Praying for North Korea: Five Topics

Quick, when I say the words, “North Korea,” what immediately comes to mind? I’m guessing that you thought of Kim Jong Un, nuclear weapons, censorship, isolation, or hunger. While we may not know what exactly takes place within the borders of this highly concealed country or what day-to-day life looks like for North Koreans, we do know that this country needs prayer. Especially as the year 2020 has humbled and shaken the world with unprecedented and unpredictable events, we hope you can join us in lifting a prayer for North Korea in the following ways:

1. Pray for the people in North Korea — Many of us know that daily life in North Korea is grim: people are starving, the country is run by an always-present, unforgiving dictatorship and there is a lack of freedom on both an individual and national scale. This lack of freedom may be the most oppressive aspect of life in North Korea, as civilians are unable to speak out against their government or even call out for help to the outside world. As hunger, disease and poverty still ravage the country, we ask that you pray for the general health, welfare and safety of those living in North Korea today.

2. Pray for North Korean refugees amidst COVID-19 — For many North Korean refugees in China, the impact of Coronavirus has been devastating. North Korean refugees already have limited access to immediate healthcare, education and other resources because of China’s Zero Tolerance policy for these undocumented escapees. And Coronavirus has only exacerbated their situation further. Refugees are not able to be tested for the virus or obtain necessary medical help. Many who had previously worked in service-related jobs or on their own farms have also lost their primary source of income due to China’s lockdown and ban on outdoor work. We ask that you pray for God’s provision over the health, safety and livelihoods of this vulnerable population.

3. Pray for world politicians — As much as North Korea may be separate from the rest of the world, it is undeniable that other countries have a direct impact on North Korea. We ask that you join us in praying for our leaders, not only those in North Korea or the United States but from all around the world: for wisdom and discretion in their decision-making; for unity; and for a desire to genuinely benefit the people of North Korea. As many of us are distant from North Korea and its politics, we may feel that there is no power we really carry. But we know that God can move the hearts of people and we can only pray that He would use these world leaders to bring His peace and love into this world, especially in North Korea.

4. Pray for North Korea’s underground church — In a country where any defiance or stray from government regulation is treated as a punishable act, the church is no exception. Although we do not know the size or inner workings of the underground church in North Korea, we have heard that it does exist and is heavily persecuted today. Being caught by the government or even by family and friends is a very real fear for Christians in North Korea— even from childhood, North Koreans are taught to report anything that might be deemed as a threat to the regime. Especially as our missionaries in China have recently reported that the Chinese government has become more aggressive in inspecting and interfering in churches, it is not hard to imagine that the church in North Korea might also need our prayers now more than ever before.  We believe the Gospel is the only hope for true healing and fulfillment to the North Korean people. Please pray for the security of the underground church.

5. Pray for North Korea’s future — Finally, we ask that you pray for the future of North Korea. The recent rumors of Kim Jong Un’s death have been widely circulated and, along with sparking news and conspiracy theories in the media, they have prompted many to genuinely think about the future of the country. If Kim Jong Un dies in the near future, who will succeed him? Will it be the end of the Kim dynasty? What will then happen to the future of North Korean civilians? All of these questions are valid, as no one can really say they know the answer with confidence— we can only trust that God does. We pray that we will cling to God’s sovereignty, timing and promise that He has a larger plan for the people of North Korea, whom He so deeply cares for.

3 Lessons From Kim Jong Un’s Death Rumors

Kim Jong Un disappeared for much of the month of April. He did not attend the country’s most important holiday celebration to honor the birth of his grandfather, Kim Il Sung— the founding father, king and god of North Korea. And when he missed an important military parade, rumors began to fly regarding his whereabouts.

Did he have a heart attack? Was he comatose from an alleged botched heart surgery? Was he hiding in his luxurious coastal home from the Coronavirus? Did he suffer a leg injury? No one knew for sure and for a moment, Kim Jong Un stole the world’s attention away from the Coronavirus, quite a feat for the leader of the 115th largest economy in the world.

Though it is difficult to know what happened to Kim, the bizarre weeks of speculation did reveal to the world some key truths about North Korea. Here are three things that we learned from the Kim Jong Un rumors:

1. There is no known succession plan in North Korea

If the rumors were true, North Korea would have been thrown into a crisis. Kim’s death would leave a seat of absolute power up for grabs with plenty of willing takers.

A nightmare scenario for the world would have been a power struggle for the throne. Sure, North Korea could simply implode as their leadership jockeys for a place at the top of the totem pole. But this is just one possibility; the others could spell disaster for the North Korean people, the Korean peninsula, East Asia and possibly spark a world war.

The Korean Peninsula was already in a tense 70-year military standoff. If a power struggle spilled over into the South, the United States would surely get involved and China would come to the North’s aid. It would be plausible that most of the world would be involved in the conflict.

The lack of succession plan exposed a gaping hole in North Korea that could spell disaster if Kim’s demise comes sooner rather than later.

2. North Korea is a black box

The Coronavirus crisis has also reached the Hermit Kingdom and the already reclusive country has closed off many of its ties to the outside world. Under normal circumstances, North Korean refugees with family members inside North Korea could send letters and money to their loved ones through a network of smugglers. The current circumstances have all but stopped this flow of information and money.

The Daily NK relies on reports from everyday North Koreans embedded within the country. The publication has reported that North Korea is even cracking down on these illegal phone calls, which use phones connected to Chinese cell towers.

But within the black box of North Korea lies another, even more secretive entity: the North Korean government.

On April 20, the Daily NK reported that Kim had a botched cardiovascular procedure and was in critical condition. Soon after, CNN and Reuters picked up the story. Defector Yeonmi Park, a North Korean defector said on her Instagram page that Kim was hiding in his compound to avoid catching COVID-19. South Korea soon claimed with certainty that Kim was “alive and well.”

But there is a fundamental problem with all of these rumors: how could anyone verify the many rumors? North Korea remained mum on the situation, tacitly adding fuel to the flame.

North Korea is the most confidential regime in the world. A leak in information could mean the execution of any official suspected of the offense. And how would an official leak information to the press? A North Korean cannot simply pick up their phone and call CNN. Even if information did leak, how would a respectable journalist verify it?

There are few ways for people to obtain reliable information from North Korea and most of these channels are regulated by the North Korean government.

3. Rumors are swirling within North Korea

As the world wondered about the demise of Kim, an interesting video from North Korea emerged. It actually proved to be fake but the fact that it caught the attention of the regime itself was interesting in itself.

The fake video was a collection of news footage that seemingly confirmed the rumors of Kim’s demise. What made the video somewhat plausible was the spot-on imitation of the voice of the North Korean news announcer Ri Chun Hee delivering the news.

Apparently, the video had circulated so widely within North Korea that the regime began to look for the person who produced it, according to the Daily NK.

There was also the matter of panic-buying in Pyongyang. It was reported by the Washington Post that residents of North Korea’s capital city Pyongyang started to panic-buy foreign goods and essentials because of the rumors of Kim’s death.

What these two incidents show us is that it is possible for information to spread within North Korea. Though phone calls are monitored and letters sent through official channels are often read, somehow rumors are spreading within North Korea— and that’s a good thing.

For there to be any hope of regime change from within, the North Korean people need to rise up against its government. And for this to happen, there must be a reliable chain of communication that occurs outside the sight of the North Korean government.

If these rumors were indeed spreading, could there be channels of communication that are completely unregulated?

On May 2, Kim made an appearance at a fertilizer factory, effectively squashing the rumors. This should not have come as a surprise. There have been a great number of rumors out of North Korea over the years, most of which have proved to be false. But North Korea is so opaque that even false news reveals key information about the regime.

Until there is real change in North Korea, all we have are rumors and conjecture. Ultimately, we hope for a day when these will end.

A Letter from Our Staff: Uncertain Navigation

COVID-19 has swept through the world and created an oddly unifying moment in history. This unity, however, is brought on us by both unexpected and perhaps painful circumstances.

The people contained in their homes across the globe in this season are vastly different. The diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds inside each apartment unit, townhouse or two-flat may literally be continents apart. Individuals may be single or married, have several children or none, own cats or dogs or fish. Nonetheless, at this moment, a single commonality between myself, sitting at a computer in Los Angeles, someone reading a newspaper from a dining room in Munich, and the billions of people between us is that we are all sitting inside and wondering what’s going to happen in the next few months. So much has happened since January. What could be lying in wait within the next four months of 2020?

For Crossing Borders, a new safehouse in South Korea that took the better part of two years to research, plan, fundraise, and prepare has been stalled when only a month away from the starting line. In my own case, the prohibition of gatherings over fifty has suddenly evaporated any plans of a wedding celebration with family and friends and the eager plans for a honeymoon abroad have been dashed. It has been a dreamlike and unreal span of two months.

As Crossing Borders faced an unprecedented season of uncertainty, my fiance and I found ourselves discovering a similar season in our own lives as we navigated through cancelled venues and informing our guests and families of a postponed wedding. In a time we expected to be one of the most adventurous seasons of our life together, planting roots for a new future, we instead discovered an oddly cyclical and mundane season of waiting without a clear future. The purpose and drive we had held in anticipation seemed to have swerved off course.

The two of us spent the time in much thought and conversation. The result was a mixture of hopeful, anticipatory prayer and tentative first steps. My fiance and I decided to proceed with a private wedding with a few family members in the backyard of her parents’ home. At the wedding, she laughed as she recalled a nightmare she had only a month prior. “I dreamed that we were unprepared for the wedding. That we were scrambling to figure out what music to play, where to hold the ceremony, who would officiate.”

She was wearing small flowers she herself had picked that morning in her hair. She wasn’t sitting at the table of a reception area of a golf club but instead on the metal chair of her backyard patio. We hadn’t even had time to get wedding bands. I wore her father’s old ring, which was too big and kept slipping off my finger. But she was laughing. “Basically, my nightmare looked exactly like the ceremony we had today.” None of the wedding was what we planned, but it was joyful nonetheless.

