[First published on 9/19/2016. To view the original newsletter, click here.]
Hi family and friends!
Greetings from Zambia! I can’t believe I’ve reached Africa without sending a single newsletter on Europe… FAIL
Well, I greatly enjoyed my time in Europe and am excited to finally share about my experiences with everyone. Our European journey actually started with a twist, as my team was placed in Estonia instead of our original country of Latvia where the rest of my squad remained.
I honestly didn’t know much about Estonia before this trip, but it turned out to be one of my favorites of the Race. Here’s what made my May in Estonia so memorable!
MINISTRY
Our month in Estonia was centered around a small city called Viljandi, where our team was able to serve in a variety of ways. Most of our time was spent living and working at a retreat camp facility called Camp Nuutsaku (nuutsaku.ee), located about 15 minutes from the city. The camp was such a beautiful and peaceful place to be and offered so many amazing amenities — BBQ grills, campfire pit, sauna house and more. And the main building where we stayed was right next to a gorgeous lake and was spectacular both inside and out, especially all of the fun recreation activities available to us. Our team was definitely lucky to have stayed here with our host family!
But our time at Camp Nuutsaku wasn’t all fun and games, as we were tasked with lots of manual labor work. Our biggest ministry project was creating a prayer walk trail around the camp property, which involved cutting down a lot of trees and laying down dirt for the path. It took almost 2 weeks to complete, but the prayer walk turned out so well and our team felt so privileged to have aided in creating this new ministry opportunity for the camp! We also helped with chopping firewood (my first time using a chainsaw and axe!) for the winter and digging holes for the foundation of a new patio around the main building!
During our last week in Estonia, our team moved out of Camp Nuutsaku and into Viljandi Baptist Church (vbk.ee) in town. We were hosted by their associate pastor and his family, and served the church by helping to prepare for a large women’s conference that they were hosting that weekend. Our ministry involved a lot of cleaning of the church inside and out — vacuuming the sanctuary, mowing the lawn and cutting weeds and washing the windows. While our time with the church was short, we enjoyed serving them in this way!
And another ministry that our team helped out with was youth outreach, which we were able to do throughout the month. During the first week, we visited a high school in another town and helped promote a Christian English Camp by leading a few games with the students during the assemblies. Later that day, we continued to promote the event by sharing a message at a local church. The following week, we participated in a youth rally at Viljandi Baptist Church by leading some more games and interacting with the students afterwards. And at the end of the month, our team was invited to an elementary school in Viljandi and asked to share about ourselves in their English classes. In the midst of all the manual labor ministry we did, it was such a treat to have worked with the local students and people thru these outreach opportunities!
If you’re interested in reading and seeing more pictures of our ministry work, check out my blog post below!
http://sangpark.theworldrace.org/post/month-5-estonia-ministry-in-viljandi
[Camp Nuutsaku — main building, lake, living space and games with our host family!]
[Camp Ministry — cutting trees, prayer walk, chopping firewood and the patio!]
[Church Ministry — vacuuming, cutting weeds, washing windows and the church!]
[Youth Ministry — games at the high school, message at a local church, youth rally at Viljandi Baptist Church and sharing at the elementary school!]
ADVENTURE DAYS
Having moved to a different continent, our team was excited to explore our new surroundings and experience what life is like in Europe and in Estonia. The country is small with only 1.3 million people total, and you can drive from one end to the other in only four hours. So for our Adventure Days this month, we decided to check out three of Estonia’s largest cities to learn more about its rich history and culture — and each city offered something different.
First we started with Viljandi, the city closest to our ministry site, where we saw the ruins of an old fortress and enjoyed the simple beauties of this small city. Then the following weekend, we visited Tartu (the country’s second largest city) which is known as a college town because it is home to the national university. Not only did we explore the campus, but we also checked out a science centre and the city’s old town square area to enjoy some delicious Estonian food. And for our last Adventure Day, we took a day trip to the capital city of Tallinn and spent most of our time taking in all of the sights of its popular Old Town area. There was so much to see — churches, museums, city walls and cobblestone streets — that we couldn’t see it all in a day. But everyone we met told us that when you’re in Estonia, you have to check out Old Town Tallinn — and it surely didn’t disappoint. So make sure to visit as well if you ever do come to Estonia!
And as I said before, I didn’t know much about Estonia before my trip but I’m so glad that my Race brought me there. I love their way of life and developed great appreciation for their storied history and culture thru my Adventure Days. There are many pictures and details to share about my visits so I encourage you to learn more about them thru my blog post!
http://sangpark.theworldrace.org/post/month-5-estonia-adventure-days
[Exploring Viljandi — old fortress ruins, Lake Viljandi, city center and cobblestone roads!]
