North Korea Persecution Update: Romans 8:28 still works in NK

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Pastor Foley

Have the North Korea/South Korea/US “Peace Talks” changed anything for Christians in North Korea?

The general consensus: Not for the better. They’ve actually been used by the North Korean government as an occasion for accelerating the reputation building of Kim Jung Un domestically. The youngest Kim, whose published exploits are beginning to rival those of his father and grandfather in North Korea’s divine pantheon even though he is still alive and considerably younger, is now described in state media as a “gift from heaven” who is “perfect and entrancing.“

Meanwhile, South Korea’s President Moon is faring nowhere near as well in North Korean state propaganda as he was last summer when peace was purported to be so close. This year he is back to being described as “the lapdog of the US.”

While political goodwill is fleeting, the Lord continues to shine upon and through his underground ambassadors to North Korea: the North Korean church. It is the glory of the Cross that is reflected there, in the lives of her 100,000 Christians, including the 30,000 in concentration camps. There, Christians are tortured, starved, and isolated from other prisoners in the hope of getting them to recant their faith, though even then release is impossible.

What is the glory of the Lord that shines in all this? It is that God’s grace is sufficient to enable North Korean Christians to remain today’s boldest witnesses to their captors and to serve as today’s most tangible signs of God’s love and care to other prisoners. North Korean Christians are trained from the earliest days of their faith that their reasonable worship is to make a faithful witness to Christ wherever he places them, no matter how hostile the surroundings.

Outside the camps, Christians in North Korea continue to be hunted down with meticulous precision and relentless concentration. Neighbors are required to report one another to the authorities on slightest suspicion. Spouses are ordered to inform on each other. Children are taught to spy on their own parents. All are warned to keep an eye out for telltale Christian behaviors: the bowing of a head in prayer, the giving of money to “useless” people like orphans and widows, the singing of Kim Il Sung hymns using strange and unauthorized lyrics. Failure to report Christian behavior results in punishment for you, and for your extended family for three generations.

Despite this, the North Korean underground church continues to worship and evangelize with unshakable confidence in her Lord. As one former Christian prisoner expressed, “Romans 8:28 works just as well inside a North Korean concentration camp as it does anywhere else.”

In North Korea, the real “gift from heaven”–the only ones in that country (and perhaps ours too) who know the things that truly make for peace–are not those who exploits are published or followed closely with international interest. They are underground, where the glory of the Lord shines upon them day and night.

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Asia’s persecutors: NK, China…and Russia???

Posted on June 19, 2019 by Pastor Foley

On April 2019, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) added Russia to its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC), a list of countries “whose government engages in or tolerates particularly severe religious freedom violations.”

This rise in Christian persecution is tied to Russia instituting the Yarovaya Law in 2016.

The Yarovaya Law outlawed house churches, forced missionaries to have government permits, and forbid Christians from evangelizing outside of church.

Forum18, a news service that reports on Religious Freedom in Russia and Central Asia, details 159 anti-missionary prosecutions in 2018 alone.

In one of these cases, a Baptist Christian named Eldar Akhundov was fined simply because a stranger asked for spiritual help and Akhundov invited him to worship together. Another Christian was arrested because he supplied a stranger with a religious booklet after the man asked him for one.

The issue needs to be brought to the attention of Christians here in Korea and around the world, for both prayer and mission reasons. In Korea, our research reveals less than five news reports in Korean Christian media on the subject of Russian anti-missionary prosecutions. Furthermore, the most recent of these articles was in 2017.

Of the 159 prosecutions, only one involved a Korean: a woman who was a member of the World Mission Society Church of God. Though this group is considered a cult, the charges brought against her should concern all missionaries traveling to Russia, whether Korean or otherwise, cult or true Christian.

That’s because this Korean woman was arrested for “dissemination of information about her beliefs among people who are not members of this religious association, with the aim of involving them in the association.” That’s exactly what Christian missionaries do, too. As a result, we must make sure churches and missionaries serving in Russia are prayerful and prepared.

Voice of the Martyrs Korea is joining USCIRF in labeling Russia a “country of particular concern” and noting an urgent need to prepare Russian Christians for persecution. We should remember that Voice of the Martyrs global founders, Pastor Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand, began ministering to Russians in the 1940s.

The Wurmbrands were Romanian Christians who risked their lives to smuggle Bibles and financial aid to Russian Christians who were persecuted by communists. When the communists took over Romania, the Wurmbrands themselves experienced persecution. Pastor Wurmbrand was imprisoned for 14 years, and Sabina spent three years in slave labor camps and prisons. Instead of cursing the communists, Pastor Wurmbrand wrote, “I hated communism, but I loved the Russians.”

In light of Voice of the Martyrs’ longstanding commitment to partnering with Russia’s Christians and missionaries, we are urging Christian media, mission agencies, and churches to join us in monitoring the situation in Russia closely. We invite Christians interested in Russian mission to join us in undertaking persecution preparedness outreach to Russian Pastors.

Unfortunately much of the Glasnost-era interaction between Russian (and Russian speaking) Christians and those in the US, South Korea, and Europe prepared Russian Christians for prosperity, not persecution. That is why we are in the process of translating and publishing a Russian language edition of our book, Preparing for the Underground Church, and mobilizing a team to develop resources and training events for Russian pastors and missionaries.

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Nothing to Pity: God’s Purpose for the Pain of a Sex-Trafficked North Korean Woman

Posted on June 4, 2019 by tseongyosa

Join us in remembering faithful North Korean missionary, Mrs. Hong.

Like many North Korean women, Mrs. Hong was sex-trafficked into China. Unlike many North Korean women, however, the man who bought Mrs. Hong, an atheist, allowed her to attend church. He even welcomed the congregation into their home. Still, conditions at home were miserable and Mrs. Hong eagerly looked for opportunities to defect to South Korea.

Then, one day, during a worship service at their home, Mrs. Hong’s husband, still an atheist, wrote a poem: “Every moment, we have Jesus Christ. We believe him and have freedom in him.” At that moment, Mrs. Hong cried and repented. She realized that God was using her to reach her husband. Although it was difficult, Mrs. Hong remained with her husband to evangelize and disciple him. When she was miraculously healed of her lung cancer, her husband finally accepted Christ and was later baptized.

Then the cancer returned. Mrs. Hong and her husband did not give up on Christianity, however. They became stronger Christians. Every day, they would read the Bible together. As the cancer worsened, many other sex-trafficked North Korean women would visit Mrs. Hong. Instead of telling them about her illness, however, she would tell them about her Lord.

Recently, Mrs. Hong passed away.

If you asked Mrs. Hong, she would tell you that she was sex-trafficked into China. However, Jesus tells us to judge a tree by its fruit. Mrs. Hong was not just a sex-trafficked woman; she was a missionary chosen by God to reach sex-trafficked North Korean women in China.

Today, remember Mrs. Hong by praying for her request: “Please, pray for my husband and pray for the wisdom to deal with my family.”

To help North Korean sex-trafficked women like Mrs. Hong, visit: https://vomkorea.com/project/northkorea/womens-discipleship/

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