Despite reports of religious persecution, Christianity taking root in North Korea

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

The US Department of State released their study on religious freedoms in the world and noted that “[North Korea] continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings and arrests."

However, upon closer look, we also find that in spite of continued persecution of Christians under the harsh regime, there are shifts among North Koreans to seek out religion.

The Telegraph UK quotes a defector who says that North Koreans do not respect Kim Jong-Un and are “looking for something else to sustain their faith…In some places, that has led to the emergence of shamens, but the Christian church is also growing and deepening its roots there," he said.

To read about some of the stories we’ve heard from Crossing Borders initiatives to seek out, guide and aide these underground churches, click here. 

Former North Korean defector posts about life in South Korea

Following the recent news of Lim Ji-Hyun’s return to North Korea, the world watched as the household name who had denounced Kim Jong-Un just a few months earlier now spoke out against life in South Korea and urged other defectors to return.

Lim, who now goes by Jon Hye-Song in North Korea, says that she struggled in South Korea – at one time even appearing in a pornographic film to make money.

“I didn’t have a job so I couldn’t earn any money,” she said of her life in the South, “and I drank because I missed home.”

The video was posted on Uriminzokkiri (link), the Youtube channel for the North Korean ministry of inter-Korean relations.

During the 40-minute video responding to allegations of kidnap and torture. Lim said she returned of her own volition and that she was not harmed upon return.

Read the full story here.

Economic ties between China and North Korea further complicate UN talks

Beijing began refusing entry to trucks carrying tons of North Korean seafood on Tuesday.

Our post last week looked at the human rights links between China and North Korea and the long journey ahead of defectors who cross the Tuman river.

It’s important to remember that at the core of these diplomatic concerns are economic ties that link these two countries together. Reports of sanctions from China and the strong backlash from importers who rely on North Korean goods underline and complicate the calls

As calls for complete economic sanction and isolation against North Korea currently take stage amid threats of nuclear warfare, it is also important to remember that as these policies trickle down, both North Koreans and Chinese citizens suffer.  

"North Korea relies on China for about 90 percent of its foreign trade. So any move Beijing takes to restrict the flow of North Korean goods into China deals a substantial blow to Pyongyang. But because China’s economy is so intertwined with North Korea’s, it also causes hurt at home."

Read the full story here.

North Korean Refugees in China: far from freedom

North Korean soldiers in a border guard post are seen from the Chinese side in Tumen, China, January 7, 2016. 

 © 2016 Reuters

Amid current events around Kim Jung Un's threats to launch missiles and general unrest in the Korean peninsula, we are reminded of the increasingly complex nature of international relations when it comes to North Korea. 

A recent Human Rights Watch report on the Chinese government deporting 15 North Koreans has highlighted the fact that for refugees not unlike the ones who come into Crossing Borders' care are far from safe, even after crossing the border into Chinese territory. 

With an agreement to deport North Korean defectors, Chinese officials are all but ensuring punishment, political prisoner camps and "re-education."

Crossing Borders assists refugees who are in this precarious position to find shelter, education and economic support, accompanying them through the many difficulties they find once in China. One example is Ok-seo, a refugee who fled North Korea and found that though safe from immediate danger, she was still vulnerable to hard labor and prostitution. 

To read more about stories from Crossing Borders refugees who have made this journey and how you can support them, click here. 

Famous North Korean Refugee Returns to North Korea

A North Korean refugee famous in South Korea for her TV appearances and her candid depiction of North Korea recently returned to North Korea.

Lim, Ji-hyeon said that she was forced to speak harshly about North Korea in a video that was posted on North Korea’s official Twitter page. Some say Lim was kidnapped while others say that she returned on her own volition.

This is not the first North Korean refugee who has returned. The North Korean regime trumpets these returns as proof of how terrible life is outside the country.

Read the full story here.

What Came Next

Chun Jin at the orphanage.

*Update from February 8th Post*

Chun Jin is a child in our orphanage who, in February was poised to make the leap from being in our care to being fully on his own. He finished his training this spring and is now financially self-sufficient. He is the first child in our network to do so. He is now a hair stylist in Northeast China. We are so proud of him for making this leap but we also know that this is not the most important thing.

His Background

Chun Jin is from a small town in Northeast China. His father was known throughout the town as an alcoholic. Chun Jin had no one to care for him even though he lived with his father. This was until he found a place in our orphanage.

