Welcome to Taiwan

I live in Minneapolis and am used to emergency alerts. On the first Wednesday of every month sirens go off in the afternoon as a practice tornado warning. It can freak people out who are new to the area. Today, there was a nationwide emergency alert in Taiwan, but it was a practice invasion alert. The sirens sounded and between 1:00-2:00 everyone had to stay indoors. Police patrolled the streets, ready to hand out fines for those who ignored the warning. Welcome to life on an island China has threatened to "take back." They are such good neighbors.

It's Monday afternoon and the first day of our last  English Camp. We finished our morning session, and are now on the front end of our afternoon session. The English Camp runs from 8:30-4:00.

This is the program that we began planning for at Training Camp in the US. It was a bit intimidating given the length of each day and the anticipated numbers of kids (50-80+)

But the Lord has taken the team through a pretty immersive training program! At our first program at San Jose - a tiny church with no doors, electricity, or running water - we had 80+ kids show up. All the planning went out the window and the Nehemiah girls did a great job being flexible and making the changes necessary to make the whole thing work. In the end, it was a great success!

The facility at last week's program was small and cramped, and the one real translator was overworked. Because of this, the team was left to fend for itself and figure out how to manage the students who were more like a herd of wild cats. But again, after the first day, the Nehemiah girls adjusted and brought - if not quite order out of chaos, at least they were able to manage the kids.

So arriving here in Zhuqi (pronounced chew chee) our bar was set low. Real low.

And what a surprise we had! The facility is clean, large (by Taiwan standards), and is perfect for the program. The congregation is all in!! The SEND International missionaries we are working with, in conjunction with the church, recruited at least two adult translators per group, as well as one-to-two junior translators-in-training. This is significant since it allows us to communicate easily and the program runs smoothly. And 28 kids have signed up instead of the anticipated 50+, which is okay with us. Deeper relationships will be able to be formed as a result.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and got settled in. There are three showers (no hot water...oh well), a kitchen with a huge refrigerator, a/c in the girls' room (but not in the guys...oh well), and a living room area where we meet as a team. It's very comfortable. We led the youth group that night and met with many of the translators. They provided dinner and all was right with the world.

Saturday was a rest day, the first we had in a thousand years. Okay, maybe not a thousand, but it had been a while and we were feeling it! We slept in, had a slow morning and everyone found a small restaurant and had a delicious lunch. One of the men at church has a tea farm, so we visited his retail store, where he demonstrated the proper way to make a pot of tea. He grows high-end Oolong, black, and white tea. (Technically they are all from the same leaves, it's all about how they are processed).

Sunday (yesterday) we went to church, which was an arduous trek downstairs), and used the afternoon the formally meet all the translators and finish planning for the program.

So now it's Monday. The church is super-organized and because of that, the program is going smoothly. What a change! And a relief. As I mentioned in my last update, the team has been tired, and for good reason. We've done the equivalent of five separate mission trips. The adult help has taken a load off the shoulders of the Nehemiah girls since the responsibilities are being shared.

The team is doing well and we are eating even better. People from the church keep dropping off boxes of goodies for us to eat and the restaurants around here are amazing! They must not see many Westerners around here, because we are a source of much curiosity and often get stared at. But the village people are friendly and we feel at home here...at least home away from home!

For the Nehemiah Team,

Tom

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