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.

***

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.

A Prayer Campaign for North Korean Refugees and Orphans

Sex trafficking. Abuse. Hopelessness. Abandonment. The struggles of North Korean refugees and orphans are well documented on this blog. When we share this information with people who hear it for the first time, the reaction is almost always shock and horror. This year, we want to equip people to do something about these modern-day atrocities. You will be seeing more ways you can actively participate in the health and well-being of North Korean refugees in China on our website and communications this year.

The first thing we want to do is equip you to pray for North Korean refugees in our new program, #Pray40NK, which will coincide with Lent.

The reason why we are calling people to pray is because we believe it is the most practical way that people can get involved. We believe in an all-powerful God who can change any situation according to His will. Prayer is the most effective and powerful first step to substantive change.

In our prayer guide, you will find a daily prayer item coupled with a Bible verse to meditate on. It is our hope that this will bring powerful change in the lives of many and also to bless you in your life.

Many of us on staff have been a part of this ministry for over a decade. We can all say that we have received exponentially more than we have given. We hope you will experience the same measure of blessing as you pray.

You can download the guide here. You can also follow us on Instagram (@crossingbordersnk) for daily reminders. Thank you!

PTSD and North Korean Refugees

For North Koreans in China, finding help from anyone can be difficult. This is especially true for finding medical care. But for those who struggle with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD), finding help can be impossible. China struggles to deliver quality medical care to its citizens. The World Health Organization has ranked China’s medical care system 144 out of a possible 190 countries.

We found this to be true when we recently brought a doctor from the US to assess the medical needs of the refugees in our network. Refugees who had access to some medical care were often misdiagnosed or over prescribed medicines that didn’t treat the cause of their symptoms.

We also found that the refugees in our network were relatively healthy. They do not suffer from issues that many people in the developed world suffer from, such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes. Many of the symptoms that the refugees suffer from can in fact be related to PTSD.

Along with the internal symptoms of this condition (irritability, trouble sleeping, trouble concentrating, angry outbursts, etc.), many of our refugees display psychosomatic symptoms of PTSD. These are symptoms from a mental disorder that manifest themselves physically.

The symptoms that our doctor saw last year were all in line with textbook PTSD. Even in our new area where the refugees feel safe from immediate harm, they still display strong symptoms of PTSD.

It is important for us to handle this condition in a way that is consistent with our faith and is culturally sensitive.

The good news is that treatment for PTSD was already occurring. We have and are forming new faith communities. These communities are a place for our refugees to gather together for worship and fellowship.

This is happening in our communities now. This year we started three churches in the new area we are working in. Already, these churches are thriving and they are helping our people deal with the trauma they experienced in North Korea and China.

We will continue to improve our services but the bulk of their needs are being met. Please pray for us as we continue to support these churches and further expand our reach.

Next Steps: Reaching back to move forward

Second Wave is a program Crossing Borders operates to show the compassion of Christ to the children of North Korean refugee women. According to a US Government report, 70 percent of all North Korean refugees are women and 80 percent of them have been trafficked.

Let’s do the math here. If there have been an estimated 500,000 North Korean refugees who have fled to China since the famine, then approximately 350,000 of them are women. This means that 245,000 North Korean women have been sold in China.

An important fact to remember, that helps us understand this astonishing statistic, is that every North Korean refugee in China is an outlaw. China denies these people the most basic human rights, even though the country signed the UNHCR Refugee Convention of 1951. It is illegal to help a North Korean refugee, according to Chinese law. North Korean refugees are hunted down, arrested and deported to North Korea and sent to prison camps where they face torture and possible execution.

This leaves many children who have been born to North Korean mothers at risk. Many of these children have had mothers stolen away from them at the hands of Chinese authorities.

When Jong was about 6 years old, his mother was captured by Chinese officers and has not  been heard from since. He vaguely remembers what his mother looks like. He is in his teens now.

Jong’s father is a farmer and walks with a limp in one leg. His father has had brain surgery in the past, and is very forgetful. Because Jong’s father is not able to take care of him, Jong was brought to a Crossing Borders group home and has been under our care since.

Jong is a kind-hearted boy, who often looks for the approval of his caretaker, teachers, and other adults. He has often struggled in school, and has been described as slow by his teachers. Because of this, he has lacked effort and interest in his studies in the past.

