OMF Blog
VGM 2009
Taiwan Student - Monday 13 July 2009
Hi Everyone!
We’ve just finished our week of camp in Fen Yuan … where do we start???
Some facts: Fen Yuan is a cluster of villages famous for it’s lychees and pineapples (so tasty!). It is quite a working class area and the local school is not known for high achieving students. It is an area steeped in idol worship; as we were reminded by the temple down the street from the church where we stayed.
We arrived on Friday a few days before the camp. Ruth was able to stay with us this last week. The next day we met the Taiwanese students from a university about an hour away that we were going to work alongside. We were slightly bemused by a gang of bikers who rocked up outside the Church, and then realised they were Heaven’s Angels – our Taiwanese buddies! It appears that everyone in Taiwan rides mopeds (Liana had her first experience on the back of one last night – sorry mum!). We spent the next few days getting to know them and preparing for the camp, which started on the Tuesday.
The camp was held at the local junior high school across the road from where we were staying and about 60 kids attended. The kids here are generally shy and reserved and find it hard to express their emotions this was the theme of the camp: Emotions. The camp was from 9am to 4:30pm everyday. A typical day consisted of teaching time in the classrooms with the aim of improving their English (there were six classes and each of us from the UK were teamed with two Taiwanese students to take a class); joint games, singing and drama.
We had the opportunity to teach some English songs (the favourite one being Who’s the King of the Jungle – this was most due to Amanda’s brilliant impression of a monkey); to take part in a role-play game i.e. we were acting the part of a bored clown, a sad robot, a tired artist, etc. – this really broke down barriers between the children and us; to perform two dramas one about the prodigal son and the other about Jesus raising Lazarus to life – this gave us the chance to present Bible stories in an easy to understand way and led to some good discussions afterwards .
We also got an opportunity to share our testimonies with the kids through a translator. We trust that God can use what we said to touch their lives in some way. There was a more evangelistic event on Saturday morning where the kids were invited to the church that we were staying in. There were about 20-30 that showed up, which was really encouraging. We had a chance to share the gospel with them through four of the students’ testimonies. One in particular seemed to touch many people and some of the kids got quite emotional and opened up to some of the leaders about difficult things in their lives, especially family issues and difficulties.
At the beginning of the week most of us felt a bit uninvolved primarily due to the language barriers and only being able to communicate with the kids through a translator which was not available a lot of the time. But God answered our prayers because by the end of the week relationships were definitely formed between us and the kids, even though it wasn’t through speaking. On the last day many of them gave us cards and gifts which we found really moving. Two of the kids said they wanted to become Christians, which was so exciting for us all, but they were worried because of what their families would think. Another highlight was that one of the Taiwanese students became a Christian this week! They were a lovely person and none of us even realized they weren’t a Christian before! Praise the Lord!
On the last night they all took us out to a night market, which is the popular thing to do here in the evenings. They made us try all sorts of exotic delicacies, which were ummmm interesting! Nigel had a big soft spot for the fried pigs blood on a stick. We also tried stinky tofu (which is what Taiwan is famous for), chicken’s stomache and intestines, and chicken’s ass/backside/postorior/bottom, which they all found really amusing.
On the Saturday evening we traveled to Chaiyi, a big city in the south of Taiwan. We’re staying in the outreach centre in the middle of the city. Our leader here is a German lady called Birgit who is a full time missionary doing youth outreach here, and is based in the drop-in-centre that we’re staying in. We’ve got a couple of days of training and then we get started on the café ministry on the Wedesay. We’re staying here for two weeks before heading up north for debrief. We’ll keep you updated on our progress here whenever we can.
Praise God for:
Answered prayer regarding coping with the weather conditions here. Tuesday was the hottest and most difficult day, which made ait difficult for the kids to concentrate. But we prayed that night and the next day was much cooler and unusually cloudy!
Praise God! We’re still struggling a bit with heat, tiredness and humidity but so far it’s been bearable (mainly due to aircon!!)
Most of the kids attended everyday and we were able to make relationships with them.
Some seemed receptive to the message that we shared with them, and it was amazing to see God working so powerfully in their lives this week. Barriers to the gospel were definitely broken down.
Good relationships with the Taiwanese students. They were a great encouragement to us and I think most of us felt we gained a lot more than we gave.
For God’s faithful provision when we felt, at times, out of our depth.
Please pray for:
Continued work of the Spirit in the children’s lives.
Wisdom for the resident Christians on how to follow up the work started there. Pray for new Christians and their spiritual growth.
Continued good health for the team, and continued help coping with the weather conditions.
Ruth has left to join another team (the International Team) in Taipei for the remainder of the time here. They are also doing youth ministry. Pray for her as she settles in the new team and that God will use her there.
Our work in Chaiyi, that many young people who have been invited will come to the café and that we can witness to them. Please pray for opportunities for good chats with them.
Many thanks for all of your prayers and support.
Lianna, Amanda, Matt, Nigel and Dan
Alison
Tuesday 21 July 2009