5 Things You Can Do: Change the North Korean Refugee Crisis

"Min-sook," a North Korean refugee in the care of Crossing Borders in China, had three children in North Korea during the Great North Korean Famine. She watched as two died of starvation. She vowed to keep her third child alive at all costs. But her child, a little girl, was not doing well. As Min-sook held her frail child in her arms, her daughter said, “Mother, I want at least one bowl of white rice before I die.”

“Yes, I will sell my shirt at the market and buy you a bowl of rice,” Min-sook promised in reply. Her daughter smiled, touched the button of Min-sook’s shirt and breathed her last breath.

Though her daughter had passed away more than ten years ago, Min-sook was shaken as she recounted this story to Crossing Borders staff in China last month. After her children died, Min-sook fled to China where she was captured by traffickers and sold to a poor farmer. She was worked so hard that she permanently injured her back.

She cannot stand up straight today.

Yesterday the UN released a report about human rights violations committed by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (or North Korea), which confirm what Crossing Borders and groups like us have been saying for more than a decade: North Korea has been engaged in horrific practices such as placing its own citizens in harsh labor camps and using food as a method of controlling its population.

As the world fixes its gaze on North Korea and North Korean refugees escaping from its government – which the UN report compares to Nazi Germany – we hope the world’s citizens ask themselves, “What can I do to create change for people fleeing from this regime?”

Here are five things you can do:

1. Read as much about the situation as possible and keep your eyes out for news coming out of the country. North Korea is becoming a topic of great interest to the world. The more informed you are about citizens in North Korean and North Korean refugees fleeing, the more you will be inclined to help and keep helping. You can get news alerts from Google whenever North Korea is in the news.
2. Tell as many people as you can about what has been confirmed by the UN and regarding the North Korean refugee crisis. The conditions in North Korea are horrific and the government is not helping its own people. Nazi Germany is one point of comparison. Today many people who lived through World War II regret not acting on an injustice that was evident in hindsight. You can help spread the word about these injustices through social media or by arranging a meeting at your church or community group. Send Crossing Borders a message and we'll do our best to come out to your meeting!
3. Call your elected officials to pass effective legislation to help North Koreans and to put pressure on China to help North Korean refugees. These refugees are systematically hunted down by the Chinese government and forcibly sent back to North Korea where they are tortured and even executed. Here's a website with phone numbers of your congress people, if you're from the US.
4. Give to groups like Crossing Borders who help alleviate the suffering of North Korean refugees who have made it out of their country. These people are hungry, impoverished and in need. Here's a link to our donation page.
5. Pray for North Korea. We believe the only way to change the conditions for the North Korean people is for God to move. We are not sure why these things are happening but the Bible is clear that sometimes, terrible things happen so that His glory can be revealed. You can also subscribe to our Facebook and Twitter pages for regular prayer topics.

We believe that now is the time to act on the atrocities that have been occurring in North Korea and against North Korean refugees for decades. We are outraged by the reports coming out of North Korea and China and we hope that the world will be too. The suffering has gone on, unquestioned, for too long.

North Korean Defectors: Update on Bo-ah

We informed you earlier this year that a North Korean refugee, “Bo-ah,” was sent off on the Underground Railroad and was well on her way to freedom. Recently, she contacted Crossing Borders and said that she made it to South Korea. She has been through re-education training at South Korea’s school for refugees, Hanawon. Now she is living in Seoul with another North Korean defector. Bo-ah crossed several borders, traversed rivers, climbed mountains and traveled in danger to make it to South Korea. She said that she felt our prayers as she fought her way to freedom.

Bo-ah’s struggles aren’t complete, though she has made it to South Korea. South Korea is now home to more than 25,000 North Korean defectors and many find it difficult to adjust to the modern lifestyle and capitalist society.

Seoul can be overwhelming for the former people of North Korea, people from a country that lives in relative simplicity compared to their southern counterpart. Some North Koreans even share that they are startled by their appliances, which can speak to them. Others are disoriented by the lights. North Korea, with its lack of electricity, becomes pitch black at night.

Though Bo-ah tells us that she is doing fine, she has shared some significant barriers she now has in South Korea. First, because her education in North Korea was only through the third grade. Second, she still longs to reunite with her family.

Just ten years ago, when a North Korean moved to South Korea, it was like they were saying goodbye to your family forever. Today, this is not the case. Through couriers that operate in China and North Korea, defectors like Bo-ah can send messages, money and other items to their remaining relatives.

Andrei Lankov, one of the world’s most respected scholars on North Korea, wrote that 49 percent of all North Korean defectors send money back home through illegal channels. Many send money to get their families out of the country.

Though Bo-ah would like to purchase freedom for her family, she doesn’t have the means nor does she have the education to get a higher-paying job to pay for it.

