Prayer events for North Korea

Monday, February 27, 2006
NEW INTERNATIONAL INTER-AGENCY WEBSITE FOR NORTH KOREA LAUNCHED
By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

NEW MALDEN, SURREY, UK (ANS) -- Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a British human rights organization specializing in religious freedom, has announced that a new website dedicated to mobilizing and facilitating prayer for North Korea is being launched on Tuesday, February 28.

The website, http://www.prayfornorthkorea.org/, has been launched as part of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea which will run from June 19-25, 2006. The week is an inter-agency initiative designed to focus the worldwide Church's attention on the need to pray for the desperate plight of the country's 22 million people.

“North Korea has long been shrouded in secrecy, masking it from the interest and prayers of the outside world,” said CSW's International Advocate, Elizabeth Batha, who has pioneered the Global Week of Prayer, “but in recent years information on the terrible oppression, statewide enforced idolatry and utterly brutal persecution of the Christians has become available to all. The level of brutality and the suppression of the gospel should make this a key prayer focus for the worldwide Church. The Global Week of Prayer for North Korea is a call for all of us to recognize and respond to the seriousness of this situation.

”Numerous resources have been created and made accessible through the website to enable prayer and facilitate the running of meetings. These include a video and self-running PowerPoint presentation, as well as a plethora of written materials to enable even those with no previous knowledge to run a prayer meeting for North Korea.

GLOBAL SCALE

A CSW spokesperson said, “The scale of the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea is reflected in the agencies that are participating, including agencies with millions and tens of millions in their memberships, such as the National Association of Evangelicals (US) and World Assemblies of God. Large Korean church umbrella bodies are also participating. The Human Rights Committee of the Christian Council of Korea, the representative body of the majority of the South Korean Churches, is a participating organization as are the large Korean American Church Coalition and the Korean Church Association in the UK. Other agencies, such as the North Korea Freedom Coalition, Open Doors, and Release International are on board, and media such as God TV and Premier Christian Radio are supporting the Week.

HISTORIC EVENT

“The website is launched to coincide with a historic prayer vigil taking place in Seoul from February 28 to March 1. The organizers, the Korean Church Coalition, are anticipating that the Seoul Wailing Prayer Meeting will be the largest international gathering of Korean and non-Korean pastors worldwide to pray for North Korean freedom. They estimate 5,000 pastors from Korea and 1,000 pastors from elsewhere will be participating with a total attendance of approximately 26,000 believers.” (For more information visit http://www.kccnk.org/).

CSW's Elizabeth Batha will be addressing the event and encouraging all participants to engage in the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea and to take up the prayer, advocacy and aid dimensions of the week.

GETTING INVOLVED

“Churches and agencies are encouraged to adopt the focus in their meetings and publications during that week, to use the resources in Sunday meetings, to encourage prayer meetings and fellowship meetings to follow the focus and even to organize local or regional meetings with others,” said the CSW spokesperson. “Meetings and peaceful protests are already planned in several major cities across the world, including London, Washington and Seoul.

“Believers are also encouraged to adopt the week of prayer as a focus, to encourage services and meetings to include the focus and to get involved in other ways. Alongside prayer, the Global Week of Prayer for North Korea will carry advocacy and aid dimensions, encouraging believers to use their voices to speak out for those suffering under the dire oppression and to donate to help North Koreans, including those who flee the repression and misery only to encounter further suffering at the hands of the Chinese authorities.

”The website http://www.prayfornorthkorea.org/ is designed as a key vehicle to facilitate all these activities.

“We believe North Korea deserves to be high on the worldwide Church's agenda and that, as awareness rises, believers all over the world will feel moved to pray against this idolatry,” said Elizabeth Batha, “Even the word for God is banned and most Christians have been killed or sent to the gulag. Ninety-nine years ago North Korea was a centre for revival and many of the mega churches in South Korea that are looked to as examples of church growth around the world were planted by those fleeing from North Korea. Now is the time to raise up a concert of prayer that will see that blessing flood back into North Korea. We urge all believers to get on board, to participate in the Week and to visit the new website to see how they can get involved.”

For more information, please visit http://www.prayfornorthkorea.org/, e-mail admin@prayfornorthkorea.org / mary@csw.org.uk or call Christian Solidarity Worldwide at 020 8329 0048

Christian Solidarity Worldwide is a human rights organization which specializes in religious freedom, works on behalf of those persecuted for their Christian beliefs and promotes religious liberty for all.

NOTES TO EDITORS SUPPLIED BY CSW:

BREAKING THE SILENCE

Behind the wall of silence in North Korea, the Communist regime has sought to decimate the Church and repression of Christianity has been ruthless and thorough.

The isolation of North Korea has enabled the leaders to brainwash the population and teach them unquestioning obedience to their authority. Kim Il Sung (the “Great Leader”) and his son, Kim Jong Il (the “Dear Leader”) have instituted a personality cult in which they are worshipped. No belief in a higher authority is tolerated and being a Christian is viewed as one of the most serious crimes.

HORRIFIC PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

Before the Communist regime was installed, the North was a centre of revival and Pyongyang was known as the Jerusalem of the East. Most Christians fled to the South during the Korean War, or were martyred. Kim Il Sung, the “Great Leader”, ordered that three generations of a Christian's family must be eliminated. A few believers have managed to hold on to their faith despite the horrific persecution. Many Christians have been publicly executed and others have been taken away to camps where they are subject to barbaric abuse and treated as sub-human. They will never be allowed out of the camps, alive or dead, and are worked to death in brutal conditions and terrible deprivation. Christians suffer especially cruel treatment in these death camps as they are under ongoing pressure to renounce their faith. They are subject to frequent torture and abuse and are also forced to do the most grueling and dangerous work, both by guards, as punishment, and by fellow prisoners, who despise their faith as insanity. The persecution of Christians i n North Korea may be the worst anywhere in the world.

SPIRITUAL BREAKTHROUGH

As the Church worldwide lifts up North Korea in prayer, it will join with many South Koreans who have been praying earnestly for their brothers and sisters in the North for many years. Pastor Yonggi Cho, the pastor of the largest church in the world, has endorsed the call to prayer, stating: "We have been praying fervently for North Korea for many decades now, specifically praying for the peaceful unification of the two Koreas. We have many young pastors preparing for the ministry who are planning to enter North Korea when this door is open. It would be deeply appreciated if you would join us in prayer for North Korea. God is not willing that any should perish without Him.

"North Koreans are immensely open to the gospel. Those who flee the country often accept Jesus with open hearts. They have been trained to such a level of obedience in North Korea that they can quickly become devoted disciples, even ready to face death for their faith.

CHINA

Although North Korea forbids its citizens to leave the country without permission and punishes those who do, significant numbers have fled over the border into China, which they consider a comparatively free and prosperous country. However, even there, they face grave danger, exploitation, bride-selling and, if caught, repatriation to brutal treatment in North Korea. Those repatriated are cross-examined about whether they have come into contact with Christians or become Christians. Those discovered to have done so are singled out for the harshest punishment, including execution or imprisonment.

Note: Dan Wooding is one of the few Christian journalists ever allowed into North Korea to report from there.

- story reported by -

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** Posted with permission ***