The end of this DTS snuck up on me like a forgotten birthday (‘Oh, is this what day it is! Do you mean to say there’s only a few left?’). It was different to be the leader of the school, so involved, but to not go on outreach, and then all of a sudden they’re all back in Ireland and we’re really busy, and then a couple weeks later they’re all gone. Whoosh.

I’m writing this over a week since the last student left, and I miss them. They were a really good group of individuals, and also a good team, and I would be proud if they came back to serve with us here.

They returned from outreach in South Africa to a few days of rest, then a week of debriefing with Emmanuel and Janice Entee, over from Harpenden in England. We culminated in an evening of good food, stories, songs and sharing, followed by an informal graduation ceremony where myself and the DTS staff, Greg and Ariette, prayed for each of the ten students.

Last year, I felt the Lord lay on my heart for this DTS the line from the Lord’s Prayer: Thy kingdom come, as a simple prayer to be said and lived out in word and deed. I shared at the graduation a short word about this not being really the end of DTS but hopefully some sort of a beginning of their active citizenship in this awesome kingdom. I read again from Isaiah 61 (actually from Luke 4 where Jesus reads from Isaiah 61), as a scripture that has often come up during this DTS; we stood with the unknown prophet:

The spirit of the Lord is on me,
for he has anointed me
to bring the good news to the afflicted.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives,
sight to the blind,
to let the opressed go free,
to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord.
(NJV)