Until then, she chips away at her studies hoping that one day she will be reunited with her family. Please pray for Bo-ah and the thousands of other refugees who long to see their loved-ones again. Pray for her as she goes to school and church that she would find hope in Christ, despite the sadness of missing her family.

North Korean Orphans: Hae Na

One of the North Korean orphans in our care through Second Wave, “Hae Na,” has gone through a dark period like many of us have in high school or college. Her face seems to be permanently downcast. She shows little emotion. It’s hard for her to talk. She excels at penmanship, arts and crafts, things she can do in silence, alone. At the age of 14 she has seen so much. Hae Na’s mother - who was originally from North Korea - escaped to South Korea when Hae Na was a child. Her mother promised her and her father before she left that she would send for the two of them after she was granted citizenship in South Korea. Years went by without a word until finally, Hae Na's mother called and said she was doing well. But there was no invitation for Hae Na or her father to join her in South Korea.

Hae Na’s father did some digging and heard that his wife was with another man. Ablaze with jealousy, he traveled to South Korea, found her, and murdered her. He was imprisoned and Hae Na hasn’t heard from him since.

Hae Na's caretakers say that they have seen the most change in Hae Na compared to anyone else in their home. This is surprising to hear because from our staff's experience, she is always so quiet.

But every once in a while we will catch her smiling whether it’s while she is playing a game or off thinking on her own. This is the “change” her caretaker was talking about.

Change comes slowly for the North Korean orphans in our group homes. People from the West like to make action plans, formulas and schedules. We see the world as a place we can manicure on our timeline. We are reminded by the foolishness of these plans through people like Hae Na.

On a cool summer evening this year, Crossing Borders' volunteer missionaries took Hae Na and the other North Korean orphans in her group home on a creaky old carnival ride in her town. It was shaped like a boat and it rocked back and forth for what seemed like 20 minutes, much longer than a similar ride in the US would go. She was looking up at the stars. Her hands clenched tightly on the bars in front of her, smiling as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

It is moments like these that remind us that all we can give is our best but ultimately heart change is God’s work - that though there is a darkness that seems unquenchable, ultimately there is light.

Please pray for the deep wounds in Hae Na’s heart and the hearts of all the North Korean orphans and refugees in our care. Pray for healing and, by God's love, for something beautiful to come from the many difficulties they have faced in their lives.

“He makes all things beautiful in his time.” - Diane Ball

Director's Notes: Rapunzel and North Korea

The following post was written by Crossing Borders' Executive Director: For the past year the animated film “Tangled” has been on heavy rotation in my house. It’s Disney’s take on the classic fairy tale, “Rapunzel.” My daughter has really latched onto the story and the songs. If you’re not familiar with the movie, it’s about a girl with magic hair who was kidnapped by a witch when she was a baby. The witch locks her up in a tower and raises her to think there is nothing outside her tower but suffering and pain. Rapunzel escapes, finds love and lives happily ever after.

After about the fifth time watching it, I began to study the film. I analyzed the plot, I picked out bad dialogue and I found holes in the story.

“A woman is locked up in a tower by an evil witch her whole life and she shows no signs of PTSD?” I asked my four-year-old, who wasn’t listening.

Around the eighth time watching it I began drawing parallels between Rapunzel and the North Korean people. Like Rapunzel, North Koreans have been trapped in their own “tower.” But instead of a witch controlling the information that comes in from the outside, it’s a government with a strong army.

North Koreans have no access to the Internet. Their phone network is completely cut off from the rest of the world. It is outlawed for them to watch television shows from the outside (the punishment can be time in their brutal system of labor camps) or listen to songs the regime deems threatening (almost every song that is not originated in North Korea). If someone hears you speak ill of the government, you could be reported, sent to a prison camp and maybe executed.

We have shared on this blog about our North Korean refugee Ae Young, whose job in North Korea was to teach her people about Juche, North Korea’s ideological construct or, as some people have called it, their religion. Even after fleeing out of North Korea for food and seeing the truth and prosperity of the outside world, she still maintained that the North Korean regime had built the greatest government on earth, that all they needed was food.

It was only after two years that she acknowledged North Korea wasn’t the best. She simply said, “They need God.”

After years of captivity, North Koreans, like Rapunzel, are hungry for the outside world.

Rapunzel was starving to see the world outside her tower. She was starving to see the lights of the nearby town, which lit up on her birthday.

Today, North Koreans are starving for DVDs with Korean dramas, shrugging off punishment because such blackmarket items are commonplace. People are smuggling in USB drives with Korean pop music and information about the outside world. Teenagers with cell phones are exchanging files through Bluetooth with music and videos from the outside. And most significant to Crossing Borders, North Koreans are still illegally moving to and from China in search for food and freedom.

