Day 6 @ Shalu

A Much Needed Break!





Having completed our high school camp yesterday, today was the first time we were able to take a breather. The team slept in this morning and had a wonderful breakfast. After we cleaned up our living quarter, we took the bus to a department store nearby. It was great to be able to just relax and walk around. Even though we didn't do much, but just to be able to enjoy some food and drink makes a huge difference.





We have been cooking and eating at the church every day, so today was the first time we were able to eat out for dinner. There were so many choices at the food court and we ended up choosing Teppanyaki (鐵板燒). The price was very reasonable and it was excellent! We all loved it.



After dinner, we quickly took the bus ride back to the church because we still had one more session of camp tonight. It hasn't been the easiest week for us since we are so tired running two camps. On top of that, the students at night don't really respond well. Perhaps they are just too shy. Hopefully we were able to make a difference in their lives this past week.

Now that camps are over, we just have one more Sunday service to serve then we will depart from Shalu.

Day 5 @ Shalu

Today was the last day of the English camp at Shalu High School. We have been debating whether we should opening share the gospel on the last day. It is a very difficult situation because the reason why we were able to get into the school was because we were teaching English. On the other, our mission here is to somehow share the love of God with the students we teach.

While we were doing the morning devotion, we happened to be reading a passage in Acts where Paul was evangelizing in Athens. Acts 18:9-10 says, "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: 'Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in the city.'" This passage was a great encouragement to the team.

Knowing that we couldn't opening preach, Charley came up with an idea to open a workshop discussing God and spirits (神鬼論). It was a huge hit. Out of the 4 workshops we opened this afternoon, that class was the most popular. Not only that, Charley also gave a great testimony at the end of the large group session and many expressed interest to be contacted by the church if there are other church events in the future. The bonus was that Charley was able to lead a student to pray the salvation prayer after the camp was over. It was simply awesome!!!



It was sad to say good-bye to this group of students. I think this is the toughest part of short term mission. You know it is not possible for us to stay with them forever, yet after a week of spending time together, you already started developing relationships with the students. To continue on with the friendships, we started a Facebook group page so the students can join and continue to communicate with us.

Since we don't have camp tomorrow afternoon, we can finally sleep in a little in the morning and perhaps go out and walk around for a little bit. We still have our night time junior high camp. Two more days then we will conclude our mission trip.

Please continue to pray for us as we close it up and travel to our separate destination.

Day 4 @ Shalu

The rain finally stopped!!!

Today was our 4th day at Shalu High School and we are getting to know the students so much more. When we woke up the sky cleared up and we were so glad that we get to do some outdoor activities. We took the opportunity to reschedule our class sessions and was able to get out to play basketball. The girls enjoyed a great time dancing and also chatting. It was really good because we got to talk to the kids outside of the classroom setting.







Tonight we had another session of camp at the church. After three days with the kids, we are starting to see the kids smile more and enjoy talking to the teachers more. However, just when we are starting to develop better relationships with the kids, we are two days away from finishing the night camp.

Day 3 @ Shalu

Raining like cats and dogs....

When is the rain going to stop? Since we started the mission trip, it has been raining almost every single day. We thought by coming to Taichun weather should be much better. However, that is not the case. Since arriving on Sunday, the rain hasn't stopped at all and today was the same.



Heavy rain fell down upon us today but our schedule remained the same. We arrived at the high school at 1pm to host our English camp. This is the third day we are meeting with the students there and the students are getting to know the teachers a lot better. We had our large group together and we taught them a fun song - London Bridge is Falling Down. Even though it is more like a children's song, but the high schoolers all had a good time playing it.

In our workshop today, Syd and I hosted a game session. We played a game called "Telephone' where we divided students into groups and we give the first person of each group a simple phrase. Then the students would pass down the phrases and see if the last person of the group can get it right. To my surprise, they all did really well. We then played another game sort of like Taboo where we put up a word and the team has to describe the English word to their teammate who couldn't see the word. It was really fun and the students all had fun.

Once we got back to the church, we went to 7-Eleven for the first time since coming to Shalu. It was a much needed break because the night session starts at 7pm and we only have about two hours or so to rest, eat, and prepare.







Tonight we had about 26 kids joining us at the night camp. Just when we thought the kids here don't respond well, they definitely warmed up to us the second night. Teachers were interacting with the kids and we had a great 2nd session. We even did a craft with them where they created beautiful cross and fish drawing. Syd also made a beautiful one which many were quite impressed and I am the proud husband of this very artistic woman.

Tomorrow we are talking about Christmas at the camp and on Friday we will be talking about Easter. Since we are not really supposed to bring too much religion into the campus, please pray for us and allow God to give us a entry point to bring the gospel into this campus.

