Transition Time

Hi All, this is Andrew checking in for Team A. It is now Monday afternoon at our second camp here in Yu Min. We finished our last week in Chigu on Saturday with a follow up meeting. It was very well attended by the children, (of the 65 in camp, there were about 50 at the follow up meeting). We had the opportunity to present the Gospel in a very clear way that our Taiwanese coworkers were not free to do. In the area of Chigu, traditional ancestor worship is very strong, and so there is very strong opposition among parents and grandparents to children leaving the traditional beliefs, because they view it as a sign that their children don’t love them since they don’t want to “take care of their parents after they die”. Last year after the follow up meeting many parents came to the principal of the school and asked that the English Camp not be allowed back this year. The Lord overcame, and camp was held again this year, but with strict orders on the level of Gospel presentation allowed. We were also asked that if we do come back again next year to not even do a follow up meeting by the principal. However it’s not their fault they can’t control those crazy Americans J. So we presented a “Sin Chair” mime, which shows how sin traps us, and the only way to be free is by praying to God. One of our coworkers whose job here in Taiwan is actually translating and writing notes for a Chinese Study Bible explained the meaning in a very clear way to the children. We then made 5 color bracelets with the children to illustrate the Gospel and explained it along the way as we went.

Now about our current week; our coworkers are made up of a smattering of people from all over Taiwan very few of them knew each other prior to this camp, and I think the most that attend a single fellowship are four (most camps in Taiwan are run by a single church or college fellowship group and therefore know each other well prior to camp). Many of them are older (mid to late 20’s, as opposed to most groups that are predominantly comprised of college students), and the level of English among our coworkers is quite low. So a prayer request is that communication would not be a hindrance to the work here. This is the first time that an English Camp has been held at this school and there is no church in the surrounding area (another prayer request, that God would use this camp to help start a fellowship here for children that are touched by the camp). A teacher at the school who is a Christian and lives about 30 minutes from here is the one who arranged for the camp to be held. It is a very neat opportunity for us to help establish a work in this community, because only the Camp Leader has ever been involved in a VGM camp before, and all of us have done at least one camp before (last week), and for three of us, this is our sixth VGM camp, so we are able to provide a lot of helpful suggestions and tips based on experience. I believe that this will become even more of an opportunity for us to minister to our fellow coworkers as the week progresses and things begin to get more hectic and off schedule. I’ve already gotten quite long with this post, so I will finish with a few more prayer requests. With this being the first time a VGM camp has been held at the school, the school is quite concerned about us presenting the Gospel, so pray for wisdom (especially among our coworkers since they do most of the talking with the students) in presenting the Gospel, and pray for the message to find soft hearts. Also pray that we would present a good testimony to the school, and they would be excited to host more VGM camps, and even to request other camps to be started in this area.