A very busy week with an even bigger announcement!

Ok, I must get better at this blogging thing. Its been too long since I updated you all on our crazy DTS life.
This week was week 5 of Lecture Phase, and we watched a video series on relationships by Dean Sherman. This would be the third time I have watched them, (11 hours!) and I must say that I learn something new every time I see them. It seems like three times would be a lot, but he is quite funny so that makes it ok.
The students were getting increasingly curious about outreach this week...they love to harass the staff about it, even when they know that we cant tell them anything. So on Wednesday we announced to them that there would be two teams. But instead of telling them where each team would be going and letting them choose, we gave them two random words and asked them to pray about which team they would be on. The words represented the two teams, but they didn't actually mean anything. The students had 2 days to pray about it, and on Friday morning they had to give us their choice. We then separated the votes and announced the teams. There are 15 students, and it ended up being 10 on one team, and 5 on another.
The team with 10 will be led by Lauren and Dahvede, and they will go to the Solomon Islands! And the team with 5 will be led by myself and Hayley, and we are going to Samoa!!!
We are so so excited about how it worked out, the teams are perfect! We will be in the islands for 4 weeks, before returning to New Zealand for a publicity tour of the South Island.
I was always sad when I thought about the possibility of leaving New Zealand without seeing the South Island, but now I am sooo excited because not only do I get to go, but we get to drive all the way from the tip of the North Island to the farthest point of the South Island and see many towns on the way, including Wellington and Christchurch!
The people in the deep South are some of the biggest supporters of Marine Reach, and many people don't know, but there is a ministry of Marine Reach called Farm Link there, that supports the ship ministry by raising cows and sheep and selling them for us! We are going to get to speak at tons of churches along the way, and be able to serve the people in the South who support us in a very practical way. We may even get to help out in some of the rearing and farming in the Southland. It is an awesome opportunity to see all of what Marine Reach does, and also to raise new support and awareness for the ministry and DTS.
We are excited to be able to share what we did in the islands with the people who supported us along the way!
That's all for now, but I will post more information as soon as we have the details finalized!!