December 2004

Dear Friends around the world,

Christmas past

This year I am remembering Christmas as a small boy in Pyongyang. A stocking full of snacks and small gifts at the foot of the bed, presents under a tree with ornaments and candles lit, food (including chestnuts which fell in our yard and preserved food such as snap beans from our garden) and a cold ride in my goat cart. But more than that, music—a Christmas concert in church, friends and students giving Christmas joy by serenading all night on Christmas Eve.

Pyongyang had so many Christians and churches that it was called the “Jerusalem of Asia.” Roy Shearer, who studied Korean church growth, reported that 70 percent of Korean Christians lived in the northwest quarter of the peninsula before World War II. Today Pyongyang has the three churches open in the North, and plans are being made to reopen First Presbyterian Church. I heard recently of people in North Korea who would not speak of religion to their children but who around December 25 hummed and sang a different kind of music.

Christmas present

Christmas present in North Korea reminds us of the children’s story about the Grinch but with a sadder ending. Lacking heat, food, adequate clothing and the Christmas story, it is a cold and bleak season. Sue Kinsler is sending clothing for orphans in the Sariwon orphanage and equipment and ingredients for baked bread to supplement the soy milk for children. This fall she had sent in five more sets of equipment for producing soy milk, which should allow the Sariwon milk plant to greatly increase from 5,000 the number of young children getting the nourishing drink there. This shares the gospel of God’s love and care in deed and hints at the spiritual meaning.

In October, Sue, on her 21st trip to North Korea, reached an agreement with the authorities to open a second soy-milk plant and small bakery and is beginning to send in the needed equipment and supplies. The area is the Taedong Kang district on the edge Pyongyang, with 80,000 children, mostly undernourished poor, who need nutritious food. There is an urgent need for help for these children who are innocent victims. Presbyterians can give through ECO # 051775. The ECO is called “Children’s Nutrition Project—North Korea.”

Christmas future

What of Christmas future in North Korea? In the face of dire need and controversy over nuclear weapons, the North seems to be gradually changing its economic system and openness to information from the outside. Prayers for the reunification of Korea continue to rise before the Lord of History, but God only knows when prayers and support for the people of North Korea will result in North and South together sharing the Bread of Life in peace and unity.

Our oldest son John continues to teach and head up the English section of the Ewha University Language Center in Seoul. He plans to pursue a master’s degree in England in the near future.

We pray for God’s best Christmas blessings for our co-workers, supporters, and all who read this.

“Suntanul Chookha Hamnida!”

Yours for Christ in Korea,

Art and Sue Kinsler

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 89