A little over a year ago, I was in discipleship class teaching on Matthew 25: 31- 40, where Jesus talks about I was hungry and you fed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was in prison, and you visited me. 

On that day as I read this scripture, even though I had read it a million times, I became overwhelmed with deep sorrow, after I read; “I was in prison and you visited me”. I had a deep sense of conviction because I felt like I hadn’t done this for the Lord. In our generation, when we do prison ministry, we feel like this is fulfilling this command. However, in this instance, I was convicted in my spirit because I knew prison ministries wasn’t the fulfillment of what Christ was talking about here. He was talking about the persecuted church. Christ was talking about his disciples, and what we did for his disciples. When you read the story of Paul and his encounter with the Lord on his way to Damascus, Jesus didn’t ask him why are you persecuting my people?  he said why are you persecuting ME? Now some may argue that the body of Christ is both those who are saved now and those who are yet to be saved. However, when Jesus is giving this word, he’s talking about those who believe in his name… I finished the discipleship class that day with a commitment to God that if he opened up a door, I would go.

When church related activities for that day were over, I sat with that sorrow and conviction in prayer all of that day, but things moved pretty quickly for me after that day. That week, my friend and colleague at work introduced me to a guy who knew a guy. Fast forward a couple of weeks and that guy knew a whole movement. That guy became a close friend and mentor, and together with a couple of others we met every week for the last 10 months and prepared ourselves for the “North Korea (NK) calling”. 

Fast forward to right now, and together we’ve been in South Korea for the last 3 weeks living together as the early disciples did, and doing the work that Christ called us to do, which is; visit him in prison clothe him, feed him, and all of that. If you had asked me a little over a year ago if I had plans to visit NK one day, I would’ve looked at you with a weird face. However, here I am today. 

My favorite part of this trip is having to step foot in the DMZ and pray alongside others for the reunification of the land, and for God to do a mighty work in the land. The last few days have been full of a lot of tears and a lot of groaning. Groaning alongside the persecuted church because you quickly learn that the persecuted cannot pray aloud, else they’ll be killed. You quickly learn that the freedoms we take for granted in the west are like gold in these spaces. That the electoral votes we make in America affect the freedom and/or persecutions of a whole generation in countries far from us.

I got a chance to weep and hug those who spent years in prison for daring to believe and acknowledge that Jesus is the Messiah. 

I’ve met North Koreans and Iranians who pray like they’ve got fire in their bones (Perhaps because they’ve been through the fire and lived through it). 

What started out as a commitment with a simple statement “Open up a door and I’ll go”, turned out to be a window with a huge amount of life changing experiences. For me, this trip is the 11th hour in Matthew 20:6-7;- “And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’”

My favorite quotes from this trip; “Persecution never kills the church, but a compromised gospel will” ~ Patrick Fung

“Persecution is not the end of the story. It is part of God’s divine plan to build his church” ~ Farshid Fathi (Fashid is such a brave disciple. He spent 5 years in an Iranian prison, the first 2 years were in isolation facing tight concrete walls).

Ephesians 6:12 – “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places”