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Relying on God has to begin all over again every day as if nothing had yet been done.

C.S. Lewis (via jspark3000)

July 14: Last Day

I don't think we really did much on this day... Mostly just traveling back to the states. It was bittersweet. I was definitely ready to leave but I don't think some of my team mates were. Hmm.. the only really exciting thing of this day was coming back onto U.S. territory and then to PDX. Mostly cause I got the surprise of my life when Daniel was just standing there behind my parents and everyone else's parents to welcome us back. Haha, the story is great and will be retold again and again.

July 13: Day 16

Whole day of adventure in Taiwan! We did so much I kinda don't remember... But I do remember hanging out with our coworkers from Baozhong, who some came from a few hours of bus ride just to come see us. It made me miss that group so much. Some of them stayed up with our team all night (I didn't. Too burnt out) so that showed some dedication on their part too. Night markets! Shopping! Eating! That's all I remember.

July 12: Day 14

Such a sad day for goodbyes. Another week ended and another day of Gospel Meeting. James, Dan, David, Joe and Ken came to say bye to me. After hanging out with them a few times this week, I was reminded of how much I missed them from the year before. They're at the end of their middle school years and moving onto high school, which is a pretty big deal for kids in Taiwan because it's almost like going to college. Moving out, living in a dorm and being on your own.

The guys came late to the Gospel Meeting, so I chilled with them outside until it was over cause otherwise I would feel bad. And also because what was going on inside wasn't all too exciting anyways. I bet it looked really bad but... I don't know, the vibe was weird. Anyways, being with them and introducing them to my team was fun. I hadn't laughed like that in awhile. It reminded me of the time last year when we just hung out until we had to go on the bus. As we were leaving, the goodbyes were bittersweet. Our coworkers were the most outgoing I had ever seen them. Pictures were taken, info was exchanged. I wanted to leave, but there was a little bit in my heart that didn't want to still. Funny to see how my first impression of them the day I first met them changed drastically throughout the week. Never judge someone by their cover, yet first impressions are so important.

As our bus drove away, Joe, James, Ken and David rode their bikes beside the bus and as we went on the highway, I could still see them from far away across the plain riding with all their might parallel to us...

July 10: Day 13

-- I don't know what happened. The kids, especially the boys, got rowdy again. One kid in particular always gets the other ones to be like that. So annoying.

-- Vivi, one of the girls, told me she talked to Jacey and they know each other! She said that Jacey told her she really likes me haha...

-- We did a house visit today to Jason's house. He is so cute, I want to take him home with me. After some period of time of just sitting there and talking to his dad, I decided to be a little proactive and actually ask him to do something (like show us around his house and also play with him). Cause, I mean, we were visiting him and he was our student so I didn't see a point in just talking to his dad the entire time.

-- Interactions with Taiwanese coworkers have improved immensely. I talked to people I never had conversations with today and it was pretty fun. Met someone who was absent for a day because he went to interview for a police job. He's like the sweetest guy ever (tall guy, big, kinda of reminded me of Forrest) so it was hard to imagine him as a police officer. So I asked him what kind he wanted to be and he was saying something like a reinforcement officer and one that helped old people and children. That made more sense.

-- I think this was the day that at dinner, I started talking to some of the guys on my own CEC team about relationships and such. We had a mini debate going on and I actually had a lot of fun. If anything, I think bonding with my teammates have been worth this entire trip.

July 9: Day 12

It gets harder and harder to wake up each day wanting to do things and actually try interacting with people. I don't know if it's because of physically tiredness or my willpower has decreased.

-- I talked a lot more with the kids and felt a little more hyper. I did a lot of full spirited high fives and acting silly, because I felt silly was an easier way to get them to smile even just a little.

-- The shy ones in our class opened up and talked more. The loud boys were more obedient.

-- We also had an overall better time interacting with the Taiwanese coworkers as well.

July 7: Day 10

Oh how I love humidity. Even after I've taken a nice shower to rid me of my days sweat, I still end up going to sleep with a layer of sweat on my skin from the heat. Basically, taking a shower is useless. And the bugs are relentless here.

July 8: Day 11

Today was rough. First day of class and this week, our kids are more diverse than last week. We actually have both guys and girls now and the guys all happen to kind of know each other and are super annoying. Like rowdy and trying to impress... God only knows who. Even the sweet little Jason started to make fun of the boy in our class who very obviously had a mental defect of some kind. It was sad, but hard to control. My team is pretty on the shy side. But then again, so is everyone on the Taiwan team this week.

July 6: Day 9

After an afternoon of working together with our Taiwanese coworkers to plan lessons for the week, I think one of the biggest challenges for our CEC team will be pride in having done this camp once already and being careful about stepping on their toes when it comes to leading activities and lessons.

