On Saturday, Hyeon Soo Lim will be reunited with his family in Toronto.

And on Sunday, Lim will return to his church family — the congregation of the Light Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, which has wept, prayed and organized vigils for their beloved senior pastor during the 2 ½ years he was detained in North Korea.

The reception for Lim is expected to pack the 2,000-seat facility where Lim used to preach weekly.

Lim’s family is requesting privacy but their reaction to his freedom was “relieved, grateful, excited and anxious to see him home,” according to church spokesperson Richard Ha.

Lim has been able to phone church colleagues, who say he is doing well.

“He is in good spirits,” said Jason Noh, an associate pastor at the Light Presbyterian Church.

In video footage taken Thursday by a Japanese television crew, Lim is on the tarmac of a U.S. military base in Fussa, Japan. His hair is shorn, he looks thinner but appears to be smiling and walking unaided with the Canadian delegation, led by Justin Trudeau’s national security adviser, Daniel Jean.

The delegation reportedly flew to Japan from Pyongyang after North Korea’s Central Court on Wednesday granted Lim “sick bail” on humanitarian grounds.

The delegation did not head straight home. The group jetted to Guam for a layover, according to sources. The return flight path is not known but Lim was expected to be in Toronto by Saturday.

In January 2015, Lim was detained by North Korean authorities while on a charitable mission to the country’s northern region. Later that year, the pastor was convicted of attempting to subvert the authoritarian regime of Kim Jong Un and was sentenced to life in a labour camp.

Trudeau confirmed Lim’s freedom in a statement sent out by email at 1:13 a.m. Thursday. It read, in part: “The Government of Canada was actively engaged on Mr. Lim’s case at all levels. In particular, I want to thank Sweden, our protecting power in North Korea, for assisting us.”

The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang serves as Canada’s protecting power in North Korea because Ottawa does not have an embassy there. Swedish ambassador Torkel Stiernlöf was able to meet with Lim a few times and, with North Korean approval, delivered family letters and prescription medication to him. Lim has high blood pressure that requires medicine.

On July 14, the North Korean state news agency reported that authorities had arranged a meeting between an unnamed Swedish embassy official and Lim “on the basis of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and in the humanitarian spirit.”

It has been reported that Lim was in poor health and had lost a lot of weight.

According to English-language reports citing the Korean Central News Agency article, Lim asked the Swedish diplomat in that July 14 meeting “to convey his request to the Canadian government for making active efforts to settle his issue.”

On Thursday, Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland wrote to thank her Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, on her Twitter account: “Thank you for your tremendous support, @MargotWallstrom. Canadians are so grateful for #Sweden’s long-standing, heartfelt friendship.”

Freeland also said she spoke briefly with her North Korean counterpart about Lim in Manila, Philippines on Sunday, Reuters reported. The two were gathered there for an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting of foreign ministers.

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“We were clear with North Korea that Pastor Lim needed to be released, and we are very, very glad that happened,” Freeland said Friday, according to Reuters.

In Toronto, it’s expected Lim’s wife, Geum, their son James, his wife and 10-month-old daughter will be waiting for him. James, 34, and his family live in the United States. Geum Lim has spent a good deal of time in Seoul during her husband’s detention and imprisonment.

All three Lims are natives of South Korea. The family immigrated to Canada, settling in Toronto, in 1986 when Lim had the opportunity to study at the University of Toronto’s Knox College.

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