“Sometimes we do not receive listener responses for years and years,” says “Boaz” who heads a team in Seoul for the Christian broadcaster Trans World Radio (TWR). “Still, we must send God’s messages to them. What is happening in North Korea we are not 100% sure. An older woman called me to say she has been praying for North Korea for more than 50 years. She called to encourage us.”
Boaz estimates that TWR has distributed tens of thousands of radios in North Korea during the last 20 years, but not all of them are still working. North Korea is ranked the worst country of all for the persecution of Christians by Open Doors’ “World Watch” list, and owning a radio is extremely risky.
TWR broadcasts into North Korea from a shortwave station in Guam. Some of the response comes from North Koreans who have crossed the border. “Great holy God, I need you,” is a prayer a North Korean refugee wrote from Russia accepting Christ. “Before I knew you, I lived as a slave to fortune. I never had religion or faith, but after I met you, many things changed in my life … I have learned about God and learned more from the Bible. The words were not familiar, but I want to know you more, so I will read the Bible and not forget your love while I am alive. Forgive me and bless me with your love.”
Another group TWR serves is Korean women who went to China during a severe famine in North Korea from 1995 to 2005, to find food for their families but were not able to return. Being stranded with no ID, registration or rights, they were forced to marry Chinese men and ended up in very poor living conditions in rural areas. They also had additional children there to raise. Today, the situation for these women, estimated to be about 300,000, is not good, but TWR links them to its ministry by shortwave radio.