DTS Update 11!

HIIIIII HAPPY NEW YEAR, HERE WE COME 2026!!! 🎆🎆🎆🎆

I’m so excited for this new year, I pray you all are too!! I missed home over the holidays, but thankful to experience Christmas in such a special way! It’s been such an amazing week!!! On Christmas Eve, the whole campus came together for breakfast and lunch! We opened stockings all together, filled by one another which was the absolute sweetest! We did secret Santa, shared traditions, worshiped, and just had a great time with one another at a festive lunch! On Christmas days, my DTS cohort got together again for breakfast and lunch just with our group - such a good time being with one another and celebrating the holiday! Everyone here really makes the day feel special because so many people are away from their families, so I had a wonderful time!

The past few days have been a little bit of an in-between time. As we transition out of our first outreach, we’ve been doing lots of debriefing and resting. It’s been amazing having some time to just be together as a group and resting even if just for a day or two! 

This week, we are jumping into preparation for our next outreach! It’s so crazy!! We are leaving for PNG on January 19th!!! For now, we are spending lots of time preparing ourselves as a team - lots of cultural training, team building, getting logistics together, praying for His direction and provision, and just planning things like activities and discussions to have in our back pockets. I really love my team and am soooooo excited for what’s ahead for us in PNG!! Please pray for us! 

Highlights!!! 🤙👍🙌✌️

• I had some really amazing food for Christmas!! Friends from Finland, Germany, and Norway all cooked some special things for us to try as well! So fun!

• I think I have been cutting up so many onions that my tear ducts are now immune to them 😂💪

• I introduced some friends to Old Bay and they are now all obsessed.

• Some of the families here are away for Christmas, but many of them have opened their homes to us, so we’ve been able to enjoy this time in the coziness of a home - so kind of them!

• We’ve played so many fun games together and have had some time to just chill and watch movies!

• IT’S RAINING!!!! It’s been raining for a few days straight now which has been so nice! It has felt a little cooler and helped create a little bit of a more cozy Christmas! Downsides though: I can’t hang my laundry to dry, it’s brought the snakes inside, and I haven’t been able to go out and do things or rest outside too much. But I love the rain sounds, so I’ve been enjoying it!

• I went to a Christmas Eve midnight service! 

• The PNG team took some team time together at a nearby community pool which ended up being so fun! We swam in the rain and it was great to get off of campus after a few days just here.

• So many spontaneous worship times - my favorite times!! 

• We went out again Saturday night - hitting the streets with hope and love! Always a great time! 

• The team from Norway is still here! I’ve been having such a good time getting to know them and just doing things with them too! They even put up some special decorations for us all on Christmas! I’m already excited to see them again on the medical ship in February! 

• I’m back with my besties Ariah and Isaiah!! I’ve missed my time with them the past few weeks!! I just love connecting with the kids here! I’ve also really loved playing with Adah and Micah, another sister and brother the same ages as Ariah and Isaiah. They are all the cutest besties!! It’s just the sweetest!! 

• I’m learning more and more PNG songs!! 

• My one-on-one, Rachel, made my friend and I mac and cheese. It was sooooo good! 

• I’ve been able to hear from the other half of my cohort who were on a different outreach this past week. So many cool stories of the Lord changing lives!! 

 Happy New Year!! Please do not hesitate to reach out anytime if you want to chat!! 

“I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.”

1 Corinthians 3:6-7

“And the LORD came and called as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel replied, ‘Speak, your servant is listening.’”

1 Samuel 3:10