Today, the two of us sit at home as we realize we may have been halfway across the world on our honeymoon if things had gone according to plan. We wonder if there are others going through the same in many different ways. Perhaps there was no better way to teach us to deliberate what lies in uncertainty. At the same time, the two of us are praying for guidance and wisdom in taking the right next steps. We want to plan and invest time in seeking good counsel and support, even as we get ready for the unknown ahead.

Crossing Borders, in this season, has expressed exactly the same. Oddly at work, I find myself in the same position as I am in my personal life. In the midst of the coronavirus, it has been a fruitful season of prayer and pause for our missionaries and staff, reflecting faithfulness, hope, and the individuals we have reached in China. Our staff is gathering to pray for the women and children we know have struggled through much greater for much longer, adversity. They, too, are waiting on a change - deliverance from their fears, uncertainties, oppression. It has been a season to remind us that we are incapable of serving them at all without prayer. Simultaneously, Crossing Borders is preparing the resources to minister to North Koreans in China and hopefully, in South Korea soon. They are in great need, now more than ever.

I don’t think it would be wise to say that a definitive lesson has been learned through this season. It is still a developing experience and for many there is a great deal of pain and hardship. It is too early to say that we have adopted peaceful and productive living in the coronavirus. There may be more waiting, more confusion, more unexpected difficulties to come. It is possible to say, however, that in new and refreshed ways, I want to be prepared and Crossing Borders wants to be ready. But there are clearly some things that no amount of planning can help me, my new marriage or Crossing Borders overcome easily. 

A hidden joy in the midst of the unknown, the operative word being hidden, is a hope in something greater than our deepest fears and our most unclear moments. I have found some peace, certainty and comfort in faith in these circumstances - especially the ones that were not planned. I hope I will remember this truth often in this season. It is uncharacteristically optimistic of me, but I hope that this will be true for many of us united in waiting as well.

Psalm 62:8
“Trust in Him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us.”

Surviving, Thriving: North Koreans in the Coronavirus

Face masks made by North Korean refugees to give to their neighbors.

The coronavirus has changed everything in China for North Korean refugees in hiding, affecting the vulnerable population of approximately 200,000 people in hiding. All of the North Koreans in Crossing Borders’ vast network in China are women, almost all of them having been trafficked and sold to Chinese husbands. Many of them have young or adolescent children whose academic and social schedules have been drastically interrupted in this unexpected season of quarantine.

The refugees have sent us images of the insides of their small, city apartments converted into makeshift classrooms. Pictures of boys and girls reciting national pledges as they salute the Chinese national flag in school uniforms. The North Korean children in the outskirts of rural regions in China, however, have no choice but to sit quietly at home, waiting for schools to reopen. They do not have computers available in their humble country houses. For them, attending school was a privilege and powerful avenue for finding future opportunities. Every day missed leaves them further behind.

But the daily lives of half-North Korean children have not been the only ones forcibly placed on pause. Many of the North Korean women in China work day-to-day jobs in the service industry near cities or farming on small plots in the countryside. The strict precautions imposed by law in China have pushed both North Koreans and their husbands into their homes, unable to cultivate their farms or find work. A number of the North Korean women in Crossing Borders’ communities have expressed their worry about making ends meet through the spring and summer. The impact on the women’s families have been compounded by the fact that many of their husbands are disabled or also unable to hold their own jobs through this season. Men who could only find manual labor like making deliveries, construction or painting cannot find opportunities for work anymore.

“Amelia,” a North Korean refugee in Crossing Borders’ network, lost her job in a restaurant kitchen in the last month. She says that all the restaurants near her have now closed and is at home with her three children. Amelia is a single mother and is unable to find new work. For the past several weeks, Amelia has only had plain white rice in her home. Her rations grow smaller each day and her children have been asking for anything else to eat. When Crossing Borders’ field pastor visited their family, Amelia burst into tears out of worry. This month, Crossing Borders is exploring options to help financially sustain Amelia’s household in a time of extreme hardship. Crossing Borders has been careful not to extend direct financial support to the refugees in our network but these are not normal times.

Other women in Crossing Borders’ network have already begun responding to the coronavirus with incredible grace. “Lois,” a North Korean refugee who lives on the outskirts of a small city in China, began making face masks in her home and distributing them to her village neighbors. Those who received the masks responded in surprise. They were aware of how difficult the situation was for Lois and her family already, and that she was a North Korean refugee. In a situation where most were suffering with ends barely met, Lois and many women like her were thriving in faith and generosity.

But Lois’ response to the difficulties posed by the coronavirus is not entirely shocking. It is perhaps the North Korean refugee population that was, in some ways, the most prepared for the proliferation of the virus forcing individuals to go into hiding. Despite the extraordinary circumstances and stresses of the North Korean refugee crisis, the situation for North Korean women has not changed much.

North Koreans in China are accustomed to being forced to stay indoors, unable to travel long distances safely or interact with others. North Koreans, who have no legal refugee status or safety from the authorities in China, cannot take advantage of many forms of public transportation without risk of arrest and deportation. The lack of immediate access to healthcare or medicine has always been prevalent in the North Korean population, as refugees are deprived of many resources that ordinary individuals and their families may take for granted. Poverty, anxiety, fear for daily life are not new to North Koreans who have survived and fled from one of the most devastating famines in modern history.

In these trying times, Crossing Borders remembers that in suffering and difficulty, faithfulness and perseverance endures. As we serve the North Korean refugees and their children, we strive to share a hope that does not fail in the gospel. Simultaneously, missionaries and caretakers in China continue to hope that the compassion and grace shared by Crossing Borders, our donors and prayerful supporters will be multiplied.

DaYeon: Work and Rest for a North Korean in China

DaYeon (right) meeting with one of our missionaries this past winter.

In the cold winter of 2019, Crossing Borders missionaries visited a Chinese city enshrined in ice and snow. The trip to meet a group of North Korean refugees in our network took long hours of driving through freezing winds and was pervaded by several security checkpoints along the way. More than usual, the missionaries found it difficult to travel without being stopped again and again by police or roadside officers. It was more than an annoyance. The work of Crossing Borders is more dangerous than ever.

The missionaries’ efforts to reach the Chinese city were rewarded with warm greetings from the North Korean refugees in Crossing Borders’ network of communities. One of the women was “DaYeon.”

DaYeon crossed the border from China to North Korea in 1997, during the Great North Korean Famine. From 1997 to 1998, up  to 3.5 million North Koreans are estimated to have perished due to illness and starvation. DaYeon and many individuals like her watched family and friends die all around them. After over a decade in China, DaYeon misses her hometown.

As she greeted the Crossing Borders missionaries in the snow, she reminisced about her home. In the winter, DaYeon says that so much snow fell in her North Korean village that it rose above her knees. It was the hardest time of the year for DaYeon’s family. Nevertheless, she misses eating the sparse, North Korean dishes from home.

In her hometown, DaYeon ate corn and potato noodles often. At times, it felt like that was all that her family ever ate. Today, DaYeon has the rice that she craved growing up. But she still misses the flavors of home. DaYeon’s favorite food in North Korea was aged, dried and salted fish. She commented on the same fish she had tried to buy, “Markets don’t sell the same kind of pollack in China.”

DaYeon and her family lived near a mountain that people from the village used as their sparse farmland. DaYeon loved taking hikes and seeing her village from the mountain’s cliffside. In the spring, the hills were prone to mudslides. When the famine began, DaYeon discovered that someone in her village had cannibalized the corpse of a man who had died of starvation. She fled to China.

Less than half a year after her arrival in a foreign country, DaYeon was trafficked in the black market and married a Chinese man. Almost 10 years later, in 2009, she met Crossing Borders missionaries. For the first time, she heard the gospel and came to faith.

When missionaries first met DaYeon, they reported that her skin was yellowish, with dark spots. It is not uncommon to see North Korean refugees who have suffered various illnesses due to years and years of malnourishment. DaYeon began to receive financial support from Crossing Borders and started attending a local church in Crossing Borders’ network. She was grateful and grew in her faith.

With years of hard work, DaYeon and her husband opened a small restaurant in 2012. In secret, she began distributing small booklets about the Christian gospel to her patrons. It became a place for her to welcome both attendees at her church and Crossing Borders’ missionaries.

By 2017, DaYeon’s restaurant was so successful that she turned down the ongoing monetary support from Crossing Borders. Instead, she asked that the organization distribute the support that was being given to her with the poorer refugees in the organization’s network. But DaYeon’s life grew very busy with the monetary success of her restaurant.

But DaYeon’s life once more entered a season of struggle. She discovered that she had thyroid cancer. After a series of treatments in 2019, DaYeon was healed but forced into staying home and seeking rest. At first, it was a struggle. But over her time of rest, DaYeon realized that she had become a workaholic. She began to see that her monetary success had caused her to forget how she had arrived into her success and sense of satisfaction. At home, DaYeon spent time praying and reading the Bible.

When she met with the missionaries this past winter, she had many questions about faith. They reported that she is growing in humility and joy. We pray for DaYeon to continue to grow in her thankfulness and peace, as she finds both the hope for work and the comfort of rest in the message of the gospel.

A Cult of Personality Reacts to the Coronavirus

The Communist Party functions on the promise that life under its governance is more profitable and beneficial than life under any other form of government, namely a liberal democracy. For President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party, the rise of the coronavirus and its impact on trade and the daily lives of over one billion Chinese citizens creates significant problems to be solved. As a one-party government, the power structure in China is unilateral - at times authoritarian and controlling. There are sacrifices that the Chinese people themselves must make in supporting a government that makes some decisions for its people at the cost of political rights. With the spread of COVID-19, a highly discontented and frustrated population of one billion individuals is not an acceptable situation for China’s governing leaders. It may cause individuals to rethink whether the promises of a one party government can provide prosperity or longevity for its people.

