Operation:
God's Sparrows
Tim Peters, of Helping Hands Korea (center), embraces four young
resettled North Koreans.
(Note: The teenagers mentioned in this article declined to have
their pictures taken lest their families back home in North Korea
get into trouble.)
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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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