GROUP
STUDIES
LIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
• Six group studies to help you
imaginatively enter the world of the
underground church in North Korea.
• Use them in your prayer group, small
group, youth group, CU…
• These studies work alongside the
weekly themes in the individual
prayer resource, so you will need
to ensure that each member of the
group has a copy of this booklet.
More copies can be ordered at
www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime or
01993 777300.
• If you are not part of a group, you can
still use these sessions, and reflect on
the Bible passages in them in your
own personal devotions. Feel free to
adapt as necessary!
WEEK ONE: LIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND… Where the state decides where you live, what profession you choose, what sports you play, what food you eat
– even if you eat. A colourless land: drab clothing, concrete buildings, the only colour is in the propaganda images of the Great Leader
who, though dead for 18 years, is still president and must be worshipped as a god. And where, despite that, hundreds of thousands of
people choose to secretly worship a greater God.
THAT IS LIFE IN NORTH KOREA.
TO PREPARE
You will need:
• Candles for people to light.
•
News stories from North Korea.
Pin these up or pass them around.
TO THINK
Read: Daniel chapter 3
“We will not serve your gods.”
TO TALK
•
What is the background to this story? What is happening?
Where is it taking place?
•
Share the information about ‘Kimilsungism’ [see box
opposite]. How does this story relate to North Korea? What
do you think it is like to live in such an atmosphere?
•
How can we in the West ‘walk alongside’ and support
Christians in the furnace of persecution?
•
What are the ‘golden statues’ in our world?
•
What are we supposed to worship?
TO IMAGINE
Get hold of news stories from North Korea, either from the
newspapers or the internet (you can find some stories at www.
opendoorsuk.org/itstime.) What do they tell you about life
inside the country? What do you imagine life is like for the
citizens?
TO PRAY
Life for a North Korean citizen has been described as being like
a candle: all it takes to be blown out is one wrong word or one
wrong person. And this is especially true for believers. Light a
candle in the group and pray together that God will nourish and
protect the faith of these fragile believers.
In a musical about North Korea’s infamous Yodok prison
camp, the actors sing the prayer of many North Korean
Christians.
You could pray this silently, or together:
If there’s someone out there,
can you hear this cry?
If there is someone out there,
please listen to us.
Oh God, look at that blood,
Wind, please stop blowing.
Our lives are like candles.
Wind, please stop blowing, don’t blow,
you will blow out the candles.
Sun, please don’t rise, don’t rise,
someday it will be over.
Heaven will not forsake us forever.
If only we had wings, we would fly away.
North Korean Christians take a stand against the idols of their
society. As you pray, ask God to reveal more of the ‘idols’ we
are told to worship in this world. Pray for the strength to stand
against the pressure to conform.
TO ACT
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
As a group: Look out for news and information in the media
about North Korea in forthcoming weeks. Try to learn as much
as you can.
With Open Doors: A gift of £63 can provide ten believers with
basic essentials such as food, clothes and medicine. Go to www.
opendoorsuk.org/itstime
Kimilsungism
“We cover the portraits of the leaders on the wall and then we
kneel down in a circle. We pray
for strength and endurance. We pray that God will keep our
country.’” - North Korean Christian
North Korea is a country dominated by a personality cult.
Known as ‘Kimilsungism’, it revolves around the effective
worship of the leading dynasty founded by Kim Il-Sung, his
son Kim Jong-Il, and his grandson – and present leader – Kim
Jong-Un. Everyone has to attend at least weekly meetings
and memorise more than 100 pages of ideological learning
materials, including documents that praise the morals and
majesty of Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il and Kim Jong-Un, and
various poems and songs praising them.
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• North Korea suffers from routine power shortages. Turn off
the electricity for a day; turn off the heating. Turn it on in the
evening for an hour.
Then switch it off again…
• In North Korea people are forced to memorise masses of
material in praise of the leaders. On our website you will find
a page from one of Kim Jong-Il’s books. Download it and try
to memorise it. (Imagine that you had to memorise hundreds
of pages of the stuff!)
• Try living for a day on the diet of an ordinary citizen. Eat a
bowl of soup and some bread – and that’s all for the day.
Remember that for prisoners it is even less.
