Walking In the Valley Of The Shadow Of Death

Walking In the Valley Of The Shadow Of Death Kim Yong Sook’s life started in 1951 in a Chinese village as the second child of a poor Korean family. It nearly ended 46 years later in a North Korean prison cell. Her extraordinary life story is both tragic and triumphant. Over the next four days we will hear her story. When Yong Sook was 7 years old in the late 1950s, she remembered moving back to Korea from China, where her family had lived about 20 years. After all, her father said, “as Koreans, we belong in Korea.” At that time, the North Korean government encouraged native Koreans, who had moved to China and Japan, to come “home.” Growing up in the capital city of Pyongyang, Yong Sook remembers that she had heard her family talk about Christianity, but she didn’t think they were Christians. Then, in 1964, a man came to their house to talk to her father and grandfather about a secret Christian network. He urged them to sign up if they wanted to be saved. “My grandfather and father argued about it. My grandfather wanted to put their names on the paper, but my father thought it was a bad idea. My grandfather won the discussion,” she remembered. Three years later, before sunrise, five police agents barged into their house. As the family cowered in the corner the police scoured the place saying, that because my grandfather and father were on the list of the underground Christian network, they were looking for Scriptures. “That day, all the members on the list were arrested and taken away, including my father and grandfather; but they released my grandfather because of his age and because he lied. He blamed everything on my father,” she said. “The police believed him and they let him go home.” After that, life was difficult for the family. “We lived in fear, thinking we would have to leave Pyongyang. Where was my father? Was he still alive? What would they do with us? Would we be deported to a political camp? Everybody believed we had betrayed the country.” She recalls, “And, for months, every few days, the police came to our house and interrogated my mother.” Tomorrow we continue with Yong Sook’s story. One With Them In places where the government persecutes God’s children, the family suffers greatly as they are torn apart from one another, often unaware of the whereabouts of one another. At times, even unaware of whether they are still alive. As we approach God’s throne today, One With Them, let us first thank God for showing us how important “family” is to Him. Important enough to call us His children. Important enough to use a family to bring His Son into the world. 2013.06.27

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1-3)