Give thanks to Jesus for the growing Christian church in North Korea. Pray for the Bibles that are smuggled into North Korea to get into the hands, and hearts, of believers and seekers.

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thess 2:13)

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On the nights when the winds are light and the skies are dark, hundreds of helium-filled balloons are sent up and away from multiple points in South Korea, destined a few miles away and into North Korea. Only these are no ordinary balloons — they are considered “Bible Balloons,” adorned with the Words of God printed in Korean or flash drives featuring the entire texts of the Testament.

It is one of the few creative — and inherently dangerous — ways Bibles are smuggled into the oppressive dictatorship in the hopes that impoverished North Koreans will know that they aren’t forgotten. Other activists, such as American pastor Eric Foley, have opted for a much larger hydrogen-fueled 40-foot balloon brimming with Bibles and testimonials. These are then dropped into rural areas with the help of GPS technology, in the hopes that even just one will be picked up.

Nonetheless, the regime is well aware of the biblical balloons — which have been at the center point of Bible smuggling since the 90’s — and if the endeavor to shoot them down fails, anyone spotted collecting the contents is immediately arrested….

Another smuggling method in is via the occasional — and lawbreaking — tourist. Although any visitors to the hermit kingdom are rigorously warned by external tour companies to take in absolutely no religious texts or symbols and refrain from any type of discussion on it that could be interpreted as proselytizing, some still take the risk. And pay the price.

Just ask Ohio native, Jeffrey Fowle. A devout Christian and father of three, the perpetually curious 58-year-old journeyed to North Korea on an organized tour in 2014, and was detained after deliberately concealing a Bible under a trash can in the men’s room of a Pyongyang nightclub. He had hoped the bootlegged Bible — which contained his name and family photographs — would make its way to someone in the underground Christian community.

Three years later, in May of this year, his release was finally secured by U.S officials.

Fowle is one of the lucky ones. Religious freedom is written into the country’s constitution, but the reality on the ground paints a much different picture. For the vast majority of trapped Christians inside the brutal dictatorship, the consequence is life in a labor camp or a public execution by firing squad. Their relatives too are often subject to callous retribution.

“The North Korean regime’s legitimacy and claim to power flow out of the idea that Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and now Kim Jong Un are divine beings. North Korean children are taught to pray before a meal, ‘Thank you Father Kim Il Sung for our food,’….

Furthermore, Christian North Korean defectors in the border areas of South Korea broadcast gospels on an almost daily basis. Roughly 20 percent of the 25 million North Korean population own a radio — an illicit item — and many will risk their own lives to tune in.

“Radio, just as in the days of the Cold War, remains an incredibly useful tool to inject truth and the Gospel into North Korea,” said Jeff King, president of advocacy group International Christian Concern. “And we remain an ardent supporter of pushing Christian content into North Korea through radio and other means.”

But despite the harsh penalties that come with praising anyone of any belief system outside the Kims, there is a sense that an ascending number of North Koreans are turning to Christianity.

“The church is growing at a faster rate in North Korea than in South Korea, where the church has declined in membership every year since 1991,” Foley observed….

According to the prominent pastor, the uptick in the North is mainly due to the covert network of North Korean Christians, rather than religious advocates from the outside.

“The reason why is that the work of missionaries on the North Korea/China border is easily infiltrated and neutralized by North Korean state security agents, but the work of underground North Korean Christians has continued faithfully for more than three generations,” he explained. “They don’t smuggle large numbers of Bibles into North Korea, but instead, certain members of the underground church carry Bibles across the border one at a time, often in the form of MP3 players.”

These Christians are native North Koreans who are given permission to travel to China on relative visas or work visas. Some have established relationships with border guards who accept bribe money — and are under close and careful surveillance themselves — who turn a blind-eye to the illegal material being brought back in, while others have it carefully concealed from all….  (Excerpted from Fox News , reporting by Hollie McKay.)