Week 11: Crowned With His Everlasting Joy

As I reflect on 2019, I am so overwhelmed with God's goodness, and all He's done for me and in me. The lecture phase of my DTS has come to an end and I am so thankful for all the Speakers who poured out their wisdom and passion for God unto us. I have truly learned so much and am so grateful for all the healing and growth God has done within me during these past couple of months. As we move into 2020, the hymn 'Be Thou My Vision' has been my declaration for this year. I have so much hope for this year and what God has in store for me as I keep my gaze transfixed on Him.

These past few weeks have been absolutely incredible as God continues to reveal his unfathomable love more and more to me; leaving me with an even greater hunger and thirst for Him. The lecture topics have been the Father-heart of God, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare, Compassion and Faith, and then closing with God's mission and purpose for us in life. I really enjoyed working through and identifying the Spiritual gifts God has given me, as well as reflecting on my motives for missions versus God's purpose for us. I've realized that some of the motives I've had for going on outreach have been selfish, and that I need to focus on going to serve others, instead of building myself up. I've been really challenged each week and love growing in my faith, diving into His Word, and drawing nearer to my Heavenly Father.

As our lecture phase has come to our end, so has our medical stream meetings. Over the past few weeks we have covered tropical diseases, dentistry and health education and patient assessment. Today we have a mock clinic and I am very excited to apply all these new skills and knowledge.

Having Christmas break here was truly a blessing. Though I did miss my family, I had such a wonderful time spending 3 days off with my new family here. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas eve service that some students organized, followed by yummy desserts and a pajama and movie party. On Christmas day, we had a delicious brunch, a time of worship, then a giant slip and slide and more movies! The next day we went to the beach and enjoyed the sunny weather. To close off our Christmas break, we had a 41 hour worship burn, where people could sign up to fill an hour slot of worship, and you could go and participate in any slots you wanted to. This time was so amazing and I loved worshiping my creator in so many different and unique ways. Some examples were dancing, prophetic art and journaling, hymns, intercession, star gazing, stretching, worshiping in different languages, spoken word. It was exhausting but absolutely incredible.

My medical team leaves for Vanuatu on January the 8th and I am beyond excited. I do not know all the exact details of this 7 week phase, but I very excited to be stretched and to bring God's hope and love to these islands. We will be spending our first 2 weeks, and our last week at the Family Care Center in Port Vila, where we may be helping out at the clinic, building a new birthing center or just filling in where they need it. Next we go to the island of Malekula to stay in a village and hopefully do some clinics there. We will be then moving to another island to do similar things. Prayers for this country, open hearts of the people, team unity and wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you again to everyone who reads these blogs and continues to support me, I love hearing from you guys back home! I'm not sure what the Wifi situation will look like in Vanuatu, but I'll try to give updates when I can.

Blessings,

Kiara