Esther Chang Comes to US for First Time to Share About Her Imprisonment and Ministry in North Korea
Yesterday, Esther Chang, a BTJ missionary, shared her experience of being arrested and thrown in jail North Korea for sharing the Gospel of Jesus. This was the first time Esther had ever shared openly about her experiences in an American church.
Esther and the BTJ team was invited by Connect Church in Bozeman, Montana, to share about the work in North Korea. “I had never heard about the cannibalism that she shared about. The idea of eating your neighbors or eating your own children just to stay alive? Sounds horrible. She is such a brave woman of God,” one woman, named Sarah, said after the service.
“I am just wrecked,” Pastor Russ, senior pastor of Connect Church said after the service with tears still in his eyes. “I didn’t want her to stop speaking.”
Esther Chang lived and worked among the people in North Korea, starting a noodle factory and preaching the Gospel in homes late at night. “One of the things that we would do,” Esther recalled, “is three or four of us would hide under a blanket and sing praise with one another.”
“Esther shared things about ministry in North Korea that I have never heard of,” said another attendee, while buying Esther’s biography, SMUGGLING LIGHT.
SMUGGLING LIGHT tells the story of how Esther wanted nothing to do with Christianity until a visit to an underground church in China flooded her with the mercy and power of the Holy Spirit—and she was given an unusual call: to be a missionary to North Koreans.
She found the North Koreans to be rude, filthy, and abusive, but she knew that God called her to serve them. North Koreans seeking refuge in China were the worst of the worst.
When she finally moved to North Korea, Esther gave her all to the people. She was eventually arrested and imprisoned, but never gave up. SMUGGLING LIGHT is her true tale of bravery, humility, and complete reliance on the mighty hand of God in one of the darkest nations in the world.
Esther will be speaking with Eugene Bach tomorrow night in Ft. Collins, CO and Dallas, Texas, over the weekend.
Click below for more details of their schedule:
One Comment
North Korea struggles with Religion. About 2 years ago South Korea was sending propaganda phamplets and Gospel Messages and other things in balloons over the border which iritated Kim Jung-Un’s sister who at that time was secretly running North Korea while her brother was in a Coma. Then South Korea was at the border wanting to come over to talk but North Korea shot at them telling them to go away we don’t want to talk. Then because of all this Kim Jung-Un’s Sister blew up the demilitarization zone building where South Korea and North Korea always met to talk but now that will never happen. They don’t tolerate any Religion in North Korea. Then the Communist Party because they ran out of meat and food to feed the people of North Korea they collected everyone’s pet dogs to kill and eat so the people of North Korea didn’t starve. But that didn’t stop the starvation. News reports said many were laying dead in the streets dead from starvation. For 2 years I wrote on FACEBOOK when I had the chance about North Korea and asked Kim Jung-Un to open its border and meet and be allies with South Korea and to work on getting along and tolerating each other. South Korea is Rich and very open to Freedom and Democracy and Religion where most are either Catholic or Christian and welcome Jesus Christ God. I also said for God’s sake you’re both Korean and speak Korean, so get along open the borders up and talk. Kim Jung-Un and his Sister were my FACEBOOK friends but my cyberbullier BLOCKED and HID their posts to me. And a North Korean woman FACEBOOKED ME her singing in a studio a beautiful song in Korean and I loved listening to it all the time.