Hong Kong~

Hey guys,

Right now the team's in Hong Kong on a mini rest. If you want to know what we're up to here, you can read up on it on Tiff's blog http://tifftam19.blogspot.com/, although it's not missions related.

Missions reflections and more detailed updates will come soon when we get back to the states and get our (praise the Lord) own/stable internet back.

Love and miss you all!

Helllllo Jiayi! :) ...bye Nantou :(

Helllllo! Seaton's going to update today, but before that...

the post before was called jesus beliebers because the girl STMers and TAs did a cover of Justin Beiber's Baby for the final performance at the AEF in Nantou...and it was stuck in our heads for days. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ohhhh~

Now...Seaton will update and recap on our last few days.

After the alter call on Wednesday we were given an opportunity to share more openly about the Gospel. Thursday night was hectic because everyone was also preparing for the evening performances. It was a chance for each class to perform their worship songs in front of their friends and kids. In addition to the ten worship songs the STMer/ TA performer bringing "American culture" The girls performed a remix of Justin Bieber's Baby "Jesus, Jesus o0o0o0o0h!" The guys went Asian pride with Big Bang's Lies and Wedding Dress. After doing it once indoor we took it outside and perform all ten worship songs again. In the classes many teachers once again ask the students to see who accepts Jesus in to their lives so the teachers can pray for them. Please continue to pray for them.Friday was the day kids left. We were given chances to say a little somethings to our kids. After sharing there were a lot of tears. It was very sad to see them leave one by one. After the kids we were given a time to do personal reflection. It was sad because just hours after our kids left it was soon the rest of the Nantou team. By night once again it was just the STMers TAs and Worship Team.

On Saturday the entire day was dedicated to the Parade. The parade was near Carrefour. It was exciting because the Puli team was back. The Worship Team did an Aboriginal dance from their tribe BUNNIH It was nice to see everyone today again. After the parade we were given a chance to eat out with students' parent. Most of us ended up at a shave ice place. We went back at night and the excitement continued all night.

Starting on Sunday our main focus was no longer the students simply bonding with the TAs. Especially when the Worship Team went back to their home in the mountain, Hsinyi right after service. Service was originally set up to be half testimony sharing and half message. It ended up the whole hour and a half devoted to testimony.

OKAYYY! Jenn here noww..

Sooooo.. seaton left off on Sunday. So Monday we went to visit homes. We went to visit the aboriginals and some of our students! It was a good experience seeing where they lived. Also, we went to a grape farm where one of the students mom worked. Afterwards, we visited some of our students home. One of my students lived in the mountain area. It was an important place in the village because it was the place where people of the village came to meet up. It was also raining really hard, and they told us that when it rains too much, they have to run. It is a very scary thought that their living situation is not very good. Seeing where all these people lived gave me a whole new perspective on Taiwan.

Tuesday...AMUSEMENT PARK TIMEE!! It was called 9 Tribe. It also had a theme for the summer, One Piece. Lots of students were excited about it haha. So we first took a cable car up to the top of the amusement park and then slowly walked down. There werent many rides, but we got to see some aboriginal dance. There was one water ride where we went backwards, and got SUPER wet! then we went on another ride that was very very bumpy and twisty and loopy! It was pretty fun until...it started POURING! yes, it was pouring and a lot of us did not have umbrellas. Besides the rain, the rest was fun! Afterwards, we ate at a really nice buffet at a hotel. The amusement park and the hotel was located around sun moon lake. It was really nice and pretty.

So today, we cleaned up the high school where we have been staying at and drove to Jiayi to join another camp. We met up with the other Canaan people and we just helped out with the kids. Afterwards we had a really nice dinner, and thats about it for now!