Day 2 @ Shalu

Long...... Actually..... Really Long Day....

Today was an extremely long day. we woke up early and left the church around 9:20am to attend an engagement ceremony. Pastor Chen from Shalu Afar was officiating it; therefore, he invited us to go and dedicate a song to the newly engaged. There has been a strong rain throughout yesterday and today. So strong that it was really hard to get in and out.



After the ceremony, we were invited to the banquet where we had really good food. Unfortunately, due to limited of time we had to rush it. By the time we got to the high school we were late by 5 minutes.



We had another wonderful class time with the students at the high school. Sydney and I taught a workshop where we taught the students about Fast Food in America. We taught them names of different restaurants, food items, and even taught them about double double, 3x3, 4x4, and also animal style. They really enjoyed the pretend game where one student pretend to be customer and another pretend to be cashier.



The main reason why we had a long day was because we started the evening camp at the church. So after running around outside for almost the whole day, we still had to lead a group of twenty some junior high kids. This group of kids are extremely shy and not very responsive when we taught them English. The only time they responded well was when we were doing group games.

Please continue to pray for us because it sure looks like we will be having a VERY long week here in Shalu.

Day 1 @ Shalu

New Beginning...



After a week of mission, most of the team members are physically and emotionally drained. We arrived in Shalu late afternoon yesterday. Originally we had planned to attend the SOP event in Taichun. However, due to the long travel from Mei-Nong to Shalu, we had to cancel the trip and stayed at home to rest.





We are staying at EFC Shalu Afar this week. The church here has a great facility where they can host up to 40 some missionaries. It is a stopping point for many mission teams. Because of it, there are also lots of policies that we have to follow. One of which is that we have to cook for ourselves. Being a team lead, Andrea quickly stepped up the plate and took on the task of being our cook. She did such a wonderful job today and we were all full from the delicious dishes.









During this week we have two different camps that we are running. First we are teaching a English camp at a local high school in the afternoon. There are about 110 to 140 high school students attending this camp. While some were forced by school to take this camp, some volunteered and are eagerly await for the camp to start.





Each day we would be running a 3-hour camp at the school. First day went well for us. We were able to have a large group with all the students first, then after the first session, we divide the students into three different classes. All the teachers did a great job to capture the attention of the students.

Starting tomorrow we will be running an English workshop at the church during the night time. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare for another busy week of mission.

Day 7 @ Sweet Spring

It's time to say good-bye...

It is hard to imagine that we have already been in Ping Tung for a week. As much as we don't want to, we had to travel to our next mission destination. So how much relationship can you build in one week? The answer is - very much. We have been seeing the same group of students for seven straight days. We know who's good and who's playful. We know quite a bit of each student's personality. The students come to camp every day looking forward to seeing the teachers. Suddenly, we had to face the cruel reality of us leaving them behind.



I went to bed late last night trying to finish up all the certificate of completion for all the students. As I was typing up each name, I could clearly see each of their faces. This morning we were able to pass them out. The kids all got to church early today because they knew they were going to perform at the Sunday service. I started to tear even as they were rehearsing for the program. They are so precious!



Pastor Gabe preached a sermon this morning and I translated from English to Chinese for the first time in a long time. The last time I did it was back in SOP. At first, I was quite nervous but then I realized a very interesting thing. Since P.Gabe does not understand Chinese, he doesn't really know if I am translating correctly or not. Majority of the people listening do not understanding English, therefore, they also do not know if I am translating correctly or not. That realization totally took away my nerves. I still did my best to translate as accurate as possible of course.

The team also performed "Everything" for the second time. Judy stepped in for Diane and did a sensational job as the main character. We were so proud of the team. Once we upload the video, we will post it for you to see.



Right after the service we had to rush to the train station to catch a train. We hugged many kids and tears were flowing everywhere. It was very sad to have to say good-bye. We are going to miss all the kids so very much!

Up next, Shalu, Taichun.

Day 6 @ Sweet Spring

Today was the last day of classes, we definitely had mixed emotions. On one hand we have finally arrived at the end of our week 1, on the other hand we knew this might be the last day that we'll see some of the kids (Not all the kids will come to church on Sunday). It was a half day session and thanks to pastor and pastor's wife, they actually took care of the whole program and all we had to do was to take pictures with the kids.



This past week was a rather memorable week. Getting to know all these kids was a wonderful experience. One of the biggest lessons that we've learned this week was that - even though most of the kids here are not coming from wealthy families, yet they are so joyful! They might never have what the kids in America have, but they might have what the kids in America do not have. No matter how tough and challenging this past week might have been for the team, it was a blessing to be in the life of all these wonderful kids....... for just one week of their lives.



