Nine months has already come and gone! I made it home two days ago, and the adjustment has been strange, but it is good to see my family and friends.

I am 99% fundraised with only $184.40 left! With my monthly donors, I will be fully funded by the end of this month! I am so grateful to everyone who has supported me on this mission, and I will soon be writing thank you letters to everyone to supported!

After returning to America on April 28th, we spent one week in Black Mountain, North Carolina for domestic missions doing hurricane relief. My team spent the week working on the house of a 92 year old woman. We repaired floor boards, spackled holes, and began putting down new hardwood flooring! My team hasn't done much construction or physical labor type ministry, but it was really fun to do something new and a little bit challenging. The Black Mountain community was impacted severely by hurricane Helene in 2024. It was amazing to hear testimonies of how God has brought their community together, and to be able to see how far they've come since the destruction. After that week, we went back to Gainesville, Georgia for our final debrief week. This is the same place where we did our training camp.

Debrief was full of rest, quality time, worship, and a few sessions on "re-entry" to the US and the importance of participating in the local church. Each team also had their own meetings to debrief the last nine months. It was a sweet week to spend final moments and quality time with the squad before saying hard goodbyes on May 13th. Thinking about the last nine months feels like a whirlwind and kinda hurts to try to wrap my head around everything that happened. I lived in a community where everyone's sole purpose 24/7 was to serve and glorify God. I saw lives changed, hearts redeemed, and put into practice making my Lord my number one desire. I now get to take everything I learned and be a light and example to my home community. My mission field is where my feet are, and so I now get to serve my family as I once served the unreached. It's not an easy transition, but a necessary one.

Some of you may know already, but my future plans include returning to the Philippines this October to continue serving in a year long internship with the boys orphanage I worked in! The Lord touched and broke my heart for His people in the Philippines and I cannot wait to go back! After only five days of being there back in January, I started to feel the Lord revealing to me the opportunity to return. And with much prayer and wise counsel, I feel so much peace and excitement to continue the work we started. Leaving that country and ministry was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I felt like I had so much love yet to still pour out onto the boys of that home. It was a hard transition into our next ministry while I was grieving the last one. I feel so strongly that my life in the Philippines is not finished.

I will be continuing to fundraise as I go into missions again later this year. If you feel led to continue on supporting me in missions, please reach out! As donations will not be made through my current World Race link any longer!

Thank you for reading my final blog, and for being apart of this journey with me.

God bless,

Shelby Potter