Though he no longer lives in our orphanage, Chun Jin often returns to thank our caretaker there.

“Thank you so much for disciplining me,” he said earlier this year. “I would have ended up just like my father.”

This is Just the Beginning

Chun Jin is 18 years old. He has his whole life in front of him. There will be ups and downs, disappointments and setbacks. Though we have worked hard to help him find a trade that he can be successful in, we know that his trade is just one aspect of his life. There are other, much more important things.

The Most Important Things

Jobs come and go; careers change; and economies can shift at the drop of a hat. But one thing we hope will carry Chun Jin through his life is a strong character and faith. The Bible doesn’t give us clues about what we should be, it only instructs us on who we should be. We think the kind of person Chun Jin becomes is much more important than what he chooses as his vocation.

We have been working on his character for years. Chun Jin has been waking up early in the morning to do his exercises. We have been helping him finish his schoolwork every evening. We have been taking him to church every Sunday. We have been correcting him, teaching him and loving him through very dark times.

All the children in our network have dealt with major losses in their lives. They have all lost their mothers. Many of them do not know where their mothers are or if they are alive. Many don’t know where their fathers are. And for those that live in our group homes or orphanage, it is traumatic to leave their homes and be in the care of strangers. These losses are profound for any child.

Our Hope

Our hopes for children like Chun Jin are not that they would only have a career but that they would have a heart. But what’s most important is that they know that they are loved by God and that they must love their neighbor.

We do not just send Chun Jin out into his profession, we send him on a mission to spread God’s love to whomever he touches.

___________________

Meet Chun Jin. His mother was a North Korean refugee who was sold to his father.

He is 17-years-old and is inching ever closer to adulthood. He is a child who is the closest in our network to starting his career. It is Crossing Borders’ goal to prepare him and all the children in our network for adulthood.

In 2014, 75 percent of our children had a plan for their future. Today, that percentage is at 92. We hope to make it 100 percent.

When Crossing Borders started, Chun Jin was just three-years-old. There is a whole generation of children who were born in the wake of the Great North Korean famine. As refugees rushed out of North Korea, they were sold to Chinese men who were in need of wives.

Most of the children in our network were born between 1998 and 2005. The UN estimates that there are 20,000 to 30,000 of these children. Chun Jin was born in 1999.

Chun Jin is in our orphanage and has access to a number of good vocational programs. The woman who oversees his orphanage employs a military-style training for the children in her home. Each morning the kids wake up and do an hour of exercise outside, have breakfast, wash and get ready for school. Their time after school is also regimented. She hopes to instill a self-discipline in these children that will last them a lifetime.

Chun Jin expressed to us last year that he would like to become a hair stylist. We put him in a program that will get him ready for this job and for eight hours or more per day, he is snipping, brushing, cleaning and blow drying his way to complete his training.

He will be finished this year. And if everything works out, he will be our first child to come off our aid to start a career.

It has taken us 14 years, an immense amount of resources and focused effort to get to this point. We hope this is the start of something great in his life and in the lives of many North Korean orphans like him.

To contribute to the training of our orphans and receive regular updates on their progress, sign up below.

Invite Us to Help North Korean Refugees

The son of a repatriated North Korean woman welcomes us into his home in rural China.

Today, we help five times more North Korean refugees than we did four years ago. One of the largest factors in our growth has been church invitations. In the past year and a half, we have been invited to speak at about 25 churches and conferences and we have told over 3,000 people about what we do.

Many people have donated or started a chapter in response to these events and it has resulted in an increased budget and, in turn, more resources to help more people in China.

This is why we are asking you again to please invite us to speak at your church. We can do this in person or even via video conference. The more people that find out about what we do, the more people will respond. It’s that simple.

If you like what Crossing Borders does, if you love the fact that we are increasing our capacity, if you want to continue this growth, it’s simple. Invite us to tell your community about what we do.

Email us at contact@crossingbordersnk.org for more information.

Let’s Not Forget the People

There is a flurry of news coming out of the Korean peninsula these days: Nuclear tests, missile launches, political jockeying and yes, even volleyball. It’s enough to make our heads spin.

But all the news can distract us from the lives that have been lost and the potential lives that can be lost. It can distract us from the suffering of the North Korean people. Sure, weapons are important but they’re important because they can take human lives.

