GROUP STUDIES LIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN Six group studies to help you imaginatively enter the world of the underground church in North Korea. Use them in your prayer group, small group, youth group, CU These studies work alongside the weekly themes in the individual prayer resource, so you will need to ensure that each member of the group has a copy of this booklet. More copies can be ordered at www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime or 01993 777300. If you are not part of a group, you can still use these sessions, and reflect on the Bible passages in them in your own personal devotions. Feel free to adapt as necessary!
WEEK ONE: LIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where the state decides where you live, what profession you choose, what sports you play, what food you eat even if you eat. A colourless land: drab clothing, concrete buildings, the only colour is in the propaganda images of the Great Leader who, though dead for 18 years, is still president and must be worshipped as a god. And where, despite that, hundreds of thousands of people choose to secretly worship a greater God. THAT IS LIFE IN NORTH KOREA. You will need: Candles for people to light. News stories from North Korea. Pin these up or pass them around. Read: Daniel chapter 3 We will not serve your gods. What is the background to this story? What is happening? Where is it taking place? Share the information about Kimilsungism [see box opposite]. How does this story relate to North Korea? What do you think it is like to live in such an atmosphere? How can we in the West walk alongside and support Christians in the furnace of persecution? What are the golden statues in our world? What are we supposed to worship? Get hold of news stories from North Korea, either from the newspapers or the internet (you can find some stories at www. opendoorsuk.org/itstime.) What do they tell you about life inside the country? What do you imagine life is like for the citizens? Life for a North Korean citizen has been described as being like a candle: all it takes to be blown out is one wrong word or one wrong person. And this is especially true for believers. Light a candle in the group and pray together that God will nourish and protect the faith of these fragile believers. In a musical about North Korea s infamous Yodok prison camp, the actors sing the prayer of many North Korean Christians. You could pray this silently, or together: If there s someone out there, can you hear this cry? If there is someone out there, please listen to us. Oh God, look at that blood, Wind, please stop blowing. Our lives are like candles. Wind, please stop blowing, don t blow, you will blow out the candles. Sun, please don t rise, don t rise, someday it will be over. Heaven will not forsake us forever. If only we had wings, we would fly away. North Korean Christians take a stand against the idols of their society. As you pray, ask God to reveal more of the idols we are told to worship in this world. Pray for the strength to stand against the pressure to conform. As a group: Look out for news and information in the media about North Korea in forthcoming weeks. Try to learn as much as you can. With Open Doors: A gift of 63 can provide ten believers with basic essentials such as food, clothes and medicine. Go to www. opendoorsuk.org/itstime Kimilsungism We cover the portraits of the leaders on the wall and then we kneel down in a circle. We pray for strength and endurance. We pray that God will keep our country. - North Korean Christian North Korea is a country dominated by a personality cult. Known as Kimilsungism, it revolves around the effective worship of the leading dynasty founded by Kim Il-Sung, his son Kim Jong-Il, and his grandson and present leader Kim Jong-Un. Everyone has to attend at least weekly meetings and memorise more than 100 pages of ideological learning materials, including documents that praise the morals and majesty of Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, and various poems and songs praising them. North Korea suffers from routine power shortages. Turn off the electricity for a day; turn off the heating. Turn it on in the evening for an hour. Then switch it off again In North Korea people are forced to memorise masses of material in praise of the leaders. On our website you will find a page from one of Kim Jong-Il s books. Download it and try to memorise it. (Imagine that you had to memorise hundreds of pages of the stuff!) Try living for a day on the diet of an ordinary citizen. Eat a bowl of soup and some bread and that s all for the day. Remember that for prisoners it is even less. Most North Koreans have no access to the internet. Join the Open Doors Blackout campaign and raise sponsorship by fasting from social networks, phones, the internet and other media we have the freedom to enjoy. To find out more visit www.opendoorsyouth.org
WEEK TWO: PRAY LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where people go into the mountains and pray all night. A prayer-drenched land filled with prayer warriors who view it as the day s most important task and who carry out their task in the utmost secrecy. A land where those who are persecuted pray for their persecutors, yearn to conquer evil with good, and believe that their leaders could become Christians. THAT IS PRAYER IN NORTH KOREA. You will need: Information sheet about North Korean leaders* Images from North Korea to help people to pray. You can use pictures from Open Doors magazines or from our website* Pictures of North Korean border fences* *You can download all these resources at www.opendoorusk.org/itstime Read: Luke 18:1 8 Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? What do we learn about prayer from this parable? Are there things in our lives or in our societies which we think are simply too big for prayer to change? Have you seen prayer change something which you thought could never have been changed? How should we change the way we are praying in the light of this parable? North Korea is a land of fences and barriers and walls. Sometimes they seem so high. Look at the picture of the barbed wire fences on the border of North Korea. Prayerfully imagine those fences falling. God can break down the barriers! Stick pictures around the room of North Korea and its people. Use these to inspire quiet prayer as people move around and engage with the images. Pray for the leaders. North Korean Christians pray that their leader will change and reform North Korea, that he will be an instrument in His hands. God, save Kim Jong-Un. Can their daily prayer become ours as well? Do we have faith for this seemingly impossible task? Use the boxes on pages 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12 to pray for the leaders of North Korea. Read out the name and facts about each leader. Pause after each leader to pray for that person. Is anything too big for God? Quietly in your hearts revisit any of the things mentioned as being too big for God to change. Pray with confidence for God to move! As a group: It is not only North Korea s leaders who need Jesus! As a group perhaps you can commit to pray for the leaders of the world. If there are different nationalities within the group, then pray for the leaders of those respective countries. With Open Doors: Sign up for weekly Email Prayer Alerts from Open Doors. These cover not only North Korea, but all the persecuted church. