Before Yu Byung Soo crossed the Tumen River that separates North Korea from China, she had never heard the name Jesus Christ.

She comes from a mining area in the far northeastern regions of North Korea. She lived there all her life, a faithful citizen, absolutely loyal to the Party, an exemplary servant of the Kim dynasty.

To her, the Kims were god. But her god of those years provides a monthly paycheck of 52 won. 52 won can get you a kilogram of corn back then. Almost.

She has few belongings, few clothes, little food. But most of those around her are living this way. She goes with them to the countryside looking for grains on which to exist. A story oft told.

But like so many, enough becomes enough eventually. With four others, Byung must make her escape. She must leave her teen-aged sons behind to fend for themselves.

Life until now is becoming nothing but breath. Her husband has already breathed his last in these mid 90's famine-stricken Chosun.

She can never imagine how the simple crossing of the Tumen River will change her life. Only God knows, she tells us, how wretched and miserable are the people she has to leave behind.

She begins her wanderings around China. Korean-Chinese in the know inform her that her best bet is to meet a South Korean missionary. How like the Lord to be stationed where life's hopes are dimmest, offering His beams of hope.

A man takes her to a mission house, and soon shows her a Bible. "If you read the Bible, you'll see where the Lord Jesus says a soul is more precious than the whole world!" She hears other astounding truths, that men are to love each other, and more. She begins to wail with joy rising from the depths. All her life loyal to the Party, but never loved like this, never heard such gracious words as these!

She finds it all so hard to assimilate. How can people love each other in this way? She learns how to pray. She hears the grand stories of the Word of God. Eventually she wants to meet a God who can say things such as these. She begins intense prayer.

Because of some forged passport issues, Byung is arrested at an airport along with several others. It is during this critical moment that she meets the Lord in her heart. Christ comes in. Though by nature a light sleeper, she actually sleeps normally in jail, feels totally calm. Those who have known nervousness or fear can say already that God has worked a miracle in his servant. Word is, she actually snores in China. That takes some peace!

The others are sent back to North Korea. But not she. Connections have been made, friends have been procured. God has other plans for this lady.

She is searched by female police there who discover a bottle filled with poison. When asked by the policewoman the reason for the bottle, she lets her know that her plan was to take that poison should she be arrested. When the arrest finally comes, though, she does not even think about the bottle, and is soon in touch with her new peace-giving Friend.

The policewoman gives her three things: pity, a hug, and some milk. No, it doesn't always happen that way, but it did this time.

Connections are made with a pastor who is a friend of her son, who is in Seminary in China. He wants to help. A guard is paid. Seven days later, at 4 a.m., she is quickly waved out of her cell along with a Chinese-speaking fellow-prisoner.

Through what has become the NK to SK thoroughfare, thousands of miles of hard journeying through a number of countries, led by guides and forged passports and lots of money, she eventually makes it to South Korea, where she has lived peaceably for many years.

Not end of story.

To live peaceably in a foreign land is no easy task. My own stay of 5 weeks plus in South Korea so far has been most difficult. I come from a free nation and South Korea is equally free. I come from a land of plenty, a land of many churches, South Korea ditto. But home is home and it is in us and is hard to replace.

So the story of North Korean refugees must be told beyond the time when the plot is hatched and carried out. Happily ever after does not often occur on the other side of the border. Refugees are mistrusted, unwanted, ignored, often unemployable, and sadly lacking in cultural information. A most unpleasant way to live.

In Byung's case, God Himself seems to have intervened, and for this we must pray more earnestly for others coming out.

She has gotten into the nightly sleeping pill habit. She can not calm down. She is constantly ill.

One night she simply calls out to the God she has met in prison, "God, if you are alive I want to meet you." Her claim is that Jesus Himself appears to her in a dream and gives her directions. She says that from the day of that dream there has been no sickness, no pills. And for the first 40 days she lives a high spiritually satisfying life.

Her life of prayer has continued. There has come over her, not just a peace, but a desire to serve others in greater need than herself. A Seminary has invited her - though she is far past what many would call "college age" - to enroll and prepare for more service to Christ.

As our interview with her proceeded she grew more and more engaged in the process, going to shelves and pulling down volume after volume of notes she has kept through the years of her journeying and her Christian experience. Walking at first through her doorway, one would not imagine that here lives a person whose life has such vast influence and eternal significance.

By her own claim, she is "living in Heaven now." No worries, no cares. Only wants to serve Jesus and the needy until she is called Home.

But then, shouldn't it always be so? Those truly valuable parts of the body are hidden away secretly doing their service. Those surface members shine out to the public but don't necessarily keep the body alive...