North Korea

The darkness over North Korea is spiritual. I would like to ask everyone to our Church to do their best to support the Moon family in their upcoming mission trip. I asked Pastor Chung if the Korean congregation would be supporting them. He said that they were not. So its up to us as a community to do what we can.

Prayer Meeting

Please also remember that Prayer meeting will continue every wednesday night as usual. Some nights we only have a few. But God would rather a few people pray because they want to. than to have many people pray because they are pressured to come.

Prayer Meeting

As noted in our recent leadership meeting we will be gathering for prayer on Wednesday night at 7:00 PM. All are welcome.

Everyday life remains harsh for millions. For the fifth year in a row, this is the world's most difficult country in which to be a Christian.

More were arrested in 2006 than in 2005. Now between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are suffering in prison camps, many undergoing torture, some facing death.

Some take enormous risks to flee to China. If successful, they may be returned by China to face prison camps and worse. But some have become Christians in China.

Prayer

Thoughts on North Korea

I am glad that so much attention is being paid to the suffering of the people of North Korea and that members from our own church are seeking to make a difference. I believe that North Korea is a huge problem in the Korean psyche, because it represents a deep contradiction in the mindset of Canadian Christianity. Many Korean Canadians assume that they have a strong loyalty to their culture, their nation and their "Korean" Christian faith. The suffering of the North Korean people deeply move members of the older generation who vividly still remember their own suffering a children. I have been questioned many times about my commitment to doing mission is Guyana in light of the "suffering in North Korea". People have even asked my why I don't do mission in North Korea? The human mind is deceptive indeed. It easily recognizes the need to do something about suffering, injustice and evil in the world. But what we really want is for someone else to do something about evil in the world and not ourselves. People always respect "others" who lay down their life for what's good and moral. People will even gladly "pay the passage" for those who are willing to offer themselves to a cause. So much of Canadian church life is like taking a huge cosmic dump everyday Sunday. We see the suffering in the world and want to do something about it. So we gather together, sing songs about God and pay "others" to lay down their lives for the causes we assume to believe in. I really wonder how many people would authentically care about the suffering of North Korea if they were not sending someone else to do something about it. I wonder how many people would really say,  I want to be the one to lay down my life? I wonder how the conversion would would turn if someone questioned me about North Korea, if I said I feel the same way you do, so I have asked your son Kim Kown Park to drop out of University to be a North Korean Missionary.. It's amazing that people are so much more passionate about what "others should" be doing, than they are about the life they are living. Many older Koreans in Canada assume that they love their country and culture as if its greatly important to them. They are strangely emotionally devastated if their children decide marry non Koreans because this will destroy their family structure and culture. Then why are you in Canada laying down your life for the white man's money? Is it not true that if you sleep with dogs, you will get flees? If your culture is so important to you, don't celebrate it once a week on Sunday. If your country is so important to you go live there. If the suffering of North Korean really moves you, what are you doing about it? This is an amazing example of a conflicted value system and the inconsistency it produces. This is actually a clear picture of how we all live our Christian lives in general. We have a passion for the Kingdom of God, but want "others" to lay down their lives, so we can feel better about our own selfish complacency. We assume to believe in the values of Kingdom culture but really invest our lives into the worship of money. We assert to be of an eternal Kingdom, but live this out for two hours on Sunday if we are not too busy. We say we deeply love Jesus, but our strongest desire is to see "other" people and "other" people's children, make the sacrifices that we are unwilling to make ourselves.

Such a nice day in Trinidad

Thank You God for rescuing me from being successful at an Insurance company!