By Donny Ndoka –
Kenneth Bae was a missionary kid in China visiting friends on the border of North Korea when he met two defectors who had accepted Jesus. “Before I had no hope for life,” one told him. “Now I have hope.”
Their moving testimony stirred Kenneth deeply, and the American born of Korean descent began to pray for North Korea, asking God how he could help. The answer: take Christians into the country as tourists to pray and worship.
From 2012 to 2013, he took 300 such praying tourists into North Korea. On his last trip, he was arrested by police because he accidentally brought in a hard drive with a movie critical of North Korea, along with missionary materials, he told Shepherd Church in Porter Ranch in California.
“You tried to overthrow the government of North Korea,” his interrogators charged him.
“What do you mean?” he asked. “How?”
“Through prayer and worship,” they barked.
“Excuse me, you don’t believe in God,” he questioned. “Why do you believe in prayer? You have more faith than most Christians do.”
“We are not afraid of the nuclear arsenal of the United States,” his interrogators responded. “They will never attack us as long as we don’t attack them first. But we are afraid of someone like you, a missionary, coming in and spreading the virus of Christianity, and the people will catch the virus and then they will turn to God. Then this country will become God’s country.”
Kenneth was astonished by what the information they volunteered. “I felt like the Holy Spirit was talking to me.”
Ultimately, he was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on a starvation diet. From 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., he was hauling rocks and coal. The guards taunted him: “Your nation has forgotten you. You will be 60 before you return to your country.”
It wasn’t true. More than 175,000 signed a petition to urge President Obama to arrange diplomatically for his release.
During those two years of hard labor, Kenneth said he died “a couple of times.”
After two years, Obama sent the ideal envoy to Pyongyang: Dennis Rodman.
It turns out that North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, is an avid basketball fan who idolized Dennis Rodman. The dictator and the basketball star shared some moments of light-hearted talk. Rodman gave signed jerseys and other gifts to the totalitarian strongman.
Kenneth Bae was released on November 8, 2014, along with another American detainee, Matthew Miller. This was approximately 10 months after Dennis Rodman’s advocacy for Bae’s release in January 2014, following his visit. While Rodman’s comments brought additional attention to Bae’s case, most observers would say the release ultimately occurred due to diplomatic efforts.
“I suffered a lot in the North Korean prison camp,” he recounts. “I realized that suffering is not an obstacle in my life. It became a pathway to enter God’s heart.”
Today, Kenneth leads a group Nehemiah Global Initiative to shed light on the situation in North Korea and get people to pray.
To learn more about a personal relationship with Jesus, click here
About this writer: Donny Ndoka studies at the Lighthouse Christian Academy near Playa Vista Los Angeles.
