January 26, 2014
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We were so shocked and heartbroken when we read your —————— article about our son, Minister Robert Park, while he was severely suffering from PTSD after he came back from the hell of his imprisonment in North Korea. The young reporter was so indifferent and ignorant about PTSD which is killing our precious young veterans every day after they return from the battle field. Such untrue, harmful, and judgmental articles can re-trigger the traumatic event and not only hurt but also kill the severely wounded persons.** ( Actually I am afraid it re-traumatized Robert, causing him more suffering and delaying recovery. ) Thankfully, his strong faith and passion for the deliverance of the North Korean people from genocide have kept him alive and working for this cause in spite of terrible difficulties.
First, we must clarify in the strongest possible language that our son, a legally ordained minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, never suffered from mental illness before entering North Korea to protest the world’s cruel indifference to this current genocide. He was a model of perfect health, physically, spiritually, and mentally. He had no need to visit doctors. The only impediment to his physical health was persistent fasting reminding us of Mahatma Gandhi, to whom he has often been compared.
All who knew him intimately before he went into North Korea held him in the highest regard and had reverence for his integrity and his sincere devotion to Jesus Christ. He lived the Gospel in a manner that is perhaps totally unique in our modern era, where materialism, competitiveness and carnal ambition seem to be among the prevailing trends of our times.
In the words of a teacher, devoted Christian, and family friend Cheryl Pickrell:
Robert took the words of Christ to heart and followed them. He was humble. We watched a modern-day St. Francis blossom. Saints who have informed my life are Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lady Julian of Norwich, Mother Theresa, Amy Biehl, John Fife, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and Jim Elliot. What a gift it is to encounter a human that is willing to lose his life to find it. Every person in Tucson who describes an encounter with Robert Park comments on his remarkable compassion, prayer life, and joy. Coming into Robert’s circle of light meant you would feel his joy. He loves God and all people. His life is one of radical acceptance of God’s claim to everything he owns and every moment he is given. If you did not know Robert, you might surmise that he is rash. If you know Robert, you understand that you are blessed. His life calls us to follow the light we have been given, to listen to God’s voice, to feel the love of God, and to perform acts of mercy and work for justice. Robert is a mystic— the world needs him.”
Rev. Brooke Pickrell described Robert in the following way in her sermon:
When I first met Robert, he had just given away his car and literally almost everything that he owned so that he could live in simplicity and live out the Gospel message in his life without distraction. He was working with people with developmental disabilities. Since this time, I have learned that Robert has consistently given his time to those who are homeless within Tucson, and to the poor of Nogales, Sonora. I read that Robert would come back to Tucson after his time in Nogales literally no longer with the shirt on his back, as he had given almost everything he had at that moment to the most in need whom he encountered.
Robert is a man who has taken the Gospel so to heart that he has found it impossible to live in any other light; he is a person who has chosen to decrease so that others might increase; Robert has come to understand that those who lose their life find their life. Just before Robert crossed the border he wrote to his father that he was living the best, most meaningful years of his young life. Robert, for many years now, has been living out an authentic-life changing faith that has joined hands with social justice; he has been going about his life, his faith, with a broadax.”
North Korean defector, prison camp survivor, and reporter for the Chosun Ilbo Kang Chol-hwan wrote on December 28, 2009, while Minister Robert was detained:
“He is a rare, genuine and holy man who has practiced the teaching of Jesus Christ, who had always stood by the people who were oppressed.” (Mr. Kang’s entire article was translated by the late Dr. Steve Y. Rhee, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Armstrong Atlantic State University and also an admirer of Minister Robert Park. We can provide that as well as several other articles recommending Robert’s work upon request. There are too many.)
When Robert came back home from unbearable trauma, he was totally a different person from the one before he entered North Korea. He was suffering with unimaginably severe PTSD. We couldn’t imagine how the evil experience could change a person like this; Robert experienced sleeplessness, severe heart pain, tremors, shaking, fear, rage, nightmares, feeling hyper-vigilant, anxiety, flashbacks, avoiding reminders of the event. We could not recognize our son after what he suffered in North Korea.
You can see glimpses of Robert through some of the following stories. Again, there are many more. (Please forgive our imperfect English, as Korean is our first language.) His entire adult life was one of selflessness, perfect integrity and compassionate service for those in need.
While still very young, Robert gave away literally every possession that he owned to the poor and served as a caregiver for those with developmental disabilities. We could not help but realize in the years that followed that he is a real and faithful disciple of Jesus due to the numerous testimonies we heard from various leaders in the community about his self-effacing compassion and undying commitment to the welfare of others, especially those in the most need. I have known his pure heart with deep compassion and zeal for justice and God’s will from a very young age. He has been just like St. Francis in the modern day, living in simplicity and living out the Gospel message. I was so moved by his wisdom, even though he is my little son. It seemed he knew better than anyone how to care for the wounded people, even while so young.
Libby who directed a house for abused children and ministry towards the homeless, told us a story about her exhaustion taking care of two babies with pneumonia that had been left on a church doorstep. She had not slept a significant amount of time for days because these babies needed breathing treatments every hour. She had a home full of homeless and abused children she was caring for. Robert, whom she trusted completely because of their extensive time working together to serve the homeless, volunteered to help her by staying up and making sure the children were safe. She awoke three or four hours later. It was the middle of the night and he was on the floor scrubbing it. He had given breathing treatments and took perfect care of the children, lowering their fevers. This is just one example of his always placing the needs of others ahead of himself. Countless lives, including children and adults were forever changed by his work.