July 5: Day 8

This is late, I know. Since it's been so long now, it's hard to remember everything exactly so I'm just gonna rapid fire through with the help of some notes I wrote.

On this day, we had our first "Gospel Meeting" and it was really good. The songs, the skit of Gary's testimony and game time were all really fun. Some girls from my class showed up (I think around 5). About 10 kids raised their hand to accept Jesus after the sharing (PTL) and even more signed to keep in contact with the Gospel Center. It was an awesome way to end the week. We had lunch, took pictures, said our goodbyes (which were sad) and then drove over to the next site in Dongshi. I passed out on the ride. I heard that one of our teammates missed his coworkers so bad that he cried on the way there. We were exhausted and I felt pretty ready to go home. I remember getting to the new church and thinking wow the vibe I get from the people here is so.... wet blanket boring. They were all quietly working on their lessons and preparing for the week and basically didn't even greet us at all. I was not looking forward to the week at all.

July 4: Day 7

Talk about the week turning up! I think this was one of my better days. I can't actually remember much of what happened during the camp except one thing... So there's this girl named Ginny who was in my class and Elly (one of my Taiwanese coworkers) invited her and her friend to come to the Gospel Center. We walked together after school towards the Gospel Center, and when we got there, Ginny's friend decides she doesn't want to stay so Elly and Gary both decide to walk her home, which means it's my job to entertain Ginny until they come back (we were all supposed to go visit Ginny's home together). So while we're waiting, Ginny and some of the other kids happen to pass by the podium and see a bible laying there. They start flipping through it and the other two quickly lose interest. Ginny stays for a little while longer and I ask her if she's ever read it before. She shakes her head no, and I start to get really excited because I see an opportunity to read scripture with her. Unfortunately for me, the bible was in all Chinese. Fortunately, just as I was contemplating what to do, our pastor walks by and I quickly call him over to help me find a passage to read. He flips to John 3:16 and reads it with her, then proceeds to explain the meaning. It's actually quite a heavy verse to explain to someone right off the bat (apparently), but we do it anyway and I attempt my best to put it into words that I could say and she could understand. Then I asked her if she wanted to know why humans came to be sinners. She said yes, so pastor and I went to the kitchen with her (cause the main area was really loud) and we sat down with her to read the story about The Fall. She read it out loud and I followed along with her. After she read it, I think I kinda connected the story and John 3:16 together and gave some sort of comparison between God and our parents and how hurt our parents would be if we disobeyed them. Anyway, after all that, I asked what she thought about it. She said she didn't know. I asked if she would be interested in learning more. She said yes. Then she said she had to go home. So, even though nothing really huge happened, it was still a cool and challenging experience for me to share the gospel in a different language and actually get to share the gospel... Gary and Elly never came back, but it was almost good that they didn't because I had that opportunity with Ginny. Hopefully, Ginny will go to the Gospel Center one day and want to learn more about Jesus. Hopefully, she'll at least continue to be exposed to Christianity.

akim22

I read this quote today, and it was something that I really needed..

"Don’t get stuck. Move, travel, take a class, take a risk. Walk away, try something new. There is a season for wildness and a season for settledness, and this is neither. This season is about becoming. Now is your time. Become,...

July 10

Please pray for energy. I feel like an old person... I actually get really sleepy around after lunch, to the point that I start falling asleep in the middle of class. One more day. I need to make the most and best of it.

July 3: Day 6 in Taiwan

Today was a strange day. Sorta continuing the slump of exhaustion from the day before, I woke up feeling not completely with it. I had a headache throughout the day and was totally not feeling like being at the school. I was probably really quiet and not intentional at all with the kids. Since it was the second to last day at camp, we had a time for us teachers to share our testimony. It was funny because all morning and early afternoon, my head hurt and I was so tired. But when testimony time came around and I was the first to share, that pretty much immediately went away. I talked and talked. The girls were attentive to listen to me but who knows what they got out of it. I was also able to be attentive to my coworkers story as well and be amazed at how much I've seen her grow through the week. I thought she was someone who was really shy and kinda nerdy, but I think amongst us three, she was the best with the kids. They all liked her a lot. In their workbooks, most of their responses were of how her story touched their lives and how much they actually do enjoy being in class even if sometimes it may not seem like it. Anyways, the day turned up and I felt encouraged and very good about the day. My friend from the day before was also feeling tons better too, which was a good sign! By this time, I definitely felt like the week was getting much better.

