And that's a wrap!

Friends! A BIG THANK YOU for all your prayers, support, and love before we even departed for our mission trip, through our mission trip until now! We have been blessed by you all and cannot have done this without YOU! Having you on the sidelines cheering us on was a a great encouragement and we are grateful for you!

We wrapped up our final day with the kids and the local church with a fun memory verse activity day! Of course we started off our team gathering with our last devotional led by Judy, then proceeded to singspiration. For singspiration, we invited each class to come up on stage to rehearse their respective song as well as their memory verse. 

We then had some time to meet with our individual classes to spend some time with them, before the memory verse competiton began. Finally the long awaited memory verse competition began and the Angel class got a head start. We had about 15 students who memorized all 10 verses, and our youngest student this year to finish all 10 verses was a seven year old! 

These two weeks definitely flew by, and we will miss the TA's, students, and the local church! They showered us with so much love and made us feel welcomed! 

The TA's this year were all collegians who returned for the summer simply to help out with the mission team and we cannot thank them enough for giving up time from their summer break to help us! 

Thank you to the local church for all their hospitality and for continuing to share the gospel daily! Your hard work, love, and dedication to care for the city has been inspirational and you will continue to be in our prayers!

Friends! Thank YOU again for all your kindness! We are grateful and cannot wait to share with you all the good that our God has done in this city!

For now, until next year!

-efcev tm 2017

Praises:

-We had about 17 family visits this year 

-6 families attended Sunday service 

-13 families came to the closing ceremony

-12 members from EV

-8+ TA's from the local church throughout the two weeks

Prayer Request:

-safe travels for our members that will begin traveling back to the states!

Thursday

God is faithful! Forever and always! God is good! All the time! Praises be to His Holy name!

For our second to final day here at Puzi, Chiayi, Taiwan this summer, we wrapped up our Fruits of the Spirit with Anatomy with the theme on self-control and the nervous system. We talked about how each fruit of the spirit is connected to one another, just like each body part plays an essential part and one cannot be without the other.

We ran through each class song and had some time to allow a few classes to get on stage to rehearse. The kids are shy but when the song comes on, they are very engaged with the handmotions. We then skipped ahead to drama llama on a skit by our very own Denise! Our skit was titled "Sharing Cookies" and revolved around the theme of self-control.

Since we were not on the school grounds today, we all gathered in the chapel and broke into small groups following singspration and skit. We then practiced each memory verse, and invited each class on stage to recite their class verse and the kids are absolutely invested in giving it their all! Praise the Lord! (Our prayer for them is that these verses really sink into their hearts and that they can cling onto Christ)

Next came our activity day! We used to call it Field Day, but since we were not on school grounds and did not have a track field to use, we simply stayed in the chapel and played relay games. The kids loved it and were very excited when the teachers and TA's would join them.

We cannot believe we only have one more day left at TM! God has been with us every step of the way and it has been a privilege for each of us to be able to join and participate in this years mission trip here at Puzi!

Prayer Requests:
-tomorrow's activities to run smoothly and that doors are opened for the local church to reach out to the families that are attending tomorrow's closing ceremony
-for our members health, especially those that may have been coming down with a cold
-for the TA's that are staying one more week to continue programs with the kids
-safe travels home

Wednesday

Praise the Lord! These kids are picking up the memory verses quickly and are engaging more in conversation with us!

We cannot believe it is already Wednesday and we only have two more days with these amazing students and hardworking TAs! They will all be missed!

Today's team devotional was led by Denise, who also led our memory verse "eating of God's word" with the kids. It was our last day at the school (we will be using the church for the next two days for English camp) and so we utilized as much classroom time as we could.

For singspiration we began reviewing each class song, thus the respective teacher per class led the singspiration for their song. And for our drama llama, our story was on Jesus Walks On Water.

Prayer Requests:

-making the most of the time we have left with the students, TA's and church co-workers

-for everyone's health and energy

Seventh Day

Greetings from Puzi, Chiayi!

For today, we began our morning with an encouraging devotion led by Elder Sam, who reminded us that God uses small, routine or insignificant things to accomplish great things for His glory and to show His power over all. 

In terms of our camp, we began with Fruit of the Spirit with Anatomy lesson on faithfulness and foot.  After the singspiration (led by Inez and Denise), we had a skit on the story of the Three Trees. The story is a great reminder that even if we do not get what we want, we should remain faithful and be happy because God is thinking of something better to give us.  Overall, the children enjoyed the skit and paid great attention to the story.

Since it’s already the seventh day of the mission trip, the children have grown out of shyness.  They enjoyed chatting with us and even wanted us to stay here for another week.  During the class sessions, they participated attentively and many children are getting more confident in speaking English.

After the camp, we had several family visitations.  One of the most memorable family visitations was the meeting with the Peng family (1 girl in Peace Class and 2 twin brothers in Joy Class and Love Class).  These three children are some of the youngest children in the classes.  However, they are very intelligent and are all in the more advanced classes.  The mother of the three kids attended church before, but the father is not yet a Christian believer.  

Prayer Requests:

1.     Strong finish: as we are heading toward the final stretch of TM, please pray for a strong finish. 

2.     Health: please continue to pray for the team members’ health condition. 

3.   Family visitation: please continue to pray for the families that allowed us to visit them.  Please make us the living testimony for these families. 

Thank you for your continuing support.  Until tomorrow! 

God Bless the Mondays

Happy Monday friends!

We are doing well and cannot believe that our mission trip consists of only a few days left! WOW!

This morning we started off our day with team devotionals and proceeded to head to school for our sixth day of English Camp! The kids usually arrive between 8-8:30, but today a good lot of them arrived way before 8! 

Our camp began with Fruit of the Spirit with Anatomy, then singspiration (led by Judy and Joann), Bible verse with Daniel, and our skit on the Parable of the Prodigal Son! Before we knew it, we were headed to class and teaching the passage on Forgiving Seventy-Seven Times. 

The kids are very well attached at this point, and all want to play and chat with the teachers and TA's during break. It will be challenging when Friday rolls around, and we have to say goodbye for now.

For crafts today we made stainglass windows and the kids had a ton of fun! (as well as our TAs! We have some very creative minds around here!)

Until tomorrow! 

Praises!

-Our final team members have made it safely last night and our entire team is here!

Prayer Request!

-Jetlag, some of our members are still transitioning their internal clocks, please pray for a smooth and quick transition

-Please be in prayer for all our health! Some of our members are feeling a bit under the weather and might be developing a cold. Please pray for all our health and that our bodies stay strong throughout the remaining of the mission trip!

-Please pray for our family visits! We have 5 tomorrow! Please be in prayer for the students that we will be visiting and their families! May God work in their hearts and open doors, and give our teachers/co-workers the courage to speak God's truth in love into their lives!

Thank you for all your prayers, encouragement and support!

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 (: