We came into the sanctuary after church tonight to practice a section of our upcoming choir performance on Saturday, and after we finished, I could feel God telling me "prep your camera, it's happening now." Not 5 minutes later, Gwangjin turns to Nari and tells her he's ready to tell me his story.
As I just said, I am recording this as it goes. I will be putting together the videos, which I will be showing at the churches I visit to share about my trip this year. If you live in Southern Illinois and want to attend one of these (and you should to get the full effect of this story--there are just somethings that writing them won't do justice compared to his video testimony), I know for a fact I will be speaking at Little Chapel Church in Harrisburg, Freedom Outreach Ministries in Vienna, and probably First Baptist Church in Ridgway at some point. When I have concrete dates set, I will let you know.
Without further adieu...
This is Gwangjin. He is 29 years old, and he lives here at Durihana. He was the first face of Durihana I saw at the airport, Joseph being the second. Shortly after meeting, he introduced himself as a North Korean. He is the first North Korean I have knowingly seen. With our language barrier, communication is difficult, but he is one of those people that I feel as close as a brother to in such a short time in knowing each other.
Gwangjin, as you can tell by the picture, is the drummer at our church. He has only been playing for a couple years, but he has great talent. His ultimate dream is to be a worship leader in North Korea when the two nations reunify and to be able to bring the Gospel to North Korea, since so many are unevangelized there. His dream is to be established as a worship leader here in South Korea before reunification, then when the border opens, he will be in North Korea spreading the Gospel. He looks at his time here as training. He is not a worship leader yet. But he looks at this as preparation for his ultimate ministry, that he is able to be trained and prayed over by people who are older and more spiritually mature than him before he can even reach his ultimate goal. And even with his dream to lead worship in North Korea, he also aspires to lead worship globally.
Like I said, he is talented. He can play guitar, drums, and the saxophone. He, however, cannot read sheet music. But he is still able to play these instruments with great proficiency. He wants to learn more instruments, including piano. Tonight, he was even asking me what basics he should learn to begin to learn bass, and even said that when Yoonmi and I marry, that he will play violin (even though he can't play it yet) at our wedding. That's an open invitation if he learns before then.
When he escaped North Korea, like most, his route involved going through China. North Koreans don't have passport or papers to cross the border. They either sneak out, or they bribe the border patrol to let them pass through. Once they're in China, despite China being party to an international treaty regarding not repatriating refugees, they're essentially criminals. You can't legally hold jobs. You can't go to school. Most people cower in fear and stay cooped up in apartments for months or years without setting foot outside, for fear that they will be noticed and arrested and repatriated to North Korea, which would result in imprisonment at least, and execution at worst.
Gwangjin however was already a fugitive, and lived like one. He did whatever he could to survive on the streets in China. He would steal food, money, bicycles, anything that he could flip for cash would be stolen. He would beat up people to steal from them. He told me an example of how he would ask to borrow someone's phone to make a phone call, then walk away with it. If they pursued him, he would crack them over the head with a lead pipe and take the phone. He said this happened multiple times, so I assumed the phone was then pawned for money to live off of. Whatever it took to survive.
He had no place to sleep in China. He never had his own place, so he explained that at night, he would take cardboard boxes to the roof of apartment buildings and sleep on top of the buildings. He even did this when it was cold. He said in the winter, it was so cold on top of the roof that the only way he could warm up enough to sleep was to drink hard liquor, so this became a routine where he couldn't sleep without a drink.
It was because of Durihana that he was able to escape China for South Korea. However, after he arrived here, he wasn't apt to go to church at that time, despite Pastor Chun leading him out. He said that even though he was warm in Korea, he was lonely at night. Because of this, he continued his trend of drinking alcohol and smoking to ease his loneliness at night so he could sleep. He still struggles with both, and told me he has often been chided by Pastor Chun regarding these. He is trying to quit both, and is smoking an electronic cigarette to ween himself off of tobacco. He also found out during a physical that his liver is in bad shape because of his drinking, and if he doesn't quit, he will end up with liver cancer or cirrhosis. He is asking for prayer to help him quit both.
He said making money was easy for him when he got to Seoul. He said he could make around $5,000 monthly, yet he was always broke, and couldn't understand why. He also got married, and even has a 6-year-old son, but they divorced. He couldn't understand why then, but since coming to Durihana, he understands God was trying to lead him to him, and make him stop trusting in himself and lean on God.
Shortly after arriving at Durihana, he told Pastor Chun he wanted to play drums. Pastor Chun told him to go for it, and was able to pick out a brand new drum kit to learn on. He treats his worship as a prayer to God, as he finds it difficult to vocally pray himself. This is one of the most poignant statements I've ever heard in my life.
By the time he had escaped North Korea, he had been in prison 5 times in the nation. At this point, I have to stop, because this is as far as we've gotten into his story. Please keep tuned in for part two later on.
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