When Her Husband Was Detained in North Korea, She "Simply Trusted the Lord"
VOMRadio
The Voice of the Martyrs
4.9 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2021
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Karen Short's husband, John, was detained inside North Korea, held incommunicado. Yet Karen never felt panicked about what would happen to him. "I simply trusted the Lord," she says.
John Short, an Australian Christian, was detained in North Korea in 2014 after leaving gospel tracts outside a Buddhist temple while part of a tour. Karen was home in Hong Kong, dealing with media attention, praying for her husband and receiving words of encouragement from all around the world.
Listen in as Karen shares:
- How God ministered to her during John's detention
- How she and John stayed connected through Scripture—even though they couldn't communicate during his detention
- How journalists and others responded when they observed Karen's calm assurance and faith in God
- How she learned that her husband would be released and allowed to return home
- The one thing she wishes she'd done differently—it will surprise you!
The story of Karen's faithfulness will inspire you to trust more deeply in God and dive deeper into His Word, even if you're not planning a trip to North Korea.
VOM Radio also shared John's side of the story of what happened in North Korea. Listen here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Early in 2014, Karen Short found out that her husband John had been detained inside North Korea |
| 0:08.0 | for spreading the gospel message about Jesus Christ. For the 15 days that he was detained, |
| 0:14.8 | she had no contact with him. So if you hear that story, you'd probably think she has no desire |
| 0:22.3 | for him to go back to North Korea, let alone her go with him. But Karen thinks more about |
| 0:29.6 | God's will than about her own safety. I would love to go. I would go with him because I believe |
| 0:38.4 | that what he's doing is what God wants him to do. And if the Lord wants me to go with him and be |
| 0:44.4 | out of it, I would go to see the situation there. Jesus never promised his followers and easy |
| 0:53.4 | path. In fact, he told his disciples that the world would hate them. He sent them out as sheep |
| 0:59.1 | among wolves. Jesus' words came true in the life of the apostles, and they're still coming true |
| 1:04.7 | today in the lives of his followers around the world. Join host Todd Nettletons. We hear their |
| 1:09.7 | inspiring stories and learn how we can help right now on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network. |
| 1:15.3 | Welcome again to The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. My name is Todd Nettletons. We talk several |
| 1:20.2 | weeks back about my brand new book when faith is forbidden 40 days on the front lines with persecuted |
| 1:27.2 | Christians. One of the stories in that book is about my visit to Hong Kong in 2015 to interview |
| 1:34.9 | John and Karen Short. It's day 13 in the book. If you already have a copy in 2014, John was detained |
| 1:43.8 | while on a visit to North Korea. He left some printed gospel materials outside a Buddhist shrine |
| 1:52.8 | that was one stop on his tour. And the tracks were discovered and John was detained. |
| 2:00.4 | After his eventual release, John only gave interviews to two media outlets. One was his hometown |
| 2:06.4 | newspaper back in Australia and the other was Voice of the Martyrs Radio. We aired that interview |
| 2:13.4 | in 2016. One of the things that I did working on the book was to go back and listen to some of the |
| 2:21.0 | interviews with Christians that I write about in the book or to read the interview transcripts |
| 2:26.7 | again. And one of those that I listened to again was my conversation with John's wife, |
... |
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