IN ORDER TO LIVE
A North Korean Girl’s Journey to Freedom
By Yeonmi Park with Maryanne Vollers
Penguin Press. 273 pages. £18.99
ISBN 978 0 241 203 606
I read a reference to this book in a Saturday national newspaper.
Immediately I asked my local library to please obtain a copy. To my surprise I received a copy quite quickly. On the front cover is a portrait of this beautiful young lady who is clearly a most determined, intelligent person who has achieved so much within a few years. Despite so little education at first she has avidly caught up almost on everything and has been studying for a degree in criminal law in South Korea. This book has made her the right sort of celebrity, having suffered so much in her life from a child, and now truthfully telling her story.
Extreme communism
In the process, North Korea is exposed as an idolatrous, communistic country, ruled despotically by a dictator – Kim Jong II. China too is exposed as a communistic country where refugees from North Korea are abused by traffickers, who want sex for free and who then pass on such females for money and for marriage.
I thank the Christian God and his Son, Jesus Christ, for the way some Christian people gave help and showed compassion; also that, though the Park family were separated (husband from his wife and their two daughters, and then mother from Eummi and Yeonmi), now after many years the three women are together. The husband/father died when freed from prison. He was able to get to China and to be cared for by his wife and Yeonmi.
Couldn’t put it down
Once I started to read this book I could not put it down. The book has touched me deeply as I see shocking, evil behaviour by men against men and women, and in countries I know of, but did not know such wickedness existed in parts of them. In this 150th Anniversary of the China Inland Mission and of the Christian Missionary Hudson Taylor, I know China today has millions of genuine Christians who practice as 'salt and light' (Matthew 5:14-16). Yet, in North Korea, Christians suffer greatly and I pray often for them and for the whole country to be set free. May God change many in these lands through conscience, conviction of sin and true repentance and faith. Jesus Christ came into the world to destroy ‘the works of the devil’ and finally to cast him into ‘a lake of fire’.
The book has three main sections: North Korea – with 11 sub-sections or chapters; China – with seven chapters; South Korea – with three chapters.
Having read the book, I also pray for Chun Guen, an exceptional young man who met Yeonmi before she fled to China. He wanted one day (eight years later as she was only 13 then) to marry her, but where is he? God knows and so I pray for his freedom too. Yeonmi is an amazing lady who has survived much and bears many scars, yet God’s amazing grace has made her a wonderful witness.
All we people in the West need to appreciate more the freedoms we have, based on our Christian past, and not to despise or to change them. Only Jesus Christ can truly satisfy the human heart and give to each repentant sinner an inheritance that is truly magnificent and everlasting.