For 14 years we have been working to improve a handful of these lives. We have felt the tears of these people on our shoulders. We have held the hands of children who have been left behind as their mothers are held captive in North Korean prison camps.

Kyung Tae’s mother was in our network but was arrested and sent back to North Korea in 2009. There were years and years of darkness for this boy. He didn’t smile and said very little for the ensuing three years after his mother’s arrest.

But in recent years he has been changing and light is returning to his life. He still misses his mother but he is now moving toward adulthood. Recently, he was selected for a work-study program at his school. He is studying to become a mechanical engineer. A company paid to have him work at a factory in South China. When he returned home to his father, Kyung Tae proudly handed him about $100. His father broke down in tears. Kyung Tae is turning 18 this year. We are still waiting for his mother to be released from prison.

We will continue pray for the politics and the men at the top who are in control. But we also pray for the muffled groans of the people.

As we read the news and wonder what will happen next, let us remember those who will be affected most by the decisions of the powerful and pray for a brighter future for all.

Reason for Hope

The refugee woman in this story is praying during an early morning church service.

As the political conditions in and around the Korean peninsula continue to escalate, we still hold on to hope. We do not trust in politicians or armies. We trust in the ironclad determination of the North Korean people and the God more and more of them are turning to daily.

If you've been following along with us as we post the latest about North Korean refugees, you might have been dismayed. Yes, North Korea continues to wield its influence in the world through essentially pitting the two largest world powers against one another. And yes, the most powerful agent of change, reunification, does not seem likely as interest wanes in South Korea. But as stacked as the deck is against the North Korean people and North Korean refugees in hiding, it's not all doom and gloom.

Andrei Lankov, professor at Kookmin University, reported last year that North Korea's prison camp population is in sharp decline. Refugees report that the tactic of punishing a refugee's whole family for a single person's crime is no longer enforced. He sites the number of North Koreans in prison camps at around 80,000 to 120,000, down from around 200,000 just a few years ago.

Famine seems unlikely despite the North's claims as such. North Korean farmers are being given an unprecedented amount of freedom and these changes seem to be paying off. China has also said they would supply food aid to North Korea, should the worst occur.

But what makes us at Crossing Borders the most optimistic has nothing to do with policy decisions, it has more to do with spirit and strength.

One North Korean refugee who we helped early on, told us a story about his life and times in North Korean prison camps. He described the cramped cells he had to sleep in where people were packed in so tight that no one could move. They slept without mats or blankets on concrete floors and their bodies would develop sores every night from being in the same position for hours.

This young man said that during these times, he laughed harder than he had in his whole life. The people he shared these cells with became his best friends and that there is a certain fondness he still holds for his time in what is known as the worst system of political prison camps in the world.

We make sure that, along with helping the people in our network, we try to play games with them and have fun. One very popular game we like to play is called “This is Fun.” It’s basically a staring contest where a group of people sit in a circle and try to make others laugh while not cracking a smile themselves. If you smile, you're out.

A couple years ago, we were playing “This is Fun” with some of our refugees and orphans. One of our US staff members and a master at this game was left with one other refugee woman in the circle. This woman endured the famine, was sold, was placed in hard labor in North Korea’s prison camps, and was raising a daughter under China’s brutal zero tolerance policy for North Korean refugees. She is a strong woman.

During this game, her eyes became cold and she would not crack. The other staff members who witnessed this said that the look in her eyes terrified them. The game ended in a draw and everyone who witnessed this was left mildly disturbed at how strong-willed this woman was.

But this strong, seemingly-callous exterior is symbolic of the millions of North Koreans and North Korean refugees who have survived the worst of conditions. These people may seem cold and hardened on the outside but this is because of their impervious will to survive. It comes from a heart that would not allow the worst of all evils to bring them to dismay. It comes from people who could laugh at the most desperate of circumstances and come out without going insane.

This is what gives us the most hope. It’s not for a better political future. It is for these people who have endured famine and death. It is for those who have seen the very worst of humanity: lying, cheating, stealing, and even cannibalism. And yet many North Korean refugees have found a way to protect themselves and their dignity.

No matter what these people have endured and will face in the future, no matter how long they will have to witness such horror, they will not be broken. In this, we see the grace of God.

The faith that is at the core of what we do inspires and motivates us to make our operations the best they can be. It drives us to help more people. A people certainly worth helping.

This blog post was originally published in July, 2015.

What Comes Next?