Every human has an innate sense of right and wrong, not just when they are confronted with lying or stealing but in a global sense of how the world should or should not be. Both Rapunzel and North Koreans have found a way to climb down from that tower into the truth of the real world.

For those who are willing to take the risk of stepping out into the world, Crossing Borders will be in Northeast China to greet them just over the border. Our mission is to show the compassion of Christ to them and their children with no strings attached. Please pray for us as we continue this work.

North Korean Refugees: Food and Nostalgia

Some of the most reminiscent and nostalgic discussions we have had with North Korean refugees in our Restore Life program have been about food. Close your eyes for a moment and think about the food that best encapsulates your hometown. Whatever it is, a sandwich, a taco, a hot dog or maybe even a certain soup, how would you feel if you could never go home and eat it?

Many of us on staff, while in China, will talk for hours about the food we miss from back home. These discussions are often accompanied by distant looks in our eyes as we long for things like pizza, peanut butter or French fries.

North Korean refugees have the same conversations. However, unlike us, they have little hope to ever eat their favorite dishes again. North Korean refugees have an even deeper connection to their food because the famine made every morsel all the more precious.

Our missionaries recently took three North Korean refugee women out for dinner and they had one of these conversations. These women are usually shy and muted but the topic of food brought life to their faces.

These were some of things the North Korean refugees in our care missed:

“HeeKyung”: Salted Pollack Soup

“My family would sit together and eat this when it would snow so high that it reached above our knees. On those days I would eat fresh salted Pollack. The taste would shoot in my mouth. I wish I can taste it again.”

“AeHyun”: Potato Noodles and Pyongyang Style Nengmyun (buckwheat noodles with beef broth)

“The noodles are very clear and thin. It’s my favorite noodle.  You can have it in hot soup or mixed with spicy paste. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. And there is nothing compared to Pyongyang buckwheat noodles! I miss it so much.  The Chinese don’t have buckwheat noodles. Pyongyang noodles must be made with buckwheat. During the famine, we only dreamt about food, especially white rice. We left our homes for food. It’s sad.”

“OakSoon”: ‘Eun Eo’ Sweet Roasted Yellowfish

“Only in XX city people could eat it because there were many business people. They could afford to buy fish. Also, I miss corn noodles in hot soup.”

Please pray for these North Korean refugee women who long for more than a taste, but for their homes. They are foreigners in a strange land with a different language and unfamiliar foods. Please pray that their hunger might be filled by the only One who can satisfy.

Cake: A Doorway to a North Korean Orphan's Heart

"Chun Joo" is one of the North Korean orphans in Crossing Borders' Second Wave group homes. It was Chun Joo's birthday when our team visited her orphanage. They went to an American restaurant with her, which served chicken sandwiches and French fries, the closest  to Western food our staff had eaten in over a week. Chun Joo received some small gifts and a paper crown on her head. When the candles on her gaudy cake were lit, she began to cry. Chun Joo could have been crying because she remembered the home she came from. The house she lived in prior to being brought into our Second Wave network was described by Crossing Borders’ missionaries as a “pig sty” with “no space to walk.”

It could have been because she remembered, in this moment, witnessing her father abusing her North Korean mother repeatedly until she "looked like a panda bear." She may have been crying in part because her mother left her behind to flee from her father. Following her mother's departure, Chun Joo's father began to abuse his daughter as well.

Worried for her, wanting to comfort her, our staff asked Chun Joo why she was upset. Chun Joo simply replied that it was because she was happy.

Crossing Borders' team spent a week with Chun Joo and North Korean orphans like her in Northeast China teaching them English and about the gospel. She was very shy at first but with much effort and the work of God, she opened up and began sharing with our teachers. She participated in the activities. She even prayed with our staff.

Our team knew Chun Joos' story going into the camp before they even met her. She had experienced a very harsh and difficult life as a North Korean orphan in China. Her report, however, read, “... she has totally transformed from when we first met her. Where she was shy and sad, she now always has a smile on her face.”

In a few years this fragile little girl has gone from being frightened, nervous and hesitant to being a joyful, gentle young woman. When our summer team played games with her she would always be the first to laugh at her own mistakes. She formed close bonds wit h our volunteers.

The only thing that our team knew for sure as she sat silently crying was what she told us: that she was happy.

We pray that our North Korean orphans' happiness would not be based solely on exterior circumstances but because Jesus loves them and wants to share his compassion for them.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: Strength to Forgive

“Sung Me" is a North Korean orphan whose North Korean mother was sold to her Chinese father in China’s expansive sex trade. Illegal trafficking in China was rampant after the Great Famine of the 1990s, as refugees fled out of North Korea. Her mother left her and was captured by several Chinese men, locked up, abused, and murdered. Sung Me does not remember anything about her mother. She was later left to her aunt who mistreated her and did not want to care for her anymore. That’s when Crossing Borders stepped in. We recently found out that she was sexually abused while she was staying with her aunt.

