Running Out of the Darkness

(5 of 5)

ON A RECENT SUNDAY MORNING, PETERS stands at the pulpit of Youngnak Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest churches in Seoul. The congregation is more than 2,000 strong, joined together in a two-day prayer vigil for North Koreans. Though buoyed by Kim Myong Suk's success, Peters is weighed down by the arrest of that American activist now jailed in Yanji, China, a man in his late 60s. He wonders who will take his place, and the place of other, older activists. "Where are the young soldiers to step into the place that older missionaries now fill?" he asks the congregation. He steps down from the pulpit, and the organist begins playing the anthem associated more than any other with escape from bondage. In Korean, 2,000 voices swell to sing The Battle Hymn of the Republic.