“First Steps” Christian group feeds North Korean children

Jesus is alive in North Korea. I know this because I saw him in the eyes of the malnourished children who live there.

On a recent trip, I had the privilege of visiting four orphanages in the cities of Nampo, Wonsan and Pyongyang in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), as North Korea calls itself. Collectively the orphanages house 719 children.

If you had asked me early this year if I would even consider traveling to North Korea I would have firmly told you that it was not even a possibility, but as we know, God works in mysterious ways.

In April, I attended a woman’s breakfast and happened to see Susan Ritchie speak. Susan is the executive director of a registered Christian humanitarian organization called ‘First Steps’ which is based in Canada.

First Steps was founded by Susan Ritchie, after she served as an interpreter for a Canadian government delegation that visited North Korea in 2000 and saw how children were suffering.

A country of 23 million, North Korea has suffered acute food shortages for more than a decade. United Nations and World Food Program reports say that between two million and three million North Korean children consistently fail to receive the nutrients vital to their physical and mental development.

At the breakfast, Susan told us of a special prayer that she had said after returning from a trip to the DPRK where she had met a mother who had lost a child due to malnutrition. Susan decided to completely surrender to God’s will and told Him that she would do ‘anything’ for the children of North Korea.

Soon Susan enlisted women in her church, First Baptist, Vancouver, and together they organized shipments of pablum for infants. Those shipments continue, and now most of the organization effort has gone into supplying “VitaCow” machines that process soy beans into protein-rich soy milk in the port cities of Nampo and Wonsan. First Steps buys the beans in China and ships them to North Korea.

It’s important to stop and actually imagine what prayer, such as Susan gave, could entail. Traveling to a foreign country, leaving your family at home for a significant period of time, it definitely could take you out of your comfort zone.

I was so inspired and impressed by Susan’s spirit that I decided to attempt a similar prayer and surrender to whatever God had in store for me. As I soon found out, it was a trip to see the overwhelmingly sweet, innocent, hungry children of the DPRK.

Throughout our lives we see malnourished children on television, we see their pictures in magazines, but when you look into the eyes of a hungry child, something connects with your soul and your life is never the same.

Of these, I now have 721 children that I am responsible for and the number is growing. I have two healthy, happy kids living in Vancouver who are strong and able to articulate their needs and 719 children living in North Korea (many of whom suffer from second and third degree malnutrition), and I must speak on their behalf.

God has given them a voice through me and I intend to use it to let people know that they are in need of food. Everyone, even young, orphaned children are entitled to their daily bread.

First Steps is currently providing a cup of soy milk to about 15,000 children under the age of six in the DPRK. The children receive the soy milk six days of the week.

Electricity supply can be uncertain or non-existent in North Korea, especially in rural areas. First Steps is working on a new project to introduce a machine (the “VitaGoat”) that relies instead on stationary-bike power with a grinder attached and wood, coal or gas power for the steam boiler.

The hope of First Steps is to feed 60,000 malnourished children by the end of 2005.

If you have a heart for children and would like to help feed a few tummies, please call 604-732 0195, or go on-line at www.firststepscanada.org and make a donation, your life will never be the same.

Kelly Sheehan visited North Korea on behalf of First Steps last May.