Soaking Wet Memories of a Short-Term Team
30/08/2008 9:00 am <>
“Ooooh, I hear laughter in the rain…”
The words of Neil Sedaka’s song rang in my head as the rain came pouring down, and I all I could hear was the giggling of the children. As part of our annual Dali Elementary Bilingual Camp large-group games, we were having a water balloon fight, but this year God was playing too!
That was not how the game was supposed to go, though. Who could have predicted that five minutes before, when we were all getting ready to go out to play, the rain would come pouring down? The buckets of water balloons were all set up, and the children were in their offensive and defensive positions, so I said, “Ready???” A second later sheets of rain came tumbling down. Instantly some kids screamed and ran for cover under our teachers’ umbrellas and on the covered stage area. But more than half the kids stayed out on the field and went right ahead and played in the rain. As I stood there watching, I couldn’t help but feel completely overwhelmed by the sight of laughter, silliness, and excitement that took over the field. Water balloons flew everywhere, and teachers and students screamed and giggled as the surge of raindrops just kept emptying out of the clouds as they kept on playing. Though this was not at all how the game was meant to be played, it was great to see how much the kids enjoyed just playing with us teachers. As co-worker Veronika Rieben said, it will probably be something that the kids will always remember from the camp. I know those ten minutes will forever be imprinted in my head for sure.
This past month, we hosted one of our Serve Asia teams in Taipei. Five Canadians, two Americans, one German and one Belgian (or as we all remember it now, eight women and one man!) made up this team. Their trip focused on the Wanhua kids ministries – an English camp at the Fu-ming Community Center the first week, the Dali Elementary Bilingual Camp the second week, and holding a children’s program at the local Lu-Ti park on a Saturday. In between all these activities they were also able to visit other ongoing ministries in Taipei. God was so good to us! Prayers were answered, testimonies were shared, and though we don’t know if any lives were changed immediately, we have faith that one day the students that we met and grew to love will remember and come to know the God that we spoke of and the hope that He brings.
Katherine Tang - Taipei
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