While flipping through People Magazine at the newsstand this morning, I noticed that Euna wrote a book about her experience. I haven't read it yet, but I can't wait to pick up my own copy.
They go to a different church now, but Mike does comedy at iO West and Greg and I will occasionally run into him still.
Sometimes when I read some of Paul's passages in the Bible, I wonder what it must have been like for him-- to be in prison and yet still have so much faith. I read a lot of Paul while Euna was in prison, and I used to pray (along with groups of folks who arrived early to church specifically for Euna and Laura) that Euna's faith would be like Paul's in such dismal circumstances.
I can remember worrying about her, and praying as hard as I could that she wouldn't be sentenced to a notoriously harsh North Korean work camp, and I remember that it was like a punch in the gut when she and Laura Ling were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. I remember the moment that I realized how incredibly hopeless the situation was.
Hana would have to grow up without a mother. Mike would be a single dad, always knowing that his wife was out there across the world in horrible conditions. Wondering if she was still alive even. How does one live like that? How does one "move on?" How does one wonder what to cook for dinner one moment, and then wonder if his wife is being fed tonight in the very next moment? Those months of waiting must have been hell.
I remember the reality of the situation sinking in after the women were sentenced to the work camp. I desperately realized that the only one who could save Euna was God. This was an epiphany that shaped my prayers for her. And in light of those prayers, knowing that her situations was entirely in God's hands and trusting that he had her, I cannot wait to read this book.
