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.