Special Report: Infiltrating North Korea
Dear Friends,
It’s happening yet again. North Korea’s despotic leader, Kim Jong Un, is breathing threats of annihilation against South Korea and the United States. The media loves reporting this all-too-usual story to audiences anxiously concerned about the risks of nuclear confrontation, because fear generates good ratings, and good ratings generate advertising dollars.
But I would like to tell you a different story about North Korea—a story of hope. Even though the people of North Korea face rampant malnutrition, poverty, and forced worship of their war-mongering dictator, there is hope in the darkness. That hope is found in North Korea’s underground church. Even in the most oppressive nation on earth, our Christian brothers and sisters endure.
Unlike in so much of the world where believers can worship freely and openly, the Church in North Korea cannot be found in church buildings. It’s a secret movement of Christians who are quietly spreading the life-giving message of the gospel. The government sees Christianity as a foreign-inspired uprising that sets Jesus on a throne above the dictator—an offense punishable by death. And yet God is working in North Korea to rescue His beloved children.
How do I know? Because the Lord is using Heaven’s Family to help in that rescue. It’s amazing: our brave onsite partners have given this small Pennsylvania-based ministry unprecedented access inside North Korea.
One of those partners is Mrs. Kim (all names changed to protect identities). This incredible woman has dedicated her life to covertly bringing emergency food and supplies across the closed border and straight into the hands of more than 230 needy North Korean families. Many of the families she serves have been secretly passing down their faith from one generation to the next since the early 1900s, a time when all of Korea was a vibrant hub for Christianity. Other families in Mrs. Kim’s network have turned to Jesus Christ for the first time because of her outreach. Mrs. Kim has been beaten, imprisoned and heavily fined for her faithful, hope-giving efforts. Even so, she continues her mission, steadfast in her resolve to keep the lifeline of support and encouragement open for those she so faithfully serves.
Eddie, another longtime friend and partner, has taken a different approach. Eddie and his team put their lives on the line infiltrating secret camps in countries where North Korean men are sent by their government to work (their wages primarily benefit the North Korean government). The men labor at exhausting, frequently dangerous tasks. Living in deplorable conditions, they are treated almost like slaves. Although Eddie’s team has endured multiple attacks by guards over the years, doors continue to open for them to offer workers food, clothing and other living supplies. Most importantly, the team shares the gospel message, knowing that every worker might one day carry that Light back to North Korea when he returns.
Each new life brought into Christ’s kingdom through our heroic partners represents a flame pushing back the darkness, offering hope for the citizens of that broken land. But Mrs. Kim and Eddie can’t do it without us. They depend on our partnership to continue their mission.
So I would like to propose a challenge. During this time when the threat of war with North Korea appears to loom high, let’s fight back with a different kind of weapon. Let’s counter the war of words with an even stronger invasion of the Light. Let’s do our part to fan into flame the only true hope North Korea has—the underground church.
$25 can give Mrs. Kim enough emergency food to feed a Christian family for a month. $100 can provide Eddie and his team with survival packs for workers at a secret camp. $5,000 can ensure an entire truckload of food and other necessities reaches the North Korean underground church network to relieve hunger and provide a witness to the love of God for those who do not yet know Him.
That love can bring down any stronghold and soften the hardest of hearts. Will you stand with us, in this time of fear and darkness, to infiltrate North Korea with His light? Any size gift to our North Korean Christians Ministry will help. Thank you.
Together in our Father’s work,
David
P.S. I’ve included a few photos that depict life in North Korea. I’ve never been actually inside North Korea, but I’ve traveled much of its border with China, peering in to border towns and cities with binoculars to witness North Korea’s backwardness and oppression from a distance. Thanks for caring!