Particularly for President Xi, whose authority has been compared to that of Chairman Mao Zhedong at the height of his power, the national health crisis in China is a real political threat. Xi rose to his current position with promises of economic prosperity through expanded executive control and risk management for the people of China. His centralization of authority, moving away from delegating power to subordinates or future successors, has been with the trust that the office of the president would lead the country in a top-down chain of command that was responsive to any crises. With officials in Wuhan claiming that Beijing was too slow to respond to the coronavirus and others stating that negligence and misinformation of the virus’ danger put the world at risk, President Xi must now operate under the critical public eye more than ever.

The spread of the coronavirus, or COVID-19, was recently announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization. For Chinese political leaders, the fingers pointed at the Communist Party with accusations that the outbreak in Wuhan was mishandled are both alarming and threatening. Beijing officials have responded hotly to associations of the origin of the virus even being focused on Wuhan, where it was first reported, and noted that such assumptions contributed to the stigmatization of their nation and its government.

Xiao Qiang is the founder of China Digital Times, a website that leaks directives issued by the Communist Party’s strategizing committee for government propaganda. Recently, he has noted the surge of anti-American rhetoric in public forums and media in response to the United States and its frustrations with the Chinese government regarding the coronavirus. According to Qiang, much of the noise may actually be organized by the Communist Party. “It’s an orchestrated, all-out campaign by the Chinese government through every channel at a level you rarely see,” remarked Qiang to The Washington Post. “It’s a counteroffensive.”

It would not be the first time that the Chinese government has turned to use of their nation’s intranet, news and media outlets to engender support for their one-party viewpoints. A similar phenomenon occurred following the controversial elimination of presidential term limits in 2018. At the time, Deng Yuwen, a political commentator on China’s current policies, noted to Aljazeera that with the oversight of President Xi, “Control of the press is at an unprecedented level.”

As the coronavirus’ spread in Wuhan seems to have hit a turning point for the better, the Chinese public is already seeing the campaign to avert the blame for the virus away from the Communist Party’s growing cult of personality. President Xi recently visited Wuhan’s hospitals and conducted video conferences with patients in the region in a “choreographed victory lap” according to The Washington Post. Furthermore, reports from Channel News Asia as well as analysis conducted by The Center for American Progress note that both  investigations and convictions are underway for corrupted officials and irresponsible leaders in Wuhan who did not respond accordingly to the coronavirus outbreak. According to The Center for American Progress, this may very well be an effort to redirect the pointed finger of accusation away from Beijing and toward the city of Wuhan.

With a political cleanup on the way and President Xi commending the Communist Party’s response to the coronavirus, the developing campaign may very well result in a further centralization of power into the office of President Xi. Lower-level officials in Wuhan, afterall, may not be trusted with the authority that Beijing itself must ultimately wield. President Xi may not only walk away from the crisis unscathed, he may use the coronavirus as fuel for his growing cult of personality. President Xi is presenting an argument that he must be trusted with the power that others, corrupt and lackluster politicians, cannot.

Following his press tour in Wuhan, a state-run media organization wrote of President Xi’s dedication, noting that he had a “pure heart like a newborn’s that always puts the people as his number one priority.”

A Partnership Story

From Executive Director, Dan Chung

Crossing Borders is fueled by tremendous support from people around the world. I have traveled far and wide to meet and work with many of them and through my travels, I’ve found inspiration and deep friendships.

This has been one of the biggest blessings of working for Crossing Borders full-time. I’ve met so many like-minded individuals with the passion and drive to show the compassion of Christ to North Korean refugees. This month, I thought it would be an encouragement to highlight one of my interactions on our blog.

It was a series of coincidences that drew me to one of our strongest supporters and, now, an integral part of our team, Charlene from Glendale, California. A few years back, she was convicted to support a ministry that addressed the needs of both North Koreans and orphans. They searched the internet and found another organization who eventually referred them over to Crossing Borders. There was one problem: they couldn’t find our website.

As recently as five years ago, Crossing Borders did not have much of a web presence. In fact, we purposely made our website unsearchable on any search engine for security reasons. Unless someone had our specific web address, there was no way for us to be found. This was not good for business.

Charlene’s husband happened to have expertise for this problem. He was an internet marketing manager specializing in things like web design and search engine optimization. When he eventually found our website, he wondered if we were still in operation. The website was out of date and was in need of a major rebuild. 

Charlene emailed us and I happened to be tasked with answering her email. It was a Friday and we spoke for about 15 minutes. I thought it was a generally positive interaction so I was relatively hopeful that they’d support us. 

Charlene and her husband with a group of North Korean children.

The next day was a Saturday and I was about to play basketball with some friends. I received a text from Charlene with a picture. She asked if the people in the picture looked familiar. Charlene and her husband had some friends over. Charlene had been sharing with her friends about how God was moving her and her husband to support a ministry that involved North Korea and orphans. She had shared about her interactions with Crossing Borders.

Charlene’s friends happened to be my cousin, Nina, and her husband. The picture that Charlene texted me was with all of them around her dinner table. My cousin assured Charlene and her husband that Crossing Borders was still in operation and that they knew me well.

Over the next few years, Charlene, her husband, and my cousin’s family proceeded to run a number of fundraisers in Southern California that raised tens of thousands of dollars on behalf of Crossing Borders. I was able to share about Crossing Borders’ mission at Charlene’s church and many of the church members have been active volunteers for us both in the US and in China.

Charlene’s husband has personally helped Crossing Borders build a strong presence online and has pushed us to revamp our website. It is much easier to find Crossing Borders via Google and other search engines. He now serves as a member of our board of directors and guides Crossing Borders’ future.

It all started with an inkling in Charlene and her husband’s hearts. They felt compelled to search. They felt led to reach out to us and to share. Once they committed, they made themselves an indispensable part of what we do.

We used to say that Crossing Borders is a meeting place for refugees and the world. Crossing Borders has also become a place where people from different backgrounds and locations find kindred spirits. Once we find each other, there’s no telling what can be accomplished.

Coronavirus: The Unexpected Danger for North Korean Refugees

The reports from China’s health crisis as the number of infected individuals and casualties steadily increase, seemingly without any indication of slowing, are frightening to say the least. Crossing Borders missionaries returning to the United States from South Korea following the coronavirus outbreak reported that they were subject to intense questioning regarding their travel itinerary and current health. We are relieved to state that as of now, no one in Crossing Borders’ staff - both domestic or abroad - have been affected by the virus.

The Chinese government is under more scrutiny and criticism than ever as cases of the coronavirus infection have spread abroad and even to the United States. There are indications that the nation’s leaders may have hindered the process of declaring the virus as an emergency, as first cases are noted to have been discovered as early as December 26, 2019. Two cities, Wuhan and Huanggang, have been officially quarantined while major forms of transportation throughout the region of the virus’ outbreak have been put on hold. 

Currently, China’s Health Commission has assessed that up to 24,324* people are confirmed to have been infected. The rapid transmission of the virus between individuals and the difficulty of identifying infections has revealed significant issues in China’s healthcare system. The inequality of resources and shortage of available medical supplies in regions with lower priority has contributed to ineffective infrastructures designed to prevent, diagnose and treat individuals. Throughout the Hubei province, citizens are lined up outside of hospitals in cold and in rain, waiting to have their symptoms tested. Experts note that the rate of infection may actually be much higher than reported, as well as the mortality rate as the death toll is almost at 500* in China. An antiviral treatment is yet to be discovered.

The Chinese government’s response to the virus has been to seal off multiple cities, close down schools, and keep close checks on citizens by enacting stricter regulations on travel with specific regions in complete lockdown. Overall, security in the country has increased significantly. Affecting over 56 million people in regions most affected by the coronavirus, these processes may, however, make it more difficult for supplies to reach hospitals and treatment centers. Expanded surveillance and monitoring of individuals has been enacted by the government for tracing the travel and interactions of the infected individuals. The vast network of China’s facial recognition software and digital records are being used to track individuals’ usage of public transportation and travel.

For North Korean refugees, an incredibly vulnerable population of up to 200,000 people in China, the coronavirus has several expected and unforeseen impacts. On the one hand, access to medical treatment is already precariously low for North Koreans, who are labeled “illegal economic migrants” by the Chinese government. In a country where identification is needed for every health clinic, North Korean refugees cannot seek help without risking arrest and repatriation. This not only means that seeking treatment is an impossibility for North Koreans in hiding, but that refugees will be unable to even seek diagnoses for potential symptoms of the coronavirus. For many refugees in Crossing Borders’ network who often live in remote, impoverished villages without regular access to healthcare, it may not be possible for individuals to gain access to medical supplies.

A second and perhaps equally dangerous impact of the coronavirus outbreak is a significant increase in the level of security in China as the government has expanded its normal level of surveillance and population control. North Korean refugees in hiding will have to hide and evade authorities more cautiously than ever, perhaps even avoid regular modes of travel that do not require identification, such as local buses or specific main roads in their region. For North Koreans who need to travel for safety or meet with their community, danger of arrest will be higher than normal.

Please pray for the North Korean refugees who are reaping unexpected and dangerous consequences of the coronavirus outbreak in China. Please pray for their health and security, that they might be protected from both sickness and those who might do them even greater harm.

* Please note that statistics reported in this post were based on the latest updates on Feb 5, 2020. Numbers may have increased significantly.

Additional Resources:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-marshals-the-power-of-its-surveillance-state-in-fight-against-coronavirus-11580831633

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/05/world/asia/coronavirus-china.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus&variant=show&region=TOP_BANNER&context=Menu

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/02/01/early-missteps-state-secrecy-china-likely-allowed-coronavirus-spread-farther-faster/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/chaos-coronavirus-exposes-china-healthcare-weaknesses-200129050408104.html

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/01/30/801142924/coronavirus-has-now-spread-to-all-regions-of-mainland-china

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-02-04/will-china-s-coronavirus-quarantine-halt-the-virus

Messages from the Field: Crossing Borders Missionaries in China

The following is an excerpt from a report sent to us from dedicated Crossing Borders missionaries who were in China throughout 2019. While a few details have been changed or edited in this transcription, we hope it will encourage you to continue in prayers for our faithful workers and the North Korean women and children they serve.

