Joo Min didn’t know Jesus. She didn’t know anyone who knew Jesus. If she had, she probably would have reported them. According to her childhood textbooks, the Bible was something to be feared.
How strange, then, that the Jesus of the Bible is now the reason her life has changed forever.
ESCAPING THE DARK
Joo Min crouched by the riverbank waiting for the guard to pass by. She watched, barely breathing, as he gingerly picked his way over the rutted ground.
If she was caught it would mean a jail sentence.
At last, he walked over the horizon and the coast was clear. Joo Min quietly crept from her hiding place into the moonlight.
The gently flowing river was the gateway to her freedom—her way out of North Korea, far from the endless darkness.
Joo Min hoped the other side would have food and a means to provide for her family.
She could never have imagined what awaited her beyond the river or that crossing it would change her life forever.
BEFORE MEETING JESUS
Joo Min grew up as all North Korean children do, with parents assigned jobs, food, clothing, and housing by the North Korean government.
In school, she was taught that North Korea’s founder, Kim II-Sung, was god-like and that her country had dangerous enemies.
“I was told to stay away from the Bible and missionaries,” Joo Min recalls. “They said missionaries were like wolves pretending to be sheep.”
Her textbooks contained countless stories of secret American spies posing as missionaries to infiltrate North Korea and kidnap children to sell into slavery.
Outside of school, life was punishing.
Joo Min’s family constantly lacked food.
Her father was an alcoholic.
“When I was young, my father’s alcoholism led to violence,” she says. “I was in constant fear. Living was a daily struggle.”
And then, Joo Min’s mother tragically died.
Her father’s beatings escalated.
Her family spiralled into impoverishment.
“My father told me I had to provide for our family,” she remembers. “It was a heavy weight on my shoulders. Driven by the need to provide, I crossed the border in search of work.”
Joo Min made her way to the river, North Korea’s border with China.
Having crossed into new territory, she was free but alone.
TAKING LIGHT TO THE DARKNESS
“I met someone who told me where I could find a safe place,” Joo Min says, thankful to this day that an Open Doors’ local partner found her shortly after she entered China.
He led her to a safe house where she received food and a place to rest.
It was there Joo Min first met Christians. Not the sadistic priests and missionaries she read about in textbooks but kind people who offered her help without asking for anything in return.
She also heard about Jesus.
“While I was in the safe house, I heard the gospel for the first time,” Joo Min says.
She found a job to provide for her family and often returned to the safe house to fellowship with the Christians there.
Joo Min grew in her faith, and despite her childhood horror stories of missionaries, she gave her life to Christ.
She was baptised.
Her pain washed clean.
She was now a new creation.
And as a new creation, she recognised the gentle guidance of the Holy Spirit.
He was asking her to take an extraordinary leap of faith.
“I felt like God was telling me: ‘Go back to North Korea,’” she says. “I felt a calling to share everything I’ve learnt with other secret believers.
“I made the decision to cross the river again.”
Joo Min knew the risks.
“If I am caught, I could end up in a labour camp, paying a heavy price for being a Christian.”
Today, she serves as a leader in one of North Korea’s underground churches.
“Please pray for me,” she asks. “Pray for protection and courage, so that I can be like salt and light in a land overshadowed by darkness.”