Reflections:

Jenn: This missions trip was definitely not what I had expected. It was a lot harder than what I thought it would be. For the Nantou camp, I was placed in Group 10, the highest group of kids with age ranging from 12-15. I was a little dissapointed because everyone wanted the little cute kids and didn't want the older kids. However, I felt that it would be good for me, because since they are the oldest, they know the most English. (I know very very little Chinese). So during the preparations, I was overwhelmed by the language barrier. I constantly had to keep asking what was going on and looked confused all the time. In addition, we had translators(TAs), but my translator wasn't too good in English. Also, he was very very shy and did not talk much. Unfortunately, I was a bit shy as well. It was both our first times at AEF! It was very frustrating trying to communicated with the TA to talk to the helpers or to talk to the kids. When I was left alone, I had almost no way of communicating with the kids. They ended up not being able to listen to me and me not being able to control them. After a little breakdown, I got a huge wave of encouragement from everyone. So many leaders, came up to me to comfort me and to give me support. My whole class wrote me notes and told me they loved me. Everyone showed me love and it was such a great feeling. I was very shocked at how much everyone cared for me and was worried about me. The rest of the camp, I felt that my class had gotten so much better and that even though language was still a barrier, they had respect for me. I loved them and they loved me. I knew this because the last day, everyone was very sad to go. We took a lot of pictures, got contact information, and everyone gave hugs all around. This camp definitely was a big learning experience for me in learning to depend on God and to not worry. I felt that I was too stressed about everything and not leaning on God to help me through it. I thought I would have never gotten through the camp either. I suffered a lot, but out of the suffering, I became a lot stronger. I have so much love from all my friends in Taiwan all because of God's love for me. This missions trip was definitely very hard, but was a great experience overall.

Jesus Beliebers.

Hey guys!

Sorry we haven't been updating much... We don't really get a lot of time to rest...we get packed days with even more packed nights.

We just finished our third day of camp here (Wednesday). We're all pretty tired, but God's definitely been teaching all of us a lot.

This year AEF's themes for camp are Reconciliation and Culture, and not only are we learning to teach about reconciliation and culture but we, ourselves are also learning about reconciliation and culture.

Sharon:

I have the 8th class, which is 11-12 year olds. They're a lot less mature and a lot more difficult to handle than I had originally expected. My class has been pretty rowdy, but I can definitely tell with each passing day that they are learning to love us and be more cooperative. God's definitely been answering our prayers here at camp. :)

I've been struggling with loving kids that are consistently uncooperative, but God's also been showing me their lovable sides. I can't believe this week is almost over.

I've also been blessed though! God's blessed me with a great backbone in the Davis team. I love when after a long day we get to meet up and just pray. I've also been blessed with sooo many new friendships. I have an amazing team with my teaching group that have humbled me with their willingness to love and serve the children and myself.

Today, we had the alter call and the majority of our classes raised their hands to accept Jesus! and they all did their prayers...now we just have to follow up and see if they understood what they just did...

And I started this post like 4 hours ago, and after hours of dance practice, recording and doing choreography, I am tired and going to go to bed...the rest of the team shall update tomorrow. hopefully.

...to be continued...we shall explain Jesus Beliebers then... :)

1. Pray for us as we reach out to our students more and our TA who translate for us as well.

2. Also please pray for our health, since it's long days and long nights, we don't always get a lot of rest and we use a lot of energy.

3. Pray that we can seek energy and love from the Lord to get through each day and that our urgency to reach out to our kids and TAs would increase.

4. Pray also for communication for the team from America because there are cultural and language barriers

5. Pray for Peter and Cherry: Peter and Cherry are siblings that are in Jenn's class. Peter left on the first day because of an eye condition. His sister Cherry, gets picked on in class. The girls don't want to befriend her for no particular reason.

Also pray for Eva: Eva is a girl in another class that is in the same situation as Cherry. She gets picked on in class and none of the girls want to befriend her. They outright bully and make fun of her, so sometimes she resorts to violent or disruptive behavior. Pray for her and also her teachers that they will know how to handle her and her classmates.

6. Pray that our TAs and helpers wouldn't be too stressed out and will be able to be moved by what they are seeing about God and the gospel through AEF.

7. Pray for Tim: Tim is a boy in Sharon's class. He seems angry all the time and doesn't cooperate with the teacher. He doesn't want to do anything and it makes it hard to teach class. His unwillingness to participate also encourages other students to do the same, so pray that his teachers will know how to properly love yet discipline him.

Thanks for all your prayers! Hope to post again soon. :D