If I Perish

Read it! Over and over! It’s such an encouragement in the application of Scripture and guidance of the Holy Spirit through the death of self and surrender to God’s perfect Will.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this biography. The story compells the reader to turn the next page. It is full of excellent spiritual lessons for the reader to apply in their own life. Her courage, determination, and commitment to the Lord are inspiring.

Verse 4:16 in the book of Esther provides the backdrop of a modern-day Esther who went to Japan to warn the Japanese against their idol/shrine worship. She had a heart for the Japanese people to bring them to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, but was instead thrown into prison because she refused to worship idols. Like a modern-day Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, she refused to bow to the shrine worship and was fully prepared to die. She lived by faith, prayer and leaning on Jesus during her long ordeal, and even though she was starved and tortured and ill, as it was for Daniel in the lion's den, God stopped the mouths and hands of her worse enemies in miraculous ways. She became a testimony to those in the prison and won many to Christ, from crazed murderers, to cruel prison guards, to a former geisha who became a missionary in the mountains. There were many moments of despair and longing for the deliverance of death, and Esther bemoans her weakness and hunger, and this all shows that she is weak, but that God is strong, with His strength made perfect through our weaknesses. All her trials and tribulations showed her how Jesus is faithful and never left her and finally delivered her when she was freed at the end of the war and escaped the Communists to South Korea. Her mother was a remarkable person, having led Esther to the LORD and kept her faith providing Esther with encouragement and prayer. This book will strengthen your faith and encourage you also when things get tough and you learn to lean on the everlasting arms. It is also hard to put down and my daughter read it all the way through in a day.

Although it has been years since reading the book, several impressions still remain.One was the way scripture constantly came out in Esther Ahn's life. It was very real. Some readers, in their reading of fiction, may seek adventure and plot--this book has it in its recounting of imprisonment and persecution of a Christian in Korea--but seeing how the Word comes to her mind all the time, seeing how her life was built on this, is what made me love the book.And the thing that hit me the most was: when I finished reading the book, I felt strongly: I WANT TO MEET HER MOTHER! Her mother wasn't one of the main characters in the book, but it was the mother who instilled in Esther Ahn her unshakable confidence in the Word and lifestyle of constant reference to it."I have never seen anything like this before," the senior officer, who was a Korean, said. "The daughter is great. The mother is greater."

In the face of the most brutal treatment and systematic persecution by her Japanese captors during WWII, Esther Kim puts into action the love of God that overcomes anguish, fear and incomprehensible evil. This is one of the most moving books I've ever read and was instrumental in my own personal search for a God who is real and who makes a difference.

Some may think that reading a book about persecution is depressing, showing them a side of life that they hope to avoid. This book, though it describes hardships, leaves the reader feeling inspired. Esther describes her struggle to submit to God's will, and through her humility, the love God is clearly shining through her life.This book is also a good source to learn about the history and therefore present relations between Korea and Japan.