The second country is Ethiopia.
Even though we couldn’t go to Egypt,
we had already arranged our tickets with the plan to join the team in Ethiopia.
But suddenly, we were unable to visit one of the countries in between due to visa issues.
As the schedule was moved forward, our tickets no longer matched the new schedule.
So in the end, we couldn’t go to Ethiopia either.
As we adjusted our schedule, it was actually moved forward, but we ended up joining the team in Kenya.
And so, Ethiopia, the second country, also became a place we could not go.
Ethiopia.
At the end of last year, I had originally applied for Ethiopia as the outreach location for my DTS.
I remember thinking, “It’s Ethiopia,” as soon as I heard the first options.
There wasn’t a big reason.
It was because it was next to Eritrea.
I had never told anyone that this was the reason.
There had simply been a time when I dreamed about Africa and, for whatever reason, carried the country of Eritrea in my heart and prayed for it.
I wanted to go there.
And I also had this thought that if I went to a country next to one where persecution was severe, perhaps I might have a chance to meet people from that country.
In any case, the outreach location changed for various reasons.
I ended up leading my team to Tanzania,
and this time again, I couldn’t join them until Kenya.
Of course, as time passed, with Ebola and various other reasons, I began to think that perhaps not going to Ethiopia had actually been a good decision for our Korean team in many ways.
But still,
as I watched the videos from our team,
I found myself thinking,
Wow. I wonder.
It was not only about the Ethiopian coffee we would have been drinking in that country.
I wondered how the God I had experienced with my eyes and my whole body, beginning in Kenya, had been working on the land of Ethiopia.
That was what I felt sad about missing.
We’ll go soon.
That was the thought I kept having.
The next country.
Now, we would be together.