• Most North Koreans have no access to the internet. Join the
Open Doors Blackout campaign and raise sponsorship by
fasting from social networks, phones, the internet and other
media we have the freedom to enjoy. To find out more visit
www.opendoorsyouth.org
WEEK TWO: PRAY LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND… Where people go into the mountains and pray all night. A prayer-drenched land – filled with prayer warriors who
view it as the day’s most important task and who carry out their task in the utmost secrecy. A land where those who are persecuted
pray for their persecutors, yearn to conquer evil with good, and believe that their leaders could become Christians.
THAT IS PRAYER IN NORTH KOREA.
TO PREPARE
You will need:
• Information sheet about North Korean leaders*
•
Images from North Korea to help people to pray. You can
use pictures from Open Doors magazines or from our
website*
•
Pictures of North Korean border fences*
*You can download all these resources at
www.opendoorusk.org/itstime
TO THINK
Read: Luke 18:1–8
“Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him
day and night?”
TO TALK
•
What do we learn about prayer from this parable?
•
Are there things in our lives or in our societies which we
think are simply too big for prayer to change?
•
Have you seen prayer change something which you
thought could never have been changed?
•
How should we change the way we are praying in the light
of this parable?
TO IMAGINE
North Korea is a land of fences and barriers and walls.
Sometimes they seem so high. Look at the picture of the
barbed wire fences on the border of North Korea. Prayerfully
imagine those fences falling. God can break down the barriers!
TO PRAY
•
Stick pictures around the room of North Korea and its
people. Use these to inspire quiet prayer as people move
around and engage with the images.
•
Pray for the leaders. North Korean Christians pray that their
leader will change and reform North Korea, that he will be
an instrument in His hands. “God, save Kim Jong-Un.” Can
their daily prayer become ours as well? Do we have faith for
this seemingly impossible task? Use the boxes on pages 4,
6, 7, 9, 10, 12 to pray for the leaders of North Korea. Read
out the name and facts about each leader. Pause after each
leader to pray for that person.
•
Is anything too big for God? Quietly in your hearts revisit
any of the things mentioned as being ‘too big’ for God to
change. Pray with confidence for God to move!
TO ACT
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
As a group: It is not only North Korea’s leaders who need
Jesus! As a group perhaps you can commit to pray for the
leaders of the world. If there are different nationalities within
the group, then pray for the leaders of those respective
countries.
With Open Doors: Sign up for weekly Email Prayer Alerts
from Open Doors. These cover not only North Korea, but all
the persecuted church. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/pray
Prayer warrior
“We must pray as warriors. I must do so. In the past, I often
went to the mountains and prayed all night. As I got older, this
happened less often. But I’m going to do it again, because the
church needs people who pray like that. God uses this prayer to
open doors…
“While I was praying in a concentrated way, a sentence
came to my mind: ‘I can do everything through Him who gives
me strength.’ I did not know this text. When I spoke to a friend
about it, he told me that it is in the Bible, in Philippians 4:13.
There was much sin in my life. I had to pray long and often in
order to break down the barriers between God and me. This,
too, is praying as
a warrior.” - North Korean church leader
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• North Korean Christians are used to accompanying deep,
urgent prayer with fasting. What can you fast from this
week? Food? Television? Social media? Use the time saved
to pray.
• Organise a prayer meeting or vigil for
North Korea.
• Christians in North Korea long for unity
and reconciliation with South Korea.
Is there someone you need to be
reconciled to? Pray for that and take
steps to build unity.
WEEK THREE: WORSHIP LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND… Where the only permitted worship is the worship of the leaders and where all churches are illegal. A land of
silence. Where those who dare to disobey sing songs without a sound, and raise voices of praise to the minimum level possible. A land
where two people meet on a Sunday morning in a remote place. They pause, unspeaking, joined only by the silent understanding that
they share the same faith. If they can be certain no one else is near, they share a Bible verse or a prayer point with each other. And then
go home.
THAT IS WORSHIP IN NORTH KOREA.
TO PREPARE
You can either:
a) Set up your house or venue so that everything is blacked
out and no lights are showing. As people arrive, check
them at the door. Halfway through the evening you might
arrange for someone to come and interrupt the group. (If it’s
someone they don’t know, even better. They have to decide
whether he is a spy or not.) You can choose whether to have
the electricity on or off – and use candles instead! (In reality,
North Korean Christians cannot meet in groups, even under
conditions like this.)
b) Arrange for the group to meet outdoors – in the woods,
perhaps, or up a hill – to reflect the way some North Korean
believers have to meet (see box on p18). Again, you could
discover a ‘stranger’ observing the group.
