"I found myself blaming God, who had permitted them to be sent to a concentration camp, though He is all-powerful and could have prevented it. I cried out so much I thought I'd go crazy, when I realized I'd probably never see my brothers and sisters again. I even wanted to curse Pastor F. who got me into all of this to begin with.

" Then Pastor F. called. I did not want to talk. But he asked me to open the Bible with him and pray. I thought, 'Pastor, these people are dying now. What does it matter if we pray for them now? No one can save them!' While I was trying to stop those words from coming out of my mouth, I heard the Word of God coming through the phone...

" ‘But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to me, strengthen your brothers,' the pastor was reading. (Luke 22:32)

"I knew immediately that the voice and the message were from God, not from a human being. It wasn't some American pastor I was hearing, but it was Jesus Himself, and His Word became my cornerstone. Yes, I had complained about the Lord ‘sitting by' while others suffered. But He said to me, 'I am the One Who set you on your feet, and I am the One Who will guard your faith.'

"That's when I was born again as a son of God. That's when my heart began to desire to share the message of love with NK defectors around me. I called on them to join me and those other brothers and sisters in laying down our lives for North Korea .

"God has blessed this group of defectors. We are in the center of North Korea missions, literally launching flyers [ tracts ] into the country via helium balloons, and broadcasting the gospel through short-wave radio into North Korea .

"Yes, we hear that the primary challenge facing NK is that they are starving to death. But I believe that even more they need the Word of God and songs of praise.

"Recently the NK government spent $900,000 for an ‘eternal shrine' to Kim Il-sung. But they say they have no money for rice. That same government threatens the world by making nuclear weapons, yet there are mountains of dead people who were told the government could not support them. So we announce to this government and its people the living God, Who will expose their idolatry and blanket the land with hope and freedom.

"Some criticize our work, both the balloon launches and our broadcasting. You can imagine that the NK government is not too happy with these things. But a growing number of young South Koreans have begun to believe the lies of the North, and they criticize too.

"But we know that the Holy Spirit and His people in VOM and elsewhere are beginning to touch the hearts of the North Korean people. We are the first to share the Good News in the North Korean dialect. People who don't live on the Korean peninsula may not realize the huge differences there are in the northern and southern speaking and vocabulary, including even the very name for God!

" Culture differences are great too. Think of the difference between Russians and Americans, then think even more. Remember that North and South have been segregated for the past 60 years and have been carefully taught to treat each other as bitter enemies.

"But as North Koreans ministering to North Koreans, the language and culture differences do not exist. That is why we can touch their heart with the 30,000 flyers launched via balloon, and with the daily broadcast, ‘The Voice of Freedom'. Sometime this very day many many will hear the words, ‘Now you are hearing the gospel, broadcasting in the North Korean language through the Voice of Freedom.' Imagine it. These words daily fill the vast empty space of North Korean hearts.

"We have gone through a deadly difficult time, from ‘hell' to ‘heaven.' And through the ministry you have enabled us to have, we have been reborn from slaves into the sons and daughters of God. Each step we take is a testimony to the people back in our hometowns.

"Pastors, Missionaries, VOM staff, and everyone here:

"Please pray for each flyer. Please pray for each broadcast. Please pray that God will allow the NK people who are experiencing such bitter lives to come to know the Word of God and the love of God. And please pray endlessly for Pastor and Mrs. F., VOM, and all of the NK missionaries who live with the mind of sacrifice, like the pain of bone scraping against bone and skin being torn from body, for the sake of dying souls. I thank you from the bottom of my heart."