Meet Chun Jin. His mother was a North Korean refugee who was sold to his father.

He is 17-years-old and is inching ever closer to adulthood. He is a child who is the closest in our network to starting his career. It is Crossing Borders’ goal to prepare him and all the children in our network for adulthood.

In 2014, 75 percent of our children had a plan for their future. Today, that percentage is at 92. We hope to make it 100 percent.

When Crossing Borders started, Chun Jin was just three-years-old. There is a whole generation of children who were born in the wake of the Great North Korean famine. As refugees rushed out of North Korea, they were sold to Chinese men who were in need of wives.

Most of the children in our network were born between 1998 and 2005. The UN estimates that there are 20,000 to 30,000 of these children. Chun Jin was born in 1999.

Chun Jin is in our orphanage and has access to a number of good vocational programs. The woman who oversees his orphanage employs a military-style training for the children in her home. Each morning the kids wake up and do an hour of exercise outside, have breakfast, wash and get ready for school. Their time after school is also regimented. She hopes to instill a self-discipline in these children that will last them a lifetime.

Chun Jin expressed to us last year that he would like to become a hair stylist. We put him in a program that will get him ready for this job and for eight hours or more per day, he is snipping, brushing, cleaning and blow drying his way to complete his training.

He will be finished this year. And if everything works out, he will be our first child to come off our aid to start a career.

It has taken us 14 years, an immense amount of resources and focused effort to get to this point. We hope this is the start of something great in his life and in the lives of many North Korean orphans like him.

To contribute to the training of our orphans and receive regular updates on their progress, sign up below.

THE Orphan Growth FUND

A North Korean Orphan Spreads Her Wings

Sung Me (center) working on crafts at our annual retreat for North Korean orphans.

Change takes time. It hardly happens over night. This is especially true for North Korean orphans and refugees who have often been through so much before we meet them. It is the most rewarding thing for us to watch it happen over the course of years. That is exactly what took place last year for “Sung Me.”

Sung Me is a North Korean orphan whose North Korean mother was sold to her Chinese father in China’s expansive sex trade. Her mother left her and was captured by several Chinese men, locked up, abused, and murdered. She came into the care of her aunt who neglected her.

We brought Sung Me into our Orphan Care network in 2011. She was 12 and did well under the care of a pastor and his wife. She received the love, nurture and healing she needed in this home.

In 2012, we held a sex-ed class in this home. We realized that the Chinese educational system does not provide this and parents don’t usually educate children about sex. Since she and most of the other housemates were in their teens, we thought this was an appropriate subject.

During this time Sung Me kept her head down and didn’t say anything. After the seminar we pulled her aside and asked if anything was wrong. She told us that she was sexually abused while she was living with her aunt. We prayed with her and continued to encourage her to deal with her emotions surrounding this event.

Sung Me received the love she needed in this home but last year, we realized she needed something more: direction. This is why we moved her to an orphanage in a different city this fall to help her gain skills that will help her be self-sufficient. She currently attends a school where she is learning to become a kindergarten teacher.

Sung Me has been thriving in her new environment. She is in her first year at her vocational school that is designed to train Kindergarten teachers. She was recently selected by her school to read the announcements over the PA system. She has also been elected to her student council. She is a leader in her new home as well and has caught the attention of the head of the orphanage.

This is exactly what we work so hard to do, to watch the people in our network thrive. This year we have seen a lot of that. From Sung Me to Susanna, who was cured of glaucoma, which caused blindness, we have seen some amazing turns in people’s lives.

North Korean Refugee Retreat, Part Five: Rebecca Today

Continued from yesterday's blog post.

This summer, a refugee woman named Rachel from Rebecca’s church came to our retreat. The retreat was held a few towns away from their home and was reachable by bus. Rachel’s husband was away at work and she was not able to tell him before she left. She expected him back a couple weeks after the retreat.

On the last night of the retreat, our US Staff reported hearing a commotion near the entrance of the facility that the retreat was being held at about 2 a.m. They thought it was a new tenant.

The next morning our staff awoke to the news that Rachel’s husband had come for her. He brought two other men armed with sticks and pipes and he was looking for Pastor Kang. This revealed a deep insecurity the men in Rebecca’s region have about losing their wives.

The Chinese police in Rebecca’s region gives more freedom to North Korean refugees. Though they feel the threat of repatriation, this is not an imminent threat. This is because the level of trafficking that has happened in this region. There are tens of thousands of North Korean refugees who live there. Our sources on the ground tell us that, if the police round up these refugees en masse, the people would revolt.

