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Praying at the DMZ for the Two Koreas

April 25, 2018
Members of CRC vision trip pray at the DMZ.

Members of CRC vision trip pray at the DMZ.

Resonate Global Mission

In early April, David Bud, a junior at South Christian High School in Grand Rapids, Mich., stood near the 38th Parallel, the line dividing South Korea and North Korea, with a group of more than a dozen people.

Gathered in a circle and clasping hands, the group of Christian Reformed Church leaders and members, including Bud and his parents, Felicia and Daniel, prayed for several minutes, asking God’s Spirit to be present and to guide a historic meeting taking place this coming Friday between the leaders of North and South Korea.

On Friday, Apr. 27, South Korea’s president Moon Jae-in is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to discuss negotiating a peace deal between the countries that were partitioned in 1953 by the United Nations following the Korean War.

“We learned that there is a yearning from God’s people in North Korea to be liberated and saved,” said David Bud. “It is sad to see such a hermit kingdom. We prayed that God would lead them out just as he did in Exodus (when God led the Israelites out of persecution in Egypt).”

Bud was grateful and deeply moved to be in that place, commonly known as the the DMZ (demilitarized zone), and to be able to pray for the two Koreas as part of a CRC vision trip called "Global Christianity: Parts Unknown and Unseen."

In South Korea, he said, “there is an outpouring of fear that North Korea will invade. We prayed that the people of South Korea will have peace.”

As  diversity leader for Resonate Global Mission, Charles Kim coordinated the trip in order to show CRC leaders how God is at work throughout the world, especially in the two Koreas, and to learn about tensions and issues the nations are facing, as well as to get a firsthand look at Korean churches and various ministries.

David’s father, Daniel Bud, is a pastor at Hillside Community Church in Grand Rapids. Along with the Bud family members, Kim brought along leaders from various CRC ethnic ministries as well as agency leaders.

For inspiration, they used an article by mission leader Andrew Walls, "Ephesian Moment," as a guide to teach about the unique setting of the ancient church in Ephesus. 

In it, Walls writes, "The understanding of Christ—knowing the ‘full stature’—thus arises from the coming together of the fragmented understandings that occur within the diverse culture- specific segments of humanity where he becomes known. . . ."

During the trip, the CRC group visited with some North Korean defector students living in South Korea. They also participated in forums at Presbyterian College and Seminary and at Soongsil University in Seoul.

“Both schools were founded by missionaries in North Korea during the early 1900s. Both schools are now training student leaders who will be catalysts for a unified Korea and for global missions,” said Kim.

They visited Soo Young Ro Presbyterian Church in Busan and participated at its early dawn service at 5:30 a.m. as well as its late Friday-night prayer worship service from 9 p.m. to midnight. This church has never canceled their Friday-night prayer service for the past 40 years since it began.

“This trip was a life-changing experience for many who came,” said Kim. “More than anything, although all of us came from very different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, we experienced the power of prayer and also the power of koinonia that binds us as one through the love of Christ.”

Felicia Bud, who helped to organize the West Michigan Prayer Summit that took place at Hillside Community Church on April 20-21, stood with her family at the DMZ and thought of her experiences growing up in communist Romania. Her husband, Daniel, grew up in Romania too.

“It was heartbreaking to hear of families that were divided during the Korean War and that they have been isolated since then. Parents, brothers, or sisters were left behind in the North, and since then people have not been able to reunite or to even reconnect in the last 60 years,” she said.

“Many people in the South have no idea who is still alive from among their own uncles, parents, siblings. The isolation in which the North Koreans live is nearly absolute. . . . . We grew up in communist Romania and were able to identify with their pain and suffering.”

During the final session of the Prayer Summit that the Buds helped to coordinate, Richard Mouw, president emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary, turned to the topic of the historic meeting in Korea this week and asked people to pray that God’s Spirit will move the leaders from South Korea and North Korea to create a lasting peace. The Buds and others from the vision trip were in the sanctuary and joined in.

“We pray for what is about to happen,” said Mouw. “We pray for God’s intervention. We pray for God’s mercy . . . because we know that it is by Christ’s blood that we are reconciled.”