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Now, are South Koreans able to do any ministry in the North through food programs or anything like that?

There's some of that but most of the Christian NGOs have pulled out, because you cannot see the aid getting to those who need it. The government was taking the rice and giving it to the army and letting the people starve.

What are some of the challenges of trying to help the persecuted church in places like North Korea?

It's very important to profile extreme suffering. That person who is in jail and is getting beaten up by the police, they need to be released. But the thing is that's not the whole story, and our responsibility is to help the entire persecuted community. And so if we concentrate only on the extremes we're going to miss actually strengthening the majority of the persecuted.

I want Christians to try to take in the whole story, because the big story is really the thrilling thing. It's not about how some Christians survive jail or a beating or are martyred. It's about how God builds the kingdom through these persecuted forces even through people like Mao Se Tung. God folds evil into his will. Everybody builds the kingdom whether they know it or not.

Some of the most effective kingdom building occurs by people who think they're destroying it. And that's the big picture I want people to get. Ultimately it will connect you to the whole story of the persecuted and you'll not just think of these extreme cases.

We should be asking What does the persecuted church have to teach us? What's God done that we need to hear about because we're all part of the same body? Also, wherever you are, you should face some persecution because it's a spiritual phenomenon. It's not a legal one. If you look at the human rights debate, it's a legal one, because that's all drawn up by lawyers. But persecution is spiritual and the biblical understanding of it is, when you become a Christians, Christ's enemies become your enemies. And you will suffer some consequences for that. And so there is a hard road to travel as well as a more joyful road. Forget that and paradoxically you forget one of the great sources of joy in the Christian life.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Faith that Endures: The Essential Guide to the Persecuted Church is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

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July (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50