This gives the women in the area some wiggle room when it comes to personal freedoms. But there is a flip side to this. When an outside group like Crossing Borders comes in, we too have to tread lightly. As sensitive as the villagers are to police activity that may take their wives away, they are equally as sensitive to outside groups encouraging these women to leave China.

We have been careful in our dealings with these people not to offer relocation as an option for them yet. We want to gain the trust of all the people so that, when we do mention this, it would not be perceived as a threat but as a benefit.

This fall a group of women in Rebecca’s village fled for Southeast Asia through the Underground Railroad without telling their husbands. Crossing Borders did not encourage or arrange this. Only one of the women who fled was from Rebecca’s church. But this didn’t matter to some of the men who lost their wives.

They blamed Rebecca and beat her mercilessly. When we visited her after this had happened, she didn’t speak of it. It was only after we left her village that we were informed by another refugee who she is in communication with outside her village.

When we contacted her later, she said that the matter is resolved and that she is no longer in danger. Her church continues to meet. Pastor Kang continues to make visits unharmed. The matter, it seems, is solved for the time being.

Newton’s third law is this: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Crossing Borders does not seek to upend communities. We make sure to tread lightly and to make change slowly. But sometimes change comes so quickly and unexpectedly that it elicits a reaction.

In circumstances such as this, we take the example of Jesus who was infinitely tough and unrelenting in his love yet infinitely gracious and merciful. Rebecca has come to understand this all too well.

We will continue to stand by Rebecca and the women in her village. We will redouble our efforts to minister to the men in her village and pray for those who attacked her. We will try to make their lives better and enact change slowly.

What we will not do is back down in showing Jesus’ love to those who need it the most.

North Korean Refugee Retreat, Part Four: Rebecca

It was at a chance meeting late in 2014 where Rebecca, a North Korean refugee met Pastor Kang, a Crossing Borders staff member. She was on a bus going through the Chinese countryside with a fellow refugee. As she and her friend spoke to each other in their native tongue, Pastor Kang took notice.

Pastor Kang thought it was strange these women were speaking in Korean in the region they were in. Korean is commonly used in regions in China adjacent to North Korea. They were far away from the border.

Pastor Kang struck a conversation with them in Korean. As they spoke, they trusted him enough to tell them they were North Korean refugees. They told him that there were many North Korean refugee women in the region, all were sold to poor, Chinese farmers.

Our worker exchanged contact information with Rebecca with a promise that he would soon visit them.

Rebecca is a humble, unassuming North Korean refugee whose life changed at this simple meeting. Though she was introduced to Christianity recently, she has become steadfast in her faith. Her story is wrenching and illustrates both the opportunities and challenges North Korean refugees face in China.

In 2015 Pastor Kang started visiting these women every month. The small village in China far away from the North Korean border somehow became a hub for the sale of thousands of North Korean women. These women lived near each other but hardly communicated. They lived in isolation until we started a church there later that year.

North Korean refugees who have been sold often live in layers of misery. They have no human rights, which means that, if they are being abused by their husbands or in-laws, they have no recourse. A North Korean refugee can be murdered in China with no legal ramifications. On top of this, North Korean refugees who have been sold are completely at the mercy of their husbands. If he is kind, they are lucky. If he is unkind, it makes their lives infinitely more difficult.

Despite the fact that these women are married to Chinese citizens, this doesn’t change their legal status. This drives them to live alone and not talk to many people. The more people who know your circumstances, the more likely it is for someone to slip up or turn you into the police.

But this all changed the day we started a church in Rebecca’s village. Pastor Kang’s monthly visits started much more than a mere worship service, it started a community. Women who were afraid of speaking to one another began to share their pain, their grief. They began to look after each other’s needs. They met at Rebecca’s house with her husband’s permission.

Rebecca became the leader of this group. Our plan was to start multiple groups in this area and reach more people. In order to do this, we began training people like Rebecca. This is why it is so important that we host our annual retreat for the refugees in this area. As we train them to be healthy leaders who stand on Biblical principles, it benefits the whole community. It reaches more refugees and more women and children benefit.

By the end of 2015, these groups of women were vibrant, healthy and growing. But not everyone was happy.

The conclusion to this story will be in tomorrow's blog post.