However, Jong’s attitude changed last year, when two new boys were brought into his group home. Jong was told that he had to serve as an example for these two younger children and he took this call to action to heart. This past year, he has been much more studious and has been making better grades at school.

On a visit to China by our team last winter, Jong was found in his bedroom studying by himself while the rest of this housemates were playing games.

This summer, Crossing Borders sent a team to run a camp for children in our Second Wave program. During free time, the counselors reserved a room where children could talk to counselors about their problems and ask for prayers.

Jong met with one of our team members  and shared that he was beginning to remember his mother. Memories of her come in brief flashes but had a powerful impact on him. As the counselor prayed for him, Jong cried. For the first time in his life, Jong realized he really missed his mother, and wished he could be with her.

Crossing Borders understands that though progress and healing is underway, some of  the wounds in the hearts of these children are deep and often suppressed. China is a land of progress and many children are encouraged to forget painful memories from their past and work toward a brighter future. But in our work, Crossing Borders has found that sometimes, this isn’t possible. For children like Jong, old wounds come back regardless of how much a child tries to stifle them.

At the heart of Crossing Borders’ work is an effort to give these children an avenue to express their pain and to teach them to deal with it through principles taught in the Bible. This is our primary task as an organization in the face of such hardship. As we add programs and structure, this will not change.

What will become of Jong depends upon how he can process these old memories. It is our hope that he would be able to do so in a healthy, productive way and that he would be ready for whatever life throws at him.

This story can be found in our Newsletter, which was published last week. To get a copy of our newsletter, click on this link and sign up.

The One Child Policy's Lasting Legacy

China has relaxed its One Child Policy today, allowing married couples to have two children. This was an attempt by the central government to stem the effects of its rapidly aging population and inject young workers into the workforce. When China made this policy law in 1979, its intent was to curb the growth of its population, which was getting too large for the government to feed and control. But the biggest consequence of such a sweeping law, a dwindling workforce, is now working against their booming economy, which is showing signs of weakness.

But the aftermath of the One Child Policy is far more than a dwindling workforce. It is one of suffering. Its legacy has reached into the wombs of expectant mothers who have been forced to have abortions. The One Child Policy has sparked one of the worst trafficking crises in the modern world as refugees, many from North Korea, are taken by force to be married to Chinese men who cannot find wives.

Forced Abortions

China’s Health Ministry reported a staggering number of abortions it performed since 1971, when the country began steps to control their population. China has performed 336 million abortions during this time and continues to do so.

To put this into context, China has performed more abortions than the total number of people currently living in the United States. China's total abortions since 1971 dwarfs the US abortion total since Roe v Wade was decided in 1973. That number is about 58 million.

In 2012, National Public Radio reported a disturbing story of a young woman, Feng Jianmei, who was found by Chinese family planning officials to be seven months pregnant with her second child. The authorities demanded that she pay a $6,000 fine. The fine, which is often set by local authorities, is called a “social compensation fee” and is usually set anywhere between 3 to 10 times a family’s annual income.

Since she could not afford this, the officials proceeded to give her an injection, which “ensured the couple's 7-month-old fetus was stillborn,” according to the report.

Another woman, who was eight months pregnant told the New York Times that officers forced her to a local clinic, bound her to a table where she was given an injection into her abdomen that was lethal to her baby.

“For two days she writhed on the table, her hands and feet still bound with rope, waiting for her body to eject the murdered baby. In the final stage of labor, a male doctor yanked the dead fetus out by the foot, then dropped it into a garbage can. She had no money for a cab. She had to hobble home, blood dripping down her legs and staining her white sandals red,” the report stated.

Human Trafficking Perfect Storm

China’s Academy of Social Sciences reported that there will be between 30-40 million more men than women in China by the year 2020. China’s gender ratio has already reached an epic imbalance. This means that the country’s poor must find wives through other means.

As we have documented extensively on our blog, North Korean refugees -- 70 percent of whom are women and 80 percent of whom have been trafficked -- have been sold by the hundreds of thousands. This is due to China’s zero tolerance stance on North Korean women who have poured into the country after North Korea’s cataclysmic famine in the 90s.

Women have been duped by traffickers who promise good jobs and food but in the end were sold with no way out of these marriages through legal channels.  