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/pray Prayer warrior We must pray as warriors. I must do so. In the past, I often went to the mountains and prayed all night. As I got older, this happened less often. But I m going to do it again, because the church needs people who pray like that. God uses this prayer to open doors While I was praying in a concentrated way, a sentence came to my mind: I can do everything through Him who gives me strength. I did not know this text. When I spoke to a friend about it, he told me that it is in the Bible, in Philippians 4:13. There was much sin in my life. I had to pray long and often in order to break down the barriers between God and me. This, too, is praying as a warrior. - North Korean church leader North Korean Christians are used to accompanying deep, urgent prayer with fasting. What can you fast from this week? Food? Television? Social media? Use the time saved to pray. Organise a prayer meeting or vigil for North Korea. Christians in North Korea long for unity and reconciliation with South Korea. Is there someone you need to be reconciled to? Pray for that and take steps to build unity.
WEEK THREE: WORSHIP LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where the only permitted worship is the worship of the leaders and where all churches are illegal. A land of silence. Where those who dare to disobey sing songs without a sound, and raise voices of praise to the minimum level possible. A land where two people meet on a Sunday morning in a remote place. They pause, unspeaking, joined only by the silent understanding that they share the same faith. If they can be certain no one else is near, they share a Bible verse or a prayer point with each other. And then go home. THAT IS WORSHIP IN NORTH KOREA. You can either: a) Set up your house or venue so that everything is blacked out and no lights are showing. As people arrive, check them at the door. Halfway through the evening you might arrange for someone to come and interrupt the group. (If it s someone they don t know, even better. They have to decide whether he is a spy or not.) You can choose whether to have the electricity on or off and use candles instead! (In reality, North Korean Christians cannot meet in groups, even under conditions like this.) b) Arrange for the group to meet outdoors in the woods, perhaps, or up a hill to reflect the way some North Korean believers have to meet (see box on p18). Again, you could discover a stranger observing the group. In either case, keep your meeting as quiet as possible! Read: Acts 12:1 19 The house of Mary where many had gathered and were praying. What are the similarities between the church in Jerusalem in the story from Acts 12 and churches in North Korea? What do you think that the church in Jerusalem was praying during the night? This was an amazing answer to prayer. What answers to prayer have you seen recently? Ask the group to prayerfully reflect on the presence of the observer. How did they feel? In the silence think about how it feels to worship in a society where you cannot be seen or make a noise. Amazing Grace. That s the song Christians sing the most in North Korea. - North Korean believer. Join with North Korean Christians in singing this song. But sing it as they do by whispering the words quietly. You cannot make a noise! The government insists that every North Korean must have images of their leaders in their home. Before praying, North Korean Christians cover the portraits of the leaders on the wall and then we kneel down in a circle. We pray for strength and endurance. Print out a picture of Kim Jong- Il and pass it round the group or hang it on the wall. Then cover it up and kneel in prayer for strength and endurance. Hea Woo (see box to the right) describes how Christians in a labour camp had to worship in a toilet. Try moving your worship time to the toilet or a cupboard under the stairs or a shed. Somewhere secret, and cramped. As a group: Holy Communion can be practised only once or twice a year in remote areas. Bread and wine are rarely available. Instead, if you feel able, share communion with your group using the normal Korean substitutes: biscuits, fruit and juice. With Open Doors: Speak up for freedom of religion in North Korea and around the world. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/ campaign to sign up for our latest advocacy alerts. Worship, North Korean style Normally, only when an entire family is Christian, they can have a house church service, where they sing, read and pray very softly. Or, if two Christians are not relatives, they go far into the woods or mountains. Hea Woo, a North Korean Christian, spent years in a labour camp because of her faith. I used to meet up with another lady high in the mountains. One day we were singing and of all a sudden a young guy stood behind us. We gave him some food and drinks and then he left. On the way back we could only pray he would not report us. Thank God, he didn t. God used me to lead five people to faith. I tried to teach them what I knew. That may not have been much, and I didn t have access to a Bible in the camp. But on Sunday and at Christmas, we met together out of the view of the guards. Often that was in the toilet. There we held a short service. I taught them Bible verses and some songs, which we sang almost inaudibly. All six of us survived the camp, because we took care of one another. North Koreans pray and sing only in silence or whispers. Each day this week, worship by silently singing a hymn in your mind. The government insists that every North Korean must have images of their leaders in every home. Before praying, North Korean Christians cover the portraits of the leaders on the wall and then we kneel down in a circle. We pray for strength and endurance. Print out a picture of Kim Jong-Il or Kim Il-Sung and hang it on the wall. Then cover it up and kneel in prayer. This Sunday, before going to church, get up early (maybe even in the dark) and meet in secret with another believer. Stand by them. Share a whispered Bible verse. Pray silently. Then move on.
