Part of the team

This is half of the camp workers. So sad to leave them!!

Heading home

Got seats together on plane!! Wahoo. 

So sad to leave..... but already looking forward to our next visit to Taiwan!

New Foods

We have enjoyed teying new foods!
A couple of meals each day are bowls of rice with different meats and veggies.

 Tonight we celebrated 4th July at Subway! It was delicious.

 Kids get a snack each day... sometimes it is these BUTTER cookies. Ok, ok... i had to try the kids snack and it was GOOD!

 Shaved ice is a specialty here. This is Mango topped ice with pudding.

 Fresh fruit has been amazing!! Chloe got the best pineapple at the market. They cut it up when she bought it! We have also enjoyed mango, asian pears and dragon fruit for breakfast. We have tried passion fruit too.

 Ruth and I decided to try some kimchee from a street vendor.

 We ate lunch at the morning market. Felt like 100+ degrees, but we still ordered soup. Also had some spicy rice!! 

Crazy how you can just stop to buy food down most streets!

Teaching teams

We are teaching 5 classes this week.
Here are the teams:

Everyone seems to be working hard and giving it their all. 

Excitement at camp

Each day at camp we have sung English songs with motions, Chinese songs, heard 2 true  stories followed with small group discussions, taught 2 English lessons, had breakout sessions like crafts, active games, board games, etc, and had lunch.
Song time.... looks like this:

One lesson today was... What's your favorite flavor? Several kids acted like they didn't know what ice cream was. My co-teacher snuck out and bought ice cream treats for all the kids. It was so much fun to seem them try the treats.

We also enjoyed teaching them dodgeball and kickball.

Hard to believe only 2 more days! I have grown to love several children and they are excited to see us each day.

Happy July 4th from Taiwan!!!

Everyone washes their own dishes.

Interesting concept..... and this washing of bowls and chopsticks happens everywhere! Even in the classroom at school.

Rules

When your set of class rules looks like this, it is hard to remind those misbehaving about which rule they have broken!

On a serious note, I think we need to learn some Taiwanese before we return!

Sunday

It was a great day! Pretty cool to sing the songs in English during worship while others sang in Chinese!!

Thankful one of our teammates volunteered to translate the sermon to us. 

Since Chris leads the youth, Chloe and Timon had the chance to join in today for their meeting. 

Then back to training for all of us. 

Tomorrow starts camp. (8-4 pm M-F. ) 

Then we will do lesson plans for the next day. 

Lift up  that He continues to protect our stomachs. We are eating what is provided. 

Also for the family leading music, that He will spare the virus one of their kids has, from others.

We are having a  blast! (And hot enough to blast off too. Lol)

Day 1 camp

We had a great day!

Lift up for tomorrow-

1. Rain slacks off. Typhoon went beside Taiwan today and rain POURED all day today. (But it did help with the heat today in the classes. )

2. Children and workers are well. (Had a sick child in my class today. And main music leader's child is sick too.)

3. Stories are told with clarity and hearts receive them. 

4. We all 4 taught English today! As we have prepared for a new lesson tomorrow, help us be energetic and able to hold kids' attention. (Language barrier is a little tough for us. )

This is photo of classes of children arriving to our first activity. 

Too tired to write it all, but will send more tomorrow. 

Day 1 starting!!!

Quick look at one class. 

City

Had a chance today to see some of the city. Even made some new friends!

Tomorrow we will worship in Chinese in the morning, before we finish our training!!

Firsts....

We went this afternoon to see the classrooms in the school. First: no AC in school! You open windows and turn on some fans. (And of course squatty potties only and you must bring your own TP. )

Different types of food.  First: passion fruit and lychee fruit. Even eating from places on the street where we completely didn't know what it is. 

Proud of my kids for trying everything!

It is really hot and humid! We are drinking lots of water and thankful for any AC we get. 

Preparations

Finished another day of training and preparations. 

Pretty cool to see how everyone uses their God given gifts and seems we compliment each other well.

Scott has jumped right in and playing guitar to all the songs we will sing. Timon stepped up to singing and leading the songs. Chloe and I are dancers! (Yes, very animated during worship here. So we are learning all the song motions. )

Ruth will get to participate in the camp, so during some of our training sessions, she has helped pack up the crafts and game supplies. 

Learned today that we four will teach in 4 different classrooms.  Meaning... we will all be responsible for one of the English lessons each day. I ask that you remember us. We have only finished our lesson plans for Monday so far. C and T seem nervous to be responsible for teaching their classes. 

We shared all the gifts, goodies and financial blessing with our friends tonight. They were so thankful and excited!

This has been crazy hectic day! Trained all day, had local food, and thankful for sleep now. I can hardly type the sentences.

Eveyone is doing great!

Made it!

We have arrived in Taiwan. Wonderful aiport pickup by Chris and his friend. 

We are settling in for bed. All luggage arrived too!

Even got slippers!

Upgrades!

Thanks for lifting our request! We should be rested and ready to train and learn when we arrive!

Taking off

Excited to be on our way!

Here we are with luggage for 5 for 10 days! Pretty impressive to carry it all on the plane. 

Looking ahead for restful and comfortable flights. 

He is already at work!

I am beyond excited to share we have all 5 been upgraded on our longest flight segment to Tokyo! We will just deal with the back row and scattered seats on the way home. (Or you can being lifting now that we can get seats rearranged so we can get atleast 2 seats together. I don't want Ruth even a row apart!.)

Thank you!!!!

Next adventure for our family..... Taiwan!

24 hour countdown is starting now! We have been training, preparing, and packing for our family to travel together to serve in Taiwan alongside another family sent from CBC. (I must be careful with names and descriptions. ;))

We are still awaiting the upgrade notification from American Airlines!! Will you lift that with us?

Additional lifting items:

1. No flight or luggage delays.

2. We tolerate the extreme heat and humidity well.

3. We serve joyfully.

4. We are alert upon arrival and quickly learn our lesson plans for teaching at the camps.

We will try to update you often!