Crossing Borders works extensively with these women and have heard horrific tales of inhumane conditions they must endure. One woman shared with us that she was sold to a group of poor farmers who could not afford a single wife. She was kept in a shed for this group to share.

In addition, these women have to constantly look over their shoulders because, if they are caught, they will immediately be arrested and sent back to a North Korean prison camp.

Senseless Suffering

The great tragedy of the One Child Policy is that many experts question its effectiveness. It has been proven that, as a country urbanizes and grows in wealth, their population begins to diminish on its own. Some experts contend that this was already beginning to occur when China enacted this policy in 1979.

Even worse, the country’s prolonged use of this policy perhaps was driven by another factor: money. The decision today came out of a meeting of the ruling elite to lay out the country’s five-year development plan. China’s local governments have earned an estimated $300 billion from these fines alone. These fines, levied at the hands of local magistrates, often find themselves in the pockets of the ruling elite.

The One Child Policy has exacted a stunning toll on China and the world. Today it was loosened. But the practices of local governments in China are challenging to change on a local level and some suspect that the One Child Policy will still be in effect for years while the national government will now enforce its new Two Child Policy.  

This legacy of pain and suffering will be felt for generations to come.

Next Steps: Planning for the future

Crossing Borders started Second Wave in September of 2004 to address the needs of children who were born to North Korean mothers and abandoned by them. This was in the wake of the Great North Korean Famine, which claimed millions of lives in North Korea and caused hundreds of thousands of refugees to spill over into China. When we started Second Wave, the average age of our children was about 5. This year the average age of the children in Second Wave entered into its teens at 13. Over the years our goal has always been to show the compassion of Christ to these children but this can take many forms. Is it enough to house them, feed them, educate them, and love them or do we need to do more?

As we look into the, now, very near future, we have set some priorities for our organization and our children. The skill we are focused on teaching these children is goal setting. We will know that we are achieving this organizational priority when more of the children in our network have clear career paths with short and mid term milestones to attain them.

This summer a team from the US traveled to Northeast China to address the spiritual and emotional needs of our children in a summer camp program, which lasted about a week. At this camp we had our first ever career seminar.

We had each of our children list their interests and talents and we had them map these on a matrix. From this matrix we were able to tell our children what types of jobs they were best suited for. Our intention was not to lock them into a specific career path but rather to get them thinking about what they might want to do when they finish their education.

We also had a seminar on how to set long term goals and then set short term goals on how to reach these long term goals. This winter we will host another seminar for these children where they will set a long term career goal for themselves and set smaller milestones on how to reach these goals. But, we are not under the delusion that this is our most important task. Most of us are parents and we know better.

Parenting is a grind. It is a selfless task that bears fruit -- good or bad -- decades later. As we raise these children, it is not our ultimate goal to have all of the children in our network employed by a certain date. It is also not our goal to only love them and nurture them for now. Raising children is challenging because parents have to think of both now and decades later.

What good is preparing someone for a good job if they lack character? How empty is a life filled with money and security if it lacks love?

Each day we carry our work forward with this in mind, asking God for grace for the things we might overlook.

The Black Mushroom Project - Charting New Territory

On a random bus ride through one of China’s largest cities last year, a pastor gets on to start his day. The pastor, an ethnic Korean who is a Chinese citizen, hasn’t heard the Korean language spoken in public in years but this day he did. He went to speak with the two women who were quietly talking to one another and learns that they are North Korean refugees. Over the course of the ride, he gains these women’s trust and they tell him they are from North Korea but live in rural China, away from the North Korean border, and that there are many, many more like them.

The pastor started making regular visits in 2014 to this area to see if they need help and to share the gospel with them. Early this year, he contacted Crossing Borders. We decided to investigate, despite the fact that we have not ventured out of Northeast China since our operations started in 2003. What we found was an area where North Korean refugees experience much less government scrutiny but still struggle with issues related to poverty.

This new area is an interesting endeavor for us because we have never worked where North Korean refugees live and work in such freedom.

Our first priority in working with North Korean refugees in China is to find a place of safety for them. Without safety, people cannot move forward with their lives. They cannot heal. They cannot grow.

As we mentioned in our previous post, almost all of the ingredients for success were in place for our first Black Mushroom Project loan except the most important: safety.

So if we remove the very powerful element of fear, we have the freedom to operate under a new set of rules and expectations for our refugees. This is what we have found for this area where police are not trained to spot North Koreans and the government is not active in pursuing these people.

