Pastor Han Chung-Ryeol was the pastor of a church in Changbai, China and a longtime partner of Voice of the Martyrs in providing discipleship, evangelism, and living necessities to the North Koreans who would cross the border into China. On April 30^th, 2016, after responding to a phone call he received from a North Korean, he was found dead of multiple stab wounds in his car. NK state security agents kidnapped, killed, and left Pastor Han dead.

You are a tool to be used by God. Don’t be a small tool, but be a big tool and be used greatly

 

Pastor Han said these words to North Koreans when they considered defecting for South Korea. Mrs. Kim was one of those NK defectors that Pastor Han said these words too.

 

Pastor Han devoted his life to helping North Koreans enter the Kingdom of God, not the Kingdom of South Korea. And he believed that after a North Korean became a Christian, the best way they could serve Christ was by serving their own families, even if that meant going back to North Korea.

 

He also knew the grim reality that South Korea is the most dangerous place in the world for North Koreans. North Korean defectors in South Korea have the highest rate of death due to suicide in the world – 16%.

Because of his advice, many North Korean Christians either stayed in China or went back to North Korea to share the gospel with their family members.

 

Before his death in 2016, we estimate that Pastor Han shared the gospel with at least 1,000 North Koreans. And many more heard the gospel through his disciples.

 

We’ve met many of his disciples over the years, and Mrs. Kim is the most recent.

 

Mrs. Kim first met Pastor Han in China when she had difficulty contacting her family members that were still inside of North Korea. Pastor Han provided a way for her to talk to her father, and Mrs. Kim was so touched by Pastor Han’s help that she came to believe in God.

 

But Pastor Han knew that Mrs. Kim needed help than just contacting family members; she needed an encounter with God. In fact, when Mrs. Kim later asked Pastor Han for money, he told her that she didn’t need money, she needed God. Pastor Han then gave her a Bible and gave her instructions on how to pray and how to believe in God.  He didn’t give her money. While she didn’t understand the value of his advice at the time, she steadily grew in the Lord as she trusted in God for a job and for money rather than receiving a handout. She began to realize that her greatest need wasn’t money, it was Jesus.

 

She continued to keep in contact with Pastor Han in the years before his death and was consistently encouraged by him to continue following the Lord.

 

There were many disciples of Pastor Han that were quite remarkable. Mrs. Jung was one of them. She went back to North Korea and became one of Pastor Han’s top workers in North Korea and shared the gospel with more than 70 North Koreans. Sang-chul is another remarkable disciple, and in 2019 we made a short film about how his life was impacted by Pastor Han – https://vomkorea.com/en/project/northkorea/.

Mrs. Kim is not one of those remarkable disciples. She didn’t go back to North Korea to win her family to Christ. Mrs. Kim didn’t even stay in China like Pastor Han told her. In fact, she moved to South Korea, the exact place Pastor Han urged her not to go. And after coming to South Korea, she struggled with various things including her faith, her health and her family.

 

When we met Mrs. Kim, she was at a particularly low point in life as she was recovering from major surgery and living in a temporary shelter in South Korea. But in her weakened state, we could see evidence of the faith that God had given her so many years ago under Pastor Han’s ministry.

 

Despite the difficulties of life, she experienced firsthand, God’s faithfulness to the promise in Hebrews 13:5, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.”

 

Mrs. Kim would also likely say that she is unremarkable and that she ended up being a “small tool” and not the “big tool” that Pastor Han hoped she would become.

 

But who knows what the Lord has planned for her? When we met her, we gave her an encouragement card written by a VOM supporter in another country. Now she is in contact with us. We can pray that the Lord will yet answer Pastor Han’s prayer to use Mrs. Kim as a “big tool”.

 

Pastor Han’s faithful witness is still being remembered in North Korea, China and South Korea. We continue to discover more and more of his disciples who are still following the Lord and remembering the love and care of Jesus Christ through Pastor Han. That’s quite remarkable!