In the afternoon the youth group of the church had a bike ride and a BBQ at a church member's house. Since we had no plans for the afternoon, we were invited to go with them. It has been a long while since both Syd and I had Taiwanese BBQ so it was a neat experience.

When we were given the choice to ride the bike or not, both Syd and I immediately chose NOT RIDING. We were then assigned to ride in a comfortable car with cool A/C. During one of the pit stop, one of our team members got too tired from riding the bike, then being a supportive pastor, I jumped in and offered to take over the bike. When I told Syd about my decision to ride the bike, there was a look on Syd's face which translated into, "Are you out of your mind?" The car took off without me and I joined the 20-people bike team and started riding.



Unfortunately the section that I was riding was the uphill part. Five minutes into the ride I was already tired. But how could I possibly have given up at that point? How embarrassing would it be? I convinced myself that I simply had to tough it out. Well, that didn't last long. I rode for maybe 12 minutes before I had to pull over and ask for someone else to take over. So there I was, took over for someone else thinking I was there to help. Yet, I quickly needed someone else to help me.



Here comes the even more embarrassing part. The car which Syd and I were riding in took off first and they stopped at a 7-Eleven to get some drinks for me. At that time Syd called me on the cell phone to see how I was doing. Well, I was doing just fine because by the time she called, I was already back riding in another car. So what is the moral of the story? Well, once you turn 30, don't try to do the things you used to do when you were 18.



Once arriving at the destination, we started a wonderful BBQ. There were a lot of food and also a lot of flies. While some people were cooking, others were busy keeping the flies away. And YES, the picture above shows all the flies that got stuck on the sticky paper. Imagine another three full sheets of flies. That was how gross it was.



It was definitely good to spend some time with the host church before we take off tomorrow. Can't believe the week had come to an end.

Day 5 @ Sweet Spring - Part III

"Everything" - by 2010 EFCOC Taiwan Mission Team (Sweet Spring)

Day 5 @ Sweet Spring - Part II

"Everything" was a total success!!

Prior to our mission trip, the team practiced a drama called "Everything", it is the modified version of the drama "The Redeemer." Since we never got to practice on a real stage before we left the U.S., I was a bit scared about how it would turn out. After talking about it, we decided that we wanted to do it for the kids here on Friday.



When we had our rehearsal last night, all the actors and actresses changed into their customs and it was so good and so touching. This morning, the team put on this wonderful drama for all the kids at camp. Wow!!! the team performed so well and the kids were amazed by it.



After the drama I had the privilege of explaining the drama and did an alter call. Most of the kids made the decision to follow Jesus and prayed the salvation prayer. It was such a touching moment. Praise God for giving all the team members so much talents to put on such a great performance. Praise God for loving all the kids so much and for saving them!

The pastor here was so impressed that he requested the team to perform this drama again at the Sunday Service. On Sunday, our Mei-Nong team will be performing the same drama at the church that they are serving in. I'm sure they will also have a great success!

Day 5 @ Sweet Spring - Part I

Water Balloon Fight!



Since we are the second team serving this three-week long English camp, we had some expectation to live up to. When we got here on Monday, kids started asking us if we were going to have a water balloon fight on the last day of the week which is Friday. Apparently the last team held a water balloon fight on their last day teaching and the kids loved it.

Didn't want to let the kids down, we went out to the store and purchased over 1000 water balloons. We started filling them when we woke up this morning and also filled some more during lunch and nap time. We told all the kids to bring change of cloths yesterday and sure enough, they all came prepared.





By 2pm, the kids were ready for a battle. We first played two organized game. However, due to the excitement, it was quite difficult to control the kids and have them follow directions. I was yelling once again and almost lost my temper. Finally all the other teachers helped me to calm the kids down a bit, special thanks to Josh for his thunder roar!



After two games, we did the unthinkable - FREE PLAY! all the kids started to grab water balloons and they were all targeting the teachers. For some reason, kids especially want to aim for pastors and pastor's wife. Some say it's because the kids love us, I sure hope that is the case, otherwise we probably have to re-evaluate our ministry. We were completely soaked and water just kept on coming. Once we ran out of water balloons, kids started to grab any type of container and fill them with water. Once again, water just kept on coming behind my back.



Thank God that over here in Kao-Shu, Ping Tung, it always rains around 3:30pm during the summer time. It hasn't failed since we arrived. When the rain started and the thunder started, we had to end our fun and escort the kids indoor for change of cloth.

We all had a blast!

