Saturday, March 4

Today’s the long-time planned Leadership Seminar! Throughout our time in Wewak, we have loved doing staff devotionals for almost every business in town and getting to their leaders, so today we had a gathering of about 40 business men and women to do “leadership training.” Funny how an 18 year old with practically no experience in a company could stand up and speak in a room like that, but somehow (definitely by God’s power) it went smoothly! The Q&A was surprisingly interesting, receiving so much more participation and intrigue than expected! After our 4 sessions, we handed out training books, which caused so much excitement in these leaders to now take this training with them to their coworkers! Overall, it was a very successful seminar reaching Christian and non-Christian businesses alike teaching the value of each worker, conflict resolution, living purpose-filled, and developing leadership skills.

Sunday, March 5

Amazing church service at Omega Christian Fellowship, with the exception of the crazy loud volume of the worship & message. Not to mention I had stayed up till 4:30 the night before tending to my parasite-infected Ashley and came with a headache. Buuut overall such a special morning of a community praising the Lord, with an obvious passion in the room 🙂

Monday, March 6

Absolutely awe-inspiring day. Started out on the water in 2 motor boats speeding to the island on the horizon we’ve dreamed of since we got here. This island is a perfect representation of all things adventure, with only a few tribes and market on the other side, endless palm trees & trailblazing through the jungle. All you need is a machete and a camera on this island, and we came well prepared 🙂 My favorite part definitely came with meeting the villagers when Marie, Ethan & I asked some locals to show us the village. We were led to a few huts, where we met a sweet woman who toured us around their tiny community. The church and market is such a far walk, that they all go to a Catholic man’s house a few times a day to pray (woah, dedication!), but seemed like they were missing the excitement of relationship with God, instead relying more on the religious obligations/norms. We found beautiful trees to jump off into the ocean, shells to take home (it’s allowed, I promise they insisted haha), and even a sea cucumber to hold! After snorkeling & taking in the island’s breathtaking beauty, we sped back to a local lady’s house, where I reconnected with Betty! Betty was a Catholic nun who gave me a traditional headband – we really took a special liking to each other. We all got home sunburnt, exhausted, and completely filled with joy! Incredible day!

Tuesday, March 7

Beautiful morning devotional with our favorite friendly bookstore staff! So hard saying goodbye, but I have so many pictures, they’ll be impossible to forget! We sang and danced, prayed & cried a bit before hanging out in the market. The market is an amazing place and I’ll never be tired of walking through maze of people, smiling at and chatting with us. The market is where strangers become friends, generosity is heightened, babies are thrust into your arms, and joy is inevitable! This definitely isn’t the experience for everyone, considering the hot sun, crowds, and potential thieves/danger, but for me – these are my people and this is my place. This afternoon we walked to the radio station to pick up a copy of our hour segment that they’ve been playing the past few weeks and ended up running into the cutest girl from church! Her sweet heart lent itself to an adorable, and quite long, conversation. I would take her home if I could!

Wednesday, March 8

Spent the day in town, running errands, buying gifts, & hanging out in the market. Then we started debrief this afternoon, which is a requirement for all teams before they return to Kona. We spend the evening laughing and reminiscing while recounting each thing we did these past 11 weeks! Craaazy to think this is coming to a close! I would absolutely stay here if I could! I’m definitely still praying for peace about leaving such a beautiful nation that has become a second home.

Friday, March 10

Terribly sad, but joy-filled last day. During our last trip to the market, I met the cutest 7 year old boy Timothy. I felt God’s prompting to buy him ice cream, which little did I know would seal the deal on our friendship 🙂 He followed us around all day, barefoot and with no worry of parents (veryyy typical), carrying our bags and making us laugh SO much. After an afternoon of packing, we were surprised by a flurry of visitors! First, our dentist and singer friends who wrote us another song (yes, tears were shed), then our Chamber of Commerce and national triathlon champion friends who gave us more baskets and encouragement, then our town guide friend Claudia and her family and lastly, Betty and her family who gave us all headbands! WOW! Never have I felt so loved by an entire community, going out of their way to express gratitude and friendship, which is more than mutual!

Saturday, March 11 (44 hour long day)

So many airplanes, so many hours. But incredible reuniting with the 18 people on the Marshall Islands team! Such an overwhelming embrace of 24 YWAMers that, despite being away for 3 months, were still one big family. Any doubt of changing friendships quickly disappeared as we instantly became even closer than we were before outreach, nonstop sharing stories, laughing, and eating all the foods we missed hahaha. Love my Ships DTS.