We’ve wrapped up our second week of camps! It was definitely an interesting
experience, as it was a really large jr high camp (almost 60 campers compared to 35 at
Keelung Wulun last week). We were in a slightly more rural area, so even though it was
a junior high camp, many of the kids were louder/more excited/more open than Taipei
city kids. God definitely worked and prepared the way for us, as the school expected
only 20-30 kids to sign up, but we had double that! This was our first year at this school
and working with this church. We started off our camp on Tuesday, but had to take a
break on Wednesday because of a typhoon, which thankfully barely hit us. We met at
the church and invited all the kids to come and hangout with us there. It was hard to
build relationships with them so quickly, and so only two students came, but many of the
small groups leaders were there. We had the chance to play the “Onion” game, which is
essentially asking and answering questions, with each question becoming increasingly
deeper. Through this, we were able to share our stories and struggles with the small
group leaders, as well as hear their stories and what they go through in life. This game
went on for several hours, just us sitting in a circle and talking/sharing, but the small
group leaders actually really appreciated the time in getting to know us better and to
have the chance to share about themselves too.
During camp, we once again had the chance to share the gospel with them through
English, American Culture, as well as the English songs that we taught them. We also
had an extra day of camp on Saturday to make up for the cancelled typhoon day and
more than half of the kids showed up. We also had our EV Night on Saturday, and
about 20 kids came. We sang songs, shared testimonies, and shared the gospel with
the kids at the church. Pray that the kids would be willing to start to attend the youth
fellowship at the church, and that the leaders of the group would have wisdom in getting
to know these kids and building relationships with them. Pray that these seeds would
continue to be watered by the local church, and that one day these seeds would grow
by God’s grace!
One thing really special about this camp was the relationships we built with the small
group leaders we were working with. We had 12 small group leaders - most of them
were actually non-Christian, but had been someone coming to the English Bible studies
that Sandy&Ethan have been having, a missionary couple from Montana working with
the local Taiwan church. The third night of camp, we got to house visit Harry and Herry
(they're twins, both seniors in high school) and also Simon (also a senior in high
school). We were able to talk with them a lot, as well as meet their families. Both
families have Christian connections, but neither regularly attends church. Please pray
for the small group leaders and their families! Many of them asked a lot of questions,
and were really interested in our stories and experiences of God. Harry, Herry, Simon,
Bennis, and Eric - all high school seniors who were helping out with the camp - even
took the bus with us back to Taipei to go to service with us on Sunday in Taipei and
hang out with us more (they stayed at Harry/Herry's sister's place in Taipei). Pray that
they would continue to investigate Christianity, and that God would reveal himself to
them.