About a decade ago, Robert found a community in dire need living in the surrounding area of a garbage dump in Mexico near the Arizona border. He became close friends with those who lived there, especially with children who scrounged the dump for some food. The people there viewed him as a hero and a holy person. Many lives were changed through his selfless love. Robert connected several churches and ministries to this community to assist them with necessities (such as food, diapers, clothing, toiletries, toys for the children, etc.) and sharing the Love of God. He was also a strong advocate for the community’s rights and development, contributing greatly to its transformation today as a safer and healthier community. Once, when a humanitarian team associated with him arrived, Robert, who often stayed in this community where there was no electricity or running water, had already given away most of his clothing and even his shoes. He only had a light undershirt and his pants left, and it was very cold. But he was just full of joy. He sat in the dump and sang Gospel songs in Spanish as he played the guitar. All of the children in the community came to memorize the songs and sang so joyfully beside him with smiling faces. Libby said, “He brought joy to these kids; for a little bit, they had joy.” She said that he did not just believe in prayer but in action. “He became the hands and feet of Christ,” she said.
John Benson, the pastor that ordained Robert, said that anyone who knew him understands there is no one kinder, more committed, more joyful, and more abandoned to God’s will. He told an Arizona newspaper while Robert was detained, “I can tell you without hesitation that, in my entire life as a Christian, I have never met anyone who cares more, prays more or is a gentler soul than this young man.” -At his ordination, ministers from several different denominations and ethnic backgrounds were present and signed his ordination certificate.
Several years later many churches and organizations began to serve this area and community willingly, and at that point Robert realized his mission was done. At that time, he became more and more acquainted with the suffering of the North Koreans. He studied voraciously about North Korea and connected with several North Korean mission groups. That summer he went to Seoul to attend a North Korea convention representing a humanitarian organization and stayed one month. Once he encountered the North Korean refugees’ profound suffering, he could not leave them. He said, “They are my family, my brothers and sisters.” When we looked back, we realized his exceptional missionary work for the homeless in Tucson and Mexico was in part God’s hand reaching out to prepare him for the mission in North Korea. I want to share one of his co-worker’s written testimony about his work in South Korea.
“His main base for activities was Seoul. Regarding himself as one of the North Korean defectors in Korea, he looked after, prayed for, supported, healed and loved them. He used to confess that he was learning a lot of things from North Korean refugees in addition to genuine love, grace, and self-healing. Whenever he visited North Koreans at their home, he was really comfortable and happy. He has been leading prayer movements to liberate North Korea by relaying message of repentance by Koreans at Korean churches and prayer meetings. (In China, he was a missionary who sought the poorest North Koreans in order to deliver God’s love encouraging hope and administering baptism.) Whenever giving out food money and medicines in the coarse hands of North Koreans, it always broke his heart not to be able to give more. Already his heart was with the weakest in North Korea, the tiniest in the world. Since having already been like this in Korea, it is quite imaginable how eagerly he stepped on the soil of North Korea. He did not carry a word of judgment. His is the one of Holy Spirit for spiritual battles, the love of God. He never preached enmity, hatred or judgment toward men, even to the point of praying for Kim Jung Il’s soul and repentance… He was the one who shared with North Koreans in their indelible wounds and memories of sufferings still left in the depth of their hearts. As a healer, his prayer is unique. It has an amazing and mystical power that pours out heavenly love. There was nobody who did not meld or fall before his soul that did not recognize outward appearance, age, status, normal or abnormal of the other side. His prayer was of the kind that restores dignity by exalting and blessing the other party with noble words non-existent on the earth. Not only that, he was also a missionary who loved, cared for the homeless, the disabled and old, weak pan-handlers by unsparingly giving them all, saying “Jesus loves.” It was a voice of soul steeped in humility, warmth and respect that suddenly fill surroundings with light.”
Following is a poem by Robert’s uncle, who is a psychiatrist and ardent admirer of Robert’s work.
Robert & Uncle
It`s strange;
When you smile, I know I am forgiven and loved
When you suffer, I know my pain disappeared
When you touched me, I realized, love is not a state of mind
But a “thing” that you “give” and “receive”
I know now;
Why I could not forgive myself
Why I could not love myself all my life
Until you came to me
Here I am. 65 years old.
Jan, 3, 2009
Uncle Man Chul Cho M.D.
His courage to love the poor and oppressed in North Korea to death empowered and continues to empower so many people, especially North Korean refugees and inspires many to live powerfully in joy and service. Prominent North Korean defector and human rights activist Ji Seong-ho, one of the only North Koreans with a disability to have successfully escaped the country, has stated to the media that Missionary Robert’s work was the main catalyst for the founding of his current magnificent organization, NAUH (Now, Action & Unity for NK Human Rights). Likewise, Robert considers Ji Seong-ho to be a genuine hero and inspiration, in addition to being one of his very best friends. There are many such testimonies.
We pray and trust God will restore his full life and joy soon and use his unimaginable suffering with PTSD to help to transform and to heal many wounds, not only North Koreans but also others around the world, into compassion and joy as a wounded healer.
(Trauma occurs when an actual or perceived threat of danger overwhelms a person’s usual coping ability. “Trauma is not a disease, but rather a human experience rooted in survival instincts. Inviting the full, if carefully graded, expression of our instinctive responses will allow the traumatic state to loosen its hold on the sufferer. Goodness, the restoration of vitality, follows.” Levine said, it can be transformed from the hell of rage into a heaven of peace. “It is a fact of life.” “It does not, however, have to be a life sentence.” “All problems are psychological, but all solutions are spiritual.”)
Thank you for your time and consideration. Our son is our spiritual leader and our hero.
Yours,
Dr. Pyong Kiel and Helen Park
Father and Mother
** Quotations about trauma from the book, In an Unspoken Voice by Peter A. Levine and from Healing the Unseen Wound (aka Traumatic Incident Reduction) Workshop by Teresa Descilo