In either case, keep your meeting as quiet as possible!
TO THINK
Read: Acts 12:1–19
“The house of Mary… where many
had gathered and were praying.”
TO TALK
•
What are the similarities between the church in Jerusalem
in the story from Acts 12 and churches in North Korea?
•
What do you think that the church in Jerusalem was
praying during the night?
•
This was an amazing answer to prayer. What answers to
prayer have you seen recently?
TO IMAGINE
Ask the group to prayerfully reflect on the presence of the
‘observer’. How did they feel? In the silence think about how
it feels to worship in a society where you cannot be seen or
make a noise.
TO PRAY
•
“Amazing Grace. That’s the song Christians sing the most in
North Korea.” - North Korean believer. Join with North Korean
Christians in singing this song. But sing it as they do – by
whispering the words quietly. You cannot make a noise!
•
The government insists that every North Korean must
have images of their leaders in their home. Before praying,
North Korean Christians ‘cover the portraits of the leaders
on the wall and then we kneel down in a circle. We pray for
strength and endurance.’ Print out a picture of Kim JongIl and pass it round the group or hang it on the wall. Then
cover it up and kneel in prayer for strength and endurance.
•
Hea Woo (see box to the right) describes how Christians in
a labour camp had to worship in a toilet. Try moving your
worship time to the toilet or a cupboard under the stairs or
a shed. Somewhere secret, and cramped.
TO ACT
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
As a group: Holy Communion can be practised only once
or twice a year in remote areas. Bread and wine are rarely
available. Instead, if you feel able, share communion with
your group using the normal Korean substitutes: biscuits,
fruit and juice.
With Open Doors: Speak up for freedom of religion in North
Korea and around the world. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/
campaign to sign up for our latest advocacy alerts.
Worship, North Korean style
Normally, only when an entire family is Christian, they can
have a house church service, where they sing, read and pray
very softly. Or, if two Christians are not relatives, they go far
into the woods or mountains.
Hea Woo, a North Korean Christian, spent years in a
labour camp because of her faith.
“I used to meet up with another lady high in the mountains.
One day we were singing and of all a sudden a young guy stood
behind us. We gave him some food and drinks and then he left.
On the way back we could only pray he would not report us.
Thank God, he didn’t.
“God used me to lead five people to faith. I tried to teach
them what I knew. That may not have been much, and I didn’t
have access to a Bible in the camp. But on Sunday and at
Christmas, we met together out of the view of the guards. Often
that was in the toilet. There we held a short service. I taught
them Bible verses and some songs, which we sang almost
inaudibly. All six of us survived the camp, because we took care
of one another.”
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• North Koreans pray and sing only in silence or whispers.
Each day this week, worship by silently ‘singing’ a hymn in
your mind.
• The government insists that every North Korean must
have images of their leaders in every home. Before praying,
North Korean Christians ‘cover the portraits of the leaders
on the wall and then we kneel down in a circle. We pray for
strength and endurance’. Print out a picture of Kim Jong-Il
or Kim Il-Sung and hang it on the wall. Then cover it up and
kneel in prayer.
• This Sunday, before going to church, get up early (maybe
even in the dark) and meet in secret with another believer.
Stand by them. Share a whispered Bible verse. Pray silently.
Then move on.
WEEK FOUR: READ LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND… Where people are executed for possessing a Bible and where the only ’scriptures’ are writings about the ‘dear
leaders’. A land where stories from the Bible are passed on in disguise, where Bibles are hidden in baskets, under the floor, in the roof…
Where people memorise the Bible, hold it close, treasure it, risk everything for it.
THAT IS READING THE BIBLE IN NORTH KOREA.
TO THINK
Read: 2 Timothy 3:10–17
“All scripture is God-breathed”
TO TALK
•
Paul writes, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in
Christ Jesus will be persecuted…” How do you respond to
that? Is that your experience?
•
What does Paul say is the purpose of the ‘God-breathed’
scriptures (v.16–17)? List the things he mentions. Have you
seen the scriptures used in this way?
•
How often do you read the Bible? Daily? Weekly? Less
often? What stops you reading it?
•
In North Korea owning a Bible is punishable by death (see
box on page 20). Do we value the Bible in that way?
