“But I am not a Communist. You must believe me,” pleaded Pastor Im when the United Nations regained the occupied territory in September of 1950. The North Korean Communist soldiers had kept Im locked in an isolated prison cell for two years for preaching to others about Christ and for refusing to change his sermons into pro-Marxist propaganda.
When the UN troops arrived, he felt certain he would be a free man again. Yet they mistook him for a Communist and threw him into another cell with the Communist captives.
Being a compassionate man and accepting the situation as God’s will, Pastor Im witnessed to the Communist prisoners. Many were converted to Christ. “We keep hearing about this prison camp preacher,” said an American missionary to his friend visiting Korea as a chaplain.
“Since he knows the prisoners so well, I wonder if he would help us organize an evangelistic service?” questioned the chaplain. God answered their prayers.
The American missionaries were able to get permission to have access to Pastor Im. And the “prison preacher” faithfully helped and preached at prison camps all over South Korea. Thousands of Communists accepted Christ. Within a year, twelve thousand prisoners were rising each morning for dawn prayer meetings.
Pastor Im never saw his family again, yet thousands became his brothers in Christ in the prison camps.
“What’s the point?” This is the question on everyone’s minds when we see unjust suffering and violence. However, we cannot always know God’s purposes. We can only know they are great and they are ultimately for our good. We are like individual puzzle pieces spread out over a table. We strain our eyes from side to side and see that the pieces immediately around us do not seem to fit. We feel frustrated and frightened. Yet God is the puzzle Master—the only one who sees the whole picture. He can see all the pieces in your life at once. He knows how they fit together for his greater purpose. Will you look with trust into the eyes of the Master, content wherever he places you?
This is one of the readings from the book, Extreme Devotion, available from VOM’s online bookstore.
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