Recently, Crossing Borders hosted an English Camp and Vacation Bible School for North Korean orphans like Sung Me. What resulted from this meeting between six American teachers and 25 North Korean orphans was nothing short of amazing.

On one night of the camp, a staff member shared the story of the Good Samaritan and God’s mandate to forgive those who have wronged us. We asked those who have a hard time forgiving to stand up so we could pray for them. Sung Me stood up. She cried. She asked God for strength to forgive.

In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus lays out a new way for people to practice the Golden Rule. The story not only challenges us to love our neighbors but to love our enemies. The story teaches to heap on lavish love and reconciliation to those who we may consider mortal enemies.

We’re not sure who Sung Me is having a hard time forgiving: her mother who she doesn’t remember, her aunt who didn’t love her, or perhaps those who were cruel and abused her in the past. What we do know is that forgiveness is the first step to recovery.

Sung Me is living in one of our group homes for North Korean orphans. She does well in school and is active. She loves sports and helping out at home. When we visited recently, she was one of the first to get us fruit and drinks. We are not sure what the future will hold for her but we are committed to being there every step of the way.

Please pray for Sung Me and the many North Korean orphans like her who have suffered much in their lives. We believe that the only way to healing for her and others like her is the forgiveness offered in the Gospel - to receive it and to practice it.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: China's Human Trafficking

China was recently downgraded to the lowest rating by the Trafficking in Persons Office at the US State Department. This came as no surprise to us as we have been dealing with the human rights implications of China’s draconian policies toward North Korean refugees for over a decade. China was designated by the State Department as tier three, which is the lowest designation, putting the country in the same class as North Korea, Russia and Uzbekistan, among others.

Just as the State Department was releasing this report this year, we took in another North Korean orphan whose life has been affected by these policies.

“Meerae” was born to a Chinese father and a North Korean refugee mother. At the age of seven she witnessed her mother being hauled away by the Chinese police.

“I saw how my mom was captured in hand cuffs and was dragged away with the police,” Meerae said to our missionary. “I couldn’t say anything, couldn’t ask anything. My heart was hurting.”

Imagine being a child at the age of seven, witnessing your mother being hauled off by the police for a crime you couldn’t possibly understand at that age. This is the reality for not only Meerae but for tens of thousands of children with North Korean refugee mothers who have been born into this terrible situation.

China’s zero tolerance policy towards North Korean refugees has fed their sex trade industry. North Koreans are given no rights in China and because of this, they are prime targets for Chinese human trafficking rings.

Countries like China who share Tier 3 designation in the 2013 Trafficking in Persons Report do little to nothing change laws prohibiting human trafficking within their borders. Remember that China is the world’s largest country, home to 1.3 billion people. These are individuals who remain unprotected from human trafficking laws.

“... there are countless voiceless people, countless nameless people except to their families or perhaps a phony name by which they are being exploited, who look to us for their freedom and for the possibility of life itself,” Secretary of State, John Kerry said in a response to the Trafficking in Persons report this year.

As of last week, Meerae has been taken into the care of our ministry through our Second Wave program. She no longer has to worry where she will find her next meal or if she will be able to continue her education. But she still worries for her mother who she probably will never see again.

Please pray for Meerae. Please pray for the thousands of children like her. Please pray for the North Korean refugee women who are crushed under China’s policies. Please pray that God would move this nation to do what is just.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: A Prayer for Jong

Please pray this week for a North Korean orphan who had surgery last week to remove a growth in his neck. Last week our missionary alerted us that "Jong", one of the North Korean orphans in our Second Wave group homes, had a egg-sized growth on his neck which was causing discomfort and coughing. His guardians, local Crossing Borders staff who assist in providing holistic care to the children in our care, took Jong to the hospital immediately and the doctors said it had to be removed.

When Jong was about 6 years old, his mother was captured by Chinese police officers. He vaguely remembers what his mother looks like. Her whereabouts are unknown. His father is a farmer and walks with a limp in one leg. His father also had brain surgery in the past and is very forgetful due to his original head injury or surgery. Because his father is unable to take care of him, Jong had infrequent care from his uncle who would assist in his home. When our missionaries learned of the child's situation, they consulted with his father and brought Jong was brought to a Crossing Borders orphanage for North Korean orphans. He has been provided for by our workers and missionaries since.

Jong is a good kid, who often looks for the approval of his caretakers, teachers, and other adults. His favorite color is blue, and favorite type of food is beef. He enjoys playing the most with remote-controlled cars, and hopes to be a scientist one day. He is a happy boy because he received love from his father, according to our missionaries.