[Exploring Tartu — Science Centre, Old Town Square, river walk and university!]
[Exploring Tallinn — Old Town, Town Hall Square, stone walls and view from Toompea!]
LDW IN RIGA (LATVIA)
Even though our team was in Estonia for the month, we were still able to experience a little bit of Latvia at the end as our entire squad gathered together for Leadership Development Weekend (LDW). We all met in the capital city of Riga for three days, but only had a few hours to explore the city because of our schedule. While logistically similar to a debrief, LDW is less about relaxing but is packed with meetings and breakout sessions on leadership each day. Different squadmates led each session and I decided to facilitate one as well! But LDW wasn’t all work with no play, as we had plenty of opportunities to goof around and play games together!
One other thing at LDW — we had another team change! While I was saddened that “Manistry” had come to an end, I was excited for the opportunity to be on a team with different people, particularly the four of whom I hadn’t been on a team before. So I enjoyed developing friendships with my new teammates and furthering prior relationships as well, and I look forward to sharing about our time in Europe together in future updates!
And for more on our LDW experience, read my blog!
http://sangpark.theworldrace.org/post/month-5-latvia-ldw-in-riga
[Exploring Riga — river walk, Freedom Monument, Old Town and Town Hall Square!]
[LDW — meetings outside and inside the church, breakout sessions and fun and games!]
[And meet the team I spent the rest of Europe with — Team Third!
From left to right: Kristen, Loren, Hilary, Denise, Sang, Danielle and Chris]
A FEW THOUGHTS AND PRAYER REQUESTS
Estonia and Camp Nuutsaku were exactly what I needed after Indonesia. Coming off of a hard month physically, the peace and quiet that the camp had to offer were the perfect remedies for my healing body. Instead of always being on the go, it was such a blessing to have a stable place to stay for me to rest and recover. It’s funny how God always knows best about what we need — even if that means a route change on my Race!
And I loved the manual labor that we did at Camp Nuutsaku, and I truly believe all that physical work helped in my recovery — as strange as that might sound. It was so rewarding to be a part of creating that prayer walk for the camp, knowing that so many people will benefit from it and connect with God thru it. And all of the free time we had after our long workdays was another blessing — I played so much basketball and didn’t realize how big of a role it played in my life…and how much I missed it after four months on the Race!
But being in Estonia reminded me so much of home…and of all of the comforts that came with it. Yes, it was great having a warm bed with hot running water and also a full kitchen. And yes, to have a daily routine again was nice for me. But oftentimes I’d feel guilty about all of the good things I had while in Estonia because that’s not what I thought I signed up for, particularly for the Race… And that’s when the Holy Spirit would remind me that “Every good and perfect gift is from above” (James 1:17) and that “God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28) Because missions isn’t this exotic adventure that we sometimes create in our heads… but it’s simply living real life everyday no matter what our environment looks like, even if that means living on a posh retreat camp facility and playing basketball five days a week 🙂
Now on to some prayer requests!
1. Pray for focus. As I head into my last two months of the Race, there will be the natural tendency to look ahead and lose sight of the task at hand. I think I’ve actually done a good job of staying focused throughout the year and believe I can continue that for this last stretch. But I also know that I am human and can become susceptible to shifting my attention and energies elsewhere. But I don’t want that for my team or my next ministry hosts so please pray that my focus will continue to remain strong as I finish out my Race.
2. Pray for surrender. In these last two months, I also desire to surrender more of myself and give everything I can to God, my team and my ministries. Maybe it’s because of the way I’m wired and how I tend to pace myself with things, but I want to give all that I can in this final leg without any distractions… which brings me to my newsletters. Honestly, it has been a real struggle trying to send my updates on a timely basis. I’ve tried so hard to keep up, but just haven’t been able to with all the time that the Race requires — and I hate that.
I hate that I haven’t been able to fully and fairly share everything with you all at home who have been supporting and praying for me in so many ways. But I also hate that oftentimes my fixation to work on my newsletters has taken me away from my team and ministries as well. So with that being said, I kindly ask for your patience in these last two months as I really dig in to staying present. Please pray that by surrendering this to the Lord, He will reveal Himself more mightily to me and that thru it, I will have even greater stories and testimonies of God’s glory to share with you all…in my next newsletter of course 🙂
So thank you again for your support, prayers and patience. While my updates may be sparse, you can still go to my blog page at http://sangpark.theworldrace.org and read posts from my fellow squad and teammates if you’re ever interested in what I might be doing!
Until next time…from who knows when and where!
By His Love,
Sang Park
