Wulun Recap (7/10-7/13)
Dear brothers and sisters,
Sorry for the super late recap of our second camp. This trip has been an emotional roller coaster for many of us. This was especially true for our Luodon/WuLun team.
We began this camp the day after our final event at Luodong, which gave us little rest and time to recover emotionally from the whirlwind that happened at Luodong. However, immediately upon arrival we were greeted by 3 of our former campers (and later that night another) who have/are going to church consistently now. The pastor also mentioned that there were others who come occasionally for special events/classes held at the church.
From our first day at camp, we knew that this camp was not going to be normal. We were faced with repeated hardships with the school, with ourselves, and with our curriculum. However, as we learned in our devotional the week before, “For if their purpose is or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
As this was our first time running a camp with the school, multiple miscommunications happened between us, the church, and the school about our starting time. This led to mass chaos at the start of the very first day. About 30 of the 40 campers arrived 45 minutes earlier than the supposed registration time. At the end of the day when school administration did not allow us to invite the junior high students to hang out with us at the church. We also found out later that many of our students had cram school and could not join our evangelical outreach on Wednesday.
But if God is for us who can be against us?
The chaotic morning righted itself with some prayer and hardwork by our small group leaders. Despite opposition, the school administrator was not there for the second day and we were able to invite kids to come play on the second day and the school administrator conceded after some discussion. In fact, on the last day the school administrator and principal stated that the local newspaper had asked them to submit an article about their most special event at school and that they wanted to use our camp. They have also asked if we could return next year and that they would prioritize our camp when scheduling their summer programs. Our prayers for kids to come were answered from everywhere. We ran into past campers randomly on the street, in supermarkets, and at was even able to share the gospel with our favorite fried chicken lady who we have known for the last few years! In the end, we had over 25 kids come out to our evangelical outreach on Wednesday with some kids who even skipped class to come. Many of these kids also came to see us off as we were boarding our bus to leave.
It’s always difficult to say goodbye to these camps and to our new friends but we believe that God is at work in this place. By no means was it an easy camp, we had our fair share of fighting, tears, misunderstandings, and failures, but we know and trust that God is in pursuit of our future brothers and sisters. Pray that the seeds that we have planted would not be taken by crows, choked by weeds, or crushed by stone. Pray that the God would utilize the church to remove the stones, tend to the garden, and water the soil. Pray for the school administrators to not only be welcoming to the gospel message but would also come to know and believe this gospel. As I’ve said to our team members, be greedy when praying for the salvation of souls. Pray that all of our campers would come to know Christ and that the landscape of Keelung would be completely changed. For we know “that with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
