At a recent Voice of the Martyrs regional conference, Pastor Foley answers an audience question about the face of persecution in North Korea. Are underground church members mostly male or female? Young or old? Rich or poor? Imprisoned or “free”? Listen to Seoul USA’s podcast to find out!
Seoul USA is a ministry for North Koreans, with North Koreans, and by North Koreans. This is best seen in our North Korean radio broadcasting ministry. Every evening we send the gospel over the airwaves, but we do it in a unique way.
Many radio broadcasts into North Korea uses South Korean voices, but Seoul USA’s broadcasts are not only written and produced by North Koreans, but North Korean voices are used to proclaim the gospel!
Today, I want to include you in on one of our recent broadcasts. This was listened to by an estimated two million North Koreans, who risked their lives to do so. NMH, a North Korean defector who is now living in South Korea, both wrote the below script and recorded it with her own voice. Please click on link to follow along with the original NK audio as you read below . . .
Listen to NMH’s powerful gospel proclamation and prayer!
In the book of Jeremiah 17:7-8, God says, “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
This is the truth. God is our Savior. God is the only creator of all creation, and he made Adam and Eve, the first human beings in this world. God already has a special plan of for each one of us. God saved me from two flying bullets in the Duman River, and rescued me from prison. Then God led me to learn the words of God. God allowed me to join this school and make me to know him. He has a plan for me to evangelize North Koreans and help them be close to God.
Dear North Korean people,
Please seek and believe God boldly from now on. If you believe God, you will have peace in your mind and your children will be blessed and achieve what they want to do. Please trust God and pray hard. If you do believe human beings instead of believing God who created all the creation, you will live in the darkness of not seeing the sun forever and have a difficult life. Someone who ignores God has only a few days left before fall. Right now, you North Koreans who suffer in with starvation and cold without knowing Jesus, please take heart. Trust God and depend on him. Please open the Bible which contains the words of God. Only God can save your life in North Korea. Our Father God said not to worry about our life, what we will eat or wear. My people in North Korea, believing God is the only way to have the light of hope in our lives. From now on, read the Bible page by page carefully and follow these words. The only way to live is to have God as the compass of our lives. Our Abba Father is the one who created all the creation! I pray and look forward to worshipping together with all South Korean and North Korean people in peace.
North Korean underground Christians aren’t only found inside of North Korea. You’ll find them in South Korea, too—or, rather, they’ll find you…if your ministry has a reputation for protecting their identities at all costs. Because even though North Korean underground Christians may defect to South Korea, they can’t very well announce it once they arrive. If they did, their remaining family members—and the church of which they were a part—would be snuffed out in an instant.
So we were delighted recently to visit with a newly arrived underground Christian sister at her apartment in Seoul. She prepared fruits, boiled eggs, bread and juice and welcomed our visit warmly. We worshiped together in the underground North Korean Christian style, and our sister shared her testimony.
Her family was an underground Christian family in North Korea. Her grandmother and grandfather were Christians and her parents were as well. Actually, her father and mother were killed for their faith in God when she was three years old. So she was raised by her grandmother.
She said that her grandmother taught her many Christian values when she was young. For example, she was not allowed to pick up unattended items like lost pencils. Her grandmother also taught her to appreciate God and help the poor and those in difficult circumstances.
She remembered that she went with her grandmother to an underground church meeting in 1956, as persecution was intensifying to an absolute level. About 20 people gathered in a small house and worshiped. She remembered one praising song, “Singing I go,” which she shared with us.
Most underground Christians share these kinds of stories about their life in North Korea—small stories, daily life and faith. The North Korean Christian stories that make the news always seem to involve valiant witness, torture, executions. But the stories North Korean underground Christians tell about themselves seem to have more to do with successfully resisting the nearly overpowering temptation to filch a pencil left momentarily unattended, thanks be to God.
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