Crossing Borders is looking to get his growth analyzed in the United States so that we can be sure this doesn’t grow into a larger problem. Please pray with us as we look into options for him in the US, and as we continue care for the North Korean orphans in Second Wave.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: Unyielding Stone

You would never be able to guess that “Kyung”, a North Korean refugee in our care, escaped a life of abuse and and suffering from her husband, who owned her as property. She has a dignity about her that transcends her recent past. You would also be unable to tell that her husband’s teenage son raped her repeatedly when her husband was away or that her husband’s family would beat her if she didn’t cook food the way they liked. North Korean refugees, though resilient, are hard to read. They have been trained by their government to keep their thoughts, feelings and emotions inside. If a North Korean shows any of their feelings, they might die.

We helped Kyung for over two years and for most of those two years she would say to us, “North Korea has the best government, they just need food.”

Our missionaries were baffled by her unyielding insistence that the North Korean government, with its crumbling infrastructure, famines, and oppression of both its own citizens and North Korean refugees, was the best.

Despite her convictions, we would frequently visit Kyung. We would sing with her. We would try to meet her where she was. Kyung's beliefs, we found, were unchanging as if engraved in stone. To her, the North Korean government was an immovable ideal. Her demeanor was impenetrable, her personal thoughts and feelings always shielded impassively even to our skilled missionaries.

It was in a meeting after two years of spending time with Kyung that the subject of government arose in a conversation between two visitors and a missionary who came to see Kyung. Having no knowledge of the thoughts Kyung had shared for so long, one of the visitors asked Kyung for her opinion of North Korea's leadership. All she said was, “North Korea just needs God.” She has held to this new belief since.

Progress in ministering to North Korean refugees is often measured in teaspoons. Bringing change to hardened hearts that have endured much suffering, lies, and pain is a slow process. Nonetheless, Crossing Borders is confident that through the slow work of caring for and loving North Korean refugees, there is change. This is not to speak of our own ability and skill. It is a testament to God's love and unyielding pursuit.

As Ezekiel 36:26 writes,

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

Please pray for us this week as we minister with the compassion of Christ to North Korean refugees who struggle to hold their burdens in hardened hearts. Please pray that God would wash away the lies and the struggle they have endured, allowing them to receive His love.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: Why Children are Orphaned

All of the North Korean orphans in our care in Second Wave have lost their mothers who have either escaped their forced marriages or been captured by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea. Many of the children have fathers who are estranged or in moderate contact. If the children have fathers, why does Crossing Borders refer to them as North Korean orphans?

First, it is important to note that the official definition of "orphan" by the United Nations is “a child who has lost one or both parents.”

A second factor are the typical relationships between our children and their fathers. We take care of two North Korean orphans, brother and sister, “Soo and Jin.” They are half North Korean, half Chinese. They live in one of our orphanages, which is near their father’s home. Their father has been suffering from tuberculosis for years.

Each morning they both go to their father’s home, make him food, clean the house and then go to school. They go to their father's at night to do the same before returning to their orphanage.  Each weekend, they spend time with at their father to help maintain their his home and his health.

The typical Chinese or Korean-Chinese man who goes to the open market in China to purchase a bride lives in poverty, is sick, or has a mental or physical disability.  A majority of them are unable to provide an education or future for the children born following their marriages and need outside help.

This is why we consider each of these children as North Korean orphans. Not only have the children in our care lost their mothers, their fathers are unable to care or provide for them.

Crossing Borders currently helps more than 40 children in Second Wave. However, we cannot ignore the fact that over the past ten years there have been 100,000 North Korean refugees who have fled to China, most of whom are women. An estimated 80% of North Korean women who flee to China are trafficked and sold as forced brides. The number of children who need help must easily be in the thousands if not tens of thousands throughout China.

It is not hard to find a child who needs help in Northeast China.  Whenever we expand this program, it takes little effort.

Please pray with us as we address the needs of North Korean orphans. The sheer number of children in need is staggering. Please pray that these children will be loved. Pray that they would have a future. Pray that they would find hope in Jesus. And pray that we find more.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: Safety and Terror in Life

North Korean refugees in China live in terror everyday. The bombing in Boston has reminded us in the first world that none of us are truly safe, no matter where we live. Acts of terror such as these are intended to scare us from living our everyday life. We get on a plane and we think twice. The next time we participate in or attend a marathon, we will think of Boston.

This terror is relative compared to what others go through on a daily basis. When we think of Syria or Gaza, our daily level of terror is put into perspective.

North Korean refugees in China are under constant pressure of being discovered by their neighbors, police officers or cameras, which seem to have sprouted up on every major street corner in Northeast China.

In 2009 we visited a small village in Northeast China where the police had come a month earlier to round up refugees and send them back to North Korea. The North Korean refugees lucky enough to escape were horrified. They didn’t want to stay in their homes where the police could come again in an attempt to round up refugees. But they also did not want to leave their homes where they might be caught.

