Our return date has been announced! I will be ending month eleven of the race in Vietnam and will be landing at LAX on November 24th at 11am. YAY!!
I can’t believe that’s just several weeks from now. This year has gone by so fast! I’m sorry that I haven’t updated this blog as often as I’d like, but I’m hoping that the Lord can continue giving me the words to share with everyone. For now, I’m trying my best to stay present and ask the Lord what success looks like for me after the race!
Since the beginning of the race, I’ve had five team changes. Our final team change happened before heading to Thailand. Our new team name is “All In,” which is pretty self-explanatory, right?
Last month, my team was in Phang Nga, Thailand. We partnered with a ministry called Eagle’s Rest, which provides a resting place for Asian pastors and their families who are living in poverty or facing persecution. We served our hosts by helping out with administrative duties in the office, building a new brick wall, pressure-washing and repainting lines for a basketball court where local kids are ministered to while playing, constructing playground equipment, and doing prayer walks. We also worked at a daycare center that teaches Christian principles. We taught, played with, bathed, fed, and cared for two- and three-year-olds.
I entered into month nine of the race hoping to be placed in a ministry that worked directly with woman and children in the Red Light district. I had also hoped that the new team change would bring my “dream team”: people who I already knew and was close to, but instead I was placed with a team of girls I had never teamed with before. I started complaining and asking God why. I had left the previous month with a huge desire to end on a high note with teammates who had similar passions and desires post-race. I didn’t want to have to start the race all over again with this new team.
However, I soon realized the power and purpose of this team when we became vulnerable with each other and walked through some struggles we all were experiencing. The Lord had a plan for each one of us and desired for us to be unified. There was so much oppression and heaviness over Thailand. We had all been feeling drained and tired. Most of us had trouble sleeping, simply being restless, but sometimes because of nightmares. We worshiped and praised God every evening to bring light and rest into our home.
The Lord has been walking me through a season of letting go and surrendering all over again. I started off this year with the lesson of letting go and I’m ending it the same. With home just around the corner, I’ve had a lot of anxiety and fear about what’s next in my life. I have all these plans and desires, but He’s very clearly put me in a season of waiting and learning how to just BE. I’ve been struggling not getting way ahead of myself. Putting my desires and passions on hold has caused so much insecurity to come out, and I’ve honestly been an emotional mess this past month.
It’s been a humbling period of learning how to completely depend on God. He’s doing so much right now. He’s stripping my identity away and renewing the child-like Michelle He created me to be. He’s restoring my views of love by revealing how to give and receive it from others. I’m learning how to rest in his presence and praise him through the struggles. I’m on a path to a deeper, more rooted identity in Christ and I’m willing to push through the pain and become the person God created me to be.
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith builds perseverance. Perseverance must finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” James 1:2-4
Thank you all so much who have supported me with your love, prayer, encouragement, and financially throughout this year. I am honored and humbled by your partnership with me on this journey. I really couldn’t have done it with out you! Let’s finish this strong!
Please click on the “Support Me” link to get me closer to the finish line!
You would be helping me stay more focused and present with ministry by helping me get fully funded 🙂
Blessings,
Euna Michelle Song