“When visiting the refugees in their village, a few of the women asked us if North Korea and the United States will go to war. Knowing that the United States had a much larger military, they worried for their families in North Korea. We learned that there are secret channels online where North Korean refugees in China and defectors to South Korea share a forum together. Over 300 of them chat throughout all hours of the day. It is one of the primary ways that the refugee women learn about what is going on in the world.

The refugee women have shared news about North Korea with us. Back home in their country, families are being required to donate a pig to the government annually. The North Korean people have had a history of stifling complaints against their rulers, but their patience is thinning. Their frustration and discontent may be growing.

According to sanctions enacted by the United Nations, we are learning that North Korean workers are now legally required to leave China. However, North Korean workers sent by the government are still present. Some North Korean women sent by their government to run a North Korean restaurant are now pretending to be Chinese and speaking Mandarin when serving customers. On the river bordering China and North Korea, there is a great deal of smuggling now. Large trucks line up along the riverbank at night.

We were informed that providing ministry for children is now illegal in Chinese churches. In a Chinese-Korean church in one of the major cities, government officials from the Religious Bureau burst into a service and began to take pictures and video of the congregants. The church had to quickly hide its small children’s ministry on a different floor of the building space.

The pastor of the church told us that the government’s interference is growing more and more aggressive. This was their first time being interrupted in service, and churches throughout the region are being inspected regularly. We will be more careful and be wary of visiting any churches going forward.”

Beginning 2020: North Koreans Ask For Your Prayer

The fuel for Crossing Borders’ ongoing work in ministry is not grit, wisdom, or good work. While our staff and missionaries thoroughly believe that we must put forth maximal effort in serving North Korean refugees and their children, we are often faced with the reality that in circumstances outside of our control and the oppressive, overwhelming odds of working in places hostile to our ministry, we need help.

In this, Crossing Borders turns to prayer. Our prayers are often for grit, wisdom, and good work - but they extend further than these requests as well. We ask for guidance, for barriers to be overcome, for safety or protection, for hearts to be opened and lives to be transformed. Again and again, prayer has yielded in good fruit and understanding for our workers and our community. As we focus on sharing the gospel to the unreached again in 2020, our staff in the US and overseas continue to ask for your support through prayer.

This past year, Crossing Borders staff made an effort to better understand and pray for the refugees in our network. With the vast number of women and children who are being served, it is often tempting to lose track of how many are being cared for with personal ministry. As a part of this endeavor to serve more intentionally, Crossing Borders missionaries asked the North Korean women in China to share some answers to questions we had about their lives. Each of these answers were collected over the year in interviews and surveys.

We would like to share their thoughts and feelings with you, along with something very important: their prayer requests.

As you begin 2020, please join us in reflecting on these individuals. They are in desperate need of loving prayers on their behalf.

2020 Prayer Requests:

Lois (Age 48, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of school days, living with my siblings.): To be used as an instrument of the Lord in serving missionally. For my family in North Korea to be healthy.

Victoria (Age 48, My health is affected by sciatica. Sometimes the right side of my body feels paralyzed.): For unity between North and South Korea for the sake of sharing the gospel. For my family - husband, son, daughter - to accept Christ. That I will lead a godly life.

Emily (Age 35, My favorite animals are deer.): Please pray that God would open the doors in North Korea for the gospel to save its people.

Esther (Age 43, I love the color lavender.): For my husband to become a Christian, for my children to grow healthy, for unity between North and South Korea.

Ellie (Age 50, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of being a young woman, spending time by the sea.): Being a young woman, spending time by the sea): Please pray that my children will be able to go to college. Please also pray that the nightmares I have of North Korean detention centers would go away.

Zina (Age 52, I am sad when I am fighting with my husband and I see my daughter crying because we are arguing.): Please pray over my daughter’s headaches and stomach troubles. Husband’s left knee is infected. Please pray for family to be one in faith.

Miriam (Age 52, My favorite foods are noodles and octopus): Please pray for my husband’s health and that my son will be a child of God.

Carolyn (Age 50, My health is affected by bronchial asthma): I hope my family will learn to pray and to evangelize. Please pray that my husband would quit smoking and that my children will accept Christ.

Cindy (Age 51, When I remember my home in North Korea, I think of my mother’s 60th birthday with our family): For my family to accept faith, for my family to be harmonious. I pray that I would not become greedy and think of God first.

Elizabeth (Age 49, I am happiest when I see my family in harmony because of God’s grace): Please pray for our local church, for my children’s future and my husband’s health.

Begin Again

On December 31, 2002, the night before my best friend Mike Kim took a one-way flight to China, I stood on his porch to say goodbye to him, not knowing if or when I’d see him again. We had no aspirations of building an organization. We wouldn’t name our little project until a year or two later. All we knew was that we wanted to help North Koreans in peril.

It was a cold Chicago night and as I stood there, I didn’t know what to say. So I spoke from the heart.

“I’m proud of you,” I told him as we said our goodbyes.

Both our lives would never be the same when Mike stepped on that flight and Crossing Borders was born. We were 26-years-old and too naive to know what we didn’t know. We didn’t know how to run an organization. We didn’t know how to speak either Korean or Chinese. We didn’t know how to help people with trauma. We didn’t know Chinese culture. But for no reason at all, we were hopeful.

I wish I felt this childlike optimism about our plans for Elim House this year but, to be honest, I didn’t. I am excited to start a new chapter of our work and am elated at the response from our donors. However, I know all too well the difficulty of starting anew.

When I went to South Korea this year, I could feel the joys of a place to begin incredible new work. But I could also feel the impending challenges of beginning again.

Not all of the differences of working in a new country are negative. In South Korea, Elim House will be completely above ground - a legal nonprofit organization. For Crossing Borders’ entire existence, everything we have done in China has been secretive and underground. There was never any registration process. In South Korea, Crossing Borders will enjoy the benefits of having an officially recognized organization. Our money will be protected in South Korean banks. Any misconduct, neglect, or abuse from staff in South Korea will have a clear, legal consequences.

South Korea is also a country with an impressive standard of living. South Korea’s gross domestic product was ranked 12th in the world in 2018. It is an incredibly modernized and urban country with vast resources, extensive means of transportation, and one of the highest ranked internet speeds in the world.

But upon landing in Korea in 2018, our staff was met with piles of paperwork and administrative issues that we had to learn afresh. The sheer number of legal technicalities, governmental processes for nonprofits, meetings with partner organizations was overwhelming. Crossing Borders now has to follow rules and regulations outside of the ones we have set for ourselves.

It is also a reality that the wealth of South Korea and its living standard raises the costs and expenses for a small nonprofit working in the country. It is more expensive to work in South Korea than it is to work in China. Housing costs for Elim House will comprise the bulk of the project’s expenses. We will also have to pay our staff in South Korea a considerable amount more than our staff in China. For our staff in the US who worked around the clock to raise the funds for Crossing Borders’ first year in South Korea in addition to the money needed to keep ongoing work in China, the prospect of sustaining a second nonprofit’s activities are an immense source of pressure.

These are things that kept me up at night this year. I’ve woken up with my head full of worry, restless, exhausted, anxious. There have been moments when my hopes and aspirations for our new work in South Korea have been superseded by the fears that accompany this new venture.

But in such moments when I have felt my heart overburdened, I’ve been overtaken by comfort that isn't based on just accounting numbers and projections. This kind of rest is not broken by the great difficulties ahead. It is steadfast.

In the words of Tim Keller, “We need rest from the anxiety and strain of our overwork, which is really an attempt to justify ourselves—to gain the money or the status or the reputation we think we have to have.”

For Crossing Borders, the work is not always about the sum of our individual efforts and abilities. Our successes have never been measured by the talent of our staff or the wisdom of each of our leaders. We have been saved left and right, again and again, by miracles large and small. These miracles speak loudly to us. They remind us that we are not in control, that this work is something more than planning and numbers. This work is about healing. It is about deliverance. What has sustained our mission in a hostile country like China, which is eradicating faithful nonprofits left and right, is not simply our ability.

In the grand scheme of our work, our fate has never been in our hands. But we are still here. For this, we can’t claim the credit. We only have thanks.

So as much as we try to plan, prepare and work, we know that we are in God’s hands. These are, in the difficulties and challenges ahead, hands we trust. We may not have the same optimism of 2002, the bright eyes for things to come. But we have learned this incredible lesson again and again in the last 17 years of Crossing Borders.

Grief and Joy in the Unexpected: The Testimony of a North Korean Refugee

“My days were filled with sighs. I would wake up each morning thinking, ‘How will I live through today?’ I would make small amounts of money. And each time I looked at the money I made, I would consider how I could use it to return to North Korea. My stomach felt like it was tied in knots.”

“Lydia,” a North Korean refugee living in China, wondered how she could go on with life. She had fled across the border from North Korea in 2005 to work for just one month before returning home. When Lydia was deceived and sold to a Chinese husband by traffickers, that one month stretched into many long years. In her first year in China, Lydia gave birth to a baby girl. Trapped in a country where she didn’t speak the language, where she didn’t know East from West, friend from foe, Lydia spent nine years in despair. She had left behind a twelve-year-old son in North Korea. A son who had expected her to come back in 30 days. She wonders about him even today. How much of his life he must have lived through now, how he must have become a man, how he did not have her by his side for so much of his struggles and triumphs. Lydia mourns the time that has passed.

Lydia pondered life in this well of despair as she travelled out of her small, rural village to meet another North Korean refugee in 2015. She and her friend, on a fateful afternoon in winter, encountered a Korean man in the backseat of a Chinese bus. It was rare to meet a Korean-speaking man in this back country region of China. Lydia had not seen a Korean man for almost a decade. The man was a pastor, a Korean-Chinese missionary working with Crossing Borders who was passing through her town. He had heard a few rumors that North Korean refugees were living in small villages. The chance meeting was the beginning of a new ministry that would expand over the next five years.

