July 14, 2009
Dear Sisters and Brothers:
Greeting from Hou-Li!
We finished the camp at Uei-Mei Elementary School. The camp was very successful. Kids were all very happy. Some seem to have learned a lot. Most have formed a bound with their teachers. We invited parents to come to the performance night where kids showed off what they had learned. There were more than 30 parents, more than I expected. Almost every one of them told us how much they appreciated us. One parent brought a box of pear to her kid’s teacher. Some made offering to our host church. One parent told me that her daughter told her how Jesus loves us when she went home from the camp every day. It is extremely gratifying. I’m pretty sure that we have sowed some seed here.
Today is the second day of our second camp. There was report yesterday that a hurricane was forming south of Taiwan and would have arrived in Taiwan today. We were concerned that we might need to shut down the camp like last year. But by the grace of our Lord, the tropical depression never formed into typhoon and we only had some rain today.
The school where we are having camp is less than half a mile from the first camp and is in the downtown area of the village. Students are rather well dressed; some of them know English quite well. Every one of them is very well behaved. We don’t have any slightest problems in maintain the orders. But they are much more reserved, less responsive. It takes us a great effort to let them open up. Please pray for us!
Some of our youths usually wears flip flop to the camp. On the very first day, the principal told us it is against their school policy. Today, only Rickey and I wore sandals; everyone else wears sneakers. We usually try to get the students excited, yelling and screaming. The principal told us not to do so. She is concerned that the students might form the habits of screaming and yelling. One of our youths had his hands in the pocket; the principal told him not to do so. All these are because we are the role model; we need to set the example for their students. Good grief! But we understand her; we are doing whatever she told us to. Most importantly, the principal is extremely nice to us in her own way. She is also very supportive of us.
Our Rev. Chen who had previously worked with many, many youths told me that our youths in this Summer Mission Team are the best that he has ever worked with. Parents, you should feel proud of these youths.
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Immanuel
Andrie Chen
陳啟宗