North Korean Refugee Retreat, Part Three: Anna

Some North Korean refugees did not know they were going to be sold before crossing into China. Others, like Anna, did.

Some North Korean refugees leave because they were starving. Others, like Anna, left because they were fleeing the government.

Anna was able to share her story with other refugees at our retreat and know she was not alone in her experiences. One of our missionaries said after it was over, “It was a beautiful, meaningful time, full of God’s grace.”

She told our missionaries that in 2002 and Anna had three daughters ages four to eleven. Her oldest was selling produce on the train. The North Korean government allows people to sell a maximum of 50 kilograms of produce per day. The safety officer weighed Anna’s daughter’s produce and discovered that she was over the limit.

This child committed a crime and she was beaten severely for it. She was scheduled for trial but everyone knew what the verdict would be. So Anna took her daughters and fled North Korea. She knew that she would be sold but it was far better than sending her child to the world’s most brutal prison system.

When the family got to China, things did not go well. Anna’s oldest became separated from her family. Despite a frantic search, Anna could not find her. It was especially painful for her because she herself grew up without her parents in North Korea.

“I still don’t know where she is but I believe God knows,” she told us this summer at our retreat.

Anna is trying her best to move forward. She lives with her husband, a poor farmer who purchased her and her two remaining daughters. Anna’s husband is supportive of her going to church.

Last year we were able to give audio players with Christian music to our refugees. She ties this player around her neck while she works. She says the songs help her work more joyfully.

North Korean Refugee Retreat, Part Two: Vision Restored

While the Great North Korean Famine raged on, “Susanna” saw death all around her. She met someone who promised work for her in China. She left her three sons in North Korea and set off to find work in China. When she got to China, she realized it was all a lie. She became a North Korean refugee and was sold.

Though her Chinese husband was kind, his parents, brothers and sisters physically abused her. Their abuse was so severe that, when she lost her eyesight, they did not seek treatment for her. They liked that she could not see because she was less likely to flee.

“My husband never stands up for me,” Susanna told us this summer. “He is very soft spoken and can’t stand up to his family.”

Susanna is in her 40s but looks like she is in her 60s, according to our missionaries. Her hair is thinning, she is missing most of her teeth and her blindness has muted her expressions. She rarely smiled or showed very much emotion.

For over a decade she lived under the abuse of her family with no one to advocate on her behalf. That is until last year when Crossing Borders started a church in her village. 

It was then that she found hope in Jesus and, for the first time in over a decade, friends.

Our worker in charge of the area as well as the local leader took special notice of her and cared for her needs. They would hold her hand to walk her where she needed to go. They would also pray for her. This summer at our retreat she prayed for God to restore her vision.

This fall, our staff worker heard of an eye doctor from South Korea who was doing volunteer work in China. This doctor happened to be providing care near where our worker lived. So he arranged to have Susanna travel by bus so that she can see this doctor.

At her appointment the doctor said he could perform surgery on Susanna and restore her eyesight. 

We were able to visit her last week. 

“When she first saw us, she was leaping and was busy telling us how she can see things so clearly,” our missionary reported. “She said that the whole world was new to her.”

“God is so good, so amazing,” Susanna repeated over and over. 

Never have the words to the old spiritual rang truer to us on staff. 

“I once was lost but now I’m found. Was blind but now I see.”

North Korean Refugee Retreat, Part One: Spa Day

This year Crossing Borders hosted our first retreat for the North Korean refugees in our network. This event is similar to our annual orphan retreat where we teach our children how to deal with the trauma they’ve experienced through Biblical principles.

At our refugee retreat our volunteers planned a spa day for the women in our network where they received massages and facials by our female team members. More than the instruction and programming, it was this simple gesture that was the most touching for many of the refugees.

“As I massaged their shoulders it was difficult for them to relax because they felt so bad that we were serving them,” wrote one of our team members. “They have never received from anyone. I massaged their hands. Their hands were extremely rough for their age, like a farmer’s. Comparing with my hands I even felt guilty. I felt so sad as I was touching their hands and shoulders.”

These women braved the worst modern-day famine in history. They clawed their way out of North Korea, often with the false hope of finding work, only to be sold to the highest bidder. Their husbands often see them as a piece of property and work them to the bone.

“For ten years or more this is how they lived,” our volunteer went on. “They’ve dealt with all kinds of bitterness and fear. Their sad shoulders were tired and weary.”

