Aesop Rhim - BOOK - Prayer for Peace

Artist & Writer, Aesop Rhim

BOOK

New book release - "PRAYER FOR PEACE" (The Saga of Korean War Survivor)

During the Korean War, as a teen-ager, Aesop carried rifle of both North and South Korean armies and then became a soldier of Christ to serve as a peace initiator through his art profession.

Aesop stated "Achieving peace requires all parties to trust each other, commit to constructive wisdom, and have the courage to move forward toward unity with conviction and patience. In this recounting of my story, I am expressing my thoughts on how to achieve peace in Korea based on my experiences during the war and the peace initiatives in which I have been engaged"

News release
Author Aesop Rhim's newly released "Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor" is one man's story of how his faith turned his war experiences into forgiveness and peace activism...
~ Christian Faith Publishing
... read full press release

Book review
"Prayer for peace: The Saga of A Korean War Survivor by Aesop Rhim is a breathtaking memoir that dramatizes the heartbreaking past (and current reality) of the divided Korean people. The story is told with a keen eye for detail, convincing emotional depth, and cinematic visualization, taking the reader on a voyage of human suffering, resilience, and hope, all together enriched by an overarching sincerity of profound faith and an inspiring hope for peace. Highly recommended! ~ Avraham Azrieli, TheComlumbiaReview.com
... read full review

NEWS RELEASE from Christian Faith Publishing

AESOP RHIM MEMOIR

“Prayer for Peace; The Saga of A Korean War Survivor”

Author Aesop Rhim's newly released “Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor” is one man’s story of how his faith turned his war experiences into forgiveness and peace activism.

From Christian Faith Publishing, “Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor” is the tale of a young man whose life was devastated by war, but redeemed by God. Aesop rebuilt his life, only to later learn of the toll that the North Korean regime had taken on his family in the ensuing years. Today, he is 84 years old, an artist for peace, family man, and missionary to Africa.

“When the Korean War began in June of 1950, I was a teenage boy living in Chosan, a town near the Yalu River in North Korea. My entire high school class was drafted to serve in the war. Facing the horrors of war, I chose to defect and make my way into South Korea. During these days of the Korean War, I struggled for arduous days of walking, exhaustion and starvation. After several deadly skirmishes, I was captured by South Korean local guards and they beat me severely. Death seemed imminent. I prayed for God’s mercy while imprisoned. Miraculously, the South Korean army’s unit officer was from my home-town in North Korea and recognized me. The officer pardoned me and allowed me to join the South Korean army. My life was spared.” --Aesop Rhim

Against all odds, Aesop eventually graduated from the fine arts college of Seoul National University to become an artist, and then immigrated to the United States and graduated from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

In 1997, he had the opportunity to travel back to North Korea on a peace mission, where he was reunited with his siblings. In Pyongyang, he witnessed the deprivations of North Korea. Aesop was shocked to learn from his sister that in the winter of 1975, his mother and older brother, along with his brother’s family, were sent to a concentration camp. It was a devastating moment for Aesop, but he prayed for God’s guidance and mercy for his family and the North Korean people.

In 2001, when Aesop encountered the tragedy of the 9/11 terrorism in New York, he felt a personal awakening and resolve to use his art as a tool for peace. Aesop immediately created his “Prayer for Peace” art exhibition, which explored peace in different ways for over a decade. “Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor” is his harrowing story of war, peace, and faith.

View a synopsis of “Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor” on YouTube. Consumers can purchase “Prayer for Peace: The Saga of a Korean War Survivor” at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, Kobo or Barnes and Noble.
For additional information or inquiries about “Prayer for Peace;, The Saga of a Korean War Survivor”, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.

~ Christian Faith Publishing

BOOK REVIEW - The Columbia Review of Books & Film

Prayer for Peace: The Saga of A Korean War Survivor by Aesop Rhim is a breathtaking memoir that dramatizes the heartbreaking past (and current reality) of the divided Korean people. The story is told with a keen eye for detail, convincing emotional depth, and cinematic visualization, taking the reader on a voyage of hPrayeuman suffering, resilience, and hope, all together enriched by an overarching sincerity of profound faith and an inspiring hope for peace. Highly Recommended!"
~ Avraham Azrieli, TheColumbiaReview.com

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PRAYER FOR PEACE
REVIEWED BY: AVRAHAM AZRIELI

Azrieli's most recent novel is "Deborah Rising" (HarperColllins 2016), the story of the first woman to lead a nation in history. www.azrielibooks.com

Prayer for Peace: The Saga of A Korean War Survivor by Aesop Rhim is a memoir in two overlapping parts, providing the reader with an intimate history of the Korean War as well as a poignant personal history of a Korean expatriate, with the two parts combining into a journey of survival, faith and art, fueled by an aspiration for peace.

The author begins with an illuminating, simple truth: “While the focus of the news media is on the hair-trigger tensions, what many people forget is that this is a rather recent and brief chapter in Korean history. For thousands of years, the two Koreas were one nation and shared a unique historical culture. At the end of World War II, the country was divided into North and South by the United States and the Soviet Union, not for the betterment of the country, but for the betterment of their own national interests. Fracture was forced upon this peaceful people, ripping apart families and creating confusion, division, and uncertainty.”

The early part of the book serves as a fascinating first-person eyewitness account of life in Korea from World War II onward, infused with knowledgeable insights, as well as historical, political and international facts, which endow this memoir with solid factual foundations.

Like most teenage boys in 1950s North Korea, the author was drafted, trained, and sent to fight South Korea in a futile attempt as reunification. Yet his story takes a dramatic turn when he escapes an American tank attack, crosses a river and escapes. On his quest for safety, he recounts a symbolic moment of change: “My comrade spotted a high school student’s uniform and pulled it out for me. It was a golden opportunity for me in the situation. I took off my filthy North Korean army uniform and put on the student uniform with a high school logo on the front of the shirt. Immediately, I felt free. In this critical moment, the new clothes would be a lifesaver for me.”

After more harrowing experiences, the author avoids calamity when he is recruited to fight with the South Korean army against his former comrades. His observation about this surreal turn of events is worth quoting: “Switching from a North Korean soldier to a South Korean soldier was a truly miraculous thing. But inside my mind, I was really neither. Like the other young men in the basement and others caught in the war, I was just a young boy struggling with Korea’s destiny.”
Eventually, an illness frees him from uniform, and he grows to embrace the Christian faith and study art in Seoul. Immigrating to the United States, the author earns an advanced degree in graphic design, marries and raises two daughters and, later on, visits North Korea and reconnects with his surviving family members. The tragic September 11 attack on the United States causes him to relive his Korean war experience – “There was similarity between the two tragedies—mass killing and senseless destruction arising from a base of blind hatred” – which in turn reignited his passion for promoting peace and the development of art exhibitions and international missions themed on his Prayer of Peace. The book includes many authentic photographs, which lend wonderful realism to the author’s story, as well as fitting scriptural quotations that tie in with the traumatic events.

In summary, Prayer for Peace: The Saga of A Korean War Survivor by Aesop Rhim is a breathtaking memoir that dramatizes the heartbreaking past (and current reality) of the divided Korean people. The story is told with a keen eye for detail, convincing emotional depth, and cinematic visualization, taking the reader on a voyage of human suffering, resilience, and hope, all together enriched by an overarching sincerity of profound faith and an inspiring hope for peace. Highly Recommended!

— Avraham Azrieli, TheColumbiaReview.com

BOOK is available at Amazon.com