Eugene Cho, at The Idea Camp, described the origin of his conviction to start One Day’s Wages. While the family was watching television, one of those ads with starving kids came on. One of Eugene’s children asked him if that was real and, after finding out that it was, asked him, “What are you going to do about it?”
Today our church community helped kick off the LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) Crossing movie tour. Crossing is based on true stories of North Korean refugees and the horror they’ve endured. We were extremely fortunate to hear from LiNK’s founder, Adrian Hong, about what motivated him to begin LiNK. You can learn more about the ongoing human rights crisis in North Korea here, but as Adrian shared, statistics and facts don’t convey how bad things are there. Human trafficking, concentration camps, forced prostitution, famine, torture, murder… and on and on.
One thing Adrian shared struck a familiar chord. He doesn’t have kids yet, but he imagined one day having to answer to them what he did about the North Korean crisis.
Of course, as a Korean American, I am moved, angered and overwhelmed at what I heard during the LiNK presentation but what people are enduring there is more than a “Korean” issue. It was utterly heartbreaking to hear Adrian share that one of his biggest discouragements over the last couple of years has been working with churches who hear about LiNK’s work and respond by saying they won’t get involved because it’s not a “Christian” issue.
I believe we serve a God of redemption, a risen Christ who intends to establish His reign of wholeness, peace and reconciliation. We believe God has not given up on the world and wherever we see God at work, we want to join in.
Check here to see if the LiNK tour is coming through your town (or sign up to host a screening). Below, you can watch a trailer for Crossing:
Vodpod videos no longer available.
headsparks* 
Brother,
what a moving story. I will get involved. It is a Christian issue. All suffering is the business of Jesus. We are his messengers…period. How can I become more involved?
T. Michael — Thanks for stopping by and for your sincere concern. I think raising awareness about what’s happening in North Korea is an important step. In many ways, we can be overwhelmed by the amount of suffering and disaster in the world – sometimes all it takes is a friend sharing their passion with us to help us snap out of our slumber.
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If you’d like to contribute to the work LiNK is doing, they have a great program called 9 Lives. You can find more info here: http://linkglobal.org/donate/9lives.html