The Fun Never Stops In BaoZhong Taiwan! (Ben Lee)

Hey guys! This is Ben and this is what happened on Day 3. We woke up to a beautiful sky. It never ceases to amaze me, the beauty in everything He creates. I was thinking that the first week would be mostly just rain, but God has provided us with nice weather for us to enjoy.

We started the day with group devotions. I thought it was a good way to set our hearts in the right foundation before the day began. We talked about John 21:1-19 where Jesus told Simon Peter “How much do you love me?” And he prepared Peter to follow Him, even if it was somewhere that he didn’t want to go. So the team had this question in their hearts of whether or not we loved Him throughout the morning and were able to meditate on it.

After a hearty breakfast of egg pancake and breakfast burgers, we began our Sunday service. This Taiwanese service was a totally new experience for the CEC members, and the fact that it was 2 and a half hours long!! But it was interesting that a few local Taiwanese people came in to worship as well as the listen to the sermon. The sermon was on Matthew 2. It was titled, “Which On Are You?” The pastor talked about how there are different responses to the birth of Jesus. Are you a teacher of the law who rejected and feared His coming? Or were you one of the magi who earnestly sought His presence and rejoiced at His coming?

Raaaaiiiinnnn!! This was the first time that we witnessed the monsoon in Taiwan during lunch. You’d have to see it in person but it was torrential! During lunch our Gospel Center hostesses cooked us a traditional Taiwanese meal. And we used this opportunity to bond with our other Taiwanese coworkers as well as the VGM leaders. I feel like God really used this meal time to really gel the teams.

After a short post-lunch nap, we played another game so that we could be more comfortable with each other, even if it meant getting really close face to face (literally). Everyone had to put a roll of tape on their nose with the sticky side out. Then they had to face off and try to steal another member’s piece of tape. The objective of the game was to steal all the tape. If you lost your tape, you had to join by grabbing the winner’s shoulders.

Jamin (left)

Guess who won??!?!! (Leave your answers in the comments hahaha)

 Then we had a few hours to rest some more as our Taiwanese coworkers prepared their portion of the teaching material. We really bonded as a team as we spent hours cutting and gluing papers under Hannah’s direction to use as decorations in the auditorium of the school. We also used this time to ask each other a lot of funny questions such as “Who do you think is the most sassy?” and we would all vote on the top two.

After dinner, we had a worship session led by our very own college worship  crew of Doris, Nathan, and Hannah. Even with the language difference, everyone was able to worship and seemed to really be able to praise God together.

Later, we performed our skits in front of our Taiwanese coworkers. Though we were nervous, everyone had a lot of fun and the Taiwanese coworkers enjoyed our performance as well as gave us helpful feedback before we performed in front of the kids. It was nice to have some audience participation.

At the end, the CEC members grouped up with the Taiwanese coworkers and spent time getting familiar with their set of teaching material. We also did a practice performance of the teaching material with the other groups. The first was about learning English and saying names, the second was about responsibility.

In these past few days of preparation, everyone’s worked hard and we’re all really excited for the oncoming days in which we will share not only English, but hopefully our testimony to the kids at the school.

And we still have prayer requests!

1) Health! We've had a few bloody noses and some of us are feeling a little bit of sore throat in the morning. We pray that God would heal us, and continue to protect us as we serve here.

2) Energy. Sleeping is sometimes hard due to the heat, or the hard ground. We pray that God would give us peace and a good night's rest. Also, that the energy that He does provide will be used for His glory.

3) A praise that our teams are bonding well and we're getting over the language and culture barrier.

4)Continue to pray that God would give us a heart of humility. That we remember we're not here to necessarily have fun or make friends with the kids, but to do His will with a joyful heart.