Graduation

So last night we graduated from our DTS. We had the community come to watch us be commissioned. We saw slide shows from both Guam/Saipan and Indonesia teams. The staff got a chance to share their experience with us these past six months. It was a pretty emotional night. After that we went forward and got our cirtificates, a abalone shell, and some chocolate (valentines day!).

Today we went to a thermal spa place where the water is heated by the earth (and the 50 c water smells like eggs). Tonight our outreach team for the last time ate together at Mongolian BBQ which was crazy good. It was special for one last time to meet as a team and share to the group what the time meant. It again, was an emotional time. The leaders gave each of us a necklace with a New Zealand symbol to remember the time by.

Tomorrow night we are going to see a rugby match, sunday i will be going to church and a festivle for immigrants and asylum seekers, monday a Rod stewart concert, tuesday...maybe read and sleep until wednesday night when i fly home!!! I am excited to see everyone and get to share my experience with family and friends.

Overall i must say this has been an amazing experience. Ive had some reall challenging times and had to confront lots of issues in my life that needed working on. I also discovered that God is faithful to help me through whatever it may be i need his help on - no matter what - because his desire is for me to become the person he created me to be and the person who will find complete satusfaction in Him. I also got to see some amazing things happening and meet people from all over the world and see different culture, language, perspectives, and everything that makes us amazingly different.Yet you find that we are all people and we all are meant for eachother and find our foundation in God and thats just amazing to see.

Cheyenne said he doesnt like the world graduation , but rather comissioning because we are beginning a new season. This one is comming to a close and a new one is beginning. But never believe the lie that there isnt better times ahead or that the next season wont be as meaningful. A life persuing the love of God and a love for others is always meaningful. It will be different - different struggles and different joys, but it will be an adventure. And thats what im on, my adventure.

Thanks for staying interested on my journey!! Hopefully i can share more in person someday with you.

Take Care,
Danny

Last Night

So this is my last night of outreach, we leave tomorrow afternoon for Aus, then to NZ. We have a 10 hour layover oh no!!! Anyways i have some extra time before we go spear fishing tonight so i thought id give an update. It was a bit hard comming back to Guam, almost like stepping back in time - like going tback to your old high school or somthing, because we had been here and been plugged in, then we moved on. So it was hard, but we had to remember that there was things to be done here and good things to happen. So we had a big outreach on the beach on Saturday with music and our skits and local churches doing stuff. Yesterday we did a chapel service which was our last ministry time where i got to speak and share my story and things ive been learning. Tonight we celebrated our outreach with a big feast - oh man this was good. And tomorrow is packing and leaving!!

The outreach has been really amazing. We had some time at the beach today just to process what we've seen change in our lives and ways we've seen God move and when i really think about it there are so many things that ive been wrestling and growing through. Its really quite incredible the ways ive been able to see the gradual growth. Then we planted a coconut tree to symbolize all the seeds we've planted here - the ones we might never see grow but we just trust God with. Good things take time.

So now we head back for a week of debrief in NZ. It will be exciting to see the other team again and share stories....but then i will be home exactly two weeks from today!! Nuts.

Anyways, gotta get going. Those sleeping fish dont know whats comming!!