We’re officially done!! Five weeks of camps have absolutely flown by, and the remaining members are now busy organizing materials and cleaning the mission house in preparation for the 2017 team while saying goodbye to 2016 team members who are headed home.
The last week of camps, we held two camps, one at Fengming Elementary in Yingge and one at Huajiang High School in Taipei.
This was our second year returning to Fengming Elementary. Previously, there was no church in the area, but after an overwhelmingly positive response to last year’s camp, the church plant was sped up and has now been active in the area for a few months! It was a huge blessing to see how God has been working in this area, through church activities and their weekly community programs for both children and adults.
About 70 students attended this year’s camp, with a good number of them being repeats from last year that were excited to see some familiar faces on our team. While learning more about the area, many members were shocked to hear how prominent folk religion is in the area, such as how the entire school goes to the temple to worship together. As a result, this camp may be the first exposure to Christianity for some of these students. We were blessed with some very curious kids, and got to share with them about God’s power and God’s love, through personal testimony, Bible stories, and stories from earlier on in the trip. We also were able to go on almost 10 house visits, where we were able to share with families more about why we came to Taiwan and God’s love.
The last day of camp was really special for us, as the Huajiang team finished one day before us and was able to come down to help out at Fengming! The kids were thrilled to see even more familiar teachers and friendly new faces to play with, and it was a huge blessing for the original Fengming team to have the extra help and extra energy! This was the first time this year that the entire i42 team was at one camp together, and being the last day, it was really special for all of us to finally be united at one camp. It was very bittersweet to say goodbye to the kids that we had met, but it was so great to look back and reflect on God’s faithfulness and goodness despite our weaknesses.
