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Refugee didn't even know the word 'Bible'

Every baptism’s a miracle, a reflection of the supernatural intervention of God into our world, his transformation of a life

Some baptisms are quiet. Some, like these last fall at Dixie Baptist, Mississauga, are spectacular.

Let’s call her “J”. She’s one of nine North Korean refugees who immigrated to Canada last fall, fleeing a wicked regime. Dixie Baptist welcomed these damaged lives, sheltered and clothed them, and introduced them to Jesus Christ.

Here’s J’s story.

While I was living in North Korea, I didn’t know who Jesus was. I didn’t even know the word “Bible.” My life was nothing but suffering and pain. My son and I had no food… so we defected from North Korea to China. Unfortunately we were captured. We were sent back to North Korea where we were imprisoned and tortured severely. My collarbone was broken and my back was injured. The prison guards nearly beat my son to death. His white skull was visible through a gash on his head.

After five months we were released from the prison. We had nothing to eat, no place to go. We had no choice but to defect to China again. We walked three days and nights without food to reach the border. After crossing the Dooman River, we walked another four days and nights to reach our hiding place.

God saw my pain, opened the door and led me to Canada through the help of a pastor in China. I have decided to follow Jesus. I want to shout to the world on this glorious day of my baptism. My message is,”Believe in Jesus and love the Bible. Give thanks to God always throughout your life.’” Thank you, Jesus!

J was baptised last December. It’s a wonder she’s alive, given the brutality of her nation to its citizens. North Korea is the darkest country on the planet, a slave state to all but the elite Party members.

And it's deadly for Christians. If discovered, Christians are exterminated, vermin-like. It is the most hostile culture to believers of the world's 193 nations.

J hadn’t even heard the word “Bible”. Now she shouts, “Thank you, Jesus!” Sheer miracle, her conversion and baptism.

But there’s more.

Let’s refer to him as “K”. He also arrived at Dixie Baptist in October with the other North Korean refugees. K had no prior connection with Jesus, no spiritual life. The word “God” would be literally unthinkable for him. Thoughts might result in words. Words might be overheard. He’d be executed.

Like J, his fellow North Korean, K fled the country his wife and baby. But life was still precarious in China. While his family hid, K found undocumented, survival jobs.

One evening, he returned to their hiding place to discover, oh no! Both wife and child gone. It meant only one thing: Chinese authorities had caught and handed them over to the North Korean border guards.  The guards are known for their sadism, treating escapees like brute animals.

K had already experienced brutal prison life.  His body was deeply scarred from torture, one eye almost blind. This was now be his wife’s, his baby’s fate. He'd cast off a cloak of darkness.  Now it descended again, enveloping him in despair.

But the God he didn’t know, the Father-God of miracles, had mercy on K. God intervened through a house church in northeast China, giving this shattered man his first sunrise of hope.

How baffled K was! He’d been indoctrinated to fear, to loathe Christians. To his amazement, only they had shown compassion to him.

A brave pastor in Liaoning province used an underground network to smuggle him out of China. K circuitously arrived in Canada, safe in body but crushed in spirit.

“He cried day and night when he first came,” Pastor Shan An said of K. But the love of God, poured out through this congregation’s kindness, warmed his heart. He, like J, responded to the compassion of Jesus and became a Christian. It was another miracle.

There’s more.

One night last November K was startled by a knock on his door. He had no friends he expected to call. His heart raced. Experiences in North Korea made him dread late-night visitors.

Terrified, he cracked open the door. There, standing before him: his wife, his child!

“Our whole church celebrated,” Pastor Shan exalted. “Impossible!  We knew it could only be a miracle!”

K’s wife had gone to prison, as he'd feared. Yes, she'd also been tortured. The prison guards released her only when her baby was at the point of death.

Her parents took her in, urging her to forget her husband. K was gone, perhaps dead. He’d never return. Forget him!

But how could she? Desperate, she slipped out after midnight and trekked to the Chinese border. She held her baby high as they crossed the waist-high river.

Another miracle: A house church in northeast China discovered her plight. Their pastor smuggled her out. She too made it to Canada. Against all odds, God reunited this precious family.

K and his wife were baptised in Dixie Baptist just before Christmas, along with J and three others. Another four await baptism, part of a second wave of refugees to immigrate in January.

Every baptism’s a celebration. For these North Korean refugees, theirs is sheer miracle. That’s what God wants to do with our convention! God’s miraculous rebirth of precious lives, resulting in hundreds of baptisms!

Thank God for Dixie Baptist, where nineteen nationalities worship together and create a community for the broken lives God brings them. Thank God for Pastor Shan and his wife Soogie, God’s servants, his arms to embrace these refugees.

Our convention has asked God for 100,000 baptisms by 2020. That’s 6000 baptisms a year for the next fourteen years. Some will be quiet celebrations. Some, like J’s and K’s experiences, will be amazing stories of deliverance. Each will be a miracle.

Father-God, show us what we must do, give us your passion, so you can work miracles this year in the CCSB!