And the Real Fun Begins... (Johnny Po)

Hey everyone! This is Johnny here. The first day of camp has finally come! This morning we woke up once again to the wonderful human alarm clocks Hannah and Nathan (this time at 5:50). Morning devotions touched on Acts 6:8-7:60, talking about the story of Stephen and his death. The passage encouraged us to stay strong and to stand our ground, following the Lord with everything each and every step of the way. After a short breakfast of Taiwanese style sandwiches, we began our ~10 minute walk to Baozhong Middle School. 

 When we arrived at the school, some of the students were already there. Final preparations were made, both the Taiwan and STM Team worked all morning to make sure everything was as perfect as possible. The morning was hot and humid; typical of Taiwan. All throughout the day, the electric fans were often occupied with people trying to cool off.

The camp officially started at 9:00AM, with Raymond and Vion starting it off. The kids were each given a small slip of paper that had a certain animal on it. These animals determined what group the kids were split into. The kids were very shy in the beginning, at one point, we had an entire group of boys run into the boys bathroom when they were introducing their group's animal. The other groups of students were also very shy, pretty unwilling to do much.

Then the group leaders (us) were introduced, each group having their own special introduction routine. After introductions, we taught the students the "I Can Do It" song, which we all knew very well by now. At this time, the students were still very shy and very few actually did the dance moves.

Then Hannah and Nathan led the students into a session of "Funky Chicken", which also got little response from the kids. I noticed that most of these kids have friend groups, and they always try to get into these cliques whenever there's free time.

After the opening ceremony and morning activities, the students split off into the small groups with their group leaders. The Taiwan co-workers taught the basics "Hi, my name is ____", followed by a simple Rock, Paper, Scissors game for the kids to play and practice their newly learned english. Then a wonderful lunch was served by the school, giving us a chance to talk to these students and get to know them better.

When we met back at the auditorium, the groups got to play a very fun and challenging human knot game, a game that required the whole team to work together. Then we took a whole-group picture of all the students and leaders together. By the end of the day, the kids were much more willing to participate in dances and other activities, and many of the were much less shy than before.

When the day at school was over, many of the leaders went out to a desert restaurant that served delicious shaved ice, boba, etc. It was a very rewarding and delicious experience.

Some of the kids that attended the camp accompanied us on our way back to the Gospel Center, where we got to just hang out and have fun with these kids playing Uno for an hour or so before they went home.

After a dumpling dinner, Irene shared a touching testimony about one of the students at the Bilingual Camp this year. This student has gone through a lot, rejection, mockery, hate...you could see the pain and hurt on his face. His entire life was changed when a co-worker last year decided to talk to him more and show him the love that God has for us. He accepted the Lord into his heart, and he's come back this year again.

Then everyone got together into a big circle, and we all took turns sharing something that we were thankful for, and also a prayer request.

Prayer Requests:

1. Continue to pray that the kids would become less shy and more participating in all the activities.
2. Pray for God to give us the energy and strength that we need to lead these kids and love on them.
3. Pray for relationships: Both between the us and the kids, and also amongst ourselves.
4. Continue praying for each of the kids' hearts, that God will be working through them during these next few days, and later on even after we leave Taiwan.
5. Pray that God would reveal more kids like the one in the testimony, that we as leaders would be able to better serve these children and show the love of God to them.

Above is a picture of Stinky Tofu, something that one must try when they're in Taiwan.