July 2: Day 5 in Taiwan

Finally getting a chance to write down all the things that happened the past few days. On this day, I think we as the short term mission team had a lot more to do. We had to run our own London stations for all the 6 groups for 15 minutes each and then we performed one of our skits. I felt like for most of the day, I wasn't even with my kids at all and by the time afternoon rolled around, I was exhausted. I was so drained I couldn't even bring myself to interact with people. At night time during our big group meeting, we had a time of prayer where we split into two groups: one was if we felt physically tired and the other was if we felt like our hearts were tired. I happened to already sit on the side where the circle for being spiritually tired was to be formed. For the entire day, I thought I was just being drained physically, but as I stood there deciding if I should go to the other circle, I got the feeling that maybe I should just stay put. I didn't know why I would have that feeling. In the end, I decided to just sit back down. We were asked to pray with one person in the circle. One of the guys in the circle happened to be someone who I was just talking to earlier during dinner about how he was feeling. The conversation started off pretty shallow but I think at one point we were hitting something deeper that we didn't get a chance to get into. So I asked him to be partners. When I sat down next to him, the first thing he said to me was, "thank you". I asked him what for? And he said, I don't know, just wanted to tell you thank you. I then asked him to continue our conversation from before. He shared a bit more about some insecurities that he held about himself and how he wasn't able to see himself as being able to do certain things. It's funny though, because he was the main MC for our camp and he was pretty much always smiling and happy. I never would have thought he would think this way and be so sensitive. He also started tearing up and getting emotional. All I can say is that I hope I was able to offer him some comfort in my prayer for him and my opinion of how I see him as a person. Definitely reminded me of certain people I know..... He also prayed for me as well, though I was a little less clear about what I needed because I wasn't sure. there was a strange heavy feeling in the room and by the end of the night, I think we agreed that it may be some sort of spiritual attack? Through exhaustion.

Ah sorry!

For anyone who actually reads these, I apologize for not updating on time! I've been incredibly busy these past few days and a lot of things have happened. However, I will make it up soon when I find the time. Our last day is tomorrow! I'm sleeping really late (1:22 am) so I need a lot of prayer for energy and just really finding those last opportunities to share with the kids. As a quick update: I actually shared the gospel with one of my girls today! I'll go more into detail later.

July 1: Day 4 in Taiwan

Hard to believe it's already July... First day of camp today!!! Needless to say, it was pretty rough in the beginning. It's easy to lose focus on what we are supposed to be doing and hard to remember to keep things in perspective. We did our opening activities/dances/songs and it was super discouraging for me at least to see how unresponsive and shy the kids were. I mean, I expected them to be shy but I didn't expect them to be THAT shy.

During our actual in class lesson time, it slowly got better. I don't know what it was, but I'm super grateful for my Taiwanese coworkers for integrating me into the lesson plan. Though I did my best to get them energized to participate, I think it really made a difference when they had me share about my life and experiences in America compared to Taiwan. We talked about what we did during the summer compared to them and it made me feel so bad just telling them that all we do is play and hearing that all they do is study and study some more. This year compared to my experiences last year are less tiring in terms of caring for the students. I have a lot less work in the organization and making sure the kids are behaving. I almost feel a little bit like I'm not doing enough. But overall, things went well and by the end of the day, they had started warming up to us and actually talking. I am actually very blessed to already have a fan of my own... One of the girls gave me a juice box during break as a gift. She kept sticking next to me and wanting to give me massages. The only thing I regret not doing was making small talk and trying to get to know her better. For some reason, I suck at small talk in general so in Chinese, it's worse. It feels like I have to showcase a whole new level of energy in order to keep up a conversation and asking questions... sigh. But of course during our evening time, one of our team leaders shared about her experience with one of the kids who returned from last year. The previous year, there was a coworker who paid extra special attention to this kid all throughout the week. By being with him and talking to him, the coworker was able to get to know more about the kids' family situation. By the end of the week, the coworker had the opportunity to share the gospel and also lead the kid to Christ. Our team leader shared about how important it was to just BE with the kids. Even more important than the curriculum that we planned, the purpose was to show the kids that we want to get to know them and love on them. Obviously, this made me realize how much I fail at doing that already even back home, much less with these kids. So basically... I need to work on that. Small talk. Intentionality. Curiosity. Genuineness.

What else. Every night, Nathan and I meet with the main leaders from the Taiwanese group. We talk about how our CEC group thought the day went and discuss ways we can improve for the next day. Today was actually super encouraging and way better for me because I felt like I actually had something solid to go off of and offered a lot of concise feedback. I was also more energetic and I think they could tell. That was a plus. Also, figuring out just how we can better our devotion times/sharing times with our CEC group was good too. I don't know, I just love it when people get together to discuss things and work out a plan towards a goal. Makes me happy.

Prayer requests: 1. Small talk... 2. Language barrier for some of our team members makes it hard to interact with the kids and actually be helpful to our Taiwanese coworkers. Pray for better communication and for our team to be able to assist our coworkers better. 3. Energy. Always need this.. I started to fall apart after lunch today and having low energy affects how well I can small talk. That's all I can think of for now. Till tomorrow :)

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