Due to my location in Asia and the sensitivity of my occupation, I was unable to write extensively about my time in a region i will now refer to as NK. Over the next week or so, i hope to now share more images and stories. Thank you so so much, all who were praying during these last couple weeks. It was vital. My team and i were very aware of the conflict in the spirit realm over our mission, and knowing our brother and sisters were praying was a great encouragement. I am confident that this unified effort in prayer and sending was a pleasure to the Lord and that it was with joy that He answered us. He answered with favor through out our journey and with insight into His heart for NK. I hope to share some of that in the next few entries, now that i am getting settled in back in Maui.
We began by leaving the city where i was teaching- even though that city is just across the river from our destination region. However, we had been granted access through a northern border crossing, requiring us to travel 20 hours by train and then several more by bus to reach the checkpoint. It was a long journey, but we used it to bond as a group, and prepare our hearts for the days ahead. Crossing the border was unforgettable. All baggage is checked and all literature and media devices must be inspected and cleared. Mobile phones and other communications apparatus are not allowed. We stood in a wet shell of a building, waiting as our baggage passed through inspections. An government representative approached me and my two friends from Maui at the front of the line asking, "Do you have any literature? " We weren't sure what was considered literature, so we asked. He replied "Let me help you- the first thing is bible. Do you have any bible?" We knew we were supposed to be permitted to bring in a single bible per person as long as the book had no missing pages. Still, it was a tense moment. We replied one after another that, yes, we each had one bible. "Remove them from your bag, please. Cameras and other digital memory items, also." So there we stood, at the border of NK with our bibles in our hands. One by one the team members behind us were asked. And we heard them each say they had one bible. "You all have one?" the man asked, scanning our group. We waited tensely... the fact that our group was unified in this feature was a testimony and we were unsure of the reception. He then did a head count of the group to save his time, noting possession of a single bible each on his record. He then warned us that we must be able to present the bible we entered with, intact, upon departure. And with that he left us standing in the stillness of that humid room, bibles in hand. My bag went through a machine on a conveyor belt, and i walked through a metal detector carrying my bible and my camera... the two things considered most dangerous by NK authorities. It was an unforgettable moment for me and others on the team. We were in.
After a four hour journey from the border on wild unpaved roads, bucking roughly along in the complete darkness to the sound of our guide's lecture on the glories of universal social evolution (communism) we finally arrived in our destination city. We ate a late (10pm) dinner and then found our hotel to be in a not at all uncommon power outage. We checked in by lthe glow of a single red candle stuck in a green bottle on the clerk desk, and made our way at last down silent and musty corridors to find our rooms , carrying flickering tapers to light our way. We woke up in the morning to state devotion anthems being piped into the streets by cars with speakers mounted on top. A surreal way to wake up in NK. Upon dressing, i went down to the lobby and approached the doors. Our guide was there, monitoring our whereabouts. I was permitted to go outside into the central city square as long as I was in sight. So i stepped outside the doors into the scene above. There was several members of my team pacing the unpaved expanse, no doubt in prayer. I joined them, praying as i watched the local populace going to work.
There was propaganda signs everywhere- i asked our guide throughout the trip to translate these for me and found some glorifying the founder of the state, others encouraging harder work for the cause of the state. These were the monotonous themes of all paintings, banners, and monuments.
We were in as a tour group, so we would spend our days being escorted around the city and environs in a shiny silver shuttle bus. Everything in me wanted to go in among the people, but of course interaction with locals is strictly controlled. That was expected, but still frustrating. A guide to every ten people was assigned to us, as well as a driver and security detail. We were under their watchful supervision constantly. Our communication was restricted at all times, including in the relative privacy of our rooms. In our orientation we were informed that our rooms would likely be wired... so we had to assume at all times we could be heard. Our rooms were strategically spaced out through the hotel so we were not next to one another- yet another thing we had been briefed on (its an additional form or security employed by authorities to minimize unsupervised gatherings etc. ).
So arrival in NK left us all a little unsure of what to do and say in the utter strangeness of all the control and restriction- but its crazy how fast many of us adapted...