Most of the North Korean refugees we’ve worked with in the past have lived under stifling fear that, if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, they will be caught, hauled off to North Korea where they will face time in the country’s infamous prison system and face execution.

This is why we skipped the important first step of providing monthly support for the refugees in this area and went directly to helping them with medical care and providing ways to help them make a living.

This area is virtually untouched by Western influence. There is no church. People are Buddhist or believe in other indigenous superstitions. We made contact with this area through the pastor who had been visiting since 2014. We decided that the best thing we can do in the region is to help this pastor start a church, which will be completely self-funded.

Through this church, we can mount efforts to improve the quality of life for the refugees and their children in the area. It gives us an efficient contact point through which we can show the compassion of Christ to these people.

The North Korean refugee crisis started in the 1990s and continues to affect North Koreans and their children in the region. Over time the severity and nature of the issue has changed. As Crossing Borders continues to help this population, we have been able to change with it, providing a new kind of help to North Korean refugees in different kinds of situations. We will keep you posted on the developments of this new and exciting site. In the meantime, we ask for your prayers.

The Black Mushroom Project - What has happened, what we've learned

In 2013 Crossing Borders launched a new initiative called "The Black Mushroom Project." The project was aimed at helping refugees support themselves through income-generating projects that would combat poverty. Over the past 18 months, we have been able to make a significant difference in the lives of those who we help through The Black Mushroom Project, though the ways it has helped has been unexpected.

One of the first people we helped through this project is "Me Hae." By going through the loan process with her, we have been able to learn how to shape this project going forward.

Me Hae grew up in rural North Korea. Her father died when she was eight-years-old. While he was alive, he would beat her mom so hard that they had to close their business selling small wares at the market because of the injuries she sustained. So Me Hae had to work odd jobs from an early age.

When she was in her teens, she went to a border city to find work but instead she was taken to China without her knowledge and sold to a Chinese man. Unlike most of the other refugees we help, Me Hae had never heard of China. She was never told that, if she moved there, she could eat and find work.

After just a year in China, Me Hae was captured by the Chinese police and sent to a prison camp in North Korea. She went back to China after she was released. All she wanted was to stay for a short period of time to make money on her second trip. She was staying with an aunt. Next door to her lived a man who fell in love with her. They married shortly after they met.

For more than a decade, they lived happily in Northeast China and had two children together. This was despite the systematic police raids that would happen in their village since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

When we launched The Black Mushroom Project in 2013, we thought she and her husband would be the ideal candidates for the project because of their strong relationship and the hard work both of them put into their farm.

But the raids persisted. The village where they lived is near China's border with North Korea and was home to a Chinese military installation. Earlier this year the Chinese authorities performed the most aggressive sweep of the area that Me Hae had ever seen. Many of her friends were either captured and sent back to North Korea or were so scared, they left on their own.

This left Me Hae with a difficult choice. After careful consideration, she chose to take the Underground Railroad with the funds she earned through The Black Mushroom Project. She has made it safely to Southeast Asia with one of her children and has promised to bring her husband and other child to South Korea as soon as possible.

In spite of her challenges, she was able to pay back her loan with interest.

The Black Mushroom Project worked for Me Hae because she was able to draw from the funds she earned from her loan to pay for her freedom. It didn't work as planned because the loan didn't give her sustainability, which is the primary goal of this project.

We have taken a hard look at this program and we have realized that it will only work if the refugee is in a place of safety. This is why it is so important for Crossing Borders to keep survey data on our refugees. Through our annual surveys, we can track how we are doing in our efforts to bring these people to safety.

Believe it or not, this is possible in China.

China's border with North Korea has a lot of military activity. Though China does not see North Korea as a military threat, they know that their ally North Korea is unstable. The closer one lives to the border, the more vigilant the Chinese authorities will be.

There are areas in China where the authorities are not trained to look for North Koreans. We have been engaging with villages in these outer regions to help the North Koreans who have found their way to these areas. The outlook and perspective of these refugees is completely different from the ones who live anywhere near the border.

We have found a promising location with a population of North Korean refugees, which number into the thousands. The refugees here have told us that they feel safe but that they need help generating revenue for themselves.

We will tell you more about this area in our next post. Stay tuned.