Robert Park
Posted on 12/30/2009 11:41:28 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
The pastor of the Tucson church that missionary Robert Park attended says he wouldn't be surprised if Park, believed to be detained in communist North Korea, gets an audience with the country's leader, Kim Jong Il.
"I hope and pray that he does get an audience. I know it sounds pretty crazy, but isn't this whole thing crazy?" said the Rev. John A. Benson, pastor of Life in Christ Community Church on Tucson's south side. The church is part of the Southern Baptist Convention.
"It's a little out there — beyond what we would think. So yes, I'm asking for the miraculous thing to happen through this," Benson said.
The Associated Press reported that Park, 28, slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea from China on Christmas Day, carrying letters calling on Kim Jong Il to shut down political prison camps and step down from power. North Korea said late Monday that it was holding an American who illegally crossed into the country. It did not identify the American.
Benson said he's known Park about four years. Park, who was born in Los Angeles and moved to Tucson with his family as a teenager, has what Benson calls a "rare passion" that others sometimes see in a negative light.
Benson describes him as soft-spoken, peaceful and taken with Jesus' message of sacrificial love.
"He's so intense with his love really, that at first you are taken aback. But if you take the time to hang out with this guy for a day, you are hooked," Benson said. "You really understand it's not just wild passion. It's passion with a purpose — with laser focus, really."
Benson said Park, whose parents are South Korean immigrants, began focusing on North Korea after seeing a documentary in 2007 called "Children of the Secret State." The British film is about homeless North Korean orphans and includes interviews with several refugees, who speak of inhumane treatment in prison camps. The North Korean government says such camps don't exist.
The film spurred Park to educate himself about North Korea. Benson said he was particularly intrigued to find that before it became a communist state in 1948, North Korea's capital, Pyongyang, was known as "The Jerusalem of the East" because of its large Christian population.
Tim Peters of the organization Helping Hands Korea, based in Seoul, South Korea, says Park is likely living in extremely rugged conditions. "North Korean prisons are not heated, and it's extremely cold in South Korea right now and North Korea is much colder," Peters said Wednesday. "For his own good I certainly hope all the officials in the State Department do everything possible to get him out of that situation."
Peters said while Park's one-man crusade may seem misguided, he was acting out of extreme frustration over conditions for North Koreans. Benson agreed, saying, "It's hard to tell when you are in the middle of making history that history is being made. John the Baptist was always out there doing God's work, and people thought he was crazy. Robert has that kind of focus and obedience."
Ping.
Robert Park
More info from an earlier thread.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2415229/posts
Thanks.
Like a John the Baptist he risks ending up with his head on a platter. But he was gutsy enough to try to evangelize Kim.
“But he was gutsy enough to try to evangelize Kim.”
Gutsy is fine, but doubling down on stupid isn’t that bright...
Freepers, we need to pray for this man!
Freepers, we need to pray for this man!
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