Not Forgotten
Page 25
I must also thank many others at the State Department who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes for my freedom, especially assistant secretary Wendy Sherman, ambassador Robert King, ambassador Glyn Davies, Linda McFadyen, Kate Rebholz, and Michael Clausen. Thank you for your hard work and also for caring for my family during my imprisonment. And I want to thank all those at the US consulates in Shenyang and Beijing who helped and cared for my family in China during my detainment.
To the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang: ambassador Karl-Olof Andersson, John Svensson, and Cecilia Anderberg, I thank you for your personal care and for your advocacy during the two years of my detainment. I am eternally grateful for you. May the Lord bless you.
I also want to recognize Washington congressman Rick Larsen, senator Patty Murray, and senator Maria Cantwell, as well as congressman Charles Rangel of New York and former governor of New Mexico and UN ambassador Bill Richardson for advocating for my freedom.
I want to thank Rev. Jesse Jackson and his colleague Grace Ji-Sun Kim for advocating for me, writing eleven letters to the North Korean government, and offering yourself as an envoy to bring me home. May the Lord continue to bless you and use you as an instrument for God’s kingdom.
I owe eternal gratitude to Bobby Lee; John Thomas; Laura Choi and her husband, Isaac Choi; and Kelly Sadler for starting, maintaining, and promoting FreeKenNow.com and the Facebook page for me. Each day, they spent hours updating and sharing new information regarding my imprisonment. Thank you, Bobby, for running a marathon carrying a “Free Ken Now” sign on your back. Thank you for the two-year-long marathon you endured and finished on my behalf.
I want to acknowledge Derek Sciba for spending countless hours helping my sister manage media relations and press releases and for being such an amazing friend to my family. Thank you, Pastor Eugene Cho, for your indispensible advice and support during my imprisonment and beyond.
A heartfelt thank you to Euna Lee for starting the Letters for Kenneth campaign and for being there for me as a sister in Christ even though we had never met. Your compassion and caring letters sustained me throughout my imprisonment. To Lisa Ling, I thank you for your care and help. I also want to thank all those who have sent me letters through the Letters for Kenneth campaign. Altogether I received more than 450 letters from people around the world whom I had never met. I read your letters dozens of times, and each time I was reminded that I was not forgotten or alone. You stood together with me during my darkest time of my life. Because of your letters and prayers, I was able to stand firm and endure the hardships I faced. Thank you.
I also want to thank David Sugarman for caring for my family and advocating for my release through launching the #BringBaeBack campaign. Even though we had never met, you poured your heart and soul into efforts to bring me home, and I am moved beyond words. I also want to think the 177,512 people who signed my son’s Change.org petition. Every signature reassured me that I was not forgotten.
I must also thank all those who made this book a reality. To Mark Tabb, I appreciate you for helping to make my story come alive for readers. It has been wonderful to know you and your family during the writing process.
To my publisher and editors, Joel Kneedler and Meaghan Porter, I thank you for allowing me to tell the story to the world, and I truly appreciate your genuine heart for believing in the story of God. I thank Judy McDonough and everyone else at W Publishing/Thomas Nelson for putting this book together.
To my agent, Bryan Norman, I thank you for your dedication, your hard work, and for believing my story needed to be told to the world. I thank everyone at Alive Literary Agency.
Finally, I want to thank my sister, Terri, for her unfailing dedication to get me home. She literally spent thousands of hours writing letters, appearing on news channels, traveling to meet government officials, and working with experts on North Korea and community leaders. She became my voice when I could not speak. She never gave up my fight, and she never let anybody forget about my plight. If not for my sister, I might still be in the labor camp—or worse.
I also want to thank my parents for enduring such hardship and for their sustained and deepened faith in the Lord. It was a tremendously difficult time for them, yet they stood firm and never wavered in their hope to bring me home. I thank you.
To my wife, Lydia, I have caused you such heartache, but you always remained strong in your faith and waited for me while seeking God’s strength. To my children— Jonathan, Sophia, and Natalie—I love you all, and thank you for not losing hope and praying for my release. I often looked at your pictures and reminded myself that I have a family to go back to. All of you were a reason for me to endure.
Most of all, thank you, Lord Jesus, for bringing me home and helping me to know you deeper during my imprisonment. Thank you for meeting me in my times of trouble and sustaining me when I could not go on any longer. Thank you for using me as your instrument even in the darkest time of my life. I love you.
NOTES
CHAPTER 15: THE WHOLE WORLD NOW KNOWS
1. Dana Ford, Jethro Mullen, and K. J. Kwon, “‘He’s Not a Spy,’ Says Sister of U.S. Man Sentenced in North Korea,” CNN, May 3, 2013, http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/02/world/asia/north-korea-american-sentenced.
2. Jonathan Bae, “Amnesty for my Father Kenneth Bae, a U.S. Citizen Imprisoned in a North Korean Special Labor Camp,” Change.org, accessed December 4, 2015, https://www.change.org/p/amnesty-for-my-father-kenneth-bae-a-u-s-citizen-imprisoned-in-a-north-korean-special-labor-camp.
3. Dennis Rodman, tweet posted May 7, 2013, by @dennisrodman, https://twitter.com/dennisrodman/status/331826019747127297.
CHAPTER 17: I AM A MISSIONARY
1. Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 286.
2. Ibid., 194.
3. Kyle Idleman, Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2001), 151–52.
CHAPTER 19: MORE DISAPPOINTMENT
1. Michael Martina, “Rodman Back from North Korea, Without Jailed American,” Reuters, September 7, 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-korea-north-rodman-idUSBRE98602B20130907#WziksV6hzh5Tq eae.97.
2. Dennis Rodman, interview by Chris Cuomo, CNN New Day, January 7, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2014/01/07/newday-cuomo-dennis-rodman-kenneth-bae-cutdown.cnn.
3. Stephen Rex Brown, “Dennis Rodman: ‘Sorry, I Was Drunk,’” New York Daily News, January 9, 2014, http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/dennis-rodman-apologizes-kenneth-bae-family-article-1.1570687.
4. Terri Chung, interview by Anderson Cooper, AC360º, January 7, 2014, http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2014/01/08/ac-terri-chung-kenneth-bae-north-korea-rodman.cnn.
5. Shin Se-min, “U.S. President Obama Calls for Detained American Kenneth Bae to Be Released,” Arirang News, February 6, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSyrnIPXe8.
CHAPTER 21: IS THAT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO ME?
1. “Where Jesus Is, ’Tis Heaven,” lyrics by Charles J. Butler (1898), music by James Milton Black (1898), http://www.hymnary.org/media/fetch/127505.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
KENNETH BAE was born in Seoul, Korea, on August 1, 1968. His family immigrated to the United States in 1985. Kenneth went to high school in California and attended the University of Oregon and Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He held multiple jobs in sales and marketing until he moved to China in 2006. After years of managing his cultural-exchange business and missionary work, he transitioned into the travel and tourism industry in 2010, planning trips to North Korea. Kenneth had a passion to introduce Westerners to the untainted beauty of the landscape and people of North Korea and was excited to contribute to their economic developme
nt.
He is a licensed preacher in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), is an ordained Southern Baptist pastor, and has been working with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) since 2005. Kenneth is a husband and a father of three children aged nineteen to twenty-six.
MARK TABB has authored or coauthored more than thirty books, including the number one New York Times bestseller, Mistaken Identity.