UNMERITED
“FOR IT IS BY GRACE we have been saved.” Ephesians 2:8
Three weeks after the fire in the train depot, Shin and I arrived in Hasambong. The harsh weather and my poor physical condition had kept us from crossing the mountains as quickly as Shin planned. We ran out of food after reaching the mountain peak and subsisted on bark and whatever roots we could dig out of the snow.
I wish I could explain to you, beloved daughter, exactly how I felt when my hometown came into view. Nine years had passed since the inspection unit stole my parents and me away from Hasambong. I was only a child then. In those nine years away from home I suffered unspeakably, but I survived.
We were too conspicuous to pass through Hasambong directly, and so we sat on a small hillside overlooking my hometown
