Friday Friyay!

Building on yesterday's morning devotion, today's reminded us to apply the scripture to our lives by showing compassion to others--to the kids especially through this mission.

Elene's daily Anatomy lesson focused on kindness and the brain. By doing acts of kindness, the brain releases dinosaurs (aka endorphins). Following that, Julia and Inez laoshi led the singspiration segment of the program by teaching a new song--Jesus I Am In, and leading four other songs, including He Is God and Totally Transformed, which the kids will perform this coming Sunday.

After dancing to He Is God again, per the kids' enthusiastic request, Joann led the Eating of God's Word today on Romans 8:25, which reads "But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." Today we had a special reward--See's candy lollipop, if the kid is able to memorize today's bible verse without any hints!

Sauna time! Just kidding, today was a bit cooler in the classrooms~ Thank God for the good weather!! The bible story today is on The Wall of Jericho, through which they were reminded to be strong in their faith and to obey what God's Word commands. Following that they learned about different occupations.

During the third and last session of the day, Faith class and Grace class combined to practice the songs that the kids will perform this coming Sunday. While there were some technical difficulties at the beginning, all went well and both class' kids were eager to sing to the songs loudly and do the hand motions.

This afternoon we had a family visitation for Ethan and Tony (Faith and Angel class, respectively), who are brothers and whose family owns a chicken farm. Tony, the youngest of his class, is usually quiet but very hardworking and eager to learn. But through today's family visitation, we learned that Tony is actually quite outgoing, while his older brother Ethan is more quiet and considerate--he warmed up Daniel's hands because Daniel was cold.*cue "awwww"*

  Tony (left) and Ethan (right) with their parents, Pastor Huang, Judy and Eunice (Tony's teacher and TA), and Daniel and Lara (Ethan's teacher and TA).

Yay to more [dragon]fruits:

That's a wrap for week one! Thank you for all your prayers :) Please continue to pray for a restful weekend and a successful second week.

Circus Afro Polka Dot

Greetings from the motherland!

This morning we started our day with devotionals led by Elene, who reminded us to read scripture prayerfully and apply it to our lives.

Elene also taught today's Fruit of the Day in Anatomy lesson on patience and intestines! We must take time to digest our food and eat slowly to avoid stomach aches :) Then we transitioned into singspiration led by Danana (aka Daniel - he really likes bananas because they're rich in potassium) and yours truly (Inez). We taught a new song, "Oh Hallelujah," that has the best dance move in the history of mankind: the crab walk. The kids thought it was hilarious :D

Judy led the daily Eating God's Word with Numbers 6:26 and a review of the past three days' Bible verses. The kids are memorizing crazy fast!

For our Drama Llama program we performed "You are special," by Max Lucado in which Punchinello learned that if he isn't bothered by what others think of him, then the gold stars (good) and gray dots (bad) that the villagers stick on each other can never stick to him.

After the skit we split off into our saunas (classrooms) where we learned about Jacob and Esau, segueing into the English lesson on family and relatives.

Here is a note written by one of the Faith class students:

Translation:
My summer break: I have been pretty relaxed but I need to go to summer camp. I don't understand a thing, but I'm getting better. Thank you guys! ^-^  -Angel

And mangoes! SO MANY MANGOES.

I like bananas / I know that mangoes are sweet / I like papayas. PAPAYAS?! / But nothing can beat that sweeeeet looooove of GOD!

God's love has provided so much delicious fruit (of the spirit!) from friends of EV. Thank you!

Wednesday (consider the coconut)

We finally split into our classes and got to meet our students! And they are adorable! Woohoo!

This morning our team started off with devotionals, led by Julia, before heading out to school for our third day of camp. We were excited to get to our classrooms and spend more time with the kids!

Our Fruit of the Day in Anatomy lesson was on Peace and the ear, and from there we transitioned to singspiration led by Judy and Joann! The kids had a blast and are loving "Totally Transformed" (you can listen to it here https://youtu.be/xVmKESoYyDY)

Huei-Ing then led today's Eating of God's word from 1 Corinthians 13:13 and reviewing Mark 9:23 and Psalm 31:24. 

Today's skit, "Rewind...peace" taught us the value in putting peace in every situation we encounter through the acts we saw. A taste of one of our acts, there were two neighbors who had a tree between them. The west neighbor constantly was raking up leaves from the tree and would be upset with the east neighbor, threatening to cut off the branches that came over to his side. The east neighbor would hear the threat and the two neighbors would engage in a fight. PAUSE. REWIND. Add in peace. Same scenario but this time when the west neighbor threatened to cut off the branches that came over to his side. The east neighbor would hear the threat and offer to help the west neighbor to rake up the leaves, and when the tree bore fruit, they shared and enjoyed the treat together.

Following skit time, we broke off into our respective classes (this year we have 7 classes) and taught our bible story "ten bridesmaid and their lamps" tying it into an English lesson on numerical numbers.

Here is one of the students working hard with his worksheet. Isn't he the sweetest??

the youngest kid in Love (the second hardest class)

Two day

Happy Independence day back home in the U.S. of A! Woohoo! Thank you to all those who serve our country!

Here in the motherland, we woke up to team devotionals led by Judy, reminding us that we are never alone and that God is always present and faithful. We were encouraged by the passage from Hebrews 13:1-8 strengthening us spiritually for our second day with the kids.

Following our team devotional, we headed into the sanctuary to welcome the students and before beginning singspiration, we added a new category this year! We call it Fruit of the Day in Anatomy (from the Fruit of the Spirit in the Bible and tying things together to the anatomy, teaching them about being ONE body of Christ).

