Running out of the Darkness: just one heart-wrenching story from North Korea

On a winter's day in late 1998, Kim Myong Suk, 20, lay shivering and weak from hunger on the cold concrete floor of a cell in a prison camp in North Korea, not far from the Chinese border. She was five months pregnant and was about to lose her unborn child. Of all the horrors she recalls from that day, she says, two stand out. One is that her sister, who lived in a nearby town, had been brought in to watch what was about to happen to her. The other is the name of North Korean guard, the man who she says killed her unborn child: Hwang Myong Dong. It is not a name, she says, "that I'll ever be able to forget.''

Hwang, Kim says, referred repeatedly to the baby as "the Chink," because the father was a peasant from northeastern China, where Kim had fled earlier that year. As she lay on the prison floor, Hwang demanded that she abort the fetus herself. She refused, so the guard began kicking her in the stomach. Then he beat her and, as her sister screamed, continued beating Kim until she blacked out. When she regained consciousness, she says, she "was taken to a clinic in the camp, and in the most blunt manner, they removed [the fetus] from my body."

Source: April 26, 2006 - Running out of the Darkness by Bill Powell - Time
Read the complete article here.

Please pray for the people of North Korea!
Similar horrible stories happen TODAY in North Korea. You can close your eyes, try to forget about this and move on with living your own life... But you can also try to raise awareness and join the prayers of thousands of Christians around the world. Please support these organisations:
Voice of the Martyrs
Open Doors

Do you want to know more?

Please visit Soon Ok Lee's web site and read her book Eyes of the Tailless Animals (Dutch edition: Zij mogen de hemel niet zien).

Reader's review on Amazon: "It's hard to say that a book like this is good. Perhaps HORRIBLY informative is a better way to put it."

You can buy a copy of this book here.

You can also read earlier posts about North Korea on this blog here and here.

At the Potter's House

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : "Go down to the potter's house, and there I will give you my message." So I went down to the potter's house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Jeremiah 18:1-4

Last Tuesday I literally went to the Potter's House! It was my second visit, this time accompanied by some friends and partners from the Christian book and music trade. About three years ago I visited Albert Brouwer, a Christian potter, working and living in Tollebeek. After my first visit I started working on my book VORM MIJ (Shape Me) and during this second visit we had the chance to see with our own eyes what Jeremiah saw about 2600 years ago!

Several journalists came to the potter's house to look and listen and two of the gospel artists who were involved in the CD production also turned up: Gert Visscher and Annemieke Koelewijn. We had three short 'sessions' with a Bible study, discussion and a demonstration. Inside the potter's house we witnessed how capable hands shaped the clay smoothly on the wheel into the image the artist had in mind before he started molding... The clay was shaped painlessly as long as it stayed in the centre of the potter's will - on the wheel. If the clay was not cooperative, the potter took it off the wheel to pound it some more and remove some impurities... Outside we could see the oven where the fire could finish the process (cleansing and strengthening). Water evaporates and the clay turns into stone, an irreversible chemical change. After cooling down and finishing off, the clay pot becomes useful for the maker. Just think about this biblical metaphore and feel free to share your thoughts with me and with the other blog readers!

Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8


Photo copyright: RIK BENNIK [GMI]

Bread and wine: the mystery of Jesus' human / divine nature

As always, Brad (Broken Messenger) has a very interesting post on his bog. If you are a Bible study enthusiast (you should be!) you just have to visit Brad's site every now and then!

Again Brad poses a thought-provoking question: DID JESUS KNOW EVERYTHING?

I agree with Brad: Jesus laid down his equality with God - temporarily! - in order to become one of us. He humbled himself, as Paul writes to the Philippians:

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross! Source

Christ’s divine / human nature is just too big a mystery for us to understand!

Some time ago I read in Blaise Pascal’s Pensées (i.e. the Dutch translation of his thoughts, because my French is miserable) about Joseph and Jesus ‘between two criminals’. This really was an eye-opener for me! I found this English translation on the internet:

Jesus Christ typified by Joseph, the beloved of his father, sent by his father to see his brethren, innocent, sold by his brethren for twenty pieces of silver, and thereby becoming their lord, their saviour, the saviour of strangers, and the saviour of the world; which had not been but for their plot to destroy him, their sale and their rejection of him.

In prison Joseph innocent between two criminals; Jesus Christ on the cross between two thieves. Joseph foretells freedom to the one, and death to the other, from the same omens. Jesus Christ saves the elect, and condemns the outcast for the same sins. Joseph foretells only; Jesus Christ acts. Joseph asks him who will be saved to remember him, when he comes into his glory; and he whom Jesus Christ saves asks that He will remember him, when He comes into His kingdom.
Source

I had to think about this after reading this line in Brad's posting: “So while it is true that Jesus’ body is perishable, it is also true that his divine nature is imperishable.” Bread = perishable, the body. Wine = everlasting, the spirit. Jesus gave his Spirit to the Father, while his body was broken on the cross. A baker, a cup bearer, a forgiven criminal on one side and a lost sinner on the other side – it all makes sense! I am impressed by the similarities, but even more by the differences between Joseph and Jesus! Jesus didn’t have to ask for mercy – because of His divine nature Jesus was able to tell the remorseful sinner: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." Luke 23:43 WOW!

