{FECA Vision Choir} Vision trip report #3

Monday July 16

We had a simple breakfast of bread rolls and Ovaltine after not sleeping so well due to the thin mats and hard floors, but we are excited about going to Tongtex Secondary High School, less than 10 minutes away by car.  This campus is located on 5 acres of lush green trees, a private school which emphasizes vocational studies, and in fact just returned a team from Chicago participating in a culinary competition last week (my Chinese was not good enough to figure how they did).  Their principal greeted us as we met for assembly with our 45 students in a nice A/C room (in fact, all their classrooms have A/C).  Our schedule at the school is similar to our schedule next week, apparently Taiwan schools all do this: 8:30-9:15 - assembly; 10 minute break; 9:25-10:10 - session 1; break; 10-20-11:05 - session 2; break; 11:15-12:00 - session 3.  Tracy led the assembly time during which Vision sang "Peace Like a River" and "Majesty and Glory".  During the English lesson time (we divided the 45 students into 3 subgroups and assigned 7-8 of us as teachers per class), Mei and Marshall had time to share with one of the teachers from the school.  She was very open, expressed her like for Christians due to several friends she met while in College, and we were able to challenge her to read the Gospel of John (she actually owns a New Testament), so remember her in prayer.  We ate lunch on campus, paying NTD 50, or about $1.67 per person.  We debriefed for a few minutes after lunch on the teaching, how the teaching went and received some tips on how to improve.  After lunch, we returned to the church to rehearse with the ten students.  In about 4 hours, we learned to sing "Lamb of God (in Chinese)", "Sing and Rejoice", I'll Soar Like and Eagle (in Chinese), "He's Calling My Name", "In His Time", and reviewed "Shine on Us", an incredible accomplishment which showed the talent and eagerness of these ten Taiwan students.  They are just a joy to be with, and we could see connections and comraderie developing between Vision members and these students.  After dinner, we had our group devotions, split up into the Taiwan group and US groups to debrief the day and pray for one another.