“Can you please help me leave the country and go to South Korea?” one terrified woman asked us.

In 2011 China arrested and deported about 28 refugees and put the entire community in horror. The North Korean population is estimated to be around 100,000. Yonhap news reported in 2012 that a few of these refugees were publicly executed.

As we pray this week, let us remember the fear North Korean refugees face everyday. The psychological and emotional damage is stifling. Please pray that they would, through workers like our own in China, receive the peace and comfort of Christ.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: The Underground Railroad

We have been helping “Bo-ah”, a North Korean Refugee in our Restore Life program for over five years. Late last year we sent her off on the Underground Railroad. As tensions have escalated on the Korean Peninsula, the Underground Railroad continues to quietly bring thousands of North Korean refugees to freedom each year. It is an extremely dangerous journey because, if refugees are caught, they will be sent back to a North Korean gulag to be tortured and possibly executed.

Bo-ah has vivid memories of her home in North Korea. She used to go to the mountains early in the morning with her father to chop down trees to heat their home, which was outlawed. Her teenage years were spent picking mushrooms to make money. She was constantly hungry and would often bring a cup of milk for lunch.

When Bo-ah decided to leave North Korea it was a hard decision because she knew she would be leaving her family behind. She still worries for her family.

“I wish I will be able to make some more money and send it to my family so that they can move to a better house,” she said. “I would buy them a farm in a flat area so they could get enough food for a whole year. But I don’t even know how to contact them.”

We got her a job in Northeast China, though North Korean refugees are not allowed to work in China. Her dream is to open a successful restaurant. She was paid a small wage at first but soon her paychecks became smaller, with more and more time between payments until they stopped altogether.

Eventually Bo-ah decided to leave Northeast China through the Underground Railroad through a partner organization*.

Bo-ah set off months ago and we have not heard from her. The last message we received from our partner was late last year. They told us that she successfully made it past the most difficult leg of the journey.

Please pray this week for North Korean refugees who make this difficult journey through China to Southeast Asia and eventually to South Korea or another free country. Pray that they would be invisible to the authorities and visible to those who are willing to help them. Please also pray for Bo-ah, who could be anywhere along this path. We will keep you posted about her progress.

* Crossing Borders does not help refugees navigate the Underground Railroad because our focus is to provide help for them in China.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: Two New Children

Pictured: The front yard at the home of one of our North Korean orphans. Recently we have moved forward in our plans to expand our care for North Korean orphans in Northeast China. This is due to the overwhelming success of our Child Sponsorship Program. We can help more children because more of them are sponsored by our faithful supporters.

The children in this program have North Korean mothers who have either been captured by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea or have fled for freedom in South Korea. We have several orphanages spread out throughout Northeast China and we also partner with schools to pay for their education and some of their living expenses.

We want you to meet a two of our North Korean orphans so you can pray for them with us:

"Juhee" is 11 years old. Her mother was arrested in China four years ago and sent back to a North Korean prison camp. Her father is in his 50s and is unable to work because he is partially paralyzed. He purchased Juhee’s mother, a North Korean refugee, in the illegal sex trade that exploded in China following the North Korean famine of the 90s. She and her father live in extreme poverty. Please pray for her as she will continue to live with her father and go to a local private school.

"Sunhee" is a teenager and her mother escaped from China to South Korea in the early 2000s. It was unclear if her mother made the dangerous journey from China to South Korea via the Underground Railroad. They hadn’t heard from Sunhee’s mother for years. If a refugee is caught fleeing to South Korea, they are treated harshly in the North Korean prison camp system. Last year Sunhee and her father received a call from Sunhee’s mother for the very first time. Her mother had indeed made it to South Korea but there was no invitation to bring Sunhee or her father to South Korea. There was no money sent. It was a call to simply say hello with no promises of another call. Please pray for Sunhee as she continues with her schooling and attempts to move forward with her life.

Crossing Borders is committed to helping as many of North Korean orphans as we possibly can. We are looking for opportunities to help more families. Please pray for these children as we try to give them hope through education and the gospel.

Prayer for North Korea and North Korean Refugees: Peace

This week’s prayer topic is simple: Please pray for peace for North Korean refugees and North Korea's people. However, as we pray for peace for North Korea and its people, we understand that the nation is always on the brink of violence. Though war seems unlikely, it is unclear how far North Korea’s new, unseasoned leader may escalate tensions and fear.

In our many conversations with North Korean refugees along the border, defectors in South Korea and South Koreans, nobody wants war – not one person. Nobody thinks it would be good for the Korean people. We pray for peace through God's protection and provision.

In the face of anxiety for the things we cannot control, for the things that are out of our power, we at Crossing Borders ask that you would help us to place North Korean refugees and the people of North Korea into the hands of the Lord.

