indeed, North Korea is a crucible where Christians are ground with the pestle of communism in a most severe testing of their faith.
What brought this to my mind was an address in a church in our community recently by a man I dare not name. I will call him Kim. He is an ethnic Korean, born in North Korea, and raised in South Korea. He has visited North Korea many times, and plans to continue visiting that ignominious nation as long as God allows.
His ethnicity created in him the hunger to visit the land of his birth, and to see, indeed, if there were any Christians in it. Speaking Korean as his native language, he is able to communicate with the people without hindrance.
First visit
When Kim was a young man, he used to pray, “God, give me the opportunity to go to North Korea.” The first time, assured that a visa had been arranged, he flew to China, but when he visited the authorities, they said they knew of no order to give him a visa to North Korea.
“What?” he said. “I have flown 14 hours from America just to go to North Korea. Now you tell me you don’t have the papers?”
The officials just shrugged.
Kim went to his hotel and began to pray. What else could he do? He prayed fervently for around five hours. He even prayed, “Lord, should this cup pass from me?”
The government office closed at 5. At 4:30 the telephone rang.
“We now have your papers,” a voice at the other end said.
Kim hurried down to the office, and got his precious papers that would allow him legally to enter North Korea.
Then fear took over. What would he do? What if they discovered he was a Christian? What if he was martyred?
But then he began to think: Every person can die only once, so when you die, you should make the most of it. Dying as a martyr is the best way to die, he thought. So courage filled his heart, and he proceeded to the airport.
North Korea landing
When Kim exited the North Korean airport at Pyongyang he came face to face with a huge statue of Kim Il Sung. He figured it must have been as tall as the statue of Nebuchadnezzar mentioned in the Bible. And all were expected to bow before it.
That went against his grain. His grandmother had told him he should never bow to idols.
He looked around. Nobody there knew him. So if he bowed a little, what difference would it make? Would anybody know?
Pyongyang used to have 300,000 believers and so many churches it was called the Jerusalem of the East. Now it is a hardened bastion of atheism and idol worship—worship of their “Dear Leader.” The statue of Kim Il Sung stood on the very spot where Pyongyang’s largest church once stood.
A time to hate
North Korean children are taught from tender years to hate Americans: that Americans are baby killers, and their worst enemy. They are drilled from preschool onward how to hate and fight Americans. Nothing could be more satisfying for them than to kill an American.
Kim showed a video of small children being trained to hate and fight Americans. I captured that video from the live showing with my camera. Click here to see the North Korea video. There may be a delay in posting the video, so if it is not there now, check back later. Another way to get to the video is to go to www.WorldChristianMinistries.org, go to Resources, click on Photo Journals at the bottom of the side column, and then click on North Korea Video.
This time Kim had led a small group of Americans to visit North Korea. They started to hand out candy to the children, who gleefully took it. They must have thought the strangers were Russians.
Then Kim asked the children, “Do you know who is giving you the candy?”
The children were silent.
“They are Americans.”
Immediately some were so terror struck they wet their pants. Others began to cry in fear. They could not comprehend they were seeing “evil” Americans face to face.
Strange young man
A starving teen-age boy lies exhausted in North Korea.
When Kim first visited North Korea, he thought possibly there were no Christians there at all. His behavior was under tight control. Even though he was an ethnic Korean and spoke fluent Korean, even if he walked down the street in Korean clothes, people recognized him as a foreigner.
One day he felt led to go outside his hotel and take a little walk. Suddenly a young man about 17 years old came up to him, reached out to him, and began to shake his hand vigorously and continually. In Korean culture, it is very unusual for a younger person to initiate action with an elder. After about 17 shakes the American began to wonder what the meaning of this was.
While they were still shaking hands, the young man made a sign of a tiny cross on the man’s palm, and said, “I’m alive. I’m alive.”
Then Kim knew he was shaking hands with a believer. After that brief and strange encounter, the young man walked away. Later, Kim wished he had arranged to meet him again.
