One of our UU students moved into a new home, so our North Korean ministries team went on a visitation to her house for a housewarming party. Two UT students were also there, along with another North Korean defector woman, Mrs. Ha.

Mrs. Ha came to South Korea five years ago after being in China. She left her husband and two daughters in North Korea in hopes of pioneering a new life abroad so that her daughters could pursue an education. Mrs. Ha’s plans turned sour when her family members ended up not being able to leave North Korea. Now Mrs. Ha is now suffering from depression, in part because she is living alone in South Korea.

Mrs. Ha had been to UT orientation before, but she decided not to attend so that she could pursue other education and work.

Mrs. Ha said, “I live my life according to God’s will. I believe in doing that. But I don’t attend church.” Our UU student Mrs. S heard this and critiqued her sharply, “You do not have faith.”

Mrs. Ha tried to do Bible translation with our students before, but she did not see any benefit in it. A UT student, Mrs. J, shared with Mrs. Ha that the importance of translation is in the word of God itself and how it is written in one’s heart through the translation process. Mrs. J encouraged her to read God’s word, saying, “I do not understand how people say ‘Believe in God, believe in God’ without giving them the word of God. You need the word of God or else you cannot have faith.”

Mrs. Ha said that she has a friend whose life is completely centered on Jesus. But she told the friend, “Hey, don’t make me catch that craziness.” Mrs. Ha told us, “I think I will attend church one day. But, right now, my life needs to become stable first.”

To close the time together, we prayed and also shared from Mark 2 about how Jesus said that he came to call the sick, not the healthy. Hopefully Mrs. Ha will realize that stability in life comes from meeting Jesus, not before meeting Jesus.

Throughout this visitation, we saw the importance of UU and UT students evangelizing people in their sphere of influence. If we had told Mrs. Ha that she had no faith as directly as our students did, Mrs. Ha may have gotten hurt or not taken it to heart. By God’s grace, it is North Koreans who reach out best to North Koreans.