Since meeting Lydia, this missionary and Crossing Borders has planted small community churches with over 100 North Korean refugees in hiding just like Lydia. Lydia shared what it was like to meet Crossing Borders’ pastor. “It was amazing. I met our pastor on the bus and heard the gospel of God’s grace. I’d never imagined hearing about who Jesus was. I felt joy. I couldn’t understand why I felt happiness.”

Lydia had been drowning in sorrows of a life unplanned and unwanted. Suddenly, the unexpected arrival of grace, mercy and compassion changed her life forever. A ray of life and hope had burst into her soul.

“I used to like music in North Korea,” Lydia shared with Crossing Borders staff. “Praise songs moved my heart when I heard them for the first time. They gave me strength. They were blessings. A year after meeting our pastor, God’s Word began to speak to my heart.” Lydia had the opportunity to have services with Crossing Borders missionaries twice every month. She came to accept it by faith in early 2016. Today, Lydia is a leader of a small group of North Korean women who are learning about the Bible together. She is a loving and caring sister for many other women who has experienced the same depression and grief she survived. 

“I love Thessalonians 5:16,” Lydia says. “‘Be joyful always.’ I wrote it down on a piece of paper and hung it up on my wall.”

Other North Koreans are not the only recipients of Lydia’s sudden wealth of joy. Lydia has shared the gospel with her family. Her husband, once a stranger who had purchased her, is now a believer of the Christian faith. As Lydia prays in Korean, he prays in Chinese. The two of them share the gospel with other North Koreans they encounter. Lydia’s daughter, “Heidi,” has heard the gospel as well. Out of the many half-North Korean children in Crossing Borders’ network, Heidi is one of the most educated on the Bible and the gospel. Heidi has also learned about her mother’s tragic past. It was not an easy story for Lydia to share with her daughter.

“I used to regret coming to China,” Lydia reflected. “But I felt that it was right to tell my daughter that she has a brother in North Korea. I told her that I am a refugee, that I have no citizenship in China.”

Heidi and her mother do not always see eye to eye. The two of them are not only separated by culture, but the perspectives of mother and daughter. Lydia has often remarked on the difficulties of mothering and raising her child in a world so vastly different from the one she was raised in. Many parents around the world may share her same fears and frustrations. Nonetheless, there is a newfound gratefulness in Lydia’s own heart. Heidi carries her mother’s hopes.

When asked what she wants to grow up to be, Heidi’s answer was firm. “I want to be a missionary to North Korea. I want to meet my brother.” Heidi wants to share the gospel with her family one day.

This year, Crossing Borders raised funds to provide many of the North Korean children in our network with scholarships. Heidi is one of those recipients. We long to support her and her family with both the gospel and the means to build a life in China.

“I believe that God’s love cannot compare with anything else in the world,” Lydia remarked. Crossing Borders is grateful for stories like hers. They are testimonies to the incredible power of the gospel.

Sinicization and Security

It is needless to say that any email beginning with the lone header “Current Situation” in bold letters can be slightly unsettling. Crossing Borders staff received an email starting with these exact words not long ago from missionaries operating in China. Enclosed were details of an ongoing phenomenon in the country - a situation that has been unfolding since 2015.

In May 2015, Chinese government officials attended the Central United Front Work Conference. The meeting was held to discuss internal influences in China as well as the ongoing external influences that affected the Chinese people from beyond the country’s borders. Presiding over the conference was President Xi Jinping himself, in the second year of his presidency. It was, as reported by scholars of the Department of Religious Studies at Fudan University, at this conference that President Xi first began the discussion of “guiding religions in the direction of sinicization.”

Sinicization, as described by Bitter Winter, a publication focusing on human rights activism in China, is the process of coercing or establishing leaders of organized influences to “operate within a framework of strategies and objectives indicated by the [Communist Party of China].” Generally speaking, it is the effort of the Chinese government to hold authority over national, influential organizations and their corresponding influence on the Chinese people. One such influence that was and is regularly organized en masse throughout the country is religion. But controlling religious influence has posed a problem to the Communist Party.

The results of the Communist Party’s ongoing efforts to control religious influence and its organization have recently made headlines. In October 2019, an exposė in the New York Times revealed a collection of over 400 leaked pages documenting the Chinese government’s ongoing mass detention and imprisonment of over one million Uighur Muslims in Northwest China. The camps are aimed to indoctrinate government values on Muslims in the region. Family members of those detained, including their children who were left behind, were given documents to precisely explain why these “treatments” or “schools” could not be visited or expect release. Such camps and their processes, the Communist Party argued, were for the betterment of society.

It should be noted that the same region in which this internment is occurring today, Xinjiang, has seen a 93 percent increase in its internal security budget from 2017 to 2018 as these internment camps expanded. In fact, China’s domestic security spending, according to The Jamestown Foundation, has increased almost ten-fold in the last decade. The Chinese government is responding to its need to control and monitor its people more closely than ever. It was also from the region of Xinjiang that a leading Communist Party official, Zhang Chunxian, stated that the sinicization of religions was a necessity to prevent the infiltration of destructive social activities. The goal of increased security was to "immerse religions in the Chinese culture... in order that religions can develop in a normal and healthy way," noted Zhang in the South China Morning Post in 2015.

Readers should be cautioned to believe that this work of the Communist Party to control religious development and its core ideologies is illogical or simply oppressive without reason. The Central United Front Work Conference of 2015 was clear in the purpose of religious control within China. As spoken by President Xi, the efforts of the Communist Party are to “resolutely guard against the infiltration of Western ideology, and consciously resist the influence of extremist thought.” Religious control exerted by the Communist Party is a preventative measure against an influence that cannot be controlled or organized in a massive population of over one billion citizens. The unpredictability and potential subversion of core communist values through religion is not appealing to a government focused on action, order and prosperity. However, it is this same mentality that has resulted in religious human rights abuses that are taking place today in the nation.

The pressure on religion in China is not only limited to Northwest regions where there are large populations of Muslim believers. Reports from Beijing, according to the Washington Examiner in July 2019, have stated that Arabic symbols were forcibly removed from public spaces throughout the city. The effort, according to the Examiner, is for the enculturation of the Chinese language in the Arabic population. Such stringent control further extends to Christian churches. In 2016, the New York Times wrote about how churches had been “decapitated” as their steeples were forcibly removed. The Business Insider reports that many churches were ordered to install facial-recognition devices that monitored their congregants’ activities within their buildings in 2018. According to the Acton Institute, state-run Christian facilities were officially ordered to remove any displays of the Ten Commandments as of September 2019 and to replace them with quotes by President Xi upholding Communist values. The Professor of World Christianity at Duke Divinity School, Xi Lian, noted that in 2019, China is approaching a “reversal of the somewhat tolerant religious policy of the Deng Xiaoping era and a return to the Mao-era hostility toward all forms of organized religion.”

It is a tumultuous time for Chinese Christian believers. As reported by the Council on Foreign Relations, The number of Christian Protestants in China has increased by approximately 10 percent annually since 1979 and the nation will have the world’s largest population of Christians by 2030. Ironically, with the expansion of powers in the Communist Party, the nation is also approaching a time when religion will be greatly condemned.

Even state-sanctioned churches have begun to self-criticize the “Western” elements of Christianity, upholding nationalistic core values as primary objectives in religion. In a public speech recorded by the South China Morning Post in March 2019, Xu Xiaohong, chairman of a government-sanctioned and state-approved Protestant church, noted that “Christianity was spread widely to China along with the colonial invasion of Western powers… that’s why [Chinese nationals] have the saying: ‘one more Christian, one less Chinese.’”

In this past month, Crossing Borders staff received the email entitled “Current Situation” with grim faces and folded arms. The report enclosed detailed the ongoing closures of churches, the persecution and subsequent evacuation of missionaries, the ongoing fear present on the field for foreign and Chinese Christians alike. With ongoing research, the persecution of religion in China seems all the more likely as long as the nation continues to focus on the growth of nationalism. Concurrently, the tension and unavoidable fear that the difficulty of working in China will inhibit the spread of Crossing Borders’ refugee network is consistently palpable. Looking forward to 2020, it is very possible that the efforts of sharing the gospel to North Koreans in China will grow more difficult.

But simultaneously, there are incredible undercurrents to be noted. Crossing Borders is amazed at the dedication of field workers who are risking everything to minister to North Korean refugees and their children. Crossing Borders served the largest population of North Korean women and children to be gathered in China thus far, 92 North Korean women and children, at an annual retreat in 2019. It is incredible to see, furthermore, that the network of North Korean refugees in Crossing Borders’ care is growing faster than ever as persecuted, fearful women and children are more readily accepting the faith than ever. Over 140 North Korean women and children were served throughout 2019. These are clear indications that the need for the gospel is present in China, that Crossing Borders always has reasons to remain thankful and hopeful.

The possibility that 2020 will be more dangerous and that Crossing Borders will need more help to conduct its work in China is more than likely. But the hope and faith of Crossing Borders grows each time the gospel is shared. This is the heart of many Christian believers in China in an era of oppression. All of our work thus far has been more than a privilege. Crossing Borders will continue to serve, if only to reach one more person in this period of great change and persecution.

People Like Priscilla: North Korean Refugee Stories

When bringing new North Korean refugees into Crossing Borders’ community in China, missionaries conduct introductory surveys. The responses of women who complete these short paper forms are often succinct, lacking description or detail. It is rare to see North Korean women describe themselves in anything more than a few sentences. Their stories, when recorded in such small, syllabic blocks of Korean, narrow their entire lives into short, bullet point facts.

“Priscilla” is a North Korean refugee woman who shared her testimony with Crossing Borders through such surveys. Her story can be summarized quite quickly. 

Priscilla has lived in China for almost 15 years. Priscilla arrived in China in 2004, just a few days before her 34th birthday. She escaped North Korea to make money. Priscilla was deceived and trafficked to a Chinese husband who is unable to work. She gave birth to one daughter almost exactly a year after her arrival in China. Priscilla met Crossing Borders’ field pastor and accepted the Christian gospel in 2016. Priscilla attended the first Crossing Borders retreat for North Korean women and their children that same year and has returned to the annual gathering every year since.

