Many questions begin to form as the battle is waged as to the nature of the struggle, when one gets beyond prayer. Perhaps many will not get beyond prayer since the spiritual battle is the only one that counts ultimately. For those who feel called to give material aid or assist in escapes, what happens if:

-a person that you are helping tries to escape and is killed, or imprisoned for life?

-a person you are assisting does come out, but his family left behind is rounded up and imprisoned or executed?

-you are asked to "pay off" a lot of criminal mafia types and to bribe guards to get your person out?

-they succeed in getting to South Korea or even America, and become so engrossed in worldliness that they lose the precious faith that once saw them through every difficulty?

-you yourself get caught up in emaciated bodies and forget the higher calling of ministering to emaciated souls?

-you get so involved in people "over there" that you forget the hurting around you? (All of the above have happened, multiple times!) Then must come the question, of course, is the hurting around me to be compared with the pain of a North Korean? Will your wife or children be pleased with your answer to that question? What about the cross? you will eventually ask. Am I a soldier of the cross or are those only soldiers who must pay for their warfare in starvation, torture and death? Hard, hard questions for one who falls in love with North Korea. Do I love her because Christ loves her or because I "feel good" loving her? Is my love "romantic", unreal, unconnected, or do I have scars to show for it?