Day 4 - 7/3/18 - Fear Fading, God Growing

Jeremy
“He must become greater, I must become less” 
John 3:30

Over the course of this missions trip, I’ve been feeling more than ever that my fears are being taken away one by one, that my neuroses and worries are gradually disappearing, and that Jeremy, my oh so flawed self, is being subsumed by the LORD’s plan. I couldn’t be more grateful to Him for demonstrating his power in such a potent way, in a way that’s so helpful to the children and to us, the youth. As each of us submits more and more to the will of God, our methods and goals have become clearer even as our weaknesses become more permissible and even helpful in the LORD’s hands.

Of course, to submit to God’s will requires that we first learn it. And what better way to do so than to bury ourselves in His Word? Today started as we hope each coming day will: with a nice early morning devotion. Having finalized our reading plans a couple nights ago, we continued our devotional series by turning over to the New Testament, specifically 1 Corinthians 13-14. Originally, our plans were to stick to chapter 13 alone, but Josh (Lin, not Liu) joined in our reading and ended up reading almost all the way through chapter 14. I’m quite grateful that he did, though, because chapter 14’s comparison of tongues and prophecies ended up heading our discussion; although tongues and prophecies may no longer be the most directly relevant portions of the Spirit’s blessings, the contrast between self-edifying tongues and church-building prophecies produced some interesting thoughts to keep in mind while we work in the VBS.

From there, the discussion headed towards the topic of children and adults, which are independently compared a few times in the passage we read. In essence, we concluded that we should cling to the innocence of children when considering sin (14:20) but pursue a generally adult mindset of selflessness rather than a child’s constant selfishness (13:11-12, 14:20).

To wrap up the discussion, we returned to chapter 13 and its focus on love; the ultimate importance of love in our mission was perfectly highlighted by Paul’s examples in verses 1 through 3. We also pointed out the distinction between gain for others and gain for ourselves. That is, our intentions and motivations (whether love or pride/a desire to boast) matter more when it comes to personal gain than what others reap. For example, even if we serve only out of a desire to boast, others may still learn though we gain nothing because our intentions are wrong. As such, it becomes important to balance that self-focus and selflessness we discussed earlier. Finally, we shared what aspects of love our group has taken on this year (patience and tolerance, kindness) as well as some that we as individuals still struggle with at times (selflessness, overstressing, etc).

But as fruitful as devotions might be, they’re a bit of a dry read, so let’s get to the meat of the day. Josh and Albert’s dad Steven again took us down to church where the action began anew. As always, we started the day by doing some last minute prep for the day’s English lesson before returning downstairs to play with the kids during check-in time. I won’t even try to keep up the pretense of speaking for the entire team here; instead, I’ll just share the experiences I’ve had. Today’s packed schedule has made my memories of the early morning a little hazy, but I do remember teaching Bryan, one of my Brown kids, the patty-cake game that’s been taking all the children and youth by storm.

Soon, however, check-in ended, and Kevin opened up the day’s activities with a series of group games. We started with a icebreaker called, for lack of a better name, “大家好“, which involves memorizing all our school group members’ names. Since the kids quickly bored of that, we tried a couple of other games, including a Taiwanese version of Medusa and our very own favorite, Zooma Zooma. Speaking for myself, I feel most welcomed when just with the kids, so I’m grateful that we can have these little chances to slowly build up relationships with them. It always amazes me how much God can open up the hearts of these children to strangers like us so quickly.

After a moment’s rest, Kevin transitioned us from games to songs as the Taiwanese youth took the stage to lead us in worship. To be completely honest, I always feel so spoiled when I return to our American worship sessions after our Taiwan missions simply because there’s so much more passion in worship here than there is back at home. That’s not to say our home worship is lacking; it just reflects a different aspect of God’s glory. All told, though, it’s simply so much easier to plug in and feel God in Taiwan than back in America. The choices of song and dance (苏醒, I Am Set Free, etc) were, as always, also perfect for the audience. In fact, they have Jon motivated to learn how to sing all of them by the week’s end, and I can definitely understand why.

And now we’ve finally reached probably the most nerve-racking part of the day for at least one of us each day: the Taste of America Culture. Today was Jon’s turn to teach, and he did a stellar job, especially for a first-timer. The topic was American education/famous schools, and while the kids were probably tired of school, Jon did a great job of engendering excitement, tossing in a couple of Magic School Bus clips, jokes about school end times, and much more. His verses were well-placed, and I pray that the kids might keep some inkling of the fact that the lesson on education wasn’t just about school but also about the way in which we learn to best take advantage of what God has given us. When I later asked some of the kids if they enjoyed the lesson and learned anything, all of them agreed that it was quite helpful. Great job, Jon, and praise the LORD for giving him courage and devotion to do well!

