The best balloon launch is the one that remains undetected

Posted on June 6, 2024 by Pastor Foley

Here are comments I shared with a reporter who was doing a story on the recent back-and-forth balloon launch activity by the North Korean government (sending human waste and trash) and some balloon launchers in South Korea who publicly announce the details of their launches:

I think it’s helpful to distinguish between balloon launching and public announcements about balloon launches. What the North Korean government and some South Korean balloon launchers have in common is that making the public aware of their launching activities is at least as important to them and their goals as the launches themselves and the materials they are sending. Both groups make extensive use of media, launch eye-catching materials in eye-catching balloons, and employ rhetoric that at times flies higher than the balloons themselves.

But of course it doesn’t have to be like this. If the goal is to reach North Koreans outside of the mediation of the North Korean government, which in my opinion should indeed be the goal of balloon launching, then the best launch is the one that remains undetected.

For some groups, balloon launching is political theatre, which is why they launch on public holidays and then heavily promote their launches. But when launchers show photos of what they launch, and when they announce when and where they launched, it’s like providing a map to North Korean authorities, who can then use these public statements to locate the materials which were launched and to round up any North Koreans who found and took the materials. Units in the North Korean military are mobilized to respond to launches once those launches are detected. So North Koreans who find the materials and take them home likely have no idea that the North Korean government already knows and is actively searching for them. Their safety is compromised completely outside of their awareness.

In order to keep potential recipients safe, launches should be separate from public advocacy and the public theatre of launching. Launch as quietly as possible. Say nothing. Post no photos, no launch data about how many balloons were sent from where carrying what. Give North Koreans the best possible opportunity to simply find what you sent without anyone already tracking them.

Some people may say the best launch is no launch, and situations like what we see at the present time will no doubt result in various parties calling for a renewed ban on launching. But balloon launches are one of very few technologies that when employed responsibly enable ordinary North Koreans access to a world not mediated by their government. When launches are done safely and quietly—using non-flammable gas, biodegradable balloons, intelligent projection and tracking tools to ensure success—they don’t make the news, and they don’t ratchet up the danger. Ordinary North Koreans benefit, and the North Korean government is none the wiser. Unfortunately, you can’t make a law that requires balloon launchers to examine their own hearts and motives, but the public can decide what groups are supported, and they can influence how groups act. Local police can enforce local laws that are already on the books so that launches are not political theatre but are efficient, effective, safe ways for Koreans to communicate without the interference of governments, as is every human being’s right.

As regards our own work at Voice of the Martyrs Korea, we ourselves don’t comment publicly about what we are or are not doing, or have done, or will do, in the field, in order to ensure the safety of of all concerned and the success of our operations. What we can say is that every year we get 40,000 Bibles into North Korea as quietly as possible, using a wide variety of methods, always focused on the safety of our neighbors here and the safety of potential recipients in North Korea. They have a right to know, and we have a responsibility to help them exercise that right as safely as possible. That requires us to separate our public advocacy role from our field work. Both are vital, but they should never be concurrent.

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“From victim to victor”: Dr Hyun Sook Foley leads women around the world on a “hero’s journey”

Posted on June 4, 2024 by Pastor Foley

At retreat centers outside Ottawa and Calgary last month, more than one hundred women from across Canada gathered together to draw their life stories on Korean-style fans, discuss previously hidden traumas, and listen attentively to workshops on “letting God tell your story” led by Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr Hyun Sook Foley, author of the book, “The Hero’s Journey: From Victim to Victor”.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley leads Christian women in Canada through her Hero’s Journey method at a workshop in a retreat center near Ottawa on May 17, 2024.

The organizer of the Canadian events, Voice of the Martyrs Canada’s Vanessa Brobbel, says she wanted to bring to Canadian Christian women the same teaching on healing from traumatic life experiences that Representative Foley has been sharing in workshops with persecuted Christian women across Asia since the book’s publication in 2021.

“I invited Dr Foley because I believed that ordinary Christian women here in Canada need to experience the same healing that the Lord has used her to bring to persecuted Christian women in North Korea, China, and other countries,” says Mrs Brobbel, whose husband is the CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Canada. “The specific challenges we experience in living our Christian lives are of course different in Canada than in North Korea, but the need for healing from deep hurts is the same. And Representative Foley’s method of letting Christ tell your story instead of you being the author of your own life story is understandable and powerful for Christian women everywhere.”

An attendee explains her artwork to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley during a Hero’s Journey workshop held in Canada last month.

The events, which took place from Friday evening through Sunday morning on consecutive weekends, attracted attendees who drove as long as seven hours to attend.

Mrs Brobbel says the event was life changing for the attendees.

“One of the attendees was a pastor’s wife whose husband died a few years ago,” says Mrs Brobbel. “Her husband had abused her for more than 30 years, but she never shared this with anyone. During one of the small group discussion times after Dr Foley shared her own story, the pastor’s wife burst into tears and shared about the abuse for the first time. By the end of the event the woman was beaming. Her face was bright, and she said she now had a totally different outlook on her past and for the first time was looking forward to the future.”

“We were never victims; we were always characters in God’s stories, and we just didn’t know it,” says Ann, a woman who participated at the Ottawa conference. “Through the event I learned that we can really benefit from reframing our stories away from what is victimhood and toward God’s perspective, which helps us understand where he’s leading us, and to better understand why he took us through what we went through.”

Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley hugs one of the participants at a Hero’s Journey retreat in Canada last month.

Representative Foley says that she first developed the Hero’s Journey method to help the North Korean defector Christian women she has been working with since 2005. She still uses the method primarily in that work but says that since the publication of her book she has received more and more requests to teach the method to Christian women in countries like Canada, Europe, and South Korea. Her first Korean seminar, offered by Voice of the Martyrs Korea at a location in Muju, will take place August 30 through September 1.

“What I have come to realize is that it doesn’t matter if we are from North or South Korea; every Christian needs to learn the narrative framework in which God has planned our lives to be victors’ stories,” says Representative Foley. “If we don’t learn this, our stories will always be about ourselves and about the people who have hurt us. So, in these women’s conferences we are learning how to go ‘from victim to victor’ by letting God tell our story, rather than us telling it ourselves. God never gives anyone a victim’s story. Because of Christ, he is turning all our stories into hero’s stories. Seeing Canadian women experience that truth during these conferences has been extremely encouraging for me.”

Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley speaks with an attendee at a Hero’s Journey retreat for Christian women in Canada last month.

“For years I have been living a victim’s story,” says Samantha, a woman who attended the Calgary event. “But now I can see that we were never victims but were always victors in Christ. So I feel like it’s time for me to start living as a victor.”

In the workshops, Representative Foley makes use of art as a means of helping participants process and express how to see their difficult life experiences differently through Christ. For the Korean workshop, she plans to use traditional Korean dance as well, something she says has become fundamental to her work in helping North Korean defector Christians overcome trauma. “In many Christian conferences the attendees just sit and listen to the speaker,” says Representative Foley. “But watching the Canadian Christian women re-think their life stories by drawing them on Korean fans as they discussed their stories with each other helped me to see that the art and discussion times are sometimes even more important than the teaching times.”

Harmony Brobbel, one of the participants at the Calgary Hero’s Journey workshop, displays the “life story fan” she created at the workshop as she poses with Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr. Hyun Sook Foley

Representative Foley says that she will be teaching the first Hero’s Journey workshop for Christian women in Korea Friday evening August 30 through Sunday morning September 1. Cost for the event is 250,000 KRW. Women interested in attending can call the Voice of the Martyrs Korea office at 02-2065-0703, or register through the organization’s website at www.vomkorea.com/herosjourney. Representative Foley’s book, The Hero’s Journey, is available through amazon.com.

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Arrested more than 100 times, China’s “Gospel Warrior” faces a new challenge

Posted on May 21, 2024 by Pastor Foley

China’s “Gospel Warrior”, Evangelist Chen Wensheng, is no stranger to police stations and prison. Arrested more than 100 times for his work as a street evangelist in Hengyang City, Hunan Province, the evangelist has spent more than 130 days in prison on what authorities classify as administrative detention. But now, according to Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representaitve Dr Hyun Sook Foley, China’s “Gospel Warrior” is facing a new challenge.

Chinese street evangelist Chen Wensheng

“Evangelist Chen Wensheng was arrested again September 1 for his evangelism activities,” says Representative Foley. “Normally that means they would hold him for two weeks and then release him, as they had done every time in the past. But when he was due to have been released on September 18, they instead increased the charge to a criminal one: ‘organizing and financing illegal gatherings’ and kept him in prison.”

Representative Foley says that even a court trial last month did not result in his release.

“He was tried on April 18th in Hunan in a courtroom with only about a dozen seats for the public,” says Representative Foley. “Most of his family and friends, including his 86-year old mother and his second brother, were blocked from entering the court.” She says eyewitnesses counted more than 40 police officers and 30 other communist party security officials surrounding the building.

“The entire street where the court is located was blocked off under the pretext of a security drill,” says Representative Foley.

She says the trial lasted only an hour, with the prosecutor recommending a maximum 3-year sentence.

“As is often the situation with these kinds of trials, the verdict was not announced in the court, nor has it been made public,” says Representative Foley. She says Chen Wensheng is appealing the verdict.

Chinese street evangelist Chen on the streets of Hengyang preaching the gospel

“The government appointed a public defender to serve as his lawyer, but he basically defended himself in court,” says Representative Foley. “He told the court that as a person of faith, he was willing to suffer for his faith and be sentenced severely, but as a citizen, he asked the court to conduct a fair trial.”

Representative Foley says that Evangelist Chen Wensheng denied the criminal charges, explaining to the court that he does not organize gatherings or finance them but rather simply evangelizes on the street.

“He carries a wooden cross displaying the words ‘Glory to our Savior’ and ‘Repent and be saved by faith’, and he hands out gospel tracts, even to the police who arrest him,” says Representative Foley.

Representative Foley says eyewitnesses report that the evangelist was very cheerful and peaceful during the trial and was friendly to the court officials.

“Years ago he was a drug addict,” says Representative Foley. “When he heard the gospel, he was delivered from his addiction and immediately began preaching on the streets. He’s been a street preacher for more than 15 years. He is a member of a small church, and yet these criminal charges and this recent trial where the building and streets were blocked off testify to the breadth of his impact.”

Individuals interested in learning about Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s work in partnership with the house church Christians of China can visit https://vomkorea.com/en/china/.

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