Day 5 - 7/4/2016 - 18 Boxes, No Regrets

 Mark 9:37

37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”

Hello once again! This is Edward, reporting for duty -
On our fifth day, the VBS has finally begun, after much preparation and prayer! Thanks so much for the continuous prayer support from home, we've all felt so blessed by all of the great opportunities to share the love of Christ to these children, even on the first day of VBS.

The day started off with breakfast at our respective host families' homes. Jeremy and I had the pleasure of trying Taiwan's delicious spins on the traditional American omelet - what a way to start off the 4th of July! We also had Taiwanese breakfast burgers, which were amazing as well.

At 8:00, we arrived at the church, and immediately headed upstairs to do some last minute fix-ups for the upcoming English lessons - I practiced my enunciation of song lyrics along with my slightly rusty guitar playing, while Emily, Josh, and Jeremy worked on the English lesson, story, and game respectively. We all knew the moment of truth was upcoming, and there was definitely an atmosphere of excitement tinged with the slightest touch of nervousness. However, by the grace of God, everyone felt prepared to do their part in the day's activities, so we decided it was best to join the rest of the camp and help out.

Little did we know, "helping out" would entail all sorts of new and exciting activities. After singing songs that the youth had been preparing for all week, and listening to the presentation of the Wordless Book by Pauline, every one of us was hyped for what was next. However, none of us were expecting that we would be receiving a dance lesson! Although we were slightly abashed in the beginning of the lesson, the shyness quickly faded after we were urged onto the stage to dance in front of the kids. Needless to say, we put on quite the interesting performance.

Us and the Dance teacher

At noon, we had lunch, knowing that after a napping period it would be our turn to take the kids on an adventure of learning English, but more importantly, about God and what he sacrificed so that we could be with him. While we ate the delicious

Opening Prayer

curry that was prepared for us and the kids, each of us was contemplating on how we could continue to improve on what we already had prepared. Time flew by, and before I knew it, I was standing in front of 40 little faces, organized into 5 seating groups, opening in a prayer.

Surprisingly, the kids were all very receptive to our English - in fact most could read English very well, and the vocab was very easily memorized by all of the children. This was most definitely shown in their ability to shout the names of animals when we played Pictionary. As the shouts of "Panda! bear! pig!" and  "apple!" resounded in the room, the team smiled, knowing that we did something correctly despite the previous uncertainty about the level of English understanding that the kids had.

It was Jeremy's turn to lead the game next, and it is my pleasure to say that even in the face of fear (taking its form in 40 unyielding sets of little eyes), he was able to keep everything under control with the help of the rest of the team and of the Church's youth.

After the game, the kids took a short break to eat a snack and rest a bit after an exciting game of "Simon Says." While taking the break, I had the opportunity to talk to Conrad, one of the campers. To my surprise, he was able to hold a full conversation with me in English, even talking about science and Physics. However, realizing that he was not yet a Christian, I took the opportunity to tell him that "science might explain the rules of the Universe, but it doesn't explain who created those rules." Please pray for Conrad, that we would be able to lead him to the Lord through his passion for English and for science!

Finally, it was my turn to present the songs. Everything went very smoothly, and most of the kids were happy to sing "Deep Down" and "Jesus Loves Me." I am very thankful for such obedient and excited children.

Time to Sing Praise!

Josh was up next to tell the story of Creation. Although the English was a bit difficult for the children, we had cutouts to represent each of the days of creation to help the children understand the lesson. We were reassured of their receptiveness when question time came around; almost every group was able to answer the questions that we had raised about the story.

Today's memory verse for the children was Genesis 1:1 - "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth". A little competition was all it took for each group to be progressively louder than the previous.

After the day was done, and the children started filtering out of the Church to return home to their families, we headed out to have dinner at an all-you-can-eat sukiyaki (Japanese hot pot) restaurant with Evangeline, Penny, Amber, Albert and his parents, Hwa-Chi, Pauline, and other adults from the congregation. The food was delicious, and the members of "the Sukiyaki Dream Team" consisting of Emily, Albert, Amber, and myself were able to finish 18 boxes of meat, stacked to be higher than Emily when seated. Needless to say, we were all very happy at the end of our meal.

Before we dig in!

One of the many Snapchats

Albert and I next to 18 boxes high of sukiyaki meat

That brings me to where I am now - sitting in front of Jeremy's laptop, writing this blog for you, the reader/supporter for which the team is truly grateful. God has given us a day full of so many blessings, and we are all so happy to be able to serve!

Please continue to pray for:
- the kids of the VBS to have open hearts to accept Jesus
- the members of the team and of the youth to continue to be energetic for the kids and for the Lord.
- continuous spiritual renewal despite bodily weariness.
We are thankful to the Lord for:
- such a welcoming community and church body
- energetic and happy kids!
- the serving hearts of the youth

~Edward signing off!~

P.S. I hope everyone has a great 4th of July! God bless America!