So to receive a massage was a revolution to them. It told them that they were valuable, worthy of love and pampering.

A tremendous amount of work went into the planning and executing of this retreat. The result is difficult to measure because these retreats often deal with subtle changes of perspective. To not only tell someone that they are worthy of love but to show it to show them is at the core of Crossing Borders’ mission.

Our mission is to show the compassion of Christ to North Koreans and their children in China. To show it, not just say it. By the end of the retreat our team could notice the difference. The refugees seemed lighter, they sang louder and they cried when it was time to depart.

We will be posting more about this retreat in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

Almost Peace – North Korea’s Nuclear Arsenal and It’s Cost on Refugees

North Korea tested yet another nuclear weapon last week. What alarms experts isn’t that they did it but the frequency at which these tests are happening. The country detonated its fourth nuclear weapon in January of this year. Before this they tested nuclear weapons in 2006, 2009 and 2013. Multiple reports have said that these blasts are getting stronger.

We published an article in our annual report this spring that we think addresses the human toll North Korea’s nuclear program has taken, especially on the refugees. Below is an abridged version of the article and here is a timeline of North Korea’s nuclear project as it appeared in our annual report. For a free copy of our annual report, email us your home address: contact@crossingbordersnk.org.

Hope for diplomatic relations with North Korea took a heavy hit in January, 2016 as North Korea’s nuclear ambitions stirred unease and fear in the international community. The country claimed to have detonated a powerful hydrogen bomb, though experts outside the country dispute this. They later successfully launched a satellite into space, which many analysts said was really a test of the country’s ability to deliver a nuclear warhead on a similar rocket.

North Korea’s nuclear program has been a decades-long project. It has been the country’s most important initiative and has survived sanctions, a famine and the world’s unequivocal condemnation. But Crossing Borders remains hopeful despite the fact that the nuclear program has often been at the expense of the nation’s people. The government continues to pursue a nuclear agenda while everyday North Koreans are still caught in a desperate struggle to feed themselves and their families.

Economic progress is difficult when a country is hungry. People can’t work at full strength when their stomachs are empty. While the North Korean economy has floundered for the past 20 years, it has spent $2.8 to 3.2 billion on its nuclear program, according to the Chosun Ilbo. These funds could have purchased about 10 million metric tons of grain, enough to feed the country for two years.

But the program’s cost cannot be measured in grain alone. Experts say it should also be measured in missed opportunities for their economy. North Korea’s nuclear program has a hidden opportunity cost: continued sanctions that block the nation’s participation in the global economy. North Korea’s neighbor, South Korea, could potentially be a powerful trading partner if sanctions based on nuclear disarmament are lifted.

“Inter-Korean trade would grow rapidly from the present amount of roughly $2 billion per year to approximately $11 to $16 billion per year by 2020,” wrote Scott Snyder for the Council on Foreign Relations (2013).

The North Korean people and their leaders continue to miss potential opportunities to earn valuable income and stimulate their economy. This leaves the people hungry, forcing them to continue seeking food and resources outside their country.

As refugees continue to flow out of North Korea, the world looks in, but often in the wrong place. World leaders have fixed their gaze on the country’s nuclear arsenal and military power. Overlooked and unseen are the tens of millions of people who are suffering.

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But despite these overwhelming circumstances, we see hope. Amidst the thousands of dark hours we’ve spent with refugees as they recount the difficulties they have faced in North Korea and in China, we have seen countless smiles. It is hard to remember what these people have gone through while spending time with them. We have seen what God’s love does for their souls.

They are full of hope. They are full of laughter. If you talk to any of our staff who has spent time with these people, they will tell you of the joy that exudes out of these individuals who have seen the compassion of Christ.

We have seen that the love of God has the power to heal the broken and hurt. This is something that no weapon can destroy.

A new way to help North Korean refugees

The fate of thousands of North Korean refugees rests on our ability to expose new people to our work. The more people know about what we do, the more people will act on behalf of North Korean refugees in China. And when more and more people act, the more and more North Korean refugees and their children we can help in Northeast China. Our goals for the rest of the year are simple.Think 20/30/40. We want to:

Visit 20 churches. Get 30 people from each of these churches to donate $40 per month.

Already we have scheduled several church visits to get the word out about the plight of the North Korean refugee in China. When the information gets out, we are confident that the ripple effects will be immense.

