“Come With Us!”

In the end, I found myself saying those words again.

The trip would last around fifteen days.

Thirty to forty hours of flights. Then more than ten hours by car down south to Cumpa. From there, traveling village to village distributing evangelistic booklets. After that, instead of returning through the capital, we would head straight north to Gabú, carry out the schedule there, and then somehow make our way back to Korea.

For something called a “fifteen-day trip,” it was honestly unreasonable. There was practically no time to rest.

Dan would already be there ahead of us, so he would have adjusted to the time difference and become familiar with the local environment by then. But when I thought about the schedule for myself, I honestly felt overwhelmed just imagining it. It seemed too intense to invite someone else along. I figured maybe the two of us could manage because we understood each other.

And yet, as usual, the words started coming out of my mouth almost automatically.

The person I was speaking to was James.

Back in January 2023, he had attended a mission camp hosted by Moroview. During that time, he felt God calling him back, and it became the moment his eyes first opened toward missions. Later, he spent two months with me in the slums of the Philippines, where his relationship with the Lord deepened significantly. When we later recruited forty people for the Guinea-Bissau Bible delivery trip, he was one of the people I most wanted to bring with us.

But at that time, God led him instead into military service.

Even during his leave periods, he continued joining us on mission trips whenever possible. He was younger than me, but to me he felt like a living testimony. Because of that, I had continued encouraging him to attend DTS once he finished his service.

Then, shortly before this Guinea-Bissau trip, he was discharged from the military and had started spending more time again around Moroview and with us.

And as I watched him, I couldn’t help myself.

“Come with us. Let’s go together this time. You were disappointed you couldn’t come before, right? The schedule’s pretty intense, honestly, but they say incredible things are happening there right now. The things the Lord has done are unbelievable. Don’t you want to see it for yourself? Let’s go together.”

I was sincerely trying to persuade him.

Something in me deeply wanted this brother to come along.

After several days of thinking and praying, James decided to join us.

And so, in 2025, three of us would travel together on my fifth journey to Guinea-Bissau.

I told Dan.

“I think I’m bringing one person this time. It’s James.”

Dan already knew James personally, so he was excited to hear it. But not long afterward, Dan contacted me again. He said he had invited someone too, and that I would probably hear from him soon.

It was someone Dan had met during a mission trip to the Philippines two months earlier.

At first, that brother had planned simply to support the journey financially. But one sentence from Dan unsettled him.

“What if you joined us in person instead of just giving financially?”

While praying about it, he made a sudden decision to come with us as well.

A trip with four brothers together.

Honestly, it sounded like it could become a pretty unforgettable journey.

And not long after that, I had to say something else to Dan.

“Looks like the group got bigger again. Hahaha.”