Risk Christians Take To Get Bible Into North Korea & The Harsh Penalties

October 11, 2017

In the face of dictatorship rule almost turning into a religion in North Korea, unrelenting evangelical Christians have devised varying means in order to get bibles – God’s word and messages into the country.

Fox News put together the varying means – dangerous however – through which bibles are smuggled into the oppressive dictatorship in the hopes that impoverished North Koreans will know that they aren’t forgotten.

“Bible Balloons,” adorned with the Words of God printed in Korean or flash drives featuring the entire texts of the Testament is one of the ways by which the word of God is smuggled into the country. Hundreds of helium-filled balloons are sent up and away from multiple points in South Korea, destined a few miles away and into North Korea.

Other activists, such as American pastor Eric Foley, have opted for a much larger hydrogen-fueled 40-foot balloon brimming with bibles and testimonials. These are then dropped into rural areas with the help of GPS technology, in the hopes that even just one will be picked up.

Pastor Eric Foley — CEO of Voice of the Martyrs Korea told Fox News that growth in Christianity does not happen in waves but always one at a time.

These smuggling programs generate little funding or support from outside governments, and are generally left up to missionaries, nongovernmental organizations and activists. Vernon Brewer, founder and president of Christian humanitarian organization World Help, told Fox News. “The people who smuggle bibles have to be extremely careful, changing their route and taking other precautions to avoid getting caught.”

Not only do they use baloons but these days, the use of large drones,also,more and more, bibles are being disseminated in electronic rather than print form.

According to Brewer, once those bibles are inside, they are passed along through trusted believers, and he and his organization send a couple of different sizes — but the most popular versions are the small New Testaments.

Another smuggling method in is via the occasional — and lawbreaking — tourist.Religious freedom is written into the country’s constitution, but the reality on the ground paints a much different picture. For the vast majority of trapped Christians inside the brutal dictatorship, the consequence is life in a labor camp or a public execution by firing squad. Their relatives too are often subject to callous retribution.

Source: Fox News