Link Chapters

    On Sunday, November 13th, Greenville experienced a somewhat unusual benefit concert organized by the Greenville College LiNK chapter. The unconventional nature of this show was not in the bands that played, the fans that came, or the cause for which it was raising funds. The element that separated this concert from others was that it took place in a two-car garage at the home of Charley Wheeler, Ben Johnson, and myself. We were ecstatic to share the blessing of our garage with the community, and believe that, by the end of the show, everyone who attended understood the concept of a real good time.
    The main goal of the concert was to raise funds for LiNK, a grass-roots organization dedicated to resettling North Korean refugees into the U.S. and South Korea. The LiNK chapter at Greenville College has two goals this semester: to raise $2,500, which is the cost to resettle one refugee, and to spread awareness of our chapter here on campus and in the Greenville community. These two goals came together in the form of the Open Garage Concert, which about 50 people came to and rocked out.
    There was a t-shirt making booth, food, coffee, hot cider, and six bands that each performed a talent-packed set. The bands that performed were The Commune, Mobile Mic, Michael Trieb, Gregg, Another White Suburbanite, and Shower Curtain Madness. Everything was “sold” on a donation basis, except for the t-shirt making, and over $150 were raised by the end of the night.
    Earlier that morning, Carrie Sleme, Brittney Rand, and myself had the privilege of attending a church in Granite City that had roughly 30 people in attendance. The pastor had met us at the showing of Seoul Train, a documentary about the rescue attempts of three North Korean families that our chapter showed in the Upper Union a few weeks prior to our coming to his church. He was so moved by the film that he wanted us to come to his church to show it to the congregation, and speak about what we were doing. They took up an offering for our chapter, and we were presented with a check for $352 by the time we left. That in itself was a huge blessing, but it was not the full extent of the blessing.
    While we were in the midst of planning the benefit concert, we were informed by The Reliance, LiNK’s online fund-raising branch, that an anonymous donor had given a large pledge. Because of this, The Reliance gave each chapter the opportunity to double the amount they raised by a fund-raising event. The only conditions were that they would match the amount up to $2,500, and it was for one event only.
    This event was a testament to God’s provision, the generosity of strangers, and timeless feel of a garage rock concert. The next LiNK event on campus will be a screening of LiNK’s documentary at which a group from LiNK, the Heartland Nomads, will be speaking and answering questions. It starts at 7 p.m. on December 6 in the Upper Union. As for the future of the garage, it will function as a music venue under the tentative title Garaj Mahal.

-Gabe Hernandez

Being on a Christian campus can be really overwhelming because there are so many good organizations, but I feel like people are especially drawn to LiNK because of the severity of the issue, and the change we can actually make in the lives of refugees.

A thing I didn’t expect to come with working with LiNK is how liberating it is to me spiritually. It’s just so unconsequential that as our main focus is liberation and ending the human crisis, we end up applying that focus to ourselves spiritually. I didn’t think about this correlation until our team went to Tapestry Church in Granite City last weekend. (Listen to the audio here if you’re interested: http://crdbrdastrnt.posterous.com/tapestry-community-is-our-mission)
This is the most free I have felt in such a long time. All of my struggles just seem so small in comparison the the world’s struggles. It changes my perspective, it alters my way of thinking, and that changes my life.

So many people are struggling, physically and spiritually. LiNK isn’t a “Christian” organization, and it mostly focuses on liberating the physically bounded, which we do support completely. But as a chapter of LiNK on campus, we will not neglect the spiritual bondage of those in North Korea, and even those around us. I’ve been thinking, caring about North Korea is not necessarily easy. It’s easy to just pass it up because it has no relation to us, or so it may seem. In order for people to become as passionate about rescuing North Koreans, it needs to become personal for them, it needs to stir up some kind of rage or frustration, it needs to hit them at the core and compel them to want to do something. As we focus on liberty in North Korea in a physical sense, I can’t help but find a way to relate that focus to our campus. People are physically bounded in North Korea, and that breaks my heart, but, people I talk to or see every day are spiritually bounded by sin and need to be set free, and that breaks my heart even more.

While we do whatever we can to set the captives free, we need to do whatever we can to turn those who are spiritually suffering to a relationship with God, so that He will free them spiritually, because their eternity relies on that. As a LiNK chapter on campus, we are each growing individually through this experience. We are realizing the correlation of physical and spiritual bondage, and as we do physical things to rescue those in physical bondage, we are praying for them spiritually as well.

The North Korean religion is to worship Kim Jong Il. They are brainwashed into thinking they have it the best and refer Kim Jong Il as “dear leader” or “great leader.” They do not know of anything else, and we pray that as they are being liberated from the harsh conditions, that they will find God and hope and realize they can be freed spiritually too. Our LiNK chapter can’t just focus on North Korea and ignore the suffering around us. Here we can actually talk to people, encourage them, build impacting and meaningful relationships as well as pray for them. I think our team is realizing this, our LiNK meetings are becoming deeper, and I think this idea will draw people to want to work with us and support our efforts. I find this motivating and encouraging, and it’s only been our first semester as a chapter. I think LiNK has potential to become something huge, and that excites me.

-Carrie

Here's a short promo video we made for our upcoming benefit show.

Hey everyone

We have been doing a lot since school started as far as meeting and trying to get the word out about North Korea and what we are doing on campus.

However, I have noticed it is hard being on a Christian campus and trying to get people involved and passionate about North Korea. There are so many other great organizations and it can be really overwhelming, especially when caring about North Korea may come across as really random compared to doing homeless ministry downtown.

One thing we just started was hitting up floor bible studies on campus, and trying to make it a more personal issue. It didn't become a personal issue for me until I heard the stories of the refugees and hung out with some nomads last spring. Seeing their passion and how personal of a cause it was for them made it personal for me. So I guess that's our goal and focus right now, as well as making people realize they can actually change the life of a North Korean refugee.

We are also working on becoming an official club through our college. We have to go through an application process and fill out a charter, so we can have a budget through the school. So hopefully that will all be taken care of in the next week. Right now, we are sponsored through an organization on campus called Greenville Student Outreach. Andie Kincaid is the president of that club and she has helped us sooo much with scheduling events and giving us some funding so we don't have to take anything away from the money we make to pay for anything.

We started up a Reliance fundraising page, and are at $130.00. All our money we've made has been put on there. We've been making handmade washer bracelets to sell, and now we are working on handmade tshirts made with fabric spray paint (in the video below)

We have a really big event coming up this Sunday evening at 4pm. It's going to be a benefit garage style concert at an off campus house right across the street from our campus. The bands are campus bands, except one band is from the Greenville high school. We are going to be loud, and not let anyone not know what is going on. There will be hotdogs, nachos, lemonade and coffee (provided by GSO), facepainting, bracelets, and if you bring a plain tshirt we'll make a shirt for you for $5! This event is open to the whole community of Greenville, we've handed out flyers at the local Free Methodist church youth group. We are expecting a big turnout, and we will be sure to write a followup blog with possible video and photo coverage.

-Carrie Sleme

Lastly, check out this video that Andie helped us put together!