Day 3 - 7/2/2016

Proverbs 3:5

     Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

     Hi everyone! This is Josh, and I'll be talking about our third day on the trip. This morning, I woke up feeling much more awake, and I think the rest of the team, thankfully, was just as full of energy as I was. Emily and I woke up to a special treat for breakfast-- Hwa-Chi had prepared a juicy, delectable tray of dragon fruit for us!

     After finishing breakfast, we headed back to the church again to work with the rest of our fellow leaders in preparing for the upcoming VBS. We spent the morning practicing our songs, and also joining in on the Chinese songs that the other helpers were teaching.

     Lunchtime came around, and we ate meals of Chinese food out of little cardboard boxes. Hwa-Chi explained to us that this was similar to McDonald's, and that it is very popular in Taiwan. Each meal only costs about $3 US dollars, and all you have to do is call a number, and they deliver it right to your door!

     Throughout most of yesterday and this morning, we observed the team of youth here practice teaching and singing their songs, but now it was our turn to show them what we had planned. So our team went through each part of Monday's curriculum. Some of it turned out pretty good, but we realized that we needed to work on it a lot. We came in expecting most of the kids to know English pretty well, but that wasn't the case. We had to slow down what we were saying, and as Edward would say, adapt to the group of kids here.

     Right away we started fixing what we needed to change. And we did another run through of Monday's lesson plan. It went much smoother the second time. And this is where the verse (Proverbs 3:5) really has meaning. Even though we came in with a plan that didn't work, God gave us the strength and wisdom to revise it and come up with something better that the kids would actually be able to understand. We always need to go back to God, and thank him because he's the one that makes all of this possible, and I think we need a constant reminder that it's none of our own doing. We wouldn't be able to do any of this without God.

     We cleaned up, and Hwa-Chi offered to take Edward and Jeremy to their host family's house, so they could pick up their bathing suits and come over for a swim later in the night. When we finally arrived back at Hwa-Chi's, we met up with two of the other helpers, Albert and Amber. We decided to go to a restaurant with hibachi style cooking, which we got to watch right in front of us while we ate. Then, we got Taiwanese style mango shaved ice, which had a sweet, unique flavor.

     All of us walked back and got ready for a swim. Hwa-Chi, Edward, Jeremy, and I swam in the pool, while Albert, Amber, and Emily, not wanting to swim, just sat and watched on the side. And that brings us to here. It's now pretty late, and though I've gotten over most of my jetlag, I'm still feeling extremely tired at this hour, so I'm looking forward to a good night's rest before the Lord's day.

Prayer requests:

- For the kids to have understanding and open hearts to our teaching

- Preparation of our curriculum based on the needs of the children

- To focus on God alone and have serving hearts

- Thanks to all the leaders for being so friendly and welcoming to our team

- Thanks to brother Hwa-Chi, Pauline, and the Zhen family for being such amazing hosts!

- Thanks for a great team that is willing to serve you