91Èȱ¬

Good morning.

At the opening of the Winter Games in Pyeongchang athletes from South and North Korea marched under one flag. ÌýBut seeing these young men and women walking and talking together was a cruel reminder of something else:Ìý the tens of thousands of relatives in the North and South who haven’t seen each other since they were separated in the chaos of the Korean War.

For more than six decades, these old men and women have not been allowed to write phone or email each other.Ìý Since 1985 there have been reunions, hosted by the Red Cross, with 100 relatives from each side randomly selected by computer.

I’ve been reading some of their stories. Lee Soon-kyu was 85 when she and her adult son met her husband in 2015. She was three months pregnant and aged 20 when the war separated them.Ìý They’d been married only 6 months. For years, she kept the pair of brown lace-up shoes he wore on their wedding day.

They met in North Korea, under strict surveillance.Ìý ‘When I saw him walking over to my table’ she said, ‘I knew it was him.Ìý I could see his old self.Ìý He looked exactly like my son.’Ìý How do you catch up on 65 missing years?Ìý Her husband had remarried and had five children. He showed Lee a picture of his family, and touched her shoulder, asking for understanding. Ìý

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No one knows when or if there will be another reunion.Ìý Or if the thawing of relations between North and South will continue after the Games.ÌýÌý But time is running out for the old men and women, bereft by war and politics.

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This morning may God comfort the separated, and encourage the peacemakers.ÌýÌý Amen.