IRVINE, Calif. (BP) — The gospel was so rampant in North Korea near the end of the 19th Century, its capital Pyongyang was termed the “Jerusalem of the East.” But Christians there today easily risk death just for openly calling on Jesus’ name.

D.J. Crawford, a Send Network church planter and founding pastor of Zoe Church of Orange County, has a heart to see North Korea return to the gospel. He’s participating in “815 Pray It Forward,” an Aug. 16 event at Biola University to encourage Christians to pray for the salvation of North Korea, to give to missionaries serving North Koreans and to take what Crawford calls a peace trip to the nation.

Specifically, Crawford invites Southern Baptists to participate in 40 days of prayer for North Korea — or any unreached nation God places on their heart, to monetarily support missionaries serving North Koreans and go on mission to North Korea.

“People go more through what you would say tourist visas and business visas, where they come alongside and help from more of a compassion ministry through deeds,” Crawford said. “How do you save a brother? You feed him first, right? You help take care of the physical needs of the person. And then the gospel, you can’t actually publicly share. You would actually be reported and thrown in prison if you did that.”

Crawford describes North Korea as a true Communist country where commerce is extremely limited, which led to a hunger crisis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when thousands died of starvation. Food insecurity remains, and Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un exacts punishment to be treated as god.

815 Pray it Forward, an ecumenical event sponsored by Unify Korea, takes its name from Aug. 15, 1945, when Korea was split into two territories at the 38th Parallel. Subsequently, Koreans formed two separate states in 1948, fought each other in a war from 1950-1953 that killed 3 million Koreans, and remain separated today at the demilitarized zone. Unify Korea seeks to reunite the nation as one.

Crawford, who spent 15 years of his childhood in Seoul, South Korea, as the child of missionaries, describes North and South Korea as technically still at war, since no peace agreement was ever reached. He has long desired to see the countries reunited with the religious freedom enjoyed in South Korea.

“I’ve always had (a) desire to help in reconciliation,” Crawford said. “We’re reconciled to God the Father through Jesus, right? And then we’re called to reconcile man, be peacemakers.”

Frequently on Saturdays in his childhood, the 53-year-old Crawford said, he heard war sirens alerting his family to seek cover.

“This is pretty real to me,” he said. “You know they have an armistice that just temporarily keeps them from fighting each other, but it’s actually they’re technically still at war.”

Southern Baptists joining Crawford at the event will include Michael Kell, senior pastor of Liberty Church in Moreno Valley, Calif., and a Send Network church planting catalyst, as well as other planters working with Kell.

Before an evening concert that will culminate the day, Crawford, Kell and others will lead prayers for the nations.

“We’re actually going to be calling up pastors, missionaries and short-term mission college students to come up to the stage,” Crawford said, “and we’re going to actually have a prayer of commitment and covenant to take the gospel to the nations.”

Gospel outreach to North Korea is often based in South Korea or China, serving those who manage to escape but are still at great risk. Many Christians are among the 80,000 to 120,000 imprisoned in North Korea, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its latest annual report, noting in particular South Korean Christian missionaries Kim Jung-wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil, who have been held for more than a decade because of their religious engagement with North Koreans.

815 Pray it Forward will feature a discussion on the history of Christianity in Korea by Liberty University Professor Tim Chang, a panel discussion led by South Korean Pastor Seungeun Kim, who works with North Koreans who escape persecution there as founder of Caleb Mission, as well as a screening of the documentary “Beyond Utopia,” available on streaming platforms.

Today, Open Doors U.S. ranks North Korea the most dangerous country in the world for Christians, estimating that 400,000 Christians worship in secret in the Communist nation that is predominantly agnostic.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)