Hey everyone! The last week of English camp in Taipei went very well. Chase, Katrina, Josiah, Mai, and I taught 29 kids, half of whom were repeats from last week. The kids we had were very special and I was able to make some very special friendships with some of them. The English level of most of the students was good, so we were able to talk with them and build good relationships with many of them. Three of my students have been texting/calling me almost continually for the last two days. I hope that God will be able to use the seeds that have been planted to add to His kingdom.
On Friday, Chase and Josiah left at 10 in the morning, so the rest of us had to pull together and do the finishing activities by ourselves. As soon as we finished having lunch with the kids, we were taken to our apartments where we picked up our stuff, loaded in to a van, drove to Jiji, and then on to Shuili to spent the night. We had a great time with the teams from Taipei, Jiji, and Shuili all together (for the most part) along with a bunch of great TAs. We had a blast together, and the time went way to fast. The next morning we all were sent to our various camps.
I am a part of the Taichung team composing of: Daniel, Josh, Rebekah, Katrina, Isaac, Joel, and Mai. After a short bus ride and lunch at McDonald's we piled into several cars and drove to the school here in Taichung. The school is on a mountainside surrounded by mountains, fruit groves, clouds, gardens, and lizards. We have running water (huge blessing), actual beds (big plus), and INTERNET! Sorry, some things are valued differently here. Most of the teams cell phones do not have a signal unless suspended out over the second story balcony, except for mine which works just fine everywhere.
This area was hit very hard by the typhoon so there is a lot of damage to the roads vegetation here. This is the first time that King Car has worked with school in Taichung County so we have a big responsibility to at least try to look like we know what we are doing. Most of the children we will be teaching will know little to no English so it could be very interesting for the next two weeks as we will be working with the same kids two weeks in a row. Um, please pray for us and if you could remember to pray for us that would be great and if I didn't mention it before, PRAY FOR US!!!!! Actually, I think it will be great. However, we can always use all the prayer you can give. Pray for the children that they would cooperate and for our TAs that they would see Christ shining out through us, and for all the officials that we are working with that they would like what they see and that this door would be opened even wider.
God bless you all from the heart of Taiwan,
Jo'el