Today's delicious fruit was Joy and the body part we learned about was the mouth and nose. Did you know that the nose has a direct route to the amygdala? And that particular scents that previously were registered in our brain can trigger an emotion when the same scent is smelled? How cool is that? Thus we began our exploration about how many times through memories, emotions, or even our senses (ie: nose or mouth) we can experience joy! But what greater way to experience joy than through the unconditional and sacrificial love God gives us daily?? Simply knowing that God made us, loves us, and is with us (like we were reminded in our devotionals this morning) does it not make you want to just jump up and lift your hands singing HALLELUJAH?? Amen! Amen! Praises be to our Mighty King!

Speaking of singing, that's precisely what we did following our Fruit of the Day in Anatomy lesson, we had singspiration led by Huei-ing and Inez! (How awesome is that?? Mother and daughter getting to serve Christ together in this way! God is GOOD!) And Huei-ing continued on leading the memory verse from Mark 9:23! We learned that while teaching the students the memory verse, when we teach it with handmotions (like we do with the songs) they seem to do better at memorizing it and maybe even understanding it a bit more! YAY!

Right after memory verse time (we call it Eating God's Word), we had our drama llama's take the stage for skit time! Today's skit was about the Great flood and Noah's faithfulness and obedience! Which led us into our joint activity craft of making a fish! (Our English lesson was animals -- and we decided fish was the perfect aquatic animal for our craft, tying it into being Fishers of Men)

By this time, it was already eleven o'clock and so the kids took a little break, before reconvening for our final activity and discussion. We enjoyed the first 30 minutes of a film called "All Creature Big and Small" to give the kiddos an idea of what the great flood might have looked like and the animals that were in the ark.

Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and end our second day camp! We cannot wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow and continue on this story of sharing God's word with the amazing city, Puzi!

Thank you for your continual prayers and support!

Praise:
Judy and Mrs. Chien arrived safely tonight to join the team!

Prayer Requests:
-Please continue to pray over each member by name, for the Lord to continue working in our hearts, helping us reflect His love to all we meet, and for His protection over our health.
-Pray for God to continue working and softening the kids' hearts and for the Lord to open doors and help us build friendship and bridges for the local church to be able to continue ministering to them after these two weeks


Answer to yesterday's riddle: What's your name? 

Day 一

Today is the first day we welcome the kids! WOOHOO

First things first, the kids were given a placement test for us to gauge their English level. After that, they were led to the sanctuary to join Mrs. Huang and the other kids who had also completed their placement tests. 'Twas the time for games~ yay!

Around 9AM, Elene and Inez taught and led four new singspiration songs to the kiddos. They seemed to pay particular attention during "It's about L-O-V-E, LOVE."

Elene laoshi then taught them a lesson relating God's love and the heart. Afterwards was memory verse and drama llama time (the Creation). Through the memory verse segment, in which we went over Psalm 31:24, we discovered that the kids this year picked up on the verse quicker than they did last year. *round of applause*

Since the school where we would otherwise split the kids into classes is not available to us yet, today was and tomorrow will be all joint activities in the church sanctuary. And to hopefully break the ice quickly, we split the sixty-some students into small groups, each led by a teacher or local TA. We then assisted the students in constructing the salvation bracelets and explained the meaning to them.

With the kids still in these pods, we proceeded to play "human knot on steroids," aka human knot with zip ties. oohh funnnn~
Thus concludes the kids' first day!

Total mosquito bite count: 32


Prayer Requests (pls pray for us~ tyty [: ):
1. Travel - Judy safely arrived in Taiwan and joined our team last night, braving through the pouring rain. Please pray for the safe arrival of Julia and Mrs. Chien as they join us Tuesday night.

2. Rest and health - Please pray for some of our team members' jet lag and the adjustment to Taiwan's humidity.

3. Patience - Our teachers and team was requested by the local church to only speak English the entire duration of the camp, thus making it challenging for the students to stay engaged and it was tough for some of our TAs to translate to so many students at once. Please pray that our team and the local church and TAs we are working with can come up with a great way to help keep the kids engaged while complying with their request.


Riddle of the day: 花枝一碗麵?  (hua-zi yi wan mian?)
 Hint: It's actually an English greeting/question.

Sunday

The mosquitos love us! (or at least some of us…) Praise the Lord for a fruitful Sunday service with the local church! We got to meet friends of all ages, worship together and pray together! The Lord is good!

We are blessed to be here and we were definitely reminded of God's grace today. During the Sunday service.

This morning we started off our day with team devotions, sharing, and began prepping for tomorrow. We are officially unpacked and quiet settled in for the next two weeks, and are looking forward to interacting with the kids!

Please continue to pray for the team as we begin our English Camp with the students tomorrow, and for our interactions with not only the kids but their parents as well.

T-minus 36 hours, Saturday; July 1, 2017

Hello Friends!

Greetings from Puzi, Chiayi, Taiwan!

As we are getting settled in, our team wanted to say "thank you" for all your prayers over our safe travels and for the next two weeks! We are so glad to partner with you through your prayers and support as we embark on this adventure with the local church to witness to the students and village the gospel of Christ!

It is going to be an amazing journey and we cannot wait to begin and meet the kids on Monday!

For now, please continue praying for the rest of the team that is yet to arrive, and for the work that is before us. May God's name be praised and honored, and may we continue to serve Him with all that we have.

Until tomorrow (: