Prayer for North Korean Refugees: The Poor, Hungry

North Korean refugees are escapees from a nation akin to the world's largest prison. This week, the New York Times reported that the poor are staying poor in North Korea, despite recent economic developments, and that it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to leave the country.

Think about this for a minute. Kim Jong Un is pampering his family friends while the rest of the country languishes in poverty. And to make things worse, he has closed the door to food and medical help that North Koreans sought as a last-ditch measure.

This means that there are less and less alternatives for most North Koreans to find food.

Many experts say that the economic and cultural shifts are only meant for the North Korean elite. They say that the increase in pop culture and luxury goods are gifts to the politically loyal to make them happy as the regime makes it’s third hereditary shift of power.

Economic reform in North Korea is only for the elite because the whole country is built for the elite.

This harkens back to the days of the Great Famine of the 1990s when Kim Jong Il would throw lavish parties catered by foreign chefs. He would fly in professional wrestlers to entertain him and his friends while about 2 million people died of starvation.

Many North Korean refugees we have helped witnessed this disparity first-hand. One family reported to us that a man in their village was so delirious from hunger that he pushed his child into a fire and ate her only to realize afterward what he had done. This happened around 2005, when the famine was supposedly over.

The New York Times article mentions that North Koreans are still being found dead along the roadside in the country. Starvation is still a present reality and commoners still have to forage to make ends meet.

As we pray this week for North Korean refugees and the for the North Korean people, let us not be discouraged. It can seem the regime is an immovable mountain, one that will oppress its people forever. But we have hope.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 5:3

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: Suicide

Mia came to China from North Korea at the height of the North Korean famine in 1998. Like many, many North Korean refugee women, she was captured by traffickers right after she crossed the border. What was unusual about her case, however, was that she was put in a burlap sack and thrown into the back of a truck. “I felt like I was less than a pig,” said Mia.

She was sold for 5,000 Chinese RMB (about $600, according historical exchange rate data) to an abusive Chinese farmer, with whom she had a son.

Mia’s husband beat her so mercilessly that she saw suicide as the only escape to her situation. She tried sleeping pills, which didn’t work. She tried rat poison, which hospitalized her.

When Mia came to in the hospital, she was placed in a bed next to a Korean-Chinese prostitute, who told Mia to be strong and that there was a way out of her situation. Mia didn’t want to believe her. When Mia was ready to go back home, there were policemen outside her room patrolling the hospital. As a North Korean refugee, she would be arrested, imprisoned, sent back to North Korea. Mia's roommate told her to step outside. What happened next was both horrific and extraordinary.

Mia’s roommate exchanged her body for Mia’s freedom. After the police emerged from the hospital room, they allowed Mia to move to another village with her son. There, she was sold to another man, who was disabled but did not beat her.

She now attends church and has a job in the kitchen in a small boarding school in the countryside. She said that she realizes now that suicide was not her hope, her hope was God.

We believe there are many more like North Korean refugees who are living hopelessly in forced marriages and are waiting to be set free.

As we pray today, let us ask God to mobilize the church so that North Korean refugee women like Mia can be saved from their utter despair.

Staff Notes: Crossing Borders Work, Contentedness

The following post was written by Crossing Borders staff: My wife and I have recently been looking at houses to buy. It’s a good time to buy, they say. Especially because we just gave birth to a newborn boy, our second child.

He’s a month old and his things are piling up around our small, two-bedroom apartment. Diapers, clothes, a crib, creams, bags.

As I searched online for a home, I said to myself, “If only I was making $__ more, then we could afford the home we need.”

And then last week a rare moment of clarity came over me. "Need? What does one really need?"

When a North Korean refugee comes to Crossing Borders and expresses thankfulness to us about all that we have done for him, I remember what I truly need.

Crossing Borders furnishes our refugees with what we consider basic necessities. Food, a small apartment, a television. And with these things, some come to us gushing with thanksgiving. Many refugees who have been in our care say that they want to go back into North Korea with the blessings they have received through Crossing Borders in China and share the Christ's compassion with others.

I remember a boy in one of our orphanages who used to look through every garbage can he could find. With just a little food, a meager place to live and a good education, we have seen his life transform. He now wants to become a pastor to train and teach in the gospel.

In order to help others, we at Crossing Borders must first realize how blessed we are. Looking through those real estate sites on my Macbook Pro with my speedy internet connection, somehow I forgot what it meant to be content.

I recently listened to a sermon by Tim Keller. He was talking about his wife, who was unsure of whether to move her family from Virginia to New York City in the difficult transition of building a church there. She was looking at a communion table and heard the voice of God saying:

“If I’ve done this for you, then it should be okay for me to ask you to spend the rest of your life living in a cardboard box in the streets of Calcutta.”

After that she agreed to move to New York City and God blessed the world through her and her husband’s ministry.

I am not saying that poverty is equal to godliness. Nor am I saying that being rich is bad. All I am saying is that the desire for more could hinder us from seeing what we have and from helping those in need.

As we pray this week I ask that we would all ask God to give Crossing Borders and those who share our vision the desire to “seek first his kingdom” and not “all these things.”

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: (Almost) Lost Generation

What happens when a generation of North Korean orphans – half Chinese, half North Korean – enter into a world of poverty, without love from a stable home, without proper identification and without a chance? Crossing Borders has had over 10 years to survey the human rights crisis impacting North Korean orphans and refugees in Northeast China. We have concluded that this population at a crossroads. One road is a path to poverty, instability and suffering. Another is the path to education and the gospel. It is a chance for this generation to become a bridge to North Korea.

The generation of North Korean orphans we support were born in the wake of the Great Famine of the 1990s and range in age from eight to 13. Their mothers fled from North Korea to search for food, medical assistance, or a better life. However, following their escape, many were captured and sold to poor Chinese men looking for wives. The orphans who we care for, born out of these forced marriages, have mothers who have left them behind. In some situations, these mothers were running for their lives from abusive husbands or Chinese authorities.

The North Korean orphans left behind have no access to education, medical care or, in the future, legal jobs. They were never granted legal identification.

There are tens of thousands of these children in the region. Estimations add up to over 40,000. Absolute statistics are impossible because they are not counted in any census. But evident to us, nonetheless, is that there seems to be an endless number of them. In each city we visit, we always find large pockets of them.

Upon entry into support from Crossing Borders in our Second Wave program, these children are given an education, raised in discipline and, most importantly, introduced to our faith. In our work, we have had the opportunity to take care of about 150 North Korean orphans. In their lives, we have witnessed stunning transformations. Children who were too scared to speak have become rambunctious and outgoing. Children who were living in filth have been given clean, quiet, orderly homes to live in with guardians who can provide and care for them.

We think it’s time for people around the world to rise up and take responsibility for a group of children, who, if left alone, might be on a road to destruction.

Please pray for these children that they would not be lost in the world cruelty, callousness, or suffering. Please pray that they might be found in Christ.

North Korean Refugees: Suggestions for Kim Jong Un

As an organization at work in aiding North Korean refugees who escape out of the Hermit Kingdom, Crossing Borders is careful to keep up-to-date on the news coming out of the country. Some of the information coming out of North Korea this year has been heartening. A shorter hemline signals a country that is beginning to change with the times. A first lady is making the regime seem more people-friendly. All of these things are great. Recently North Korean media released text of a speech Kim Jong Un made to the Workers’ Party on July 26, which called for reforms to the country’s economic system. In the speech, Kim stated that the party would focus on “developing the economy and improving livelihoods, so that the Korean people lead happy and civilized lives.” Even better.

But if nation would really like to show its strength, it must welcome North Korean refugees back into the country without the risk of punishment.

In spending time with North Korean refugees along the border and in South Korea, it is obvious to many of our field workers and staff that they miss their families back home. Because North Korea maintains a stranglehold on all forms of communication, it is very difficult for families to communicate and virtually impossible for them to see each other.

This is the agonizing decision that all North Korean refugees who fled their country have made. One family in this position comes to mind.

Our staff met the "Lee" family in a restaurant in Northeast China a few years ago. They were upstanding members of the Workers’ Party and, according to them, they had never starved because of their class standing and they had never committed a crime. This was until they couldn’t find food around 2007. The patriarch of this family of four had to make the tough choice to go into the illegal money transfer business.

Within months he was caught and had a few hours to decide what to do. He fled with his wife and his teenage daughter to China. His son, who was in elementary school, was left with relatives. They feared he would slow the family’s escape. When the family met with our staff for dinner, they could hardly focus on the meal as they told their story. All they could talk about was their son who was trapped in North Korea.

As a response, Crossing Borders helped send money into North Korea to get their son out of the country.

What do Kim Jong Un and the Democratic People's Republic leaders fear most about allowing North Korean refugees back into their country? Information. With an inflow of people who have seen the prosperity of the outside world, North Korea is afraid that their people might grumble for change and the ruling elite might lose power.

But change is already afoot. DVDs from the outside world are secret, but commonplace. People get news regularly from foreign news outlets beaming short wave radio signals into the country. Illegal cell phones connected to the Chinese networks are available to some through the black market.

What is North Korea trying to shield its people from? The cat is out of the bag.

For people to live in happiness they must be given the opportunity to see their families. New economic reforms will undoubtedly open the country up even more. There is no risk in slowly allowing North Korean refugees back to help rebuild the country that they love. This will help North Koreans live, as Kim Jong Un states, "happy and civilized lives."

An Inside Look: Our Work with North Korean Refugees

Welcome to the new and improved Crossing Borders website and blog! We are an organization with the mission to share the compassion of Christ with North Korean refugees and their children in China.

It has been over 5 years since we’ve had a blog and for good reason: security.

There is a line we must walk as a missionary organization. We must share stories about the North Korean refugees we encounter and their plight.  Telling stories about the people we help can spread awareness about our mission but in so doing, we can run the risk of compromising the security of the very people we support. Since we’ve been on the mission field now for seven years, we feel like we have developed a firm grasp on what we can and cannot share and the precautions we must take in security.

We understand that we ask of our partner churches, donors and supports for an incredible amount of trust in participating in our work. In order for you to donate to us or even take time to read our emails, tweets and now, blog entries, you must first believe that we do in fact help North Korean refugees in Northeast China. You have to trust that we aren’t just pocketing your money and using it for ourselves.

There is a leap of faith that so many of you make when you write your checks and send them so faithfully to our PO Box.

We believe the trust factor is one reason why so many people don’t support us. If this is you, we hope this blog will help you change your mind.

Although we can never share the names of our refugees, tell you where they live or show their faces, we hope that this blog will give you the information necessary to trust that we are in fact on the difficult mission to restore the lives of North Korean refugees and their children.

We will share stories of our refugees and orphans, give you a behind-the-scenes look at our work, recommend and review books that might help you understand what we’re doing better, and share updates in the world of North Korean refugee work. We will try to pack as much information and news into our posts as possible. We warn you that some of our stories will be heartbreaking, dispiriting, depressing. But we guarantee that there will also be stories of light, joy and hope.

Through it all, we hope that you will be more engaged and motivated to help us share compassion and love to a people in need.