The news of Kim Jong-Il’s death reminded me of an article I read about six or seven years ago, about a man who escaped North Korea, aided by Christians. I wish I still had the article. It struck me not only because it was a powerful story, but also because there was a local family at my kids’ school who had escaped North Korea. The man in the article was imprisoned for trying to provide humanitarian aid (for details from a rare Westerner allowed into N Korea, there’s an article at Mother Jones). For obvious reasons, the article did not provide his name or some key details, but it prompted me to write a rare poem, Can one man make a difference, which I read at Beyond Baroque.
Can one man make a difference?
I cannot tell you his name, only that he went into North Korea in winter
He cried at the bitter cold conditions and gave them clothing
I cannot tell you his name when they began the interrogation
but the name of his savior is Jesus
Can one man make a difference?
His crime against the People’s Republic of North Korea
Was to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ
The hopeless and starving saw a ray of hope
The sick and the dying saw the face of God
He told them the names of the great I AM:
Jehovah-jireh (the Lord will provide)
Jehovah-rapha (the Lord who heals)
Jehovah-ra-ah (the Lord my shepherd)
He cannot tell you the name of the man arrested for stealing
beaten until he begged for death
Released. And then arrested again
Rationed to morning beatings with thick bats
Rationed until his diarrhea became uncontrollable
Rationed to eating dirty rags used to clean toilets until he died.
Can one man make a difference?
I cannot tell you his name
When they arrested him again.
Only that he had hope, he had the Word
He had been to the mountain of spices
54 more days knowing kicks and blows of judo experts
54 more days knowing the living corpses around him
54 more days knowing the young woman sentenced
to 3 years for 1 Bible.
I cannot tell you the name of the man
Beaten and twisted and starved in the bitter cold
Until he could not stand
I can tell you he did not renounce his God
Do not throw the word torture around like a beach ball
Do not use the word torture when you mean interrogation
When you mean inconvenient
When you mean incivility
When you mean insensitive
Can one man make a difference?
He will tell you Jesus did and the Christians who paid his debt
But he cannot tell you their names
He will tell you they bought his freedom
He will tell you he would have died to save their money
I cannot tell you his name
Only of his apology for using that money to return alive
Only of his gratitude to be alive to share the love of Christ
As an enemy of the state of North Korea.
