“But I am not a Communist. You must believe me,” pleaded
Pastor Im when the United Nations regained the occupied
territory in September of 1950. The North Korean
Communist soldiers had kept Im locked in an isolated
prison cell for two years for preaching to others about
Christ and for refusing to change his sermons into
pro-Marxist propaganda.
When the UN troops arrived, he felt certain he would be
a free man again. Yet they mistook him for a Communist
and threw him into another cell with the Communist
captives.
Being a compassionate man and accepting the situation as
God’s will, Pastor Im witnessed to the Communist
prisoners. Many were converted to Christ. “We keep
hearing about this prison camp preacher,” said an
American missionary to his friend visiting Korea as a
chaplain.
“Since he knows the prisoners so well, I wonder if he
would help us organize an evangelistic service?”
questioned the chaplain. God answered their prayers.
The American missionaries were able to get permission to
have access to Pastor Im. And the “prison preacher”
faithfully helped and preached at prison camps all over
South Korea. Thousands of Communists accepted Christ.
Within a year, twelve thousand prisoners were rising
each morning for dawn prayer meetings.
Pastor Im never saw his family again, yet thousands
became his brothers in Christ in the prison camps.