Secret Church

---

Pray for the Persecuted Posted: 27 Sep 2012 11:00 PM PDT In “the Mountains” of North Korea In a two-part prayer update from Open Doors, a little bit of light has been shed on the dark and painful lives of North Koreans suffering in labor camps. Especially Christians. And this is not just due to the fact that Open Doors is a ministry devoted to supporting persecuted Christians around the world. The reality is that believers actually suffer more because of their faith in Jesus. In one firsthand account, Christians are individually and regularly brought before the other 6,000 prisoners of a particular camp and asked to deny their faith. Former prisoner Kim Tae-Jin said of the requests, “If not, they were beaten or stabbed with a sharp bamboo stick. I was amazed the Christians chose to suffer and did not betray their God. Often they just sang songs or said 'Amen.' The guards became furious and frequently killed Christians. The Christians also had to do the most dangerous and hardest work, like working in the rubbery factory. If a guard managed to force a Christian to denounce God, he or she would receive a promotion. Sometimes we had to walk over the Christian until he died." There are two types of prison camps in North Korea – smaller, penitentiary-type “reeducation” camps, and larger, political  camps.  Being “sent to the mountains” is bad news for anyone, but more so for Christians, who are automatically put in “the larger political camps [that] resemble the infamous camps of Hitler, Stalin and Mao. These ‘political prisoners’ work from 18 to 20 hours a day on little or no food.” These are called “total control zones” and are almost always a permanent sentence – often a death one.  The scene here is evil and gruesome.  The “walking dead” go about in rags, overworked and underfed.  Some suffer from injuries that have faded into permanent deformities. The starving die. Minds are crushed. Girls are abused. People are tortured. Babies are killed. And Christians are targeted. Pray… … for believers suffering in these horrible conditions to remain steadfast in their faith, unwavering in their conviction, and unrelenting in their love for God.  May they not fear man above Him, their Creator, Sovereign Lord, and Savior. … for comfort, endurance, love, and wisdom for believers, both those single and those in families, who are tempted to despair. … for the light of their witness to shine forth to those suffering around them, including the harsh prison guards who are no more lost than any nonbeliever. … for many to “see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:3). To read more about the labor camps in the mountains of North Korea, read the Open Doors prayer updates entitled “Here Is Where We Live, Work and Die,” part one and part two – “Voices from the Prison Camps.”

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610