End of Outreach

The end? Who'd think something this awesome could come to an end? But alas, all good things must come to an end so that something even better can occur. This last and final week is called re-entry. Discussing how to close off a season as intense and incredible as the past five months.

Some people reading this are probably curious to know what happened during the past six weeks while I was out on outreach, but at the moment I’m not in the place where I can pt all of that into words. Finishing off a DTS does not mean that you’ve now got your entire life together, you do not know what tomorrow will bring or how you will respond to it. Finishing a DTS doesn’t make you a guru on how to live the perfect Christian life. What does finishing a DTS leave you with? Hope and confidence. I know that I can make a difference, I have already made a difference to people. Here looks like a good place to slip in an outreach story.
The first week and a half of outreach in Fiji, a number of the guys were involved in a construction team, fixing things around the village wherever we could help. With very limited supplies and tools, and the chill attitude of the people, we disbanded the team whose focus had been stairs. In the town of Koroko (sp?) there was a lady who’d had a stroke and had been unable to walk and get around for years. Once the physiotherapist on the outreach had worked with her she made a special request for the construction team to be reassembled for one last mission; to provide stairs that this Lady could walk again. For what you do not yet know is that the only form of stairs her house had, was a stump at each door as a step up. With inferior nails and tough as rock wood, we struggled with hand tools to get the stairs us. At the end of the day we put in a mean set of stairs. You know what? By the time we left that village, she’d gone from sitting around all day to walking on her feet with crutches, unassisted by anyone else for the first time in years. This woman’s name is Elanore, and God loves her so very much.

For those who know me you know that I didn’t often shed tears, well I tell you what; I do now and even typing this story out has brought tears to my eyes, and this is only the part of the story that I was involved with, there is much more.

I don’t feel like typing out more details about outreach at the moment but upon request I may do so.
Right now my heart turns to God and those wounds in my heart that he wants to heal that I am trying to keep hidden. Here’s the funny part, I don’t even know exactly what they are. These next four days are going to be amazing and then, well then I’ll be alone. The sixteen four staff and team leader shall all go our separate ways, some will go together for a while, but for the most part we’ll be apart from people we have been in constant connection with for five months straight and I am not looking forward to that. On the other hand, this season of my life is closing, and I move on to the next season knowing that God’s walking alongside me and eagerly waiting to show me something cool, and I’m going to have one response: THAT’S AWSOME!

So, I hope that it’s good for you to hear from me again. PLEASE, continue to let other people know about this blog if you think they’ll like it or not. I want to share what I’ve learned and experienced that I might encourage some of them.

This is matt clarke
Go Big or Go Home!