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