“O Almighty God, the Father of all humanity, turn, we pray, the hearts of all peoples and their rulers, that by the power of your Holy Spirit peace may be established among the nations on the foundation of justice, righteousness and truth; through him who was lifted up on the cross to draw all people to himself, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” – William Temple, “Prayer for Peace Among Nations”

“O Christ Jesus, when all is darkness and we feel our weakness and helplessness, give us the sense of Your presence, Your love, and Your strength. Help us to have perfect trust in Your protecting love and strengthening power, so that nothing may frighten or worry us, for, living close to You, we shall see Your hand, Your purpose, Your will through all things.” - Saint Ignatius of Loyola

North Korean Orphans: Sex and Half-North Korean Teens

China’s population of half-North Korean, half Chinese youths are beginning to reach adolescence, which means the introduction of adolescent problems. This is something we have seen in our group homes for North Korean orphans. Last year, a boy in one of our orphanages was caught downloading pornographic materials. His caretakers did not know what to do. In China, sex is a taboo subject. In our children’s schools there are no sex education courses and parents rarely speak to their children about the birds and the bees.

In that same orphanage, two of our girls began menstruating.

In response to this, our missionaries decided to hold a seminar about sex in a biblical context. Here is an excerpt from their report:

"We also talked about an amazing Chinese character –性 (xing) means sex, it has two words together, the first part 心 means ‘mind’, and 生 means body. So, true sex means body and soul, it matches what the Bible says.

The most important thing is that the children are committed to keep their bodies and hearts pure for the true love in God’s time for them. Children believe that God has a beautiful plan that is ordered and designed in a way to bring God glory and also will bless them."

This week, please pray for these North Korean orphans who are entering into adolescence without a family to support them. Their mothers have either abandoned them or have been sent back to North Korea by the Chinese police. Their fathers live in abject poverty and there are no people to raise them except for outsiders like Crossing Borders. Please also pray for our caregivers who do their best to address the problems of each of our children in a loving and biblical way.

North Korean Refugees and Orphans: We Need People

After Jim and Mary’s youngest child graduated from college they knew it was time to make good on a commitment they had made long ago. It had been a dream of theirs to help North Koreans refugees and orphans. But they only had one problem: they didn’t know how. By luck or providence (maybe a little bit of both), their eldest daughter married a director of Crossing Borders and the rest has been history.

Jim and Mary’s commitment to North Korean refugees and orphans we have helped has been unmatched. We have often times gotten into heated debates trying to convince them not to use all of their monthly salary to help our refugees. We have never seen a couple so fit to run our field operations. They are compassionate and they are tough. They know when to hold their tongues and they know when not to.

You probably hear all too often from groups like us that we need money. And we do. We also need prayer (hence this blog) for North Korean refugees and orphans. But one of the most understated, underestimated need that we have is people.

God doesn’t work through money alone. He doesn’t work through prayer alone. God works powerfully through people, imperfect and fallible vehicles of His grace.

As we have shared our plans to expand the scope and depth of our care, the only way this will happen is through people who are willing to serve North Korean refugees and orphans. Here’s what we are looking for:

- A minimum of five years of ministry experience, lay or pastoral at an evangelical, Bible-believing church - A proven track record of integrity and excellence in their personal life and interpersonal dealings - A minimum of seven years of professional experience in which you have tangible examples of excellence - Membership and good standing with an evangelical, Bible-believing church - Fluent in Korean - Ability to communicate in English - Asian by appearance. Ability to blend into the Chinese population

We are willing to bend on some of these qualifications (except the last three). However, above of all of the aforementioned necessities, we are looking for workers who are willing to love North Korean refugees and orphans, as well as the Chinese people. We are looking for individuals who are willing to listen first and speak last.

If you can’t pick up and move to China or do not know someone who may be able to, please join us in prayer as we try to change lives and a region through the people God provides.

Five Topics to Pray for North Korea

North Korea is a chaotic and confusing nation. Their government tests nuclear weapons while their people suffer from starvation. They speak of peace and unity one day and war the next. Listed below are items we feel need your prayer:

1. Pray for the people in North Korea – If you’ve read the Bible, it is clear that God has a soft spot for the poor, the widow and the orphan. North Korea is filled with such individuals. There are no signs that the food situation in the country is moving toward any form of stability, and eyewitnesses invited into the country have confirmed this. This is causing instability in families, disease and suffering. The poor, the widow, and the orphan desperately need our prayers.

2. Pray for North Korean refugees – North Korea can be enigmatic because of the lack of good reporting in the country. The regime controls most media outlets in the country and the ones it doesn't control are not allowed full access to all parts of the country. The best information coming from North Korea is through North Korean refugees who travel beyond the country's borders to find hope in a new and terrifying capitalist world. These refugees, many of them homeless, hungry, impoverished, seek a life free from the North Korean regime. Please pray for these North Korean refugees. Please pray especially those in China, North Korean refugees who are scared and in hiding due to China’s zero tolerance policy toward escapees from North Korea.

