Graduated!!!

Hello everyone!

First off I am so sorry that I haven't written in so long. Since getting back from Turkey things have been extremely hectic and busy! Our first week back was entirely set on debriefing us from our 8 week long outreach. Basically it gave us a chance to sit down as an entire group and discuss what happened while on outreach and anything in particular that we wanted to bring out into the open. A lot of things were brought up and it was extremely helpful to get a chance to openly talk about how we felt during the entire time of outreach.

Our second week we had lectures on 'Purpose and Calling'. We talked about hearing from God about what we should be doing next in our lives after DTS is over and also possibly figuring out a long term goal. It was helpful to listen to their suggestions and also to hear their encouragements and faith in us all. That Thursday we all had to prepare a 10 minute speech on a passion of ours that God has sparked in us during this school. I was surprised at how quickly I was able to pick out what I wanted to talk about. God has really been building up my heart for teenagers/youth throughout this school. I also feel like I am supposed to go back to university and possibly study psychology :) I got a change to speak out loud the love and passion I hold for the youth of today...not to mention I got to hear all of my other classmates talk about what they are passionate about! It was an amazing thing to get to hear even more of my classmates hearts and how God has inspired them :)

At the beginning of our third week it really started to hit us all that we were starting a long list of lasts times. Last work duties, last lectures, last times being together as an entire group...it goes on. Some were excited while others were sad but all in all it was very exciting. Monday and Tuesday we talked about going home. Our leaders gave us all some very good advice about how to process counter culture shock and how transitioning from an environment like DTS back into everyday life can be difficult. Those two days were jam packed with our feelings about going home and practical advice about how to handle all the possible situations we might face once back home.

Wednesday was here...Graduation Day!!!!! We all woke up and headed into the Arran Lounge where the staff were meeting that day. They split us into groups and had all the staff pray for us, and pretty much send us off to where ever we might go after DTS. After that we broke off and started to clean! Even though some of us are staying for a few extra days, we all had to pack our bags and deep clean our rooms...plus some extra spaces around the base to bless the larger community. That took up almost the whole day (this is a very large building haha) and then with 2 hours left all the girls ran upstairs to get clean after cleaning and get ready to graduate!

The dining room was set up beautifully and it went very nicely with all the people dressed up beautifully as well :) Our DTS leader, Lee Howard, made us a delicious dinner with cheesecake for dessert!!! During the actual graduation we gave thanks to the many people who helped out our school throughout the last 5 months and our leaders said some lovely things about our school as parting words. Once that was over the leaders called us up one by one to give us our graduation certificates and we each had to grab the mic. and give a 3 minute testimony about something God has done in our lives during DTS. It was wonderful to hear every ones testimonies (Eileens made me cry haha). I talked about how God has been restoring my faith and trust in Him in many different ways :) It was a great moment to be able to tell a group of people how much God has done for me in my life in such a short amount of time!

After the testimonies they called us up and we were prayed for by the base leader and then we were led in a short time of worship. Then the pictures started haha! We took lots of pictures and let a Chinese paper lantern loose into the skies (funny story...ask me about it later if you want to know more haha), and then we all gathered in our newly cleaned classroom to sit and have time as a school. We talked about our favorite memories and what we could remember from our first day...it was a lot of fun :)

Today we decided we wanted to spend our last day as a group together so our leaders were lovely and drove us all into Glasgow to an art museum. The art was beautiful and I got to see a man play the biggest pipe organ I have ever seen in my life!!! Then we went into the west end of Glasgow and had lunch and went to some local shops. It was a nice relaxing day and I am glad to have gotten the chance to go out with everyone one last time :)

Tomorrow the first of us leaves...Jess is heading back to South Africa at 10am, and Jared and David head out tomorrow evening. Over the next few days people will be leaving slowly and there will be many goodbyes to be said :( I will be leaving Seamill on Monday morning around 7am to catch a train to Glasgow Airport and start my journey to Ireland!!! I will be in Ireland for a total of 8 days and will be flying back home out of Dublin on July 14th :D Personally I am so excited to come home and start this next journey of my life knowing that God is right there with me to help me through :)

Well folks that is all I have for you right now but I will be home in less than 2 weeks now so if there are any questions I will be around to answer them soon haha. I love and miss you all and will try to write again soon depending on how the Internet is in the hostels I stay at haha! God bless!!! Bye :)

-Kaitlyn xoxo