A day at camp...
The camps have started and this is our first full day, let me tell about what went on today in camp.
To start the day off our team of teachers got together at seven-fifteen and had devotions. We read through some of the Psalms and then went around and shared something out of God's Word that had encouraged us. We also spent some time in prayer.
After that we had breakfast, which I guess I can say is not too bad. They give us tea and a breakfast sandwich that has been close to deep fried. The first time I had one of these sandwiches, which has bacon and egg along with some type of onion on it. Each time I eat one it gets harder to choke down, but I am proud to announce that I did eat it this morning.
The first small group started at nine. Ben, Isaac, and I have a group of seven children to work with. The children are just awesome, their names are Connie, Wendy (Way Ly), Bena, Jack, Angel, Jason, and Michael. We have two teacher assistants (TAs) that translate for us if needed, Paul and Ginger. Ben taught about plurals, Isaac was in charge of the game and I got the wonderful job of getting the children to do mouth exercises.
During large group I helped Emily review the song and "I will's" of ways to obey. I am starting to feel more comfortable in front of the children and I am still learning how to speak slowly enough for the students to understand me. They also told a story about dogs, there was the good dog and the bad dog.
The second small group we reviewed plurals. Then we taught some very simple directions, for example right, left, turn, turn around, and take___step(s). We helped the students learn this by playing a game.
From eleven to twelve they did crafts, but I decided to rest instead as that would be my only free moment of my day. So I clean my room a little and then Ben, Isaac and I had a big discussion on missions. We never did come to a good agreement.
Now we have come to another time of day when we get to eat Chinese food. For lunch we had fried noodles, soup and small tomatoes. I passed the small tomatoes since I was not sure how we are supposed to eat them (you have got to understand sometimes the Chinese eat there food different ways than those of us who are from the States) and I also passed by the soup.
From 1:30 to 3:00 we had large group, I helped with teaching the "I will's" of ways to be responsible and I also tried to be the old grandmother in the story. The story was about a knight who withstood temptation and stayed at the job he was given even when he thought there was a greater need else where.
At three we all got ready and went down to the creek to wade. The wading turned into water fights and then into swimming. Some of the children would call teacher, teacher, and when they had got our full attention they would soak us. One sweet little girl would ask us to give her rides on our backs in the water. After an hour of fun we walked back to the school where we are staying and got cleaned up.
For dinner, we had a barbeque with the children the Chinese way. Near the end the children had me cook the food and then taught me how to figure out when it was done. There were so many unknown foods we had cooked that I did not know what was what, so I picked something that looked okay. Wrong choice, it tasted like seaweed. Later on to my horror I found out that I had just eaten a food I hoped I would never eat because it totally goes against what the Bible says about what to eat and not to eat. I had just eaten a blood cake, yummy!!! We taught the children how to make Smores, they enjoyed them.
At seven thirty we had another large group and they did a skit on a Chinese as a second language class. Those how spoke English got painted on the face with white paint. Since the skit was in Chinese I only caught a little of what was being said and done. Then came our one and only chance to share the gospel to the children, we did a chalk drawing for them. I truly pray that the truth they heard will someday impact their lives.
That ends our day with the children, we still have meetings to do, lessons to plan, and things to write before we can go to bed, but it has been a wonderful day.
Josephine (Jo) Papp