3. Pray for North Korean politicians – North Korea is a political problem for world leaders, most of who are afraid of a nuclear North Korea and rightfully so. But this can often divert the world’s attention away from the suffering people of North Korea. For things to change in the world on a global scale, there must be a political response. Pray that our politicians would not lose focus on the pain of the North Korean people.

4. Pray for North Korea’s leadership – Some say it is a waste of time to pray for North Korea’s leadership who are often seen as power-hungry hedonists who would crush a whole nation to remain in power. The worst thing we can do is to turn this group of people into caricatures. Jesus was clear when he commanded us to “pray for our enemies.” This accomplishes two things: 1. If they are in the wrong, prayer can change their hearts and 2. prayers for our enemies instantly humanizes them. These are fallen people just like us. They need our prayers.

5.  Pray for North Korea’s underground church – This is perhaps the most persecuted church in the world. No one is sure how large it is. No one can be sure what their activities are. But it has been confirmed by multiple sources that the underground church in North Korea exists. Not only do Christians fear the government’s heavy hand but they also fear their friends, family, neighbors and even their own children. North Korean children are taught to report their parents if they do anything the regime finds threatening. Christianity is at the top of this list. The only way for North Koreans to have true and lasting peace is through the gospel. They can have food. They can have freedom. But we believe the gospel is the only way for them to truly be transformed and to find healing.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: A Sustainable Future

In China is a family of North Korean refugees and orphans we help. “Ha Neul,” lives with her cousin and father in the countryside of Northeast China. Her father has a degenerative bone disorder that prevents him from working on his farm for very long. This family leads a poor and desperate life. Their house was described by one of our missionaries as “filthy.” Ha Neul’s father comes from poverty and because of his disabilities, it was virtually impossible for him to find a wife. China’s One Child Policy has left the country with a severe gender imbalance. It is because of this imbalance that North Korean refugees are trafficked heavily in the country. So Ha Neul’s father went to the open market in Northeast China in the early 2000s to purchase a wife.

Though some women are treated brutally by their purchasers, Ha Neul’s father treated his wife well. They lived happily in the countryside for a time. However, Ha Neul, as many North Korean refugee women, was captured by the police and sent back to North Korea. She has not been heard from since.

Ha Neul’s father tries his best to provide for his daughter but the numbers cannot add up. What little he makes from his farm goes to service his debts. Very little is left over to provide for his half North Korean, half Chinese child, who, until very recently, was not able to obtain a legal ID so she could go to school or obtain medical care. The cards are stacked against Ha Neul and the tens of thousands of families who are in situations like hers.

Crossing Borders is now considering more sustainable options to help North Korean refugees and their families.

For 10 years, we have been providing aid to these communities. But as the landscape has changed in China and North Korea, we feel the need to change along with it.

When we first landed in Northeast China, the situation was dire and immediate aid was necessary. But today, the situation has stabilized. The food situation in North Korea is still unstable but not nearly as horrific as the '90s in the Great North Korean Famine.

What we need now are sustainable models of building infrastructure in the lives of North Korean refugees, to especially be better equipped to help North Korean refugees should the nation of North Korea destabilize or experience another famine. In other words, we need to help Ha Neul’s father support himself and his family instead of simply giving him the aid to help his child.

We are considering several models to help North Korean refugees and their families but the most important thing is to be thoughtful and prayerful about this as we proceed. We know the best plans can fall apart in the blink of an eye if we are not careful.

Please pray with us as we consider how we can help North Korean refugees and those they care for as they continue to pour across the border for help.

Prayer for North Korean Refugees: Protection

We have always known that the work that we do with Crossing Borders involves risk, danger, concerns for both the North Korean refugees we aid and those who help them. Even as our network security is scrutinized regularly for flaws, there are still ways the Chinese or North Korean governments can hack into our systems. Though we take precautions upon precautions, there are always dangers present for our workers and the North Korean refugees we support. We realize that even though each of our workers uses code names and no one knows the location of our missionaries’ homes, there are still ways to find them. None of our Chinese citizen workers has ever heard the name “Crossing Borders,” but there are still ways for them to get into terrible trouble.

No matter how many precautions we take to keep our North Korean refugees, our missionaries and our workers safe, we can never overstate the fact that our work is illegal and there are inherent risks that people take when they step off the plane in China.

It is the prayers of our supporters to God that have ultimately provided our protection. God has, in our every step, made our efforts possible. Some of these stories we have been able to share, most others would compromise the safety of our refugees or field workers. But believe us when we say that there is an army of angels that surely looks after us.

Thank you for your continued prayers. Please continue to lift us up.