For many months now I have been sharing with you all the difficult things people need to know about North Korea. We've talked famine & flood together, refugees, orphans, split-up families. I've wept with you over concentration camps, torture, public executions. But rarely have I been able to share good things with you. Well, hey, there just aren't a lot of good things to share. But today my quiver is full. Stand back and get ready to be blessed.
Would you believe it if I told you that every day of the year the Gospel is being beamed into North Korea by short wave radio, and that one million North Koreans are hearing that Gospel message? Imagine it. 30 minutes a day these otherwise destitute NK nationals get to hear readings from a North Korea dialect New Testament read by a real North Korean, a man we will call "Mr. Kim", living in South Korea, plus an audio drama of the life of Christ, and even a reading of the classic Wurmbrand book Tortured for Christ !
Would you also believe me if I related that before September of this year, 600,000 Gospel tracts will arrive by air into various parts of the Hermit Kingdom north of the DMZ? That plans are being made to increase that number astronomically by technology that will allow year-round launches of balloons carrying these fliers?
Would you still stay with me if I told you there are 13,000 North Korean defectors living in Seoul ghettos as we speak, and that they are also being reached with a message of hope and purpose? That many of them are being trained to bless their own people with the Gospel?
And what would you say if I told you that all of the above energy and planning is North-Korea created and energized?
If you truly believed that all of this is happening, would you think what we often think when we read the papers about North Korea, that "nothing is really changing. Poor folks , they'll never make it now. More famine is on the way. Probably wipe out the whole nation..."?
I recently had to re-seed the back yard. My wife had a garden out there. Now that we're thinking of selling, we are trying to make it look a little more "normal." Unfortunately extensive gardens in a suburb of Chicago aren't considered the norm. So I had to try my hand at horticulture, or whatever it's called. I've decided after several hot days not to leave my day job.
But the work itself was not the worst part. It was the waiting. And waiting. I had decided after about a week that I had really blown it this time. I was mentally planning to re-do the whole thing. No grass! Hey, I'd planted faithfully. I'd watered faithfully. God Himself poured buckets on several occasions. In fact He helped so much that I thought the poor seeds were drowned. Forget this green-thumb stuff.
Then one morning, like that first sign of a beard on a skinny teen-age boy, there it was. The tiniest, frailest, but most beautiful green I had ever seen. This was my grass. I did this. I can't describe how good it felt.
Do you think Jesus might just have a morning like this soon? Oh my, SO many seeds have been planted! Oh my, SO much watering is being done. The Word of God is not bound. It keeps doing what God says it must do. Many lives have been changed forever already. The Word is getting out. Something is stirring deep underground.
What our "Mr. Kim" is preaching cannot be stopped by that other "Mr. Kim." Jong-il had his shot at stopping it for sure. But the plants are growing anyway. See the frail little seedlings sprouting, barely visible above the surface? The news media hasn't picked it up yet. But when they do, what a chance for Christ to be glorified!
For it is Christ Who is touching refugees and orphans. It is Christ Who is feeding the hungry, caring for the dying. The world will see the difference that Christ makes when he is given the reins. May the day come soon.
Information for the above gleaned from Seoul USA in Seoul , Korea and Colorado Springs , CO.
Look for Bob Faulkner's home page on http://sermonaudio.com There you will find a combination of love for the Scriptures and a desire for North Korean believers to have their needs met. There are nearly 300 blogs , over 200 Bible teaching MP3's, lists of resources, NK picture albums, and ways to respond to the overwhelming need in North Korea. Let's love Chosun together! Contact me any time at diakonos5@yahoo.com
And who am I? A man found of God over 50 years ago, called to the ministry, serving the Lord as needed in my world. Married, member of a local church in the Chicago area, with full time work in public education. Would love to fellowship with believers who respond.
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