It was outreach time again in Marine Reach Fiji last week (yippee!). We took a large team which included our staff, DTS students, overseas volunteers, a local pastor and his wife, YWAM Suva workers and 6 kids. We flooded the small village of Nausori Highlands with our clinic and ministry teams, and by the end of the week I would doubt there was a single person in the village hadn’t connected with our team in one way or another.

Over the past year we’ve been trying to develop our outreaches to become more ‘holistic’. Recognising the limited impact a short term medical mission can have on the long term health of a community, we have been shifting our emphasis from pulling teeth and giving out tablets to focusing more strongly on health education, mental wellbeing and spiritual health. At every turn we are seeking to love, motivate and challenge people, as well as meeting their current healthcare needs.

Continue reading Highland fling →

Fiji looks a bit different since Tropical Cyclone Winston paid us a visit. It is the worst storm to hit the southern hemisphere since records began, and still more and more stories of destruction and loss are coming out of its wake.

The government set a curfew at 6pm on February the 20^th. We had already secured everything that could fly away, and so we sat down inside with the two DTS speakers who were staying with us. Not long after that the power was cut and the storm began to rage around us. The sound of the 230km/h (145mph) wind was deafening as it banged against the window panes and tore big branches off trees.  Nevertheless we crept into our beds knowing that our cement house would be strong enough to withstand the forces.

Continue reading The Re-cyclone →