TO IMAGINE
Imagine that all the Bibles you own or have access to have been
rounded up and burned. What would you remember? How
could you pass it on?
TO PRAY
•
Pray the Lord’s Prayer together (from memory of course!)
•
Read Psalm 121 slowly. See if, as a group, you can memorise
it and then repeat it as a shared prayer.
•
Pray for the protection of Bible-owning believers in North
Korea. The government has clamped down on anyone
possessing ‘illegal materials’. People have been executed for
possessing Bibles.
TO ACT
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
As a group: Commit to learning a passage of scripture – or
even a book! This is what many North Korean believers have to
do. Perhaps learn a prayer from the Bible and use it at your next
meeting.
With Open Doors: A gift of £11 can secretly deliver a Bible to a
believer in North Korea and other places where faith costs the
most. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime
We had to burn it
Every day when Hye and her sister returned from school, her
grandmother would fetch the Bible from its hiding place in
a basket and read out Bible verses. Hye recalls, “She would
always read her Bible with magnifying glasses, and hid it
immediately if she heard someone coming to the house.”
In 1994, though, Hye’s father was arrested by the North
Korean secret police, and her grandmother decided that
it was too dangerous to keep the Bible. “We had to burn it.
My grandmother said it was okay as long as we stayed true to
our faith in God. But when the flames devoured the pages, my
grandmother wept intensely.”
Now, the only scriptures left were what the girls could
remember. “My sister wrote whatever she remembered on
paper and hid it somewhere in secret. She would look at those
papers whenever she was going through difficult times.”
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• Many North Korean Christians do not have a Bible,
so they have to memorise portions of scripture. Follow their
example and learn a passage of scripture by heart.
• Write out a chapter of the Bible by hand – as believers do in
many parts of the world where the Bible is banned.
• In North Korea possessing a Bible is illegal. Probably
nowhere else in the world are so many copies of God’s Word
literally hidden underground. This week, hide your Bible
somewhere outside the house – in a shed, or another dry
hiding place. Then, every morning, go out and retrieve it
before reading it.
WEEK FIVE: GIVE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND… Where natural disaster, economic mismanagement and corruption have led to millions of people being
malnourished or suffering from food shortages. A land where citizens are officially ranked into three classes: the core, the wavering
and the hostile class, and where only those in the right class get properly fed. A land where despite this, those who have little
commit to sharing it with those who have nothing.
THAT IS GIVING IN NORTH KOREA.
TO PREPARE
In North Korea, famine has been so severe that many people
end up eating grass. We don’t suggest you do that (but
you might if you are really adventurous!) If you want to try
something in the same vein, you could try making nettle
soup.
TO THINK
Read: Acts 4:32–37
“Everything they owned was
held in common…”
TO TALK
•
Why do you think the early church acted in this way? How
do you think they were viewed by the society around
them?
•
Is this just something for ‘that time’ or are we still supposed
to act on the same principles? If so, how?
•
Imagine you had to leave home in a hurry. What
possessions would you take with you? Now, think about
what you would leave behind: is it stuff you really need?
•
North Korean’s have a principle called ‘Holy Rice’ (see box
on page 21). How could you apply the same principle to
your life?
TO IMAGINE
Imagine that your church is like the church in Acts 4. How
would you share goods between one another? What would a
‘day in the life’ of your church look like if this happened?
TO PRAY
•
Pray for all those suffering from hunger and
malnourishment in North Korea.
•
Ask God to bring to mind how you can share what you
have with one another.
TO ACT
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
As a group: North Korean Christians rely totally on each
other to meet their needs.
This week, could your group rely totally on each other?
Perhaps you can provide a
shared meal each night? Or commit to
deliver a meal to each other once a week? As you do so, give
thanks and remember the needs of the North Korean church.
With Open Doors: For just £6 you can provide a relief pack
to a North Korean believer. Go to www.opendoorsuk.org/
nkrelief
Holy Rice
One Chinese worker involved in missions among North
Koreans says he has been deeply challenged by North Korean
believers.
“I work mainly with those who have a Christian heritage.
If you ask me to choose one word to describe them, I would pick
‘faithful’. Not all of them have God’s Word, but thanks to their
leaders, they really know God’s Word and do God’s Word.
“At the height of the famine a leader felt called to
reintroduce the concept of ‘holy rice’, a practice whereby rice is
set apart for use in God’s kingdom. Ever since, these Christians
don’t consume all the food they receive from us. They save some
to give to people who are even worse off than them.