Almost every week, Crossing Borders staff reads profiles like Priscilla’s.

Here are just a few short testimonies of refugees’ life-altering escapes from North Korea.

“Woman H" fled to China in 1998 not knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 50 years old. She has lived in China for 21 years.

“Woman G" fled to China in 2000 knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 35 years old. She has lived in China for 19 years.

“Woman C" fled to China in 2003 because her business had failed in North Korea. In 2019, she is 51 years old. She has lived in China for 16 years.

“Woman D" fled to China in 2004 to earn money and return home. She was deceived and sold. In 2019, she is 43 years old. She has lived in China for 15 years.

“Woman A" fled to China in 2005 to earn money and return home. In 2019, she is 54 years old. She has lived in China for 14 years.

“Woman E" fled to China in 2014 knowing that she would be trafficked. In 2019, she is 29 years old. She has lived in China for 5 years.

There are an estimated 200,000 North Korean refugees in China. Approximately 70 percent of them are women, 80 percent of these women have been trafficked. Even as Crossing Borders has collected over a thousand North Korean testimonies, it is nothing compared to the sheer scale of individual stories of struggle that have yet to be shared.

But even in the course of reading the concise, summarized facts of just a few refugee women’s lives, it is easy to become numbed by their tragedies. It is hard to convey the trauma, or even the perseverance and fortitude, in a person’s life when described in a few sentences. Encapsulated in the short, brief facts are entire lifetimes of fears, triumphs or struggles. Again and again, the staff at Crossing Borders must hold to reminders that these women do not exist on paper. They are people, flesh and blood, who are striving to find hope and peace.

This year, Crossing Borders missionaries spent time asking personal questions to women like Priscilla. Priscilla shared that her favorite food is fish. She loved the food at the 2019 retreat, where seafood was served almost daily. Priscilla’s favorite color is pink. Her favorite animals are puppies. When she reminisces about her hometown, she remembers being a happy, young, unmarried woman. Today, Priscilla is most joyful when she remembers that she is going to heaven.

Priscilla also spends time during retreats sharing about her family. Priscilla’s only daughter, “Julie” is a lot like her mother. Both of them have long, straight black hair that extends to their hips. Both braid their hair into intricate ropes that hang at their back as they sit with their peers at Crossing Borders’ retreats, listening to messages, participating in prayers, receiving counseling. Julie is only 14-years-old, but both mother and daughter have strands of clear, white hair that crisscross with the black - a small sign of the anxiety and difficulty they have endured living in China.

Since accepting the gospel, Priscilla has been praying for her daughter. This year, she asked for prayers that Julie would grow in self-esteem. She, at times, chooses to ask a friend to help speak to teachers on her behalf. Julie, though vibrant, is often shy and can be seen practicing dance by herself in a corner. Both she and her mother are excellent dancers, but while Priscilla is bold and confident in her talents, Julie is reserved and quiet. Julie, however, has learned much about the gospel and the Bible from her mom. Crossing Borders hopes that both of them will continue to grow together.

Crossing Borders is thankful for each and every life that has been touched by the ministry in China. Again and again, we find that their stories bear overwhelming burdens. We also find, however, that they are again and again greatly relieved, amazed and astounded by the hope of the gospel.

Fighting in the Dark: North Korean Defectors and the Mental Health Crisis

It may be surprising to discover that the government of North Korea has a very clear-cut definition of mental health. In the words of the Korean Neuropsychiatric Association’s (KNA) study on the question “What is it to be mentally healthy from the North Korean refugee’s perspective?” the answer is very simple. The definition is loyalty. Loyalty to the state, absolute obedience to the government, subservience to North Korea’s deified leaders.

“A mentally healthy person in North Korea is someone who is faithful to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Someone who is forever and ever faithful,” describes a North Korean defector in the KNA’s interviews.

Imagine then, the confusion of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea, one of the most modern countries in the world. The South Korean government passed the Mental Health Act in 1995, a law that caused a five-fold increase in the number of facilities treating mental health from 2001 to 2015. Fleeing North Koreans arrive into a fast-paced world that does not only assess physical health, but mental and emotional well-being - entirely foreign concepts. The adjustment for North Koreans is far from simple, especially due the abuses they endured at the hands of their own government. 

According to research conducted by the KNA in 2017, “a longer amount of time in North Korea may be associated with greater instances of various types of trauma, such as political brainwashing, imprisonment, torture, and long-term famine, thus exacerbating the experience of mental illness.” The struggle of North Koreans with mental health and emotional well-being is unsurprising. According to Crossing Borders’ own surveys with medical experts, 100% of the North Korean refugees in Crossing Borders’ network in China suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Recent research conducted in the population of North Koreans in South Korea suggests that there is a high correlation of PTSD with clinical depression and severe anxiety. There are various reasons for this phenomenon. Approximately 49.3 percent of defectors arriving from North Korea describe witnessing or undergoing traumatic events including but not limited to physical abuse, capture and arrest, or witnessing death. Fleeing North Koreans over the age of 20 have escaped one of the most devastating famines in recent history, a famine that is estimated to have claimed the lives of up to three million North Koreans. This is also a famine that was largely unrecognized by North Korea’s communist government, which relentlessly brainwashed its population with false history, propaganda and reasons for mistrust.

Defectors, specifically, have also risked imprisonment, abuse, torture and execution at the hands of authorities. Chronic feelings of helplessness can be compounded by the trauma of leaving or abandoning family members, as well as the constant anxiety of being spied upon or arrested by persecutors in police states like North Korea and China. In the population of over 33,000 North Korean defectors in South Korea, up to 49 percent of the population may suffer from depression without clinical aid.

The International Journal of Mental Health Systems assessed the condition of South Korea’s mental health support at the community level in 2018. Their conclusions, while supportive of the Korean mental health structure, make a number of critical comments on the weaknesses of South Korea’s current mental health model. While South Korea’s number of mental health facilities has expanded dramatically in the last 15 years, the number of in-patients in mental hospitals are ten times those of people accommodated in mental health facilities aimed toward rehabilitation. This focus on hospitalizing individuals has led to 1449 mental health hospitals which account for approximately 68 percent of all mental health institutions. Community-level facilities that can effectively respond to everyday services and help individuals without in-patient care are largely unavailable, a critical issue. “As a result, many patients become long-term residents at these facilities and lose their will to return to their own communities. The provision of mental health services also is neither sufficient nor well organized at the community level for the entire population,” writes the International Journal of Mental Health Systems.

It should be noted that hospitalization in mental health facilities has a particular connotation for North Koreans. Psychiatric hospitals in North Korea are referred to as “Ward No. 49” and largely built in secluded, rural regions of the country. No information on in-patients is made available once they are committed. According to one North Korean refugee, “As far as I know, it is almost certain death when you go there. Almost everyone thinks that is the case. If you do not do as you are told, they beat and torture you.” North Koreans may be more wary of approaching mental health facilities that require them to be hospitalized.

The issue of mental health is particular to South Korea, which has the second largest suicide rate in the world and where only one in ten individuals will seek clinical help. But the problem is further complicated for North Korean defectors, whose adjustment to understanding and seeking help for mental health comes with monumental obstacles. According to The Journal of Preventive Medicine & Public Health, there is a substantial lack of literacy and knowledge regarding mental illnesses in the population of North Koreans in South Korea. While there are great improvements in their general understanding of mental health with re-education in Hanawon programs that help North Koreans resettle in South Korea, North Korean defectors do not have consistent follow-up in the information they are provided. According to researchers, more education and assistance is needed. Surveys conducted with North Koreans in South Korea indicate that 70 percent of North Korean defectors do not recognize the purpose behind of counseling centers or psychological counselors. Approximately 58 percent of them do not know the role of psychiatrists in their community.

Crossing Borders’ plan to open Elim House in 2020 is specifically to provide an answer to this ongoing mental health crisis in the North Korean population in South Korea. Embedded in the local community, Crossing Borders will staff a counselor to provide advice, information and clinical aid to North Korean defectors. The goal to establish a community of North Koreans who can share with one another and listen to one another is to respond to North Korean defectors’ present lack of social and emotional support. Crossing Borders hopes to be a resource of mental and emotional stability for this struggling population.

To learn more about Elim House or to support this project for North Koreans in South Korea, please visit

www.CrossingBordersNK.org/ElimHouse

Words, Weapons, and War

The sitting leaders of North Korea and the United States had never met face-to-face prior to June 12, 2018. The purpose of their first meeting in 2018 was to establish a long-term relationship to build lasting peace in East Asia. President Trump described the summit as a monumental success. He was not alone. President Trump was later nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by both Japanese Prime Minister Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in for his conduct at a historic summit.

George Stephanopoulos, sat with President Donald Trump moments after his historic meeting with Kim Jong Un. Stephanopoulos asked a series of questions focusing on North Korea’s weapons.

“Is [Kim Jong Un] going to stop testing,” Stephanopoulos referred to North Korean ballistic missile launches. The North Korean leader tested 10 missiles throughout 2017, a record for the country.

The President’s answer for Stephanopoulos was sure and confident. "He’s committed to not starting again. That won’t be happening. He means it."

But since Trump and Kim’s initial summit in Singapore, North Korea has been launching missiles and reviving old test sites that they destroyed. Accusations have been lobbed by both sides at each other’s negotiators. All while the US sanctions have choked North Korea of its resources. North Korea’s next move is unclear but the country seems to be shifting strategy.

When President Trump and Kim Jong Un held a second summit in Vietnam in February of 2019, both leaders left the negotiation table early without signing planned joint statements. Agreeable terms on denuclearization and sanctions could not be reached by either side. Disagreement seems to be cementing on both sides. North Korea, meanwhile seems to be restoring the very same rocket launch facilities it disarmed following recent discussions with the US. The production of fissile nuclear material, in addition, seems to have never stopped in 2018 or 2019.

