January (Web-only) 2007

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Christians gathered in New Jersey last week to commemorate the January 14, 1907, revival in Pyongyang, North Korea, which sparked the spread of Christianity throughout Korea in the early 1900s.

Prayer, Service, Action, Love, Truth for North Korea (PSALT NK), an organization which raises awareness of North Korea's humanitarian crisis, invited people to join them Friday evening at the Korean Community Church in Englewood, New Jersey. Large posters draped over the balcony on both sides of the sanctuary read in Korean and English, "Come back to me again 1907." Young and old led 300 to 350 people in English and Korean songs and ardent prayers for another wave of revival in North Korea.

The Friday worship service kicked off a two-day conference led by PSALT NK's executive director, Michelle Kim. She called the gathering in hopes of empowering first- and second-generation Koreans to pray and advocate for today's North Koreans, who are starving under the dictatorship of North Korea's president, Kim Jong-Il.

On Saturday, the revival-seekers gathered at Chodae Community Church in Norwood, New Jersey, to view a multimedia exhibit on what was described as genocide in North Korea and to listen to international speakers. "This is a spiritual battle we're fighting," Kim said. "This work we're doing, we're talking about eternal perspectives and that only exists in the spiritual realm. It's not only about saving bodies but finishing the job and saving souls."

Today's North Korea, isolated and wracked by misrule, war, and famine, is strikingly different from what it was a century ago, when a new and vibrant Christian presence blossomed in response to a 1904 revival in Britain. Hundreds of Koreans in Samuel A. Moffett's church, the First Church ...