Friday was the last day of our VBS at Taipei Home of Christ. It is amazing to see God's hand moving and progressing His work and will. The kids have truly started to open up to us and I hope through us they can see God working in us and also feel God's love for them.
In the morning we woke up at 5:30 am as usual so that we can catch the 5:45 bus and get to church by 6:30. Though it has definitely been a challenge, I feel a lot of joy when walking along the streets of Taiwan early in the morning knowing that we have another busy day of loving to do.
When we got to church Aaron showed up! We were all very happy to see that he made it alive and didn't get lost around the airport.
The kids started showing up at 8:30 am and so we split off into small groups. From the first day my group had a couple of extremely uncooperative boys in the group. But through patience prayer and lots and lots of love, they made so much improvement that it was hard to believe. They actually wanted to memorize the bible verses and not only in Chinese but in English too!
Another fiasco that happened in my group was that we had to choose which song we were going to dance to for the parent performance in the afternoon. Sadly the night before a lot of the teachers on the other teams already took the songs that my kids really liked, so we were left with some of the more unpopular ones.
Of course at first the kids were unwilling and frustrated with what choices we were left with, but again to my surprise one of the older kids stepped up and started comforting the younger ones saying it isn't all bad and this song is really fun too! Which made the other kids start thinking that it maybe isn't so bad so they agreed and ended up practicing really hard.
After small groups we all came together for large group worship. And as usual it was loud, energized, and wonderful. I always admire kids worshipping because they are so pure hearted and they are truly singing to God.
After worship Alice shared this really touching story that brought tears to a couple of our team members faces and asked if any of the kids wanted to let Jesus come into their hearts accepting Him as their Lord and Savior. I was truly touched that two of the kids in my group who never heard about Jesus before this camp decided to make the best decision of their lives. I was also comforted and encouraged knowing that the things we are doing for God actually are having an impact on the kids lives.
The rest of the day was just classes, games, and the parent performance. I am very grateful for the past week where we got to see kids who made me feel like they were the spawn of the devil himself turn into these wonderful and God loving children.
Though it was short and maybe it was the last time I saw some of these kids. I know that their souls and lives are all in God's hand. So I have no fear because I know that God will be there for them.