WEEK FOUR: READ LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where people are executed for possessing a Bible and where the only scriptures are writings about the dear leaders. A land where stories from the Bible are passed on in disguise, where Bibles are hidden in baskets, under the floor, in the roof Where people memorise the Bible, hold it close, treasure it, risk everything for it. THAT IS READING THE BIBLE IN NORTH KOREA. Read: 2 Timothy 3:10 17 All scripture is God-breathed Paul writes, Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted How do you respond to that? Is that your experience? What does Paul say is the purpose of the God-breathed scriptures (v.16 17)? List the things he mentions. Have you seen the scriptures used in this way? How often do you read the Bible? Daily? Weekly? Less often? What stops you reading it? In North Korea owning a Bible is punishable by death (see box on page 20). Do we value the Bible in that way? Imagine that all the Bibles you own or have access to have been rounded up and burned. What would you remember? How could you pass it on? Pray the Lord s Prayer together (from memory of course!) Read Psalm 121 slowly. See if, as a group, you can memorise it and then repeat it as a shared prayer. Pray for the protection of Bible-owning believers in North Korea. The government has clamped down on anyone possessing illegal materials. People have been executed for possessing Bibles. In 1994, though, Hye s father was arrested by the North Korean secret police, and her grandmother decided that it was too dangerous to keep the Bible. We had to burn it. My grandmother said it was okay as long as we stayed true to our faith in God. But when the flames devoured the pages, my grandmother wept intensely. Now, the only scriptures left were what the girls could remember. My sister wrote whatever she remembered on paper and hid it somewhere in secret. She would look at those papers whenever she was going through difficult times. Many North Korean Christians do not have a Bible, so they have to memorise portions of scripture. Follow their example and learn a passage of scripture by heart. Write out a chapter of the Bible by hand as believers do in many parts of the world where the Bible is banned. In North Korea possessing a Bible is illegal. Probably nowhere else in the world are so many copies of God s Word literally hidden underground. This week, hide your Bible somewhere outside the house in a shed, or another dry hiding place. Then, every morning, go out and retrieve it before reading it. As a group: Commit to learning a passage of scripture or even a book! This is what many North Korean believers have to do. Perhaps learn a prayer from the Bible and use it at your next meeting. With Open Doors: A gift of 11 can secretly deliver a Bible to a believer in North Korea and other places where faith costs the most. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime We had to burn it Every day when Hye and her sister returned from school, her grandmother would fetch the Bible from its hiding place in a basket and read out Bible verses. Hye recalls, She would always read her Bible with magnifying glasses, and hid it immediately if she heard someone coming to the house.