Each dollar will:

Improve quality of life through poverty alleviation, education and micro-loans

Foster spiritual healing through community building and Biblical counseling

Win freedom along the Modern Day Underground Railroad

We’ve seen the powerful effects when churches and communities engage in our work. Not only is it a blessing to the people we help, it’s a blessing to them.

If you are interested in inviting a Crossing Borders representative to your church, fellowship or community group, please email us at contact@crossingbordersnk.org.

North Korean Refugees' Instilled Reverence

A few years ago, we met a North Korean refugee whose house caught fire while home with his family in North Korea. He was able to save his wife and daughter, he said. But after the fire was extinguished he was arrested and imprisoned. Every North Korean household is given a picture of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Each citizen must hang these pictures in a prominent place in their home and make sure they are dusted and straightened regularly. These photos are of utmost importance in the lives of North Koreans.

This man was arrested because he went into his home to save his wife and daughter, not the pictures. He was recently released from several years in prison and escaped to China as a North Korean refugee.

People often ask us how the North Korean regime is able to retain power. A western government that instilled such draconian measures, they say, would surely incite a revolt. But the North Korean regime holds power because it instills an unshakeable fear in the hearts and minds of its citizens. But times are changing and the vice grip the regime once had on the hearts and minds of its people is eroding.

North Korea's control on the minds of its citizens is an issue we have to deal with for many of the North Korean refugees we've met, especially when we started working with them in 2003. North Korean refugees would cower in fear when we would first meet them. They were taught that Americans are baby-eating monsters.

But things are changing. As information is creeping into North Korea from the outside world, the regime is losing its “reverence capital.” The result of this isn’t a callousness to authority and power, but quite the opposite, the people of North Korea have been left with a deep longing to honor a higher authority.

North Korean refugees are coming to China savvy of the situation they are in. They know about their government. They know about the prosperity of the outside world. But with this knowledge they are also seeking something else essential to their lives.

Melanie Kirkpatrick’s book, “Escape From North Korea” describes the conversion rates of North Korean refugees. Many people insist that North Koreans are converting in China because they are “rice Christians.” Meaning, they convert to receive aid. If this was true, we would not be seeing the robust Christian population of North Korean defectors in South Korea, most of whom claim that they converted in China, according to Kirkpatrick.

Crossing Borders believes the only thing that can satisfy the longing in a person's heart is God. We do not force this belief on anyone but many do come to believe what we do.

A version of this piece was originally posted in 2013. 

North Korean Refugee Workers See the Power of Prayer

The Chinese Police barged into the room where our missionaries were meeting with two North Korean refugees several years ago. There was a Bible open in front of them and it wouldn’t take much for the police to figure out what was going on. One of the officers had a large video camera and began to record everything. Our missionaries make regular visits to the refugees and orphans in our network and are active in helping North Korean refugees with their specific needs. Our missionaries “Frank and Sunny” were taken aback. Sunny was sitting with two refugee women. When the police came in Frank was off in a corner of the room, watching television. Immediately Sunny whispered in English, “don’t turn around.”

He stayed still while the TV blared on.

China punishes male missionaries more harshly than it does women and it punishes missionary couples the most, according to our sources on the ground. Though Christianity is not outlawed, China has a history of being unwelcoming to foreign missionaries. To this day, it is illegal for foreigners to proselytize in China.

Frank and Sunny were terrified and for good reason.

As the police was questioning our missionary and two refugees. They looked around the room and did not see Frank watching television in plain sight. He did not have anything to hide behind and, according to everyone there, it was a miracle that the police didn’t see him. All of a sudden, Frank got up from his chair and said to Sunny, “We have to go,” They put on their shoes and left for home without a word from the police.

That month Crossing Borders was the prayer focus of one of our closest partner churches. Frank and Sunny didn’t know it but this church was busy praying for them. They said the incident reminded them of Acts 12.

“So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.” – Acts 12:5

Peter was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. As the church prayed, Peter was met by an angel, escorted out of prison and showed up at the prayer meeting the church was holding for him. This must have felt surreal to Peter’s supporters. When a woman announced that Peter was at the prayer meeting, nobody believed her.

Prayer is powerful. In Acts and throughout the Bible, it led to miracles.

This is why we are so focused on getting people to pray with us. Our program #Pray40NK is open to anyone who is willing to take time to ask God for protection and change. Download your prayer guide here.