I heard about the horrendous execution of Kim Sun Il on the news. I was saddened, as most of the world, to hear him plead for his life. There is nothing that any government could do at that point.

What I didn't know was that he was a professing Christian, who studied theology. He specifically had learned Arabic, and pursued work in Iraq, as a bridge to missions.

Kim was fluent in Arabic, holding a graduate degree in that language from Seoul's Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in February 2003. He also had degrees in English and theology, and had hoped to become a Christian missionary in the Middle East.

Kim, described as a devout Christian, studied Arabic as well as English in South Korea. His parents said he went to Iraq because he dreamed of becoming a missionary in the Arab world, the Seoul newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported.

33 years old Kim Sun-il studied Arabic in order to become a missionary in the Middle East. Born in Pusan, in the south-west of the country, where he lives with his family, Kim graduated in Theology at a local seminary and in Arabic at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. According to his parents he was soon going to be ordained and then go on mission. He had gone to Baghdad to work as a translator for the Gana General Trading Company, a Korean company that supplies food and uniforms to the U.S. army.

In South Korea most people (about 40%) are Christians. Catholics represent about 10% of the population. Protestants are present throughout the country, including some of the remotest rural areas and are very dedicated to missionary activity in the Middle East.

The seventh of eight children, Kim had been working in Iraq as an interpreter for the past year, Yonhap news agency said. As a Christian, he mixed that work with evangelizing, it said.

Would you or I be willing to risk our life to share the gospel of Jesus Christ? The video tape with him pleading for his life leaves me with many questions. Was he at all targeted because of his Christian faith? What else did he say to his captors? Did he stand firm to the end? We have heard the martyrs throughout the ages going peacefully singing songs as the died. What else did Kim Sun Il say before he died? When he said that his life was important, did he say that because he wanted to continue sharing the love of Christ? My guess is that he did say much more than the tape shows.
As he studied the bible, I am sure he knew that "to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Phil 1:21)

I pray for his family as they grieve his loss. I pray that Christians, would not see this on political terms, but rather realizing the high cost of declaring the name of Jesus Christ. And that we might see that his life was important, that we might too be able to say, that we have fought the good fight, that we have won the race, and enter the arms of our loving Savior in whom true life is found.