This guy is awesome

I tend to read a lot of news and other articles on China and North Korea these days. Given where I am living right now, and the current political climate, I guess it would be irresponsible not to. There are many daunting challenges to be faced in this region, and often, the news that I read is far from encouraging. Perhaps it is for that reason that I was so deeply struck by a certain article I recently came across in the Christian Science Monitor. It relays the story of an amazing man, formerly imprisoned by North Korean soldiers, who has now returned to build a university for his former captors.

On a Korean War battlefield in 1950, the young, patriotic Kim Chin-kyung, then just 15, lay limp on the ground, wounded by shrapnel. In the months leading up to that moment, nearly all of the 800 troops in his South Korean Army unit had been wiped out. He wasn't sure if he would make it, either. So he struck a deal with his creator. "I told God that if I survived, I would return the love to my enemies," he says-- his enemies at the time being North Korean and Chinese soldiers. [...Read the full article!!...]

And love them he did. Despite all the naysayers, this man has put everything he has into serving the North Korean and Chinese people. And they have responded favorably in return. Below I've re-pasted some of my favorite quotes from the article. Kim preaches a message of the power of love to change the world-- a message that to many may seem idealistic at best and completely false at worst. But there is nothing at all hollow or empty in what he has accomplished. His actions speak boldly and powerfully, and add undeniable force to his words.

Ask Kim about where he finds his inspiration, and he'll always say "love." The cheerful professor sees love as a force that stretches across borders, with education as a toolbox to apply it.

[...]"Their political system doesn't matter," he says, referring to his first project in China. "If you approach them with love, they will move their hearts."

[...] PUST is funded mostly by aid groups and through Kim's own savings, which he earned from running three small businesses in South Korea and Florida between the 1960s and 1980s and by selling his house and belongings. "I started the businesses to fund the universities," he says. "Peace has a price, and it should be paid by those who have money."

Money, however, was not the deciding factor in Kim's success. Rather, it was his passion for education.

"When I went to China and North Korea, I told them I was not a capitalist or a communist," he says. "I was simply a 'love-ist.' "

I am inspired by this man. His story is a tangible picture of the power in taking bold chances to live out real, passionate and compassionate love. And it has given me a much needed reminder of just how much one person motivated by love can do.