Posted on 02/26/2018 8:38:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind
(Photo: REUTERS/Yuri Maltsev)A participant wears a badge with portraits of North Korean former leaders Kim Il-sung (L) and Kim Jong-il during a ceremony to mark the re-opening of a railway link between North Korea and Russia at the port of Rajin, North Korea September 22, 2013.
A missions group helping persecuted Christians in North Korea has shared the story of one woman, who heard about God for the very first time from her torturer.
Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs told Mission Network News in a report on Thursday that the woman was one of many North Koreans who had never heard about God when she snuck into China for work so she could provide for her starving family.
It wasn't in China where she heard about God, however, but when she returned to North Korea and was arrested on suspicion that she was ministered to.
"Her interrogator kept asking her about God. 'Did people in China talk to you about God? Did you meet with people who are followers of God? Did you read the book about God while you were in China?'" Nettleton said, describing the questions the woman was asked.
"Kyung-ja had had no contact with Christians even while she was in China. In fact, she had never heard the name of God and she kept telling the interrogator, 'I don't know who that is! I don't know who you're talking about!'"
Kyung-ja was then sent to a labor camp where after a conversation with another prisoner she decided to try praying to God.
"God, I don't know if you're real. I don't know who you are. But if you're there and if you can hear me, can you help me?" the woman pleaded.
She was later able to escape North Korea a second time, and managed to connect with her daughter, who had defected to South Korea. Kyung-ja's daughter answered her mother's questions about God, Jesus, and the Bible, which led her to get closer to Christ.
Nettleton was able to meet with the woman in South Korea where she now lives as a faithful Christian.
"She has been discipled, she now has been given God's book so she can read it, and has really come to faith in Christ and understands what that means to have faith in Christ," he explained.
Groups such as Open Doors USA have listed North Korea as the worst persecutor of Christians in the world, with believers having to live such secretive lives that even their own children do not know about the faith.
Children who do have knowledge of Christianity have accidentally stumbled upon it, Open Doors said, such as the case of Kim Sang-Hwa, who found her parents' Bible inside a hidden closet when she was 12 years old.
Her father then explained to her the main beliefs of Christianity, which is when she also realized that she had to keep it a secret.
"It was the first of many conversations we had about the Bible, about God, Jesus and the Gospel. He explained many Bible stories to me. I was not a real believer yet, but they did make a lot of sense to me. I felt sorry for all those people who didn't know the truth. Even my older siblings were unaware," Kim recalled.
Despite the severe oppression they have faced at the hands of leader King Jong-Un and his predecessors, Christians in the country do not pray for the fall of the regime, a ministry leader has separately said.
Eric Foley of Voice of the Martyrs, Korea, told Release International earlier this month: "I have never encountered a North Korean Christian who has prayed for the regime to be overthrown — not once in 15 years. Underground Christians are praying that Kim Jong-Un will come to know Christ."
He added, "Perhaps North Korean Christians know better than the rest of us, that it is not a change of government that will bring peace, but the entry of the Prince of Peace into our hearts. We should follow their lead and pray not for regime change, but for a change of the heart of the regime."
Bttt
It appears the DPRK will stick around as long as the Chinese want it to.
Liberals only care about feeling virtuous while letting other people do the work and make sacrifices.
The only time I felt liberals were “remembering” the Chinese of Tienanmen is when they attempted to replace themselves with the Chinese martyrs protesting Trump’s military parade.
Liberals are sicko narcissists and have decided to be jealous of real martyrs and to rob and appropriate their memory
Interesting liberals also accuse us of cultural appropriation...
I always thought atheists lied and were not real atheists but followers of Satan, obsessed about God more than any Christian soul. Satan feels
persecuted by Christ and the truth
JudgemAll to SeekAndFind
I always thought atheists lied and were not real atheists but followers of Satan, obsessed about God more than any Christian soul.
Incredible story! What faith and courage.
Wow, those North Korean Christians know what following Jesus is really all about.
This is powerful.
Yes indeed. Their faith makes me ashamed. They are literally dying on behalf of their faith.
I am becoming weary of Christianity Today as a publication. This isn’t the first time an article of theirs has irked me.
The self-righteous Pharisee-echoing quote by Eric Foley at the end about “pray for heart of regime, rather than for regime change” “governments don’t bring peace, only Prince of peace does” — utterly ruined it for me with its:
A) not so subtle swipe at President Trump’s approach to the Korean peninsula,
B) its disgraceful disregard for the historic role of America’s military in securing the peninsula and liberating millions of South Koreans and
C) complete theological disregard for how God employs the use of human governments/human armies/human activists to accomplish Providential ends.
Foley *even* has a blog entry critical of North Koreans who choose to defect! Remember Ji Seung Ho holding the crutches from President Trump’s SOTU address? Well according to Foley, that’s nice but the “real” heroes are the ones who choose NOT to defect and accept their potential death sentence. Read for yourself:
Prior to 1945: North Korea was a haven for American missionaries who referred to Pyongyang as “the Jerusalem of the East” - including the likes of Billy Graham’s family...then USSR’s Stalin came along and installed Kim Il Sung and henceforth the country deteriorated into a GULAG ridden hell hole.
SOUTH Korea on the other hand has the 11th largest economy in the world. Does capitalism and freedom produce challenges and snares of sin which have befallen the Western world? Of course! But it doesn’t mean we should “settle” for oppression and promote martyrdom over saving lives? No! Good grief!
South Korea’s churches are responsible for sending out more global Christian missionaries than any country except the U.S.
I have been to the DMZ border between the two Koreas. The observation deck on the south side has three statues: Jesus, Mary, and Buddha - representing the religious freedom and tolerance of the country (in contrast with its neighbor) and the prayers being lifted up daily for *unification.*
NONE of these blessed S. Korean realities would have been possible without the political and military role of the United States. And Korean Christians with firsthand experience will be the first to acknowledge this fact!
GOD can use whatever means to accomplish His will and work through whatever people.
And instead of throwing stones at the current US president all the time - Christian elites the likes of Foley, Russell Moore, John Piper - would be better off praying for him and giving him the respect due the office.
Perhaps they’re too arrogant to see how God is using our President for grand purposes beyond their capacity to discern.
And if North Korean Christians can bring themselves to pray for their leader, then American Christians should be able to do the same for THEIRS.
I agree 100%. These people would be giving the 50 pieces of silver to Judas (or to a government bribing Judas!).
Praying for something inside Kim would happen means also praying for something inside North Korea to happen, ie have competent and honest people run it other than Kim. Christ said to cut your right hand (power) if it makes your right hand (power) makes you sin. For Kim to repent he would have to humble himself renounce power first, and to that end a bloody nose is often effective to save someone’s soul.
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