Recent North Korean Defector Christian – “I Don’t Know What A Prayer Request Is!”

Posted on March 19, 2015 by tdillmuth

KYH LonginglyEvery Saturday, a small group of new North Korean Christians meet together in our Underground Technology (UT) classes.  All of them attend an evangelical church–it’s a requirement for admission to UT–but most of the churches in Korea struggle to know how to disciple defectors. As a result, it’s frequently the case that defectors go to church without understanding even the basics of the Christian life. Over the past few years, we’ve found the UT program to be essential in their spiritual development and their basic survival in South Korea.  The below story, shared by my wife (Melissia Dillmuth) illustrates this well . . .

“I don’t know what a prayer request is…”replied KYH, a new UT student, when we asked him if he had any prayer requests to share with us. We were sitting on the floor in KYH’s small, 100 square foot apartment, munching on dried seaweed and fruit that he had prepared for us. Weekly visitation to students’ homes is an integral part of UT and provides the students with the opportunity to tell us more about their experiences. It also provides us with a one-on-one opportunity to encourage them with the word of God and prayer as many of them share their feelings of guilt, loneliness, fear or depression.

When we asked him about his background in NK, KYH quickly pulled out a map and longingly showed us where he calls “home.” He shared that unlike many others from his seaside village, he was able to provide well for his family as he had a job as a driver for the head of agriculture in his town. Others in his village struggled to survive as they were banned from the abundant supply of nearby fish by a wall that was built to keep them from catching the fish and then selling it to produce an income. He told us about his family and that he only came to SK because he was invited by his daughter who had defected earlier. His one hope is that one day North and South Korea will be unified that he may return to his home.

Our visitation with KYH and other students who have little or no biblical knowledge has confirmed our assurance of the timeliness and importance of UT. Many lost NK souls are wandering in SK, being deceived and pulled in by churches that pay for attendance, cults, schools that do not teach the word of God and money schemes. Unlike any other NK defector school for young Christians in SK, UT provides the students with solid, biblical training in an environment where they must also participate in facilitating their own spiritual growth. They do this through scripture memorization, prayer, homework and Works of Mercy on a weekly basis.

Struggles and spiritual attacks are very real for both UT students and staff alike, which confirm the great battle that is raging to thwart the work that God is doing through UT. After an initial commitment to UT, the cares of this world begin to crowd the work that God has begun to do in the hearts of the students and some are tempted to give up. “I feel lonely,” “I don’t have what it takes to be a missionary,” “I have to get a job because my family wants me to send money to them,” and “my health is not good,” are the reasons we are hearing from those who do not want to follow through with their training. The enemy is seeking to pluck the seed out of the heart into which it has been planted. This also confirms to us the great need for this training school!

Please commit to pray alongside the VOM Korea staff for these new NK believers who are a part of the UT program!

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Martyrs, Revelation, and the Stockdale Paradox: A Jesus Primer on Good Hope and Bad Hope

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Pastor Foley

Logo 071414There is good Christian hope and bad Christian hope, alternatively known as real hope and false hope. The world–rightly–accuses Christians of trafficking in much false hope, and this is an unfortunate result of our not reading our own book which provides ample instruction in distinguishing between hopes we ought to have and hopes that will get us and others killed.

False hope: In this world you will not have much trouble.

Real hope: In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. (Jesus in John 16:33, NIV.)

We too often tend to regard and receive any sign of hope as a good thing, yet hope is often the deadliest emotion. This insight is at the heart of what is known as the Stockdale Paradox, named for Admiral James Stockdale, an eight-year POW in Vietnam. That Stockdale was a man of great hope there is no doubt:

I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which, in retrospect, I would not trade.

But here is the paradox: Stockdale observed that a certain kind of hope actually poisoned many of his fellow prisoners:

They were the ones who said, “We’re going to be out by Christmas.” And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, “We’re going to be out by Easter.” And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.