Isaiah lived about 700 years before the birth of ...

And this is what he wrote about Him...

Who has believed our message? To whom will the LORD reveal his saving power? My servant grew up in the LORD's presence like a tender green shoot, sprouting from a root in dry and sterile ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way when he went by. He was despised, and we did not care.

Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God for his own sins! But he was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed! All of us have strayed away like sheep. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the guilt and sins of us all.

He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth. From prison and trial they led him away to his death. But who among the people realized that he was dying for their sins--that he was suffering their punishment? He had done no wrong, and he never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave.

But it was the LORD's good plan to crush him and fill him with grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have a multitude of children, many heirs. He will enjoy a long life, and the LORD's plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied. And because of what he has experienced, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of one who is mighty and great, because he exposed himself to death. He was counted among those who were sinners. He bore the sins of many and interceded for sinners. Source

Mind you, this is a prophetic chapter from the OLD Testament written approx. 2700 years ago by Isaiah... How can anyone NOT believe in Jesus?

And this is what Peter wrote about Jesus:

He personally carried away our sins in his own body on the cross so we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. You have been healed by his wounds! Source

Life's not fair... but God is good!

Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. The Message

Read my reflections here!

Back to the garden: Ruth in Holland...

And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." Naomi said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." Ruth 2:2

Great new statue by Dutch sculptor Karel Gomez in my home town Hoofddorp. I guess the statue deserves a better background. By the way: I love Ruth's African looks! Click on the pics to enlarge

The hope of eternal life

Click pic to enlarge!

...a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time...
Source

Back to the Garden (part I)
This afternoon I went back to the hidden garden, this time with my very own Eve (Lydia) and her new digital camera. I will upload more images later... While looking up to the sky, I was simply overwhelmed by the sight of this impressive tree top. No sign of life - yet. But just wait and see!

Hi from my little corner of the world...

OK, let's have a look again at the 100 most recent visitors to Panda's Ponderings. I guess there is some overlap in the Netherlands... Well, this is a tiny little country so what do you expect? By the way, I am represented by the little red dot (above). A very warm welcome to the lonely visitors from South America, Australia and Asia! Come on, Africa - we miss you here! It seems like you all have plenty of space. I don't know who you are guys, but God knows eveything and He loves every single one of you! (No kidding, just click here and read it for yourselves!) Blessings from the low countries where I keep on bloggin' at 4,5 metres below sea level...

Everything I had hoped for - three times!

I asked for strength that I might achieve;
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health that I might do greater things;
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy;
I was given poverty that I might be wise.

I asked for power that I might have the praise of men;
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I had asked for;
But everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered; I am, among all men, most richly blessed.

A prayer attributed to an unknown confederate soldier

Update Sunday April 9: Pure coincidence?
A week ago Orlando Bottenbley quoted this prayer - in Dutch - during a sermon last Sunday in our church. Later this week I played the Piano Tour cd by Rick Wakeman (Yes) and I visited his site to find out more about this great musician. The same prayer turned up on my screen... Today I read James Emery White's wonderful book Wrestling with God - and guess what? Yep, the same words from the unknown confederate soldier on page 76. Maybe Someone wants to tell me something? :-) (Left to right: Orlando Bottenbley, Rick Wakeman and James Emery White)
a

Visit Tony Anthony (Taming the Tiger)

Just need to tell everybody that we had some great meetings last weekend with evangelist Tony Anthony in Hoofddorp (the place where I live) and in Gouda (where we worked together with Irene Klein Haneveld and Annemijn Goeree from Samma). Read more here.

The press meeting in the morning was attended by only 3 journalists (despite us sending out zillions of invitations), but the meeting in the afternoon compensated everything. Approx 100 people turned up, among them some guys from Utrecht - where Revival Joy is helping drug addicts to start a new life as followers of Jesus (drug free - of course). God knows exactly how many - but several people gave their lives to Christ last Saturday! I am sure there was joy in Heaven because of this ...

We all enjoyed the life performances by RIV and Mic Joshua from Noa Ministries. Together with Joshua Kotadiny they made a joyful noise for the Lord in both Hoofddorp and Gouda. I am sure there is more to come... Tony will be back in June (23-28) and already we've made several appointments.

If you want to know more, just drop me a line!

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Philippians 4:4