Thursday July 19
More of us were on time for breakfast today and we headed out to Tongtex starting assembly right on time. The joint team sang the Vivaldi "Sing and Rejoice" and also the German Chorale "Lamb of God", a song both the Taiwan team and Vision learned only after we arrived. Bethany then shared her personal testimony about losing her mother to cancer when she was six years old and Elder Albert continued his message on life is a miracle. Bethany's testimony really affected several of the music students, opening the door for one girl who just lost her mother a month ago to finally grieve over her loss and another to share how she was abandoned by her mother when she was four years old and the hurt that put in her life. We then continued with the English lesson, today being the story of Easter, and the way to salvation through the making of the colored beads bracelet. In each class, a personal testimony was shared by a Vision member, Gabbie, Rachel and Tania and Hannah (both shared at their class) before an invitation was given for the students to indicate their desire to receive this gift. Of course, these testimonies and salvation message was translated by three of the ten music students, so the music students also heard the message too. Praise the Lord, about half of the 7th grade students raised their hand, but most of the kids repeated the prayer. However, we only have photographic evidence of 12 students raising their hand, but numbers do not matter, because only God knows who really committed their lives to Him and we are so grateful for all your prayers coming together for this to happen.
After lunch, we left to make a 2 PM appointment at the Zhutong hospital. We first met at the hospice ward where the head nurse, herself a believer, explained about hospice care and their goal to bring to the dying a sense of peace and serenity. We sang "Lamb of God", "In His Time", and "The Lord Bless You and Keep You". We then went to a different section of the hospital, the elderly ward which has more active patients, but only three were not in wheelchairs, so we sang several more lively songs which