As of October 2019, the North Korean government conducted 18 missile tests on nine separate occasions following the meeting between the leaders. The latest missile, launched in early October, showed signs of improving missile technology. Ankit Panda, a North Korean analyst, stated to the BBC, “North Korea's introduction of the Pukguksong-3 submarine-launched ballistic missile is a grave moment for North East Asian regional security - and a reminder of what has been lost over nearly two years of all-show-no-substance diplomacy.” The recent weapon tests and diplomatic failures have further launched a series of accusations and verbal conflicts between American and North Korean envoys not unlike the exchanges between Trump and Kim Jong Un in 2017.

As North’s chief nuclear negotiator Kim Myong Gil stated to the international community, “The US raised expectations by offering suggestions like a flexible approach... but they have disappointed us greatly and dampened our enthusiasm for negotiation by bringing nothing to the negotiation table.” According to Kim Myong Gil’s ominous frustrations, “the fate of the future [North Korea]-US dialogue depends on the US attitude, and the end of this year is its deadline.”

State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus claimed the contrary, stating that American representatives had attempted their best to begin the resolution to seven decades of conflict and disagreement. “The U.S. brought creative ideas and had good discussions,” he noted, following a failed meeting with North Korean officials.

Whether or not the claims of American diplomats’ regarding their willingness to negotiate are true or false, North Korean representatives abruptly left a summit held in Stockholm in the week following North Korea’s recent missile test expressing extreme and public frustration. North Korea's UN Ambassador Kim Song accused the United States of poisoning the United Nations Security Council with hostile attempts to usurp their sovereignty. Such attempts, he stated, would be met with “self-defensive measures.”

The immediate future of the diplomacy between North Korea and the United States remains unclear. Without having made any real concessions, North Korean leaders seem to have placed President Trump and United States leaders into a precarious position. Further refusal to give into North Korean demands could lead to more missile launches, even a nuclear test. American negotiators would be accused for their rigidity and lack of diplomacy. On the other hand, American willingness to concede sanctions or cancel military exercises due to threats and disagreement (as in May of 2018) may be perceived as weakness negotiation tactics, bent by North Korean displays of force.

On October 16th, Kim Jong Un rode a white horse to the snowy summit of Mount Paektu, a site of sacred significance to North Korea. The public and televised event was a symbolic act of power and self-reliance. The North Korean national news agency, KCNA, broadcasted the event with a promise there would be “a great operation to strike the world with wonder again and make a step forward in the Korean revolution."

The act could symbolize peace, as it did prior to Kim Jong Un’s wooing of President Trump on the international stage in 2018. It could also indicate the beginnings of North Korea’s intention to once more dedicate itself to launching more missiles, testing more nuclear explosives, as in 2017.

Watching the North Korean broadcast of Kim Jong Un, alone and surrounded by the icy mountains atop his horse, no one could know his plans, only guess and wait.

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Mia Naps: North Korean Student in China

In a bustling city in China, a group of six young North Korean students and three American missionaries meandered to various corners of the small apartment to chat, play games and to rest. No one sat near the beams of warm sunlight that streamed in from large windows. The group laughed, chatted, whispered together as the apartment air clung to the walls, thick with heat. A single fan oscillated feebly on the floor, stirring hot air and nudging plastic wrappers from Chinese crackers, American chocolates, Korean candies across the floor, inches at a time. Summer break did not mean a break from the oppressive heat waves of Chinese summer. As drowsy eyes, bobbing heads and slumping shoulders struggled to stay adrift in the heat, the visiting missionaries from America realized some pauses were needed in their schedule for sharing about the Bible.

In the midst of the young men and women chuckling with their friends was “Mia,” an 18-year-old North Korean girl who had only just finished her second day of final exams. Mia’s was still in high school. The others, who were all involved in vocational school programs or preparing for university,  had completed their academic calendars almost a full week prior. They had come to the gathering with Crossing Borders’ missionaries after full nights of sleep and restful mornings. But Mia, wrapped in her final week of school and the only one with three-hour tests in the morning, lay exhausted on the floor of the apartment, fully asleep as the other students mingled.

Crossing Borders missionaries first met Mia in 2009, when she was only eight years old. Her enthusiasm and openness to the gospel led her to memorize the entire first chapter of the book of James when she learned that she would earn a prize from the missionaries. She made friends and showed a positive disposition toward others. But Mia’s own life and her reflections on family often wear on easy smile and laughter.

Mia’s mother’s whereabouts are unknown. Crossing Borders missionaries are unsure when she left Mia and her father, whether she made it safely to South Korea, whether she is alive today. Mia’s father is an elderly man who cannot work, both he and Mia’s grandparents are very ill. Mia finds herself very worried for them, nursing them and taking care of them when she visits home. Her family has never been healthy enough to care for her. When Mia was eight-years-old, she was sent to live with a caretaker in Crossing Borders’ network. Even in her dire situation, Mia was fortunate. An estimated 30,000 North Korean children live in China, many of them without access to basic needs or even citizenship. It is likely that orphaned children do not have anyone to care for them, protect them, raise them.

But Mia is quick to look for hope in difficult circumstances. She shared that she still finds time to pray and to depend on God as she studies during the school year. She shares that she has a good roommate in her high school dormitory, doesn’t mind living with others. But Mia isn’t really close friends with any of the kids she lives with. She is most likely the only half North Korean. Mandarin is not her first language, though she is fluent.

The Crossing Borders missionaries report that Mia is an excellent student. Her studies earned her a place in an upper tier high school, and with one more year of high school remaining, she will be on track to attend university - a feat that only two other North Korean children in Crossing Borders’ network have achieved. It goes without saying that Mia’s nap on the apartment floor, her flannel draped over her face to block out the light, was well earned. Mia is studying to become a doctor.

Crossing Borders missionaries bought dinner for Mia as they walked her home one evening. Mia had skipped a meal to join them on a hot summer day after her exam. She wanted to listen into the Bible studies. She longed for the community. The missionaries bought kimbap, a Korean seaweed roll with rice and tuna, for Mia. They also took her out to have a smoothie. Mia was overjoyed. The smoothie shop as a rare treat. As Mia headed home, one of the missionaries asked Mia why she studied so hard to become a doctor. Mia’s reply was simple. “So that I can help people like my family.”

As the school year begins for children throughout America this fall, please keep the many young boys and girls in Crossing Borders’ network of North Korean orphans in your prayers and on your minds. As they struggle to overcome their obstacles and challenges alone, Crossing Borders hopes to share encouragement, boldness and strength into their lives through the gospel. Please remember kids like Mia.

Below are some ways you can consider supporting the young men and women in Crossing Borders’ network financially:

• The average tuition for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network is $80.00 per month. 

• Just $100.00 can support new clothing for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network for an entire year.

• The average rent and utilities for a North Korean child in Crossing Borders’ network is $225.00 per month.

Caretakers in Crossing Borders’ network in China who serve these children, sometimes raising them in their own homes, are supported with $150.00 per month for their ongoing efforts.

Strangers and Aliens - North Korean Defectors Struggle in Seoul

“Boa” lives about 90 minutes away from Seoul, South Korea by train. The small apartment Boa lives in is not her own. It was given to her after passing through an entry program in South Korea for North Korean defectors. Boa hasn’t been in North Korea since 2011, when she fled to China.

The apartment consists of a compact kitchen, a living space, narrow hall and a single bedroom shared between her South Korean husband, herself and their one-year-old baby. Though the space is cozy, Boa, like many North Korean refugees, is a small woman. She still has to stand on a chair to reach the top shelf of her kitchen cabinet. Boa did exactly this as she scrambled to find cups to serve her rare guest, “Diane.”

Diane is a Crossing Borders missionary who met Boa in China ten years ago, when life was difficult for Boa. When Boa made the decision to flee to South Korea in 2014, Diane, who was her mentor and friend, alongside Crossing Borders staff, connected Boa with the right people to see her through her journey on the Underground Railroad to Laos.

Half a decade later, sitting in the apartment, holding Boa’s baby boy in her arms as she laughed about old times, a stranger might mistake Diane to be Boa’s own mother. The two chatted about friends, old times, the difficulties and joys of raising children. The two ladies’ conversation, as it often did, settled on the topic of family. Boa’s parents and younger sister still live in North Korea.

“I’ve even thought about going back to China to meet them if they crossed [the border],” shared Boa. It was clear that she had considered so many possibilities, routes, plans to help her family. “But I couldn’t ask them to leave everything. I can’t even be sure if I can help them.”

Crossing Borders has met many professionals and advisors in South Korea who have reported that North Korean refugees in South Korea like Boa are in need. Many North Koreans long for a sense of stability that has eluded them for almost their entire lives. But not all of them have found community like Boa has in her church, which is mostly comprised of North Korean refugees. Not all of them have lost their North Korean accent, their feelings of loss. Like Boa, many of them continue to struggle with memories of home, fear, distant hopes of safety and security that seem impossible to attain.

The stark reality that life in South Korea can be a sharp, discouraging truth for a population of over 33,000 North Korean refugees in South Korea. In 2018, only 23.8 percent of North Korean defectors were provided settlement and livelihood benefits. According to sources who Crossing Borders has interviewed – professionals who serve North Korean refugees in nonprofits, churches and in government offices, many North Koreans who arrive in South Korea must simply wait in an unending queue for resettlement assistance.

 The International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), described North Korean defectors as a “mentally vulnerable population” in their study conducted with refugees in March 2018. According to the IJERPH, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression is incredibly high in frequency in the North Korean population in South Korea. The prevalence of depression ranges from 29 percent to 49 percent of North Koreans. Approximately 49 percent of North Koreans interviewed by the IJERPH had experienced or witnessed life-threatening events while 71 percent described traumatic events that involved death, arrest, or violent physical abuse that affected them personally or family members.

However, of North Korean refugees’ struggle with trauma do not simply come to an end with their arrival in South Korea. As the IJERPH describes, mental illnesses only worsen “when the refugees are faced with unexpected stressors after resettlement in South Korea, including acculturative stress, social discrimination, and isolation.” North Koreans, they wrote, were prone to face overwhelming feelings of helplessness and difficult adaptation to society.

