The Koreans say "백정," that's baekjeong to us, or if you prefer, paekchong. Who are they, and why in the world am I writing about them? Good questions, and deserving of a good answer. Let me try.

Question one: "Member of the lowest class of old Korean society. Executioners (that's pretty low). Grave Diggers (lower still, but somebody's gotta do it). Butchers (no offense, butchers of the world, but in some societies meat-eating is not cool).Leather workers (same problem!). And there's another word I'm not free to print.

So there you have it. Now the answer to your second question becomes even more difficult. Why devote space to persons such as these?

Well, let's just say it's an old family tradition. Now, the oldest family on earth is God's. We can say 4,000 years old if we want to start with Abraham. And from the beginning, and all the way down to modern-day North Korea, (although "modern" and "North Korea" may not sound too well together), God has had this tradition of pulling up baekjeong from nowhere and bringing them somewhere. From nothing, making something.

Whoever said "Out of nothing, nothing comes," didn't know our God!

God loves these "members of the lowest class", these "untouchables", these unspeakables, these folks... well let's just say we might not invite them to dinner. But they're crowding around His table all the time. We might as well get into the flow. And what better place to begin than North Korea?

Look what God did with a bunch of southward-bound refugees on that peninsula! Back in the 40's and 50's, terrible tragedies pushed many of God's people and a whole lot of people that were not His into some new turf. For a long while South Korea hung in the balance. But Christ, at first Himself a baekjeong of Korea, lonely, unknown, has now become , as missionary Arch Campbell put it, "enshrined in the hearts of hundreds of thousands who know Him as an intimate friend... who love Him with a deep passion seldom found in the sophisticated West."

This Christ was preached and this Christ was accepted by these terribly poor and terribly unacceptable (by the world's standards). And now? Some of the biggest churches in the world grace that small but mighty Korean nation.

Just think what will happen when Christ is given His due place among the northern baekjeong. Oh my, do I want to see that!

Next week, a baekjeong story. Then you judge for yourself what God just might want to do...maybe through you?