North Korea (MNN) — The Voice of the Martyrs Korea is sharing the Gospel with North Korean workers who are stuck abroad and currently unable to return home.
Pre-Covid, North Korea would allow a select few of its citizens to travel outside the country for work.
However, on a podcast with The Voice of the Martyrs Canada, VOM Korea’s Eric Foley explained, “North Korea has closed its borders since the beginning of the Coronavirus. They haven’t allowed their workers to return.
“That means that for now three years, workers have been stuck in Mongolia, China, Southeast Asia, even Eastern Europe — bad for them on the one hand, good for them from an eternal perspective because it’s given us three years of time to share the Gospel with them and do discipleship and evangelism.”
VOM Korea’s radio broadcasts are produced by North Korean Underground University students. In the broadcasts, students share Scripture — both in its pure form and in North Korean-style dramas.
(Photo, caption courtesy of VOM Korea)
VOM Korea is seeing ministry growth and new Gospel doors are opening to reach North Koreans.
Foley says, “Many workers are at home so they’re more interested in listening to the Christian radio broadcasts. We had to add another radio broadcast in. The number of Bibles that we’ve distributed to North Koreans, wherever they’re found, has doubled each year of the pandemic.”
When North Korean workers find new faith in Christ and then go home, they are able to reach their own people with the Gospel.
North Korean Human Rights Database every year does studies on human rights and religious freedom, gathering information from inside North Korea, from North Koreans abroad, and from defectors.
“In the year 2000, they found that for all intents and purposes, 0% of North Koreans inside of North Korea had seen a Bible with their own eyes. It’s actually like .0006% at that time,” Foley says.
“But…as of December 2021, about 8% of North Koreans had seen a Bible with their own eyes. That’s a staggering number. That’s upwards of 2 million in a country where to see a Bible with your own eyes is to court execution.”
Whether in-country or abroad, ask the Holy Spirit to continue moving among North Koreans. Pray for new North Korean believers to grow deep roots of faith before they potentially go home to reach others with the Gospel.
Header photo of North Korean flags, courtesy of Micha Brandli via Unsplash.