For our small group English lesson today we put our new program into use: vocab or verse followed by a Wordless Book bead and the English song + verse for each group. After speaking with each of our team members, it seems that our experiences were all fairly similar, so I’ll just share mine. As always, the vocab review proved to be of decent difficulty, posing just enough of a challenge to get the kids talking to us and the Taiwanese youth. I thank God that today’s topic was something so relevant to our lives, as it gave me a great chance to start conversations with the children asking questions like “What’s your favorite class?” and “Do you know where your school is?” We also took thee time to let the kids create their own school schedules.

After the vocab worksheets were filled out and checked and the schedules shared, we could begin our main work: explaining the gospel to the children in an accessible. Thanks to Josh’s foresight, we had Wordless Book beads and bracelets to share with the kids, and they proved extremely useful in sharing the gospel. For today, we focused on the golden bead, explaining God’ beauty and majesty as expressed by our mental images of heaven as well as the start of why we can’t live in such a perfect place with God. Praise the LORD for keeping the kids so attentive and respectful even as they listen to something they probably don’t understand too well.

I ended my group’s English lesson by starting the hand motions and words to our song, “LORD I Lift Your Name on High” and explaining more of our memory verse (Ephesians 2:8-9). As we spend more time on the gospel, it seems more of the kids are beginning to pick up on the concept though whether they choose to believe is still to be seen and entirely up to God. Some of us also managed to start sharing our testimonies with the children, which will hopefully further both of our goals: to build relationships with the kids and to explain the gospel.

Having finished the English lesson, we went down to lunch. After the lunch break, we (the American team) had a meeting in which I truly believe a piece of God’s plan was revealed, something that left me in awe of the ways in which he works. To explain that, I’ll hand this over to Josh.

Josh

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Romans 12:3

Following lunch, the six of us debriefed while the rest of the kids were asleep. We spent our time together sharing some of our struggles. I started by opening up to everyone about how burdened I had already begun to feel. Having to juggle the needs of the kids along with teaching the curriculum and fighting through the language barrier, my mind is constantly overwhelmed, unable to fully immerse myself into our greater purpose—to glorify God. I find myself constantly forgetting to rely on God, and instead, focusing on my inability to communicate effectively to the kids. In this time, I shared how deeply troubled my heart was, not knowing what to expect from the group in response, But by God’s goodness, everyone encouraged and edified me greatly. They comforted me and showered me with kind words to lift up my spirits, while still being truthful, reassuring me that my role may not exactly be what I may have initially thought. Hearing how much success each member has already had with so many of their kids has been incredible and definitely challenges me to do more. Their hearts are for the kids, their words proclaim the truth, and their actions attest to that. I can say that this trip will no doubt be characterized by God’s power through their direct interactions with the kids. But my role seems to lie elsewhere. By the “measure of faith” given to me, God may choose to use me more indirectly. My hope is that this would be true this week. Regardless, our brief meeting left much of our team in tears and even more deeply grateful for one another.

To kick off the rest of the afternoon, the same Zumba-like dance instructor from last year joined us once again for another round of silly dancing & dressing up. That hour of chaos quickly shook off the cloud of drowsiness hanging over us all.

Princeton Performing

Adam Posing

Columbia Shooting their Guns

Jeremy once again led the kids in singing, or rather shouting out our love of Jesus (Deep Down). Evangeline taught the story of Noah’s Ark, engaging all the kids so well, though over half already knew the story. We ended our time with a few games: Charades and a poster-drawing contest. Each school team drew up an ark with very unique takes, some including floating dead people and even on-deck basketball courts. The judges, Amy, Kevin, and the six of us, were pulled every which way in an attempt to secure our votes. After an initial 3-way tie between Princeton, Duke, and Brown, out of nowhere, Stanford, the underdog, won in a comeback sweep, thanks to three decisive votes (Adam’s, John’s, and mine).

Stanford, the Winner!

We ended the day eating out at a delicious all-you-can-eat hot pot buffet.

Jon's Savory, Spicy Hot Pot

Prayer Requests:

  - Continual remembrance of God & His mission

  - Growing weight of the mission in our hearts