Prayer Items for April 19th

We are going to set aside week 3 of every month to pray for another country in the world, and this week, it will be North Korea, I have copied out the items from Operation World.

NORTH KOREA

Source: Operation World ( http://www.operationworld.org/country/korn/owtext.html )

1 The leader of North Korea has deified his deceased father Kim Il Sung by adulatory propaganda, erection of statues and government enforced policies. Pray that the Holy Spirit might convict him and his cadre to cease their idolatry and worship the true God.

2 The Church in North Korea was the birthplace of Korean revival – Pyongyang was known as the "Jerusalem of the East". But most Christians fled to the south during the Korean War or were martyred, and churches were bulldozed. Little is known about today's underground church; only that it has survived amidst great suffering. There are three propaganda "show" churches in the capital, but over 100,000 Christians are interned in labour camps. Pray for physical and spiritual safety for North Korean believers, that they hang on to their Saviour in what is possibly the most difficult country to be a Christian.

3 The majority have never heard the name of Jesus. The knowledge of God has been obliterated for most by an Orwellian nightmare of repression, demands for total conformity, and isolation from the outside world. Pray that the God-shaped hole may be filled within the long-suffering Korean people. The turning to God could be dramatic when the state collapses.

4 As many as 3 million died of starvation from 1994-2000, yet the government stockpiles rations for the military and refuses assistance on any but the strictest of terms. Floods caused by deforestation continue to devastate crops and reports of cannibalism are leaking out of the country. Some Christian agencies have been able to offer aid, but never with permission to share the gospel. Pray for aid to reach the needy population, and for wisdom on the part of foreign governments and NGOs in handling this tragic and delicate situation.

5 Present means of witness are limited:
a) Radio. Many South Korean Christian broadcasts as well as those of TWR-Guam and FEBC-South Korea (19 programmes) reach far into North Korea, but most radios are pre-tuned to government stations, and few can hear these gospel broadcasts.
b) Korean Christians from China and elsewhere who are able to visit and gain opportunities to witness. Korea is open to Chinese businessmen, and their easy access to the country could be strategic for the gospel.
c) South Korean Christians who have prayed and prepared for years for the time when the land opens for the gospel. Pray that this may soon happen.
d) A group of foreign NGOs has received permission to establish an independent church in an area where they run agricultural training programmes.

6 Over 100,000 North Koreans have fled to China in the last three years. There are about 200,000 ethnic Korean Christians living in Chinese provinces which share a border with Korea. Many try to shelter the escapees and share the gospel with them in hidden "Bethlehem Centres" but Chinese are punished severely if caught harbouring escapees, and any Koreans who are sent back face almost certain death. Despite this, converted Korean escapees often return to be a witness to Jesus at extreme risk to their own lives. Pray that the Lord might protect both the sheltering hosts and the escapees from harm, and use them to reap a great harvest among these disillusioned and desperate people.