Yesterday 125 campers descended onto the Campus of Morris Academy. Nearly all of them accompanied by their mother and father, but some with sisters and brothers. I discovered that the farthest distance traveled to come to the camp was approximately 7 hours! Wow, no pressure to perform from us now right?
It was really amazing to see the varying degrees of family interactions. Some moms and dads would drop their little ones off and hit the road before the door even shut. Some would hang around for a few minutes and give the standard hugs and kisses. Then others would stay as long as they could to make sure everything was OK for them. The staff said that it is much more likely for parents to stay longer amounts of time as this may be the first time the kids have been away from home for any period of time in their lives. Even the oldest kids in high school would have a bit of separation anxiety, but once the camp got rolling it was totally fine.
Most of the kids that came are very focused on learning English. I had a chance to sit down and talk with some of the boys at our first dinner together and talk...as best as we could. When I asked Fredrick, Samuel, Terry, and David whether they were more excited to learn more English or learn more about sports answered "learn more English" almost in unison. Education rules the day in Taiwan. The boys said that on average they go to school from 7 AM - 6 PM atleast 5 days a week. Fredrick was the only one that went on Saturday too, but he said many kids do that too. In the summer when American kids are traveling around competing in travel soccer, baseball, tennis, or anything with a ball, these kids are going to "cram school". The school is basically every day of the week for 12 hours a day for one month. They focus on 1 or 2 subjects and cram as much information in as they can in that time frame. These are especially taken by kids getting ready to enter High School before their entrance exams.
Well we try to keep school to a minimum and fun and God to a premium this week.
Today (Monday) we will be starting the camp in it's entirety. Each day I'll be teaching baseball to 20 kids, followed by English Class (Bible Study), Family Time, and ending in the evening with a Main Session. I will be preaching on Joshua at the Main Session Tuesday.
Each night is capped off by FFAs (Fun For All). This is a time of varying activities for all the kids to play in their Family Groups (teams). Well funny story...kinda.
Our team was in charge of relays for the first night and we were given access to a sports closet full of antiquated sports equipment. We planned out 8 different relays for the kids to do and one of them was called the dizzy bat relay. It involves running the width of basketball court, putting your head on the butt of a bat while it stands upright, and then spinning around 6 times to get dizzy. You then sprint back to the rest of your team, tag the next person's hand, and they run down to spin around the bat. Normally this very fun to do and even funnier to watch.
Vicky didn't think so after it was over.
Vicky completed her spins, turned to run back to her team, and fell on her face breaking her two front teeth. Poor Vicky! Lucky for her we had a ER doctor with us who was able to take care of the situation as best as she could.
Of course it had to be OUR group on the FIRST night that caused an injury!!!!
Please pray for Vicky though as she is really worried about what her parents will say and pretty scared overall.
Well, it is almost time for breakfast. I can tell you that I'm very excited to interact with more of the kids this week and see where God takes us.
I have already learned so much, but I know the learning and growing is just beginning.
God bless you all and pray for us in Taiwan!!!!
Cool stuff going on there, broken teeth will help her remember. church was great today, the conclusion of transformation. Kevin was on target. Jo and I sat behind a guy and his girlfriend that I originally spoke to (him) in December and have not seen since. She was weeping throughout the service and Jody slipped her a tissue. We talked with them after the service for about 20 min, God is everywhere. Press on!
Posted by: Rex | July 11, 2010 at 05:19 PM