I praise the Lord and thank Him for showing us that He is the Healer, the Perfect One and the Victor who leads us to our eternal home in heaven. Therefore, we do not complain or blame others, and we do not lose heart even though we are (currently) in a difficult situation," wrote a local pastor from North Korea's underground church in August last year.
Persecuted but not discouraged
There is something extremely life-affirming about these words that testify that the persecuted Christians in North Korea have a strong faith and a certainty that they are not forgotten by God. Even as they struggle through hard times and days of pain and turmoil, they are not discouraged.
The fact is that they live in a country that remains No. 1 on the list of nations that persecute Christians. In North Korea, it's loyalty to the regime and its leader that counts. We saw it when Kim Jong-il died last year. The people wept like mad over his death - or was it out of fear of the regime? The indoctrination of the last 59 years has worked.
Those deemed disloyal to the system are sent to concentration camps. This includes thousands of Christians. As recently as 2011, a Danish European Mission source told us that Christians were being executed in North Korea and that their families were being sent to labor camps. With that in mind, there can be no doubt that living your Christian faith in North Korea requires great caution. Yet there are people who dare to help the Christians in North Korea.
Help for the underground church
The Danish European Mission has so far helped support the shipment of medicine into North Korea to help believers survive despite illness. They say themselves:
"Thank you very much for the xx* boxes of medicine you have sent. Especially thanks from the believers here in xxx province who are suffering from severe floods and various diseases."
Last year, a source told me that an entire village of 3000 people died of starvation. It was almost unbelievable. During the same trip, a North Korean woman told me that her neighboring family had committed suicide with rat poison. It was most likely due to starvation.
Food, medicine and clothing
The Danish European Mission will now expand the collection so that it will also be possible to give Christians food and clothing. And some may ask: Why not help the entire population? To that I can only say that the Danish European Mission wants to help everyone, but we feel especially committed to our Christian brothers and sisters who are under extreme pressure in the world today. And as it is written. "If one part suffers, all the other parts of the body suffer with it; and if one part is honored, all the other parts also rejoice" (1 Corinthians 12:26).
North Korean Christians are part of the body and we can show them care and love by ensuring they receive medicine, food (rice and grain) and clothing amidst their hardships. Finally, we can pray that the horrific human rights abuses in North Korea will cease.
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