One of the most closed countries to the Gospel in the world is North Korea. There is absolutely no freedom of worship. If you are found to be a Christ follower, you are sent to a concentration camp where you are severely persecuted and tortured. Ever since the ceasefire in 1953, the Christians all over the world especially those in South Korea and in the United States have been fervently praying for the communist regime to crumble down so that people will be free to worship. Nothing seems to have changed in the past 60 years in spite of many people’s prayers. However, God hears and remembers all of our prayers that we offer up to Him. And He answers them according to His perfect plan.
Starting from more than 10 years ago, a group of evangelical Christians began to discuss with the North Korean government about the possibility of building a science and technology university in Pyongyang (Pyongyang University of Science & Technology, PUST), their capital. And of course, the purpose of building this school is not just to teach science and technology to the students of North Korea, but to share Christ with them as they teach the academics and build relationships with them. North Korea, which has been in a desperate need of any kind of assistance from the outside world due to their failed economy, was open to the idea but concerned about their young people being exposed to the Western world and Christian faith. Therefore, they permitted the evangelical Christians to come and build the school infrastructure, pouring in their invaluable resources, but delayed the opening date of the school numerous times which is very typical of them.
Finally, after several years of breaking their promises, they asked the group to come in and teach from October last year. A small number of missionary-professors from the UK, the US and South Korea who have been praying and preparing themselves to go when the door is open, have gone in there courageously to teach under strict monitoring. Two of these missionary-professors are parents of one of the members of New Life. They have successfully finished teaching the first quarter and are getting ready to teach the next one. And we see North Korea finally cracking open through the bold and sacrificial ministry of these missionary-professors. This is almost as if the “Normandy” of North Korea has been captured and the battle is won against the devil by our Lord Jesus.
Just recently, North Korea attacked Yeonpyeong Island in South Korea, killing a few citizens. This has caused many churches and individual Christians who have been supporting PUST to pull out. Some of them just don’t like what North Korea did to South Korea. Others don’t want to be seen as supporting the enemy nation with their resources. The consequence of this for the missionary-professors and the students in PUST is rather significant. They are struggling to put decent food on the table for themselves as well as taking care of the students whose tuition and room and board have all been paid for by these donors.
Two of the missionary-professors that have visited the KSC and New Life are pleading with us to support PUST at times like this when the vast majority of the donors are pulling out. They are in a critical need.
The Leadership Team has prayed about this and decided to support PUST for one year. Since this wasn’t in our budget, we would like to have an emergency family meeting to inform New Life family members as well as to answer some of the questions that the family may have.
If you are interested in knowing more about the decision to support PUST, please come to the meeting on Sunday, 3/27 after worship in Room 800 A&B.
Your pastor,
Eric
No Comments to "Helping Missionaries and Students in PUST"
