Day 1, Take 2!

Hi friends!

It’s been a while since we’ve posted anything on this blog, but we’re back in Tainan and ready to serve again! We’ve got a new team, as shown in the sidebar of this blog, though about half will only be with us for the first week. The Canaan church group in Taipei are primarily new faces, but there are a few familiar faces that we were very excited to see. There’s also 8 medical students joining us, only one of which was here last year. Through God’s grace, preparations have gone smoothly, especially with such complicated logistics.

We arrived in Tainan yesterday by HSR at around 1, but this year it wasn’t pouring, so we actually got a chance to take in our surroundings. There were rice paddies and other crop fields all around us, overall a much calmer pace than Taipei. Another hour long drive and 15 minute walk brought us to Auntie Teresa’s house, considerably sweatier. There may be a heatwave at home, but SoCal’s got nothing on Taiwan. We walked into another fruit feast, filled with pineapples, lychee, longan, and mangos, including a couple mangos from Uncle Bill’s garden! After stuffing ourselves, we spent some time catching up with our Asia team and prepping for the weeks ahead. It was the first time we had all been together in a while, so it was great time of fellowship. Afterwards, we made our way to a delicious dumpling dinner and headed back to the dorms to settle in for the night.

Today was orientation day. Surprisingly, we all aren’t too jetlagged, so we woke up at around 6:30, just in time to get ready before breakfast arrived. After scarfing down our sandwiches and burritos, we walked over to the Elim center and got ready for the day ahead. We started with some worship time, led by the Canaan members, then launched ourselves into a practice run of what each day will generally look like. This included teaching/singing the songs, going over lessons, and playing the games we’ll be using with the kids. It was long and a bit complicated, but definitely a good chance to meet everyone and combine the preparations of 3 separate groups for the first time. The dean of the medical students’ school also came by, which was pretty neat.

This year, our curriculum follows the life of Joseph and God’s sovereignty in his life. With this in mind, we’ll be going over different character traits that the kids can learn from him. We won’t be going over the gospel as directly as last year, but it’ll be incorporated into their crafts with a gospel bracelet.

The FCBC group began to get pretty sleepy by 2, so it was hard for us to stay focused until we wrapped up at 5:30. Definitely pray for us to continue getting over the residual jetlag and being able to keep up in the weeks ahead. While it was funny to watch everyone try their best to keep their eyes open, it wouldn’t be great to fall asleep when we’re with the kids. Please also pray for the kids that we meet tomorrow, that their hearts and ears will be open and receptive to what we’ll be teaching them. So much time, sweat, and tears have been put into what we’ll be sharing with them. and they’re already so loved by everyone here. Thankfully, the weather has been great; no rain and less humid than last year, so here’s to hoping it remains that way for our time here. Also pray for unity amongst all the groups, especially because of the language barrier. It’s not as big of an issue this year, because most people in our group can speak Chinese, but there’s still a few of us that depend on translations, which means everything takes twice as long and makes it pretty hard to focus. Despite that, everyone has been absolutely wonderful and we’ve all bonded quickly. And of course, please pray that the kids will be able to feel His love in all that we do and that everything we do will be done to glorify God.

So that’s where we’re at now! More prep is taking place as this is getting typed up, but overall, I think we’re all very excited to see what’s to come. Updates won’t be coming as frequently as they did last year, but there should be another one soon. Thank you again for reading this and coming along with us as we serve the Lord together! Your prayers are needed and so so appreciated.

Goodnight from Tainan!