WEEK FIVE: GIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where natural disaster, economic mismanagement and corruption have led to millions of people being malnourished or suffering from food shortages. A land where citizens are officially ranked into three classes: the core, the wavering and the hostile class, and where only those in the right class get properly fed. A land where despite this, those who have little commit to sharing it with those who have nothing. THAT IS GIVING IN NORTH KOREA. In North Korea, famine has been so severe that many people end up eating grass. We don t suggest you do that (but you might if you are really adventurous!) If you want to try something in the same vein, you could try making nettle soup. Read: Acts 4:32 37 Everything they owned was held in common Why do you think the early church acted in this way? How do you think they were viewed by the society around them? Is this just something for that time or are we still supposed to act on the same principles? If so, how? Imagine you had to leave home in a hurry. What possessions would you take with you? Now, think about what you would leave behind: is it stuff you really need? North Korean s have a principle called Holy Rice (see box on page 21). How could you apply the same principle to your life? Imagine that your church is like the church in Acts 4. How would you share goods between one another? What would a day in the life of your church look like if this happened? Holy Rice One Chinese worker involved in missions among North Koreans says he has been deeply challenged by North Korean believers. I work mainly with those who have a Christian heritage. If you ask me to choose one word to describe them, I would pick faithful. Not all of them have God s Word, but thanks to their leaders, they really know God s Word and do God s Word. At the height of the famine a leader felt called to reintroduce the concept of holy rice, a practice whereby rice is set apart for use in God s kingdom. Ever since, these Christians don t consume all the food they receive from us. They save some to give to people who are even worse off than them. This gives them an opportunity to build trust and later share the gospel with these people. Follow the holy rice principle (see day 35). Work out the cost of your food budget this week. Put 10 per cent aside for those who are worse off than you. Or give food to a food bank. Fast for a day. Imagine what your life would be like if you had to do this every day. Pray for those in North Korea without enough to eat. Join the Open Doors Blackout campaign a sponsored fast from social networks, phones, the internet and other modern media. Go to www.opendoorsyouth.org Pray for all those suffering from hunger and malnourishment in North Korea. Ask God to bring to mind how you can share what you have with one another. As a group: North Korean Christians rely totally on each other to meet their needs. This week, could your group rely totally on each other? Perhaps you can provide a shared meal each night? Or commit to deliver a meal to each other once a week? As you do so, give thanks and remember the needs of the North Korean church. With Open Doors: For just 6 you can provide a relief pack to a North Korean believer. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/ nkrelief
WEEK SIX: SHARE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN IMAGINE A LAND Where between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are held in labour camps and where everyone is told that Christians are bad people. A land where Christians long to share the news of the gospel and to shout that Jesus exists. Where, despite the restrictions, Christians find ways to tell people about Jesus and where, despite the cost, people respond to that call. Where those who become Christians make the choice knowing that they could pay with their lives. And yet still they make that choice and pay that price. THAT IS SHARING THE GOOD NEWS IN NORTH KOREA. Write out the list of prohibited words in the box below. Make sure that everyone has a copy. Read: Mark 8:34 9:1 Take up your cross In North Korea certain words are so dangerous that Christians have to use a kind of code to communicate. So, agree before the meeting starts that there are certain words that cannot be used. Instead, use the substitutions in the chart above: Do NOT use: Jesus God Bible/scripture/Word of God Church prayer Use INSTEAD:: The One Our Father The book Family Talking to Father See how the group gets on, and note the number of times people fall back into using normal language. Keep an honest score! What does it mean to take up your cross? What price are we prepared to pay to follow Jesus? What can we learn from North Korean Christians? How would you share the gospel using the code words? Is it even possible? Have you shared the gospel with anyone recently? If so, how? If not, what has stopped you? The North Korean church has a vision for what God intends for their future (see box on page 23). Do you have a vision for how you will share the gospel as church, a group and as an individual? The word disciple means apprentice or trainee. Imagine that you are drawing up a job description for a trainee follower of Jesus. What would it contain? Look at the job descriptions you have drawn up. Pray that God will give you the opportunity to do those tasks this week. Pray for the church in North Korea and their vision for the future. Prayerfully reflect on the cost of being a disciple of Jesus. As a group: Share what you ve learned about discipleship from North Korean Christians. Can you share this with your church? Your workplace? Your friends or family? With Open Doors: A gift of 42 can provide resources to enable secret workers to share the gospel with North Koreans. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime In preparation North Korean Christians have started their own prayer campaign for their country. They pray that God continues to open doors for the gospel to be spread further. We now pray the prayer of Queen Esther. She was called for a time like this, as Mordecai told her. That applies to us too. We are called to spread His light in a time like this and under these difficult circumstances. We experience that God uses the persecution to sanctify His church and are grateful that we in our weakness receive His strength. We pray that we are able to do His will in every situation. And if we perish, we perish. God gave us a vision. One day our country will be opened and reunited with South Korea. Then the North Korean and South Korean Church will work together with our Chinese brothers and sisters to evangelise Asia. That is going to be a hard, difficult task. We see the current persecution in North Korea as preparation for that time. North Koreans cannot wear a cross or publicly identify themselves as Christians. Wear something this week which identifies you as a Christian because throughout the world there are millions of Christians who can t. Download a picture of a fence at the North Korean border from our website. As you pray, imagine that fence falling. Keep that image at the forefront of your prayers for the country: walls can fall, barriers can be broken down. God has the victory! Pray for an opportunity to talk about Jesus and when the opportunity comes, take it! Share the good news with someone.