North Korea (MNN) — North Korea has begun scaling
back its atomic weapons program. The
rogue state has also briefly opened its doors for food relief. These are moves
in the right direction, but there's a long way to go for religious
freedom.
Compassion Radio's Norm Nelson says there ministry wants to
help. Their team just returned from a
third trip into the country. This one,
he explains, was an assessment trip to figure out the best way to help the
persecuted church. "There are roughly about 100,000 Christians who
are in prison. Another objective is to strengthen the effort that takes in
refugees who flee across the border into China. We've also been involved in
humanitarian work, so all of those areas of outreach into North Korea, we want
to strengthen."
An earlier partnered effort allowed their team to
deliver two ocean containers containing over three million dollars' worth of medical supplies, as well as Bibles
and the beginning of a complete theological library.
Compassion Radio listeners have also
responded at Christmas time with thousands of Christmas cards which were
delivered by Norm and Cher to the government officials of North Korea as well
as to the believers.
The food that has been supplied by Compassion Radio listeners has
been distributed to the Christians for their families and enables them to be
able to share in the name of Jesus
Nelson says as they use the assessment to strengthen
their ministry, believers should "pray for the Christians because of the
level of persecution. Pray that they will be given the courage and the strength to
retain their faith. What the North Korean government loves to do is to get them
to recant their faith, to deny Jesus. So they need our prayers that they will
be strengthened and enabled to endure."
Click here if you can respond and want to join Compassion Radio's efforts to support the North Korean church.