This gives them an opportunity to build trust and later share the
gospel with these people.”
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• Follow the ‘holy rice’ principle (see day 35). Work out the
cost of your food budget this week. Put 10 per cent aside
for those who are worse off than you. Or give food to a food
bank.
• Fast for a day. Imagine what your life would be like if you
had to do this every day. Pray for those in North Korea
without enough to eat.
• Join the Open Doors Blackout campaign – a sponsored
‘fast’ from social networks, phones, the internet and other
modern media. Go to www.opendoorsyouth.org
WEEK SIX: SHARE LIKE A NORTH KOREAN
IMAGINE A LAND…
Where between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians are held in labour camps and where everyone is told that Christians are ‘bad people’. A
land where Christians long to share the news of the gospel and to ‘shout that Jesus exists’. Where, despite the restrictions, Christians find
ways to tell people about Jesus and where, despite the cost, people respond to that call. Where those who become Christians make the
choice knowing that they could pay with their lives. And yet still they make that choice and pay that price.
THAT IS SHARING THE GOOD NEWS IN NORTH KOREA.
TO PREPARE
Write out the list of prohibited words in the box below. Make
sure that everyone has a copy.
As individuals: Choose which of the weekly actions below you
will do this week.
TO THINK
As a group: Share what you’ve learned about discipleship
from North Korean Christians. Can you share this with your
church? Your workplace? Your friends or family?
TO TALK
With Open Doors: A gift of £42 can provide resources
to enable secret workers to share the gospel with North
Koreans. Go to
www.opendoorsuk.org/itstime
Read: Mark 8:34–9:1
“Take up your cross…”
•
TO ACT
In North Korea certain words are so dangerous that
Christians have to use a kind of code to communicate.
So, agree before the meeting starts that there are certain
words that cannot be used. Instead, use the substitutions in
the chart above:
Do NOT use:
Use INSTEAD::
Jesus
The One
God
Our Father
Bible/scripture/Word
of God
The book
Church
Family
prayer
Talking to Father
•
See how the group gets on, and note the number of times
people fall back into using normal language. Keep an
honest score!
•
What does it mean to ‘take up your cross?’ What price are
we prepared to pay to follow Jesus? What can we learn
from North Korean Christians?
•
How would you share the gospel using the code words? Is
it even possible?
•
Have you shared the gospel with anyone recently? If so,
how? If not, what has stopped you?
•
The North Korean church has a vision for what God intends
for their future (see box on page 23). Do you have a vision
for how you will share the gospel as church, a group and as
an individual?
TO IMAGINE
The word disciple means ‘apprentice’ or ‘trainee’. Imagine that
you are drawing up a job description for a ‘trainee follower of
Jesus’. What would it contain?
TO PRAY
•
Look at the job descriptions you have drawn up. Pray that
God will give you the opportunity to do those tasks this
week.
•
Pray for the church in North Korea and their vision for the
future.
•
Prayerfully reflect on the cost of being a disciple of Jesus.
In preparation
North Korean Christians have started their own prayer
campaign for their country. They pray that God continues to
open doors for the gospel to be spread further.
“We now pray the prayer of Queen Esther. She was called
‘for a time like this,’ as Mordecai told her. That applies to us too.
We are called to spread His light in a time like this and under
these difficult circumstances. We experience that God uses the
persecution to sanctify His church and are grateful that we in
our weakness receive His strength. We pray that we are able to
do His will in every situation. And if we perish, we perish.
“God gave us a vision. One day our country will be opened
and reunited with South Korea. Then the North Korean and
South Korean Church will work together with our Chinese
brothers and sisters to evangelise Asia. That is going to be a
hard, difficult task. We see the current persecution in North
Korea as preparation for that time.”
FOR ACTION
Which of these will you do this week?
• North Koreans cannot wear a cross or publicly identify
themselves as Christians. Wear something this week which
identifies you as a Christian – because throughout the world
there are millions of Christians who can’t.
• Download a picture of a fence at the North Korean border
from our website. As you pray, imagine that fence falling.
Keep that image at the forefront of your prayers for the
country: walls can fall, barriers can be broken down. God has
the victory!
• Pray for an opportunity to talk about Jesus – and when
the opportunity comes, take it! Share the good news with
someone.