Michelle's life has been defined by hardship and resilience. Raised in North Korea by a single father after her mother's death, she began working in a coal mine after fifth grade, recalling it as a happy time in her life. Her marriage, however, was abusive. After leaving her husband and briefly finding happiness with another man, she was imprisoned for living together unmarried.

Escaping to China in 2003, she endured 16 years of abuse from an alcoholic husband while living as an illegal immigrant. In 2019, she escaped again via the Underground Railroad, one of the last to do so before the 2020 pandemic shut it down, resettling in South Korea.

In 2021, she was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Recovering and facing the challenges of adapting to a new country during the pandemic, she found support through Elim House. Our missionaries initially encountered Michelle in China in 2017. Michelle came under our care again through Elim House in South Korea and has been a regular at our semi-annual retreats and special events.

Recently, Michelle contacted our social worker Cindy in a deeply depressed state. Since her cancer surgery, which removed her stomach, Michelle has struggled with digestion and other health issues. The recent development of a stomach ulcer during her recovery has further diminished her hope. She said she was in deep despair and that she intended to take her own life. She said she felt too weak to come to Elim House on her own so Cindy arranged to bring Michelle to our shelter this past Monday. Her daughter, who moved from China to South Korea to live with Michelle, will go back to China while her mom finds rest and restoration at Elim House.

The name of our shelter, “Elim,” comes from the book of Exodus, where, after the Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt, they came to a place called Elim. By all accounts it was beautiful and full of the water they desperately needed in the parched desert.

“Then they came to Elim, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water,” Exodus 15:27 (ESV).

This has been exactly how Michelle has used our services, as a place to rest and recover from the brutal enslavement she experienced in North Korea and China. We thank God for the relationship that’s been forged over many years in China and in South Korea, by which she feels comfortable to call us when she is at her lowest. Please pray for Michelle's physical and emotional recovery, and for her to find renewed faith.