What do we think 2021 will bring? I am personally looking ahead with cautious optimism. We all hope that the new year is not a repeat of the covid-filled 2020 with its health crisis, economic challenges, racial unrest, and political battles.
DCF continues to do our best to connect with students. The dental school is operating at a limited pace with regards to clinic scheduling. Most didactic classes are held online, and gathering in groups is discouraged. However, this has led to creative ways for DCF leaders to be salt and light in their communities with outside kickball gatherings, front porch community groups, and backyard cookouts.
Our missionary friends in Ecuador, Peru, Honduras, and the Dominican report that things have improved with a greater degree of personal freedom after having literally been locked down for months. Unfortunately the reports coming from Haiti and East Africa continue to be discouraging. Authoritarian governments have used the pandemic to crack down on political dissent.
DCF was founded with a goal of bringing Godly values into the life of the dental school through community, fellowship, and service. Plausible hope for 2021 on the medical front includes better diagnosis, treatment, and hopefully a vaccine to deal with covid.
Sure hope for 2021 includes;
- God’s love (Jn 3:16)
- God’s plan for our lives (Eph 2:10)
- God’s presence during hardship (Jn 16:33)
- God’s gift of all the we need to succeed (James 1:5)
- God’s promise of eternal life (Jn 6:40)
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” Ps 42:5