DTS Update 7!

Hellooooooooooooo happy December!!!! I pray you are all doing well!! I’m doing great! Doing and learning lots still :) Buuuuuuut I did want to update you all on the second part of my program here - outreach!!!!!

The DTS (Discipleship Training School) that I am part of runs in two phases. The first part is training - lectures, local service, etc. on base in Townsville. This is what I’m in right now! The second part is outreach - being sent out!! Our outreach will be split up into two parts as well. The first outreach will be here in Townsville, beginning in about two weeks. We will be working at a Christmas event called Stable. This is an interactive experience welcoming around 30,000 people in just three or four days each year. I am not sure what exactly we will be doing specifically with this yet, but that is mainly what our first outreach will be (the global health team at least)!! The second outreach begins mid-January (we will have a few weeks of lectures in between) until mid-March. For this outreach, my global health team is 95% confirmed to be headed to Papua New Guinea!! I’m so excited!! We will be spending part of this on YWAM’s medical ship (definitely check out more of what the medical ship does in this video :)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8E-tEN5e5s) and part on the ground in various places in PNG! Just wanted to update you guys on what’s ahead!! 

Anywayyyy this past week has been so good!! I have so many highlights to share!!

Highlights 🥳🥳🥳

• I got to have a Thanksgiving meal at the church I’ve been going to! It was so fun for us to be able to still celebrate and eat all the amazing food! We also brought some of our non-American friends to experience their first Thanksgiving!

• A friend and I made a dessert to bring to the Thanksgiving meal, and I really enjoyed baking something for the first time in ages 🤣

• Small group time this past week was sooo good!! Just great conversations and friendships!

• I learned a song in Motu (one of PNG’s languages)!!

• We had an extra session in our global health elective to learn about the clinics they run in PNG, specifically the child immunizations clinic, and practiced determining which vaccines different patients would receive!

• Ariah, the little girl I get to be with everyday, turned two this week!!! She had a really fun Bluey themed birthday party!! It’s been so sweet to be able to play with her and the other kids on campus! 

• We went out again on Saturday night to just share love and hope with people - it was so amazing!!! So many great, life changing conversations! God was doing something so special that night!!

• Another local pastor who we have connected with invited us to his church this weekend! He organized rides for us to get there and back and welcomed us for pizza after the service. I’m so grateful for how much he and his church took care of us that morning!

• We have been doing some events to help prepare for Stable and spread the word in the community. We went to an event this past Sunday that was just a big community event to come and sing carols and just get excited for Christmas. We brought big head costumes and were able to reach lots of people! 

• Christmas time has already been so fun here! There are sooooo many events, markets, festivals, etc. that have already happened! 

• THE JULY DTS CAME BACK FROM THEIR OUTREACH!!!! Another cohort of people on DTS began in July, so those groups came back this past weekend for about two weeks of debrief!! It’s been so fun to meet them, hear their stories, and just connect with more people and have more people on campus! Hearing their stories has really gotten me excited for our outreach coming up!

• We made Christmas cookies!!!!

• We had a roving party on campus!! All the families and staff here opened up their homes for us to come and visit and see their Christmas decorations! 

• I learned (well kinda) to play the cajon!! I’m not very good yet, but I’m going to keep practicing 🫡. As I was learning (I had been doing it for not even 20 minutes yet), I was invited to help with a worship set the next morning. I tried my best and probably didn’t sound very good, but I did it!! Something completely new for me!!!!

• Our speaker and lectures this week have been absolute fire 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (as they’ve all been though hahaha)

• One of my friends set up an advent for our cohort!! So sweet!

• We had another birthday in our cohort this week!! Good times and yummy cake 😋

Have the most amazing week!! Enjoy the snow and coziness - we are melting out here 🤣! 

All the best,

Annika 

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” 

1 John 3:1