Mrs. GS, lived inside of North Korea, but very close to the border of China. She ran a few private businesses. Of course, in a tightly controlled socialist state like North Korea, private businesses are not generally allowed by the authorities. But Mrs. GS decided to appease the authorities by keeping half the money and donating the other half, so the authorities thought positively of Mrs. GS and did not apprehend her.

Mrs. GS also had relatives living across the border in China. Most of her relatives were Christians, and many of them were in positions of church leadership. So, Mrs. GS became the main point person for the underground Christian work of her relatives. Mrs. GS and other North Koreans she knew would cross the border to get food and other necessities. But they would also smuggle Bibles back across the border into North Korea.

One time, a North Korean man named Mr. KG went back and forth across the border to smuggle items. Unfortunately, Mr. KG was caught and beaten harshly by the authorities. During the interrogation, Mr. KG revealed everything to the authorities. As soon as he had the opportunity, Mr. KG told his wife to run and tell Mrs. GS that he had let the information slip.

After hearing the news, Mrs. GS knew that she had to defect immediately. She did not even stop to say goodbye to her children because she knew that it was safer if her children didn’t know anything. So, Mrs. KG dropped everything and left for China immediately and shortly after that went to South Korea.

However, there was one thing that Mrs. GS did bring with her: a smuggled Bible that she received from her relatives.

As soon as Mrs. GS settled in South Korea, she sent money to her family in North Korea through a broker, so they knew she had come to South Korea. Even now, she subsists mostly on bean paste and rice so she can save up large amounts of money to send to her family in North Korea or to donate to charity.

We asked her to eat lunch with us, and she happily came. We also asked her to pray for the meal, and she said, “I’ve never done that before.” We helped her out with the framework for prayer, and she used the framework to pray for starving people in North Korea.

As we ate, she admitted “I don’t know if there is a God or not.” We asked her, “How can you say that if you were an underground Christian and risked your life for God?” She attributes her lack of belief to her not having had a proper opportunity in North Korea to become spiritually developed. She said, “In South Korea, people are exposed to spiritual things from a young age. But I didn’t get that. I just said, ‘God help me’ whenever I had issues.”

We invited her to a Bible translation meeting with other North Korean defectors later that day. At first, she didn’t want to go because there were other North Koreans there. But one of our volunteers, who had hosted us for lunch, convinced her to go anyway. She eventually went with us to join the meeting.

After the meeting was finished, Mrs. GS said, “When I left North Korea and parted forever with my children, it was because of Christianity. So, I rejected Christianity. But I need to organize in my mind of all of the things that happened today and make a decision.”

We took Mrs. GS home and gave her a gift bag with a North Korean Bible, letters to North Koreans from Christians around the world and some other gifts. Mrs. GS gruffly said, “I may never see you again” and “Don’t get mad if I don’t answer my phone”.

Since then, we have not been able to successfully reconnect with Mrs. GS.

Some of our readers might be surprised when they read this story. Her story highlights the unfortunate reality of the difficulties many underground Christians face when they flee to safety in order to avoid persecution.

Many organizations and churches in countries with religious freedom believe that the obvious thing to do when Christians are in danger is to help them to flee to a country with religious freedom so that they can continue to live in an environment that poses no threat to their faith life. In the case of North Korea, this usually takes the form of churches and organizations helping North Koreans to defect to South Korea.

However, in our experience, even former North Korean underground Christians with a strong faith face extreme difficulties when they flee to South Korea. In fact, some told us that it’s easier to be a Christian in North Korea compared to South Korea because of the temptations to pursue money and freedom that they did not have to face in North Korea. Others, such as Mrs. GS make a shipwreck of their faith as they deal with resentment for God, who they believe, promised them a good life and blessings but, instead, tore them away from their good life.

This is one reason VOM does not engage in defections or refugee projects. Instead, the purpose of all of our projects is to learn from persecuted Christians who are faithful in the midst of adversity and be their voice for other Christians around the world, so that we may learn how to take up our cross and follow Christ’s example of suffering rather than to escape the cross.

Please pray for Mrs. GS, to repent and have her faith in the Lord restored!