I wasn’t there, though I supported those who were there and in Charlotte doing group sessions, but this report on the 3rd Lausanne Evangelical Congress from Mike Milton had me floored after reading this:
One of those young people who spoke was a North Korean girl, now quite famous, I imagine. I wrote about her and others did as well. Those of us who heard her read her carefully prepared statement, who saw her standing before the more than four thousand delegates on that night in her boarding school uniform will never forget her. She was, in a way, a vision from the Lord to speak to our hearts and encourage us about His plans for the future.
She told of how in North Korea her father had served the notorious dictator. Yet there are Christians in North Korea. And worshipping underground, and witnessing as they can, they are slowly getting the Gospel out. They presented Christ to this girl’s father. He repented and turned to the Lord. He knew he had to escape and leave. During this time, the girl told us, her mother died in childbirth. So she and her father escaped into China and went to live with a Christian pastor and his wife. They were discipled in the faith. They worshipped. They grew in Christ. The father was called by God to be an evangelist and to return to North Korea to openly preach Jesus. He left his daughter with the Chinese pastor. He was, of course, arrested and jailed for 9 years. Upon release he was kicked out and he went back to China to be reunited with his daughter.
Yet she told us that their reunion was only for a short time. Her father returned to North Korea to share the love of God in Christ. He was again detained and it is believed he was shot. She was adopted by the Chinese pastor and his family. She is in a girls’ school now in South Korea. At this moment her voice began to break, tears began to form in her eyes and she told us, “I want to go to university and study political science. I want to become a diplomat and I want to go to North Korea. Then I want to imitate my father and share the love of Jesus with my people.” At that she broke down crying. A South Korean pastor, who had been standing near her, embraced her and led her away.
I inserted paragraph breaks for readability.
Read the rest at Mike Milton’s blog.
As I write this, I’m really humbled. Not just at the picture of persistence, but the change that real faith does to families.
I’d like to be a father that models such a life to my kids. I’ve got to get the kids first, but totally am humbled and finding a way to reset my perspective despite what I haven’t seen happen (yet).
blog.arjw 