The Lord not only gives real hope; equally, he banishes false hope. Consider this interaction between the Lord and the martyrs in Revelation 6:9-11 (NIV):

When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been.

Seeking to replace the narrative of Revelation with the numbers of various prophetic schemes is thus exposed as false hope: There is a reason the Lord does not reply to the martyrs with the assurance, “by Christmas” or “by Easter” or “on May 21, 2011.” As with Stockdale, the Lord offers real hope and only real hope: Martyrdom will go on only as long as necessary. It will be the defining event of the church in every generation that awaits his return, and the church will ultimately value it so much that it will not trade it for anything.

It is enough, says the Lord, to know that hope does not disappoint: Death in witness to the gospel will be neither senseless nor endless. But seeking to go beyond this–turning Revelation into a series of cosmic crossword puzzles to be decoded in order to produce Your Definitive Guide To The End Of The World–will only serve to weaken our faith.

Our quest for certainty and exactitude is often our undoing as believers. When the Lord does not return by Christmas, when our suffering does not end by Easter, what is exposed is that we have put our faith in the wrong place; we have hoped with counterfeit hope. If the Lord is ambiguous, he is ambiguous for our own good. Like Stockdale in the POW camp, the Lord knows what it takes to keep us alive and our head in the game here on earth: Certain knowledge of the outcome, combined with indeterminacy of the events that await us between now and then.

How long, O Lord? A little longer, but only as long as necessary.

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What If The Only Thing God Offered You Was Suffering?

Posted on March 12, 2015 by tdillmuth

in gods underground 2As our family was studying God’s magnificent heavenly banquet, I posed this question to my children,  “What if God’s banquet that he offers us right now is suffering?  Will you accept?”

I wanted my children to be well-aware that before the promised banquet meal, God promises us suffering and persecution.  I know this sounds like an “almost heretical” statement in some Christian circles, and yet the Scriptures seem pretty clear on this point.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  Luke 14:27

For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.  Philippians 1:28.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.  2 Timothy 3:12

I began to think about the words of Rev. Richard Wurmbrand when he was in solitary confinement, in the Ministry of the Interior’s secret basement prison.  At this point he had been a pastor, evangelist and had already suffered greatly in prison.  Yet, Rev. Wurmbrand asked himself these questions,

I had God.  But had I really lived to serve God – or was it simply my profession?

Did I believe in God?  Now the test had come.  I was alone.  There was no salary to earn, no golden opinions to consider.  God offered me only suffering – would I continue to love Him (In God’s Underground, 52)?

Wurmbrand rightly identified that his suffering was ultimately from God.  The evils of communism and the sin of man had surely brought about his persecution, and yet God not only allowed it, but ordained it.  Would Wurmbrand continue to love and serve a God who gave him beatings, mockery, humiliation and isolation?  He said,

Slowly, I learned that on the tree of silence hangs the fruit of peace.  I began to realize my real personality, and made sure that it belonged to Christ.  I found that even here my thoughts and feelings turned to God and that I could pass night after night in prayer, spiritual exercise, and praise.  I knew now that I was not play-acting, believing that I believe (In God’s Underground, 53).

Job said, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”  Job was a man who experienced tremendous suffering and at the time didn’t understand it at all.  And yet in this one verse, we know that Job remained fiercely committed to God, despite the fact that he recognized the suffering as from God’s own hand.

The Bible promises us a cross to bear.  Will you accept it?  Will you continue to believe in God despite this?  Like Rev. Wurmbrand and Job, will you continue to serve a God in the midst of the suffering that He allows?

My children were not surprised that I asked them this question.  We have these kind of conversations quite regularly.  I consider it a part of our daily discipleship routine.  I certainly wasn’t looking for a quick, emotionally charged response from them.

But they did respond in a quiet, reassuring manner, while acknowledging the suffering of Christians around the world and of the suffering that’s promised to them.

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