The camps have started!

I cannot describe how glad I was when the buses loaded with kids (and cars too) arrived. I was so happy to see them. Working with the children just helped make being over here in Taiwan not seem too bad anymore. I was starting to get kind of homesick, but the feeling has been replaced with excitement with all that will happen this week. My Team is the A team. We have 12 children, and all of them are cute in their own way. Our primary objective is to teach the kids English. So each day we go over a place. Like the first day was the airport, we went over vocabulary that would apply and got to know the team. And today was the church. We had the opportunity to share the Gospel. The kids seemed interested when we showed them the Evange cube. And the day went pretty well.

I had some problems though because I do not know Chinese. The kids have been saying some bad words in Chinese. I had a big boo-boo too. One of the boys had a shirt that had guns on it, to start up a conversation I asked if he liked guns. He nodded his head, and asked me what the English was for gun again. Of course I said it to him, but when he and his friend came back and asked me what the word was, I knew something was up. Rebekah, the team leader, explained to me that gun was a bad word in Chinese. Isn't that great to find out? So they pestered me all day trying to make me say it. But, I decided to use the word"firearm" instead. I am still having problems with these boys, I would appreciate it if you would pray for me that I would have wisdom while I work with them.

I have had some times to get close to the kids too.The opportunity arose during dinner. i have been sitting with three girls from my team, and their English is not good. I had been wondering how I could reach out to them and get close to them. It all started with a thumb wrestle game, then "rock, paper, scissors". One of the girls turned her water bottle upside down and was watching the water that was on top fall. Her and another girl were having so much fun, that I turned mine upside down, and joined in. Man! We were a sight to behold. There I was pounding my hands on the table trying to make mine drop the most. And she was doing the same. Then we would shake up the bottles and start over again. this continued on for awhile, and believe it or not, that was the most fun I have had in awhile. It's amazing how you can open up a door to a child's heart if you act crazy and fun to be around. I look forward to many more water bottle games myself.

Another really awesome and weird thing I have to tell you is how we wash our dishes. First we scrape all the food off into the garbage can. Then we go outside to the assembly line and rinse off the dish from a hose. After we dump out the water, we get the soapy water and a scrubby(which everybody uses) and get all the messes out of it. Then we rinse it again, and put it on the shelf for Another person to use at a Another meal. All I could think about this the first time was"UNSANITARY!" But, it's life and I have to get used to it. But, of course I am keeping a pair of chopsticks, and I clean them off with hand sanitizer a every meal.

Thank you for your prayers! Until next time!