God Works Through the Broken (VBS Day 1!)

1 Peter 4:13 “But rejoice in as much as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when glory is revealed”

Hi everyone! It’s Nicole here writing my first Taiwan Missions blog! Today was the first day of our VBS program. It was very tiring, but at the same time extremely rewarding. For me, the past few days have been filled with so much joy and excitement, and I’m looking forward for the upcoming week.

To be quite honest, the weeks leading up to this mission trip were full of self doubt and worry about my place on the team and what I could contribute. The days leading up to the trip as well as our travel day contained many sleepless nights of anxiety and hesitation. Many thoughts of “am I good enough” or “how could I possibly contribute anything to this team” kept running over and over again in my head, creating this barrier that I couldn’t overcome in the moment. I have since then learned how to slowly prevail over this barrier starting with meeting all the Taiwanese youth as well as Amy, Angela, and I’s amazingly welcoming host family (Cherry and her mom).

As for today, our day started with arriving to church around 8am where we met our first group of kids. Pretty much all the kids, excluding a few outliers, were very shy and quiet today because it's the first day, which in turn produced a group of pretty well-behaved children. The youth performed a play to start off the day, followed by body worship (dance along songs). 

Kids dancing along to Taiwan youth leading body worship

Next up, a member of our team paired with their Taiwanese counterpart told the day's Bible story. Today was Matt and Joshua telling the story of Daniel. Tomorrow is me and Angela and Penny(wish us luck!)

Joshua (left), Matt (right) telling Bible story

Later in the afternoon, it came time for our US team to perform our English songs to the kids. It was definitely very tiring, but seeing all the kids singing and dancing along made me forget about my mid-day exhaustion and the overbearing heat.

Our team leading body worship

The time when I felt the language barrier most was during the time when we had to practice the plays. We each were assigned a play to teach to our kids. The play was predominantly traditional Chinese so I had a hard time reading it. So, when kids came up to me to ask what certain words were, I felt helpless because I also couldn't read it. When they would just look up to me waiting for a response, when I couldn't give one just made me feel very incompetent. However, it was heartwarming when one of my older kids saw me struggling and offered to teach me how to read traditional Chinese.

Two of Angela and I's kids during snack time (aren't they cute??)

By the end of the day, I was pretty worn out and I could tell so were many of the other youth. We ate a delicious dinner provided by the adults and debriefed. Overall, my very first day of Taiwan VBS was very fulfilling. I could definitely feel God allowing me to be more calm and less anxious. I went from feeling useless and broken to feeling God working through me to do my best and bring my A-game. I am immensely grateful for this amazing opportunity God placed in my life and I can't wait to see what God has in store for me as well as the other youth and kids throughout this week.

Psalm 34:18 "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit"

Prayer requests:

- Patience and energy for the kids

- Close relationships with Taiwanese youth

- To be able to bring all our worries to God and have a peaceful heart that is ready to serve

- Allowing God to work through the hearts of the kids and for them to take, even the smallest thing, from this week