While In New Zealand...

Now that the DTS has just finished I am currently on a 4 week gap before the next school training starts which begins july 15th. I am living In Tauranga at the moment and will flying over to the great barrier island on friday. I will be there working and living for the next few weeks to get myself prepared for the next school. God is an amazing God, a week ago I had no plans for what I would be doing these next few weeks and in just a few days God opened lots of doors for me. If you could please just be praying for wisdom and preparation of my heart for the next school. Currently the next school I I'll be the only male on staff besides the school director and I will also be the only senior staff. There are currently 15 students enroled and 4 female staff,two male staff including me and our school director so I am a bit nervous but overall very excited for the new challenges and fun times ahead. Your prayers will be greatly appreciated. Thank you all and bless you all so much.

Cheers!!

Its nice to finally be back in New Zealand after our 2 month outreach to people groups throughout the Fijian islands. What an amazing outreach it was. We sure faced our challenges but what was so amazing was seeing God's grace and guidance of our team while working there.

The first 3 weeks of outreach were spent doing medical outreach to the4 different villages in Theisland of Vanua Levu. We were operating in the dental clinic, primary health care, optical, and we also had a construction team. We were all split up into one of the teams and rotated throughout the outreach. I had the opportunity to work with the construction team for the first week. We mostly built sets of steps and hand railing for those who needed it. We had little to work with so we couldn't really do any large projects but we used what we had and it really was so cool just to see how grateful these people were for just a simple set of stairs leading into there homes. While the construction team was doing all we could the optical and primary healthcare teams would be working in a nearby town hall each having there own stations separating them and the dental team would be working in the dental clinic aboard the ship. For the second part of the medical outreach I was stationed in the dental clinic. I moved patients throughout the clinic, handling the dental communications from the ship, and also assisted in dental education and post operation prescriptions. A few days I was blessed with the opportunity to assist the dentist. It was absolutely incredible; in one day of assisting we saw over 20 patients and did 4 root canals. I got to do over 10 extractions myself. I learned so much during those weeks working the clinic.

Over the 3 week outreach we would pray over and ask for God's provision in treating these people. We all had the opportunity to be trained on the field with those who were specialized in their field. Overall we had 1 optometrist, 1 GP, 6 nurses and 2 dentists. Including the captain and the ships crew there we 48 people living aboard the ship with a maximum living capacity of 50. We would constantly be praying for patients before and after treatment, here are some of the medical stats from our medical outreach:

1988 patients overall

Primary Health Care

760 patients

410 doctor consultations

314 nurse consultations

189 physical therapy and group education

Optical Care

653 patients

152 pairs prescription glasses distributed

344 pairs reading glasses distributed

Dental Care

575 patients

984 teeth removed (extractions)

249 teeth restored (fillings)

95 cleanings

DTS Outreach Completed!

Rabi Island Outreach

Hayley and I had the responsibility of leading a team to the small remote island of Rabi. We made our arrangements during the medical outreach and it was amazing seeing God lay out plans before us. So not before long we were blessed with a church to stay with. When we first arrived we were escorted by the chief of a nearby village called Koroko. He took us to a small village of Tabiang where we met all of the church elders and family we would be living with for the next 3 weeks. It was quite funny because on the first night we all introduced ourselves in the dark due to the generators that power the lights not being on just yet. Little did we know that these people would make such a large impact on us. While being in Rabi we felt a strong calling in reaching out to the special groups of people there. Such as children’s and teenage ministry, and men and women's ministry. It was really great to have nights or days simply dedicated to one focus. For example we would have a day focused on just high school ministry so we would have program scheduled at the high school then after that we would go play volleyball with them and then close out the night with a bible study with them. We would have days focused on medical we gave out free tooth brushes, and of course days focused prayer for the village. Hayley and I felt a strong calling to do something radical and different with this team we weren't sure what the calling was so we prayed and prayed and He led us to student leadership. Allowing the students to be more and more involved in facilitating the day to day programs. So we did, we designated one student a day to plan the day and organize the team. It was amazing seeing the students handle the we deal with daily and seeking us leaders and God on what to do.

The people of Rabi are very friendly; we had the opportunity to do house visits and really get to know the people of the village. We would pray for them and encourage them in their walk with the Lord. We find that most of the believers there are just believers because they will be looked down upon if they are not involved in church. So we stepped out and reached out to them. We also went and prayed for widows and the injured and sick. We saw a lady be healed after seeing her swollen leg that had been hurting her so bad she couldn't walk but after praying for her the next day we saw her back teaching in the classroom and walking around like normal. It was just incredible.

Like most Pacific Islands the Rabi people live off what they have. They fish and eat what they grow. Food such as taro, cassava, and of course coconuts. They also really love their rice and flour which they use to make all of their bread which is cheap and easy for them. We also ate a lot of fish- fish and rice nearly 3 meals a day. It sounds like it may be bad but truthfully I miss the food quite a bit. I would have to say the most special thing was the relationships we gained. We met some amazing people. People that would just sit with us and sing songs all throughout the night. They would always be laughing and always be happy. We got very close with a man named Aretane, he was such a man of God and had been praying for a team like ours to come to his village and encourage him to start up some type of youth ministry but is finding it very hard due to the poor relationships between churches. It was so amazing seeing him come house to house with us and seeing him pray for the of his village. They may have felt that we were the encouragement to them but really they were the encouragement to us with there amazing openhearted spirits and incredible hospitality.