Day 4 @ Sweet Spring

Yes! Finally had a hot shower! =)

Last night after finished blogging, I went to take a shower. As I turned the switch towards the supposedly hot side, I waited eagerly. Yes! I finally had my first hot shower since arriving. It felt sooooooo good!

Today was another crazy day shouting and yelling. My voice is barely holding up but thanks to Pi-Pa-Kao (琵琶膏), I got through the day. Our class (3rd-5th graders) had a review on how to order from fast food restaurant. We also learned about sports terms such as baseball, basketball, tennis, pass, defense, and so on. It was a lot of fun. Since tuesday I've come to a conclusion that there are students in our class that really want to learn, and at the same time, there are those who just don't want to learn anything at all. It is quite difficult trying to reach everyone while they are all screaming and yelling in Chinese.



It's quite funny because when they call Syd, they all call her "Pastor's wife" (師母), yet for some odd reason, they all call me by different names. During these past few days, I have responded to "pastor 牧師, teacher 老師, little baby 小北鼻 (because I look like I have a baby in my tummy), chubby big brother 胖哥哥, and Wii (yes, Wii as in Nintendo Wii).



During our afternoon sessions, Syd and I teach a music elective class together, Syd teaches piano and I have been teaching drums and guitar. For Syd to teach piano is not out of the ordinary since she used to give piano lessons. But I am not really qualified to teach. But since this church is in such a remote country side, children and youth here are really in need of help and resources. I am just glad I can teach them some basic stuff and hopefully they can practice and build on top of that.





The most chaotic time today came when we had our craft session. Today's lesson was to make balloon animals. I don't know what I was thinking, but I only brought one pump with me and we had over 40 students in class. While Syd and one of our teacher Sabrina busy pumping balloon, I was trying my best in teaching them how to create dogs. I don't even remember how many dogs I made today. After the class, I started making hats and angel's wings. Thanks to all the other teachers for stepping in to help. It was lots of fun both for the teachers and for the students.

After a long day of teaching, Syd and I were preparing for tomorrow and suddenly we realized it is already 7am in the U.S., we quickly called Janice and got Zoya in front of the computer. It was so good to see her on the screen and talk to her over Skype. We miss her so much! If we miss Zoya this much, I can't imagine what P. Gabe is going through missing Andrew and Kiera.

One more full day of teaching tomorrow, then we'll just have a half day session on Saturday. We are also going to have a water balloon fight tomorrow. Students have already started talking about aiming for teachers. Should be an interesting day.

Please pray for one of our members, Judy, as she is feeling a bit under the weather.

And yes, I finally have pictures to post because we just uploaded the pictures from Syd's camera to the laptop.

Day 3 @ Sweet Spring

There is a love and hate relationship going on here...

It has been quite an experience to be here in Ping Tung. The children here are... what's the word.... "straight forward." Most of the students are very outgoing and outspoken. If they want something, they'll let you know. They are willing to try new things as long as they are interested. If they are not interested, they will not do anything. They like to argue and yet they play together. They like to shout and scream which make me appreciate our OC kids so much more. They also like to hit and slap people.

So what can I say about our relationship with them. We love them soooooo much! They are super adorable! But at the same time, it does require extra energy just to teach through 8 hour days.

Classes went well overall today. We had a conversational class today where we taught the students how to order food from fast food places. We had some students pretend to be cashiers and some to be customers, we even used our black board to make a menu with lots of items. Students had to use English phrases we taught them to welcome customers and to order food. It was a neat experiment and the kids loved it!

Praise God that we had dinner early today so we finished our nightly meeting early as well. It is now time to take a shower...... supposedly they fixed the cold water issue.... but we'll see..... it's either 4 in a row or I will be taking my first hot shower here in Ping Tung.

Day 2 @ Sweet Spring

Okay, it's official, 3 cold showers in a row!

That might sound like a bad news, but there is a good news in that I am getting used to it and i was already prepared for it. However, there was a really bad news - I forgot to bring my towel to the bathroom. Since the shower is in an outside building, there wasn't any way I could have called for help. I just had to do what I had to do and dried myself with my own t-shirt.

Day 2 was an interesting day. Our schedule was just as packed as day 1 but seemed like the day went by a lot faster than day 1. For our class we were able to review what we've learned the day before and it was great to see some students really paid attention and took notes. It was also good since we are getting to know the students much better the second day.

One thing I learned during this trip is that I really need to loose some weight. On day one, Syd told me that one of the students referred me as "Pon-Gah-Gah" which the literal translation is "Chubby Older Brother." It wasn't a mean reference but it does tell me that I seemed chubby to him. Well, today during our break times, lots of students were doing hula hoops in the court yard. More than one students asked me to join them and told me that I needed to loose some weight. Wait a minute! Am I really that fat? Kids are so innocent so I believe them when they say I am fat. The most hilarious thing was that one girl told me to loose some weight for Syd.... the exact chinese phrase she said was.... "牧師, 你應該為了師母的幸福來減肥了!"