Each day for the next two days he went outside his hotel for a walk, but didn’t see the youth.
Finally, on the last day of his visit, the young man showed up again.
“Have you had breakfast?” Kim asked. This is the customary greeting in North Korea, for if a person has had breakfast, you know he is well.
“Yes,” the lad answered.
“Good,” Kim said. “So let’s go for a walk.” And he began to walk.
Suddenly he stopped, and turned around, for the lad was not walking with him.
In fact, the young man was crying.
“What’s wrong?” our friend asked.
“I lied,” the youth said, with tears in his eyes. “I told you I had breakfast.”
Kim walked back to him. “That’s O.K.,” Kim said. “God understands. Let’s go to the cafeteria.”
But when they got to the cafeteria, it had no food. Breakfast must be ordered the night before.
“Well, this is a restaurant,” Kim said to a staff member in fluent Korean. “Certainly you must have something to eat.”
Finally they brought out a hardboiled egg and two slices of bread. Our friend then had to show the young man how to eat them, for he had never seen sliced bread or a hardboiled egg.
Four wishes
Our friend wanted to do something for the lad, but to ask him directly would be an insult. Finally he asked, “Do you have any wish?”
“Yes,” the young man said, “I have four wishes.”
In North Korea Christian children are not allowed to complete their education. Since the young man was from a Christian family, he had been dismissed from school after 8th grade and made to go to work.
“First, I have been working for three years—ever since I was 14—and I have been saving up my tithe,” the young man said. “But there are no churches to give the tithe to. Could you please take my tithe and give it to a church?”
Kim knew he would not be allowed to take money out of the country. “What is your second wish?” he asked.
“I was brought up in a Christian home,” the youth said, “but I have never been baptized. There is no presbytery, and there is no one to baptize me. Will you baptize me?”
Our friend responded that he, too, was Presbyterian, and was not authorized to baptize. Christians in Korea stem from a strong Presbyterian tradition.
“What is your third wish?” he asked.
“My third wish is that I might be able to take Holy Communion. If I could be baptized, then I would be qualified to receive Holy Communion.”
Kim was frustrated that there was nothing yet he could do personally to benefit the young man.
“What is your fourth wish?” he asked.
“I wish I could have my own Bible,” he said.
“I can help you with that,” Kim said. And he made sure he received a new Korean Bible.
Grandfather’s investment
“I am one of your grandfather’s investments,” Kim told the assembly. “A hundred years ago you sent your young men and women as missionaries to our land. And again, some 60 years ago, you sent your young men to defend our country.
“Why did 20,000 Americans die in Korea?” Kim asked rhetorically.
“When the Japanese invaded the land in 1938, there were 21 American missionaries in Pyongyang. Most (but not all) refused to bow down to their idol. I believe those 20,000 Americans died because those few missionaries did not stand strong against the idol.”
Yet the majority of the missionaries were utterly committed.
“I remember looking at the missionary gravesites in Korea. One marker read, ‘If I have 1,000 lives, Korea should have them all.’”
Kim said in 1993 some American missionaries went to South Korea and laid hands on two Korean pastors to transmit the anointing for missionary work to the Koreans. “We commission you to reach this nation for Christ,” they said, “…and all nations.”
What is happening in Korea today is the fruit of the labors of the missionaries sent by your grandfathers.
Today’s Korean Christians ask us to pray for them, “that our knees not be weakened, so we may continue to pray.”
Koreans feel God has commanded them to conquer the whole peninsula for Christ. They began working at the far northern border. Quietly they shared their faith and spiritually starved souls received Christ and cleaved to Him. By of the end of 2008, no less than 1,069 house churches had been planted in North Korea. God has not forsaken North Korea. Let us be careful to uphold them in our prayers as well.
Click here on or after March 19 to read part II – depicting how Christians are treated in North Korea. Persons wishing to know more about North Korea or to provide financial support for ministry among North Koreans may contact Suzanne Scholte at North Korean Freedom Coalition.
