North Korean Missionary: Vision Inspires Missionary to Return to North Korea

Evidences: Articles - North Korea Missionary

Vision inspires missionary to return to North Korea
'Message of light' given to Esther, who says, 'If I perish, I perish'
November 16, 2006

(http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52984)

"Esther" is a woman who suffered under the regime in North Korea, losing both her parents to starvation and fleeing to the relative safety and prosperity of China by herself. But a new ministry report says she returned – voluntarily – to North Korea because of her vision to minister to the unsaved.

The description of persecution under which North Koreans suffer has been an ongoing series from The Voice of the Martyrs, a worldwide ministry that directs its aid to members of the persecuted Christian church.

That organization earlier reported on the faith of a teen-ager who was caught teaching about Christ, and died in a North Korean prison camp to leave behind a witness that continues there even today. It also reported on the stunning change in a prison warden who watched that teen's final days and sought out what made the teen strong. And it told how a veteran of more than 100 missions inside the restrictive nation worked to help other Christians worship.

"Esther" had lived in China for a number of years when VOM officials first met her. She had come into China illegally, and hid in the mountains, working on a fish farm, to sustain herself.

Then she discovered, through a man who worked at the farm who was a Christian, that managers there planned to "sell" her, a move against which she would have little recourse as an illegal in the nation.

The two fled, but had no money and no food, and hid out in a rundown house, where she began to seek the Lord, and came to know of the saving power of Jesus through a Bible the man's older sister smuggled in to them.

Her ministry was launched immediately, VOM reported. "Whenever she met other Koreans, she told them about God. Soon she was leading a group of about 40 people," the group's report said.

Although she had no experience, she worked on a construction crew for a time.

But a change came one day when she was returning from an errand and she came upon a roadblock where soldiers were checking travelers. She was repatriated to North Korea, beaten and tortured, and promptly escaped to China again.

This time, however, there was something that wouldn't allow her to stay, and she turned to prayer.

There, VOM said, she saw a vision of being in a land of darkness, "speaking in front of a large group of people. There was a light coming from heaven and she was speaking as if she were a trumpet."

Her co-workers agreed that it meant she was to return to North Korea to share the gospel.

Just before leaving, she said she had to share the gospel, and would even though North Korea, ranked as one of the worst nations on earth of religious freedom, often condemns Christian individuals and their families to concentration camps.

"If I perish, I perish," was her decision.

A contact came from inside North Korea three months later, saying that Esther was doing well, but traveling so much her toenails had fallen off. "She said that like the apostle Paul, she bore the marks of Christ for her nation."

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