Michelle in South Korea,
The work of Crossing Borders often begs the question, “what are the odds?” What are the odds that we would have been able to do this work for close to two decades? What are the odds that our presence in China is still going strong, despite overwhelming constraints? What are the odds that we have been shielded from persecution as we do this highly risky and illegal work?
Last week we encountered another situation that begged this same question when we welcomed our newest Elim House resident “Michelle.”
Michelle grew up in North Korea, a daughter of a single father. Her mother passed away when she was young. After finishing fifth grade, she went to work at the local coal mine. She said that she enjoyed this work very much and remembers it as the happiest time of her life. After she got married, she left her job as a coal miner but she said her marriage was miserable because her husband was “lazy and violent.”
After years of suffering with her husband, Michelle begged him for a divorce. He did not grant it to her so she left him and fled to a nearby town where she found a job. She met another man and moved in with him and lived happily for a year. She was “caught” by the authorities after a year. Her crime was that she was living with a man to whom she was not married. She was sent to a prison camp for one year.
She was released in 2003 and soon after escaped to China. She was sold immediately after she reached the Chinese border. She lived in China for 16 years and suffered greatly while living with this man who was an alcoholic. Though a missionary introduced her to the Lord during her stay there, she found it hard to practice her faith as she dealt with the stresses of an abusive husband and her status as an illegal economic migrant.
She decided to take another chance and escape China via the Underground Railroad in 2019. Little did she know that 2019 would be the last year the Underground Railroad would function. In 2020 the pandemic would shut it down. Michelle was among the last of the 34,000 refugees who resettled to South Korea.
In 2021 she found out that she had stomach cancer. She received treatment for her cancer and is currently recovering. She lived by herself. New to the country, she didn’t have a community. Adjusting to life in a new country with new freedoms is challenging in itself; to do so during a pandemic was extremely difficult. She said that she was extremely lonely. She found out about Elim House through her local Hana Center, a place where refugees are connected to counseling and other resources to help them adjust to South Korea.
After our social workers in South Korea got Michelle’s information and story, they sent it to our missionaries along with a photograph. Our missionary Jenny saw the picture and couldn’t shake the feeling that she might have met Michelle somewhere. This nagging feeling kept Jenny up that night. The next morning Jenny scoured her photographs taken in South Korea but did not find a picture of Michelle. Then she went back in her archives to her time in China. Finally, she connected the dots. Michelle was actually under the care of Crossing Borders in China. Jenny found a picture of Michelle that was taken in 2017.
Michelle (3rd from right) in China with caretakers and other refugees.
Jenny remembers Michelle as a very energetic and happy person. They met in a rural town in China and shared times of great fellowship. They ate lots of Korean rice cake that another refugee had prepared for them. They worshiped together and played games. When they played games, Michelle couldn’t play because she was laughing so hard, Jenny said.
The lives of North Korean refugees in China are often transient. One day Michelle left without a word. We assumed she took the Underground Railroad. When refugees leave like this, it is hard to reconnect with them. We assumed we would never hear from Michelle again.
What are the odds that we would meet Michelle, one of the tens of thousands of North Korean refugees hiding in the most populous country in the world? What are the odds that she would safely leave China and then find us in the bustling urban sprawl of South Korea? We know that in life there are no real coincidences. Michelle was brought back to us for a reason. What that reason is has yet to be revealed to us or to Michelle.
All we know for sure is that God weaves his beautiful plan in our lives. We are excited to see what he has in store for Michelle.
