On July 4, 2003, four young North Korean refugees gained their independence upon entering a foreign consulate in China. At the last moment their safe passage was almost thwarted, as Chinese police tried dragging the four teenagers out of a building in order to arrest and deport them back to North Korea. The refugees tearfully yelled out that the media were watching, and ultimately struggled free.

The rescue of these four N. Koreans began on May 12, 2003 with a realization: If one million deaths is merely a statistic but one death a tragedy, as Stalin insightfully observed, then the Talmud's verse should equally hold true. That is, "he who saves one life saves the world entire."

In the face of the depressing situation that is North Korea - 200,000 family members dying in concentration camps; 2 million dead by government-induced starvation in the last decade alone; thousands of refugee women brutally sex trafficked in China - why not concentrate people's focus on saving one person rather than just on the paralyzing task of addressing such hopeless statistics?

So we contacted a person in China who providentially knew two young, female refugees desiring escape. Keep in mind that refugees who come into contact with missionaries are routinely imprisoned, tortured and often executed in Stalinist N. Korea as enemies of the state.

Their response to our question, if they were up to the risk: "Freedom. That is why we want to get away. Even if we have food and shelter here, every day we are in fear of being found out, of being deported. We want to be free from fear," one of the refugees said. Another refugee added, "And we want to be free to live our own lives. Every day we must do as we're told because our life is always on the line. We have no choices. It's too suffocating."

So we decided to commence Operation: God's Sparrows. The name was derived from a combination of two observations. First, orphaned N. Korean refugees hiding in China are often referred to as "swallows". Second, we took hope in the words of Matthew 10:29 in the Scripture, "Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father".

Unexpectedly, when our contact arrived to debrief the young girls on the rescue plan, their host family asked that we rescue two more. Apparently these two boys were in greater peril of being found out and thus could not leave their rooms at all. They were virtually prisoners. (And they aren't alone. The host family informed us of a waiting list of dozens of others similarly situated.) Though our budget was only enough for two, we agreed to include these boys too.

In late June, we held a North Korean human rights event and prayer meeting to raise the balance of the support to effect the rescue attempt. D-Day for this operation, of all days, was the 4th of July.
Waiting without any contact for so many hours was like mission control waiting for the first words from the astronauts who had just entered the dark side of the moon. Receiving the phone call, "They're safe". The courage of the contact who risked imprisonment. Hearing about the struggle with the Chinese police. Receiving the gratitude of the sparrows now free.

It's true. Saving one life does feel like saving the world entire. But this is only the beginning.

Involved in this endeavor: City on a Hill, Helping Hands Korea, Faith Community CRC, and Orange
Korean Church.

Tim Peters is the Project Manager of Helping Hands, in Seoul, Korea


The above abridged article was excerpted with permission from a Chosun Journal article (July 2003).

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