Some North Koreans living in South Korea have gone as far as petitioning to the United Nations to return to their oppressive and impoverished homeland. Such refugees remarked that they could no longer stand to experience the isolation and racism in living in South Korea. In an article entitled “Forever Strangers” by The Guardian in April 2018, one North Korean refugee stated that “North Korean defectors are forever strangers in [South Korea], classified as second class citizens… North Korean defectors are treated like cigarette ashes thrown away on the streets.”

As Diane shared Crossing Borders’ plans to begin a safe house in South Korea in 2020, Boa nodded understandingly, quietly. Diane described Crossing Borders’ hopes of building community, of counseling, of caring for many North Koreans who have found themselves utterly lost in South Korea - the place they had longed to reach through strife and struggle. Boa only nodded, but did not comment. But later that evening, as the two women parted ways, Boa pulled Diane aside and said a few words. Crossing Borders staff asked Diane what Boa had said as they left.

“She said that she wished that our safe house had been here when she arrived in Korea,” Diane responded.

Click HERE to find out more about the Crossing Borders’ Elim House project for South Korea.

Dancing Through: North Korean Christians in China

When is the last time you danced?

Ecclesiastes 3:4 writes about

“a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance...”

All four are a part of Crossing Borders’ annual retreat for North Korean refugee women.

Murmurs of government oppression and tension surrounding Christianity have spread even to the remote, rural regions of China. Crossing Borders staff have exercised more caution than ever to continue efforts to minister to North Koreans in hiding in 2019. Missionaries on the field have shared that the persecution of Christians is growing each year. Reports from International Christian Concern state that in the Guizhou province, reporting “suspicious illegal religious sites and activities” to the police could be awarded with cash up to $1000 USD beginning in July. Articles from the Washington Post further verify that Christian churches in the same region are being closed and their congregants closely monitored.

It is not easy to be a faithful Christian believer in today’s China. But despite such heavy persecution, the number of North Korean women and children accepting faith is growing more than ever in Crossing Borders’ network.

This year, missionaries found themselves facing the largest attendance ever welcomed into Crossing Borders’ annual retreat. With much clamor and excitement, 41 North Korean women and 51 of their children flooded into the courtyard of a small motel in China where activities, song and conversation would fill four days and three nights. Crossing Borders staff are consistently astounded that the missionary network seems to expand rapidly every year alongside greater persecution. 

North Korean refugees are illegal defectors living in hiding in China. There seems to be little to gain from associating themselves with a body of people so persecuted in the country. But why are North Korean refugees, despite all odds, gathering more fervently in faith than ever before?

On the one hand, a painful truth for many North Korean women living in China is that there is nowhere for them to turn for the comfort and strength of community. As defectors from their homeland, the pain of rejection North Koreans endure as outsiders in hiding and the alienation they experience as illegal migrants goes unshared and uncommunicated for several years, sometimes decades. Sought out by the authorities and often treated like property, North Korean women become trapped in small towns or their very own homes, utterly alone.

The women in Crossing Borders’ network are desperate for a time and place to express themselves openly. Missionary staff can attest to the fact that the women in Crossing Borders’ retreats so often fall into weeping and reminiscing as they spend time together. The burden of the grievances committed against them has grown insurmountably between their time as citizens of North Korea and refugees in China. Their thoughts, recollections, stories are overflowing. They want to weep bitterly in the open. They want to mourn over lost family, lost time, lost children.

A missionary at the Crossing Borders retreat commented, “In our discussion groups, we asked the women about the Bible. But so often, they just ended up sharing about their lives.”

North Koreans need a place to open their hearts. They want to grieve. But the North Korena women in Crossing Borders’ network also want to laugh with sheer delight over the moments they find happiness with others. Joy can be rare. The women and children gathered each year want to express what is on their minds. But according to the accounts of Crossing Borders missionaries who have ministered to women and children in China, those gathered at Crossing Borders retreats do not only gather to share of themselves. They come to receive. 

The gospel that Crossing Borders shares is a terrifying and frightening thing for many who realize that persecution of faith is growing in China. Rejection to Christian claims and beliefs is being reinforced, even encouraged by government authorities. But the message of the Christian gospel is simultaneously deeply attractive. Under the intense and expanding pressure of rejection, Christianity somehow manages to be deeply desired, even welcoming. Why else would a religion that is largely rejected by China, an officially atheist state, have a rapidly expanding population between 93 million and 115 million Protestants, according to Purdue University’s Center on Religion and Chinese Society? For North Korean refugees, the gospel is an immense source of hope, encouragement and joy. It is the gospel that the women come to hear. It is the gospel that the North Korean women take home with them as they dive back into lives of hardship and toil. They continue to struggle, to endure.

Every year, the North Korean women who gather at Crossing Borders’ annual retreat do not only weep and laugh and mourn. They dance. Their expression of worship is a spectacle. It is a reminder of their resilience and persevering spirit. In the eye of the hurricane of doubt, pain and grief, they have found incredible hope.

This year, 92 North Korean women and children danced in the middle of a forgotten spot in China. And their faith grew.

SunYoung Against the World

As Crossing Borders’ missionaries waited in the spacious, Burger King on a busy street corner in Northeast China, their mobile phone buzzed. “SunYoung” was running late. Her apartment had flooded.

SunYoung, a North Korean orphan living alone in China, walks along bustling city streets.

SunYoung is an 18-year-old half North Korean girl living in one of the many densely populated cities of China. She does not remember much about her father, who left to work in South Korea and never returned. SunYoung’s mother was arrested and taken away when she was 11-years-old. Since the age of 11, SunYoung has been living between her relatives’ homes during school vacations and an orphanage supported by Crossing Borders. When the Crossing Borders orphanage closed at the end of 2018, SunYoung moved in with her aunt in a small one-bedroom apartment in the city. She is, however, still a recipient of Crossing Borders’ financial scholarships, receives regular counsel from missionaries, and attends small retreats with Crossing Borders staff.

This past summer marks the completion of SunYoung’s first year in a vocational school for future teachers.  SunYoung was happy to let the visiting missionaries know that her first year of school had gone very well. It was a major achievement for SunYoung, who has always been anxious about academics. 

SunYoung’s scholastic feat is particularly encouraging in light of how difficult this past year has been for her. SunYoung’s aunt, who had taken SunYoung in when the Crossing Borders orphanage closed so that she could continue her studies in the city, passed away only months after bringing SunYoung home. SunYoung’s aunt had been experiencing heart problems, visiting three different hospitals for treatment in the last two years. On the day she passed away, SunYoung’s aunt packed a lunch and sent SunYoung off to school. SunYoung’s aunt passed away while her niece was at school. SunYoung lives alone now  in her aunt’s apartment. She tells Crossing Borders’ missionaries that she spends time at night thinking about how she and her aunt used to sleep in the same room. The thought makes her afraid.

After their lunch at Burger King, the missionaries and the young men and women in Crossing Borders’ network visited SunYoung’s apartment. She had cleaned and tidied for their arrival. There were no signs of any flooding or water damage. The small space was immaculate. The group shared about the past few months, their comings and goings, work, school, and life. 

A number of the young adults discussed the difficulties of living in China, of feeling like there was no one to lean on when days grew difficult. It is not uncommon for the children in Crossing Borders’ network to feel isolation. 

“There’s no one to depend on,” commented one of the young women, sharing her struggles from the past year. “Friends are friends, but in life I feel like just have to get through it by myself.” These half North Korean youth have little to no family. One of the boys shared a story about how, late at night, with no ride home or a bus to take, he sat on a curb and scrolled through the list of contacts on his phone. He realized there was no one he could call for help. 

The children’s family members are, for the most part, struggling to make their own ends meet with debilitating illness or disabilities. Some of them shed tears as they shared how much their loved ones struggle to make ends meet. Visiting home is often more of a heartbreaking experience than a heartwarming one. Others have experienced so many moments in life where they felt as if people, sometimes even family members, were simply trying to use them or take advantage of their vulnerability. 

The group discussed their hardships. They shared why the hope of prayer and dependence on Christ might give encouragement in trying times. It was a necessary but trying reflection. Hearts needed mending and counsel. The missionaries shared scripture from the Bible.

And then, as the group prepared to leave, a pipe came loose under the sink. Water from the garbage disposal came flooding across the floor.

For a moment, the group of men and women simply watched in a mixture of awe and disgust. The smell was overwhelming. The water was almost black with compost and garbage. It spread across the linoleum matting and pooled beneath it, into layers of newspaper and paste that were hidden beneath the tiles. The flooding did not subside until the bare cement beneath it all was exposed. SunYoung’s effortful cleaning and tidying was washed away in an instant, in the wake of gushing grey water.

As the group stood stunned, SunYoung rolled up her pant legs, picked up a rag, and stepped into the mess. And with her squelching footsteps, the surrounding friends and missionaries snapped out of their trance and began to help in earnest. It took time and effort. The group had to take a break to buy more rags at a local convenience store, squeezing the contents of soaked, blackened cloths into the toilet in SunYoung’s small bathroom. The Crossing Borders missionaries balked at the realization that SunYoung had cleaned away the same stench and muck alone that same morning. It was no wonder that her eyes looked tired, her sprightly energy waned. But now, together, with many blackened hands and smelly, drenched feet, the mess was washed away once more. SunYoung was not alone.

This is the hope of Crossing Borders. 
Little can be done to erase the pain and difficulty in the lives of many North Korean children in China. In many ways, their circumstances stand against them. The challenges before them are often gargantuan, overwhelming, hurtful. But in the midst of struggle, the missionaries who serve these young men and women long to share the little compassion they can offer, to step into their lives to share encouragement, prayer and hope. For young adults like SunYoung, life is filled with looming obstacles. The helping hand offered by Crossing Borders, however, will be there nonetheless.

As the group departed, they made promises to meet again for the next two days, sharing prayer, eating meals, and spending their free time together. It was a short three days of ministry for the visiting missionaries. 

The apartment did not flood again.