Day 3 - 7/2/18 - ‘Tis So Sweet To Trust In Jesus

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not lifted up;

my eyes are not raised too high;

I do not occupy myself with things

too great and too marvelous for me.

But I have calmed and quieted my soul,

like a weaned child with its mother;

like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord

from this time forth and forevermore.

Hello everyone! This is Amy, sending out my first full post to you all. As I look through the many memories documented on this blog, I am so clearly reminded, once again, of the amazing support system we have in all of you -- our readers! We are so blessed to have you at our sides; it is incredibly comforting and empowering to think of all the prayer that is backing our missions trip. Thank you so much for everything that you do!

Now, onto a recap of today's events:
After staying up late last night preparing teaching materials, Emily and I had a hard time waking up this morning, repeatedly sleeping through alarm after alarm. We ended up getting ready in a rush and doing our devotions in the car. The team had agreed to read Psalm 131, which is a song on finding comfort in God, even through times of "spiritual weaning." Later today, the team met up and discussed this concept of spiritual weaning, describing it as a process in which God teaches us to let go of crutches we cling too tightly to. In other words, Psalm 131 is about coping with not being in control -- something I would experience firsthand later today...

As you all know, this was the first day of the Taiwan VBS. Despite all the warnings I had heard about the first day being the messiest, experiencing it firsthand was something different altogether. After the team arrived at the church, we all rushed upstairs to set up classrooms and get our materials together before the kids arrived. As the children began trickling in, I walked around and started up conversations with a few of the kids. Most of them were extremely shy at first and had little to say. After everyone had arrived, we started off the camp with a fun welcoming video made by the Taiwanese youth and some worship!

The Taiwanese youth leading worship. Their dancing was amazing!

Next, Emily gave her presentation on American money. She showed the kids different types of currency and explained how money is used in America. I was really impressed by how many children participated in the lesson; at least 10 or so kids raised their hand for every question! We had a little extra time to kill after Emily's presentation ended, so the team brainstormed quickly and came up with a scavenger hunt inspired game for the kids to play.

Emily giving her American culture presentation on money.

Soon after the large group culture lesson came time for the small group English lesson. This was the part of the day we were most worried about. Each member of the team was in charge of a classroom of children and was to lead them through a series of review games, worksheets, crafts, and verses. It was during the English lesson today that I felt the most powerless and ineffective. Despite all the preparations we had done the day before, most of what I had planned ended up not working out and there were many unforeseen obstacles I had to deal with. For one, I had an extra student in my classroom so I was one short for all the materials. There was also a special needs child in the class who had significantly lower English abilities and required a lot of one-on-one attention. Overall, it was just really hard to control the kids and most of them were pretty unresponsive when I spoke, so it was hard to gauge how much English they understood.

After lunch, the kids all had nap time and the team met up to discuss the day's events. We all had different expereiences during the English lesson, ranging from "that was pretty awesome" to "I'm not sure what just happened." In addition, we also went over this morning's devotion and shared some of our thoughts about the camp. One of our goals for this VBS was to build relationships with the children and "preach" the gospel to them through our actions. However, we discussed the possibility that demonstrating love and kindness to the children may not be enough if they are unable to make the connection between our behavior and our faith. We came to the conclusion that we should share our testimonies with the kids tomorrow to help them understand why we came from America to serve at their VBS.

With this discussion still fresh in my mind, I later tried to share the gospel with one of the little girls in my group during snack time. "Do you know what these crosses on our T-shirts represent?", I asked her, as she munched on her sandwich. I proceeded to explain the very basics of the gospel message in extremely messy Chinese to her as she smiled and nodded at me. I'm not sure exactly how much she understood but I hope our conversation "planted a seed", or perhaps watered one some more.

The Stanford team performing our chant.

Later in the afternoon, the kids had a science lesson, where they learned to float a spinning top on a magnetic device.

Science class.

After the camp ended, all of the VBS leaders went out to eat dinner at a restaurant with traditional Taiwan cuisine. We ate a lot of good food and had an awesome time hanging out together!

Food!

Josh and the chicken head pt. 1

Josh and the chicken head pt. 2

After eating, some people decided to form a massage train. 

As I reflect on today, all I can really say is that it was an emotional rollercoaster, with some really great highs and some lows. In fact, typing up this blog post in the office of Evangeline's house in the middle of the night is the most peaceful and relaxed I've felt all day. Even though we faced some obstacles, I have absolutely no complaints about how the day went. I really savored every single moment being with my teammates, my newfound Taiwanese friends, and, of course, the kids. And as I think back to the devotion from this morning, it seems like, in some ways, God is weaning us off of our need to feel in control and asking us to turn over the reigns to him. Although it may be a little frustrating in the moment, the reward of having a faith that is that much more strong is so worth it.



Miscellaneous photos:

Emily marveling at one of God's creations outside the restaurant.

Cute kids!

Thank you all for your support! Here are some prayer requests:

• That God would continue to work in the hearts of the children at the VBS
• That we would learn to rely more on God and less on ourselves
• For the health of all the VBS leaders and that we would be able to work effectively together