Mosquito bits are hitting most of us, please pray that we can become invisible to them little creatures.

Day 1 @ Sweet Spring

What a day! I don't think anything could have prepared us for this mission.

I woke up a little bit before 6am because I wanted to beat the crowd to the shower. There are three showers here at the church but with 16 people living on site, there is a need to take turns. I was glad I was the first one up and quickly went into the shower. To my surprise, there was no hot water. What?!? how can it be? If I am the first one up, who used up all the hot water? Well, I really needed a shower and I had no choice, so I took a freezing cold shower anyways.

We started the day with a team prayer meeting, it's been a long time since Syd and I are on mission trips and I must say I miss SOP very much. Auntie Becky and Renita are our team moms for this trip. They woke up early and went out to get breakfast for us. We were told the day was suppose to start at 8:30, yet, there were kids arriving at the church before 8am.

By 8:30am there were about 40 some elementary students sitting at church ready for camp. This is a three week camp and every week they had a different team of teachers. So instead of we welcoming them, they were the ones to welcome us. From that point forward, it was non-stop children's shouting and laughters. During the day we had classes, craft times, activities, we even had a nap time for the kids. The team worked really hard and had to deal with lots of schedule changes, but to be able to serve all these kids are really precious.

Before the night recap meeting, I went to take another shower. When sharing with team members about my cold shower experience, I learned that there was a sign on the wall that teaches us to turn the switch to the RIGHT to get hot water. So that's why I didn't get any hot water in the morning. Isn't direction for hot and cold water an universal thing? So there I went expecting to have a great shower. Well, this time, hot water really ran out. Once again, I was desperately in need of a shower and I had to take yet another cold shower. Two for two, hopefully the streak won't keep up.

Tomorrow is another full day of camp. Hopefully tonight I will be able to get a good night of sleep to recharge. Team members are exhausted so please continue to pray for us!

Arrival

After months of preparation, it is finally time for the mission to begin.

Praise God for being so good and gracious to us in allowing us to attend this mission trip. For a little while, we were afraid that we might have to miss at least part of the mission trip due to dad's surgery. However, just 14 days after the surgery, dad was released from the hospital and is making an incredible recovery. God once again showed us that He is in control and when things looked impossible in the eyes of men, all things are possible in Christ Jesus!

The team arrived in Taiwan on Friday morning. Since then, most of the team have been staying with Elder Biing's family in Fong Yuan. Sydney and I couldn't stay with the team because we had to take care of some family matters in Taichun. Grandpa Leu along with the entire Leu family have been so good to the team and we are truly blessed to be able to stay with them for the weekend.

After a wonderful lunch on Sunday, we left Taichun and took a three hour car ride down to Kao-Hsiung. Our first team was dropped off at Mei-Nong Presbyterian Church (美濃長老教會) where they will serve for the week. The rest of us were dropped off at EFC Sweet Spring (台福甘泉教會) in Ping Tong (屏東高樹) 20 minutes later.

The pastor and the church family here are awesome. They were all waiting for us at the patio when we arrived. Even though it was raining, they still took us out for a wonderful meal with lots of delicious local dishes. We are so thankful because they are so welcoming. Later we found out they have been hosting another mission team for two weeks already. Yet, the way we were treated, I thought we were the first team here in a long time.

On a side note, the power went out during our nightly meeting, suddenly we saw a firefly in the room. It lights up just like a laser pointer. It is such a beautiful creature. The pastor then provided us candles where we finished up our meeting in a rather romantic setting.

It is exciting to be on mission once again. Please keep us in your prayer. Here are some prayer points:

• Weather: It was raining when we arrived and supposedly it rains every afternoon. Pray that we can have good weather during class time so we can do some outdoor activities with the kids.
  
• Health: Please pray for one of team member Linda, she has been coughing so much, please pray for speedy recovery.
  
• Wisdom: We found out that the team that came before us also taught similar curriculums. Please pray that God can give us new materials to teach these kids.
  
• Family: Please continue to pray for my dad as he is still recovering from the surgery. Also pray for Sydney's parents as they are getting ready to go on their mission trips.
  
• Other Teams: Please also pray for our Mei-Nong team, as well as the Stream of Praise team that is touring Asia.
  

2010 Summer Taiwan Mission

代禱信 - 中文版 (Prayer Letter - Mandarin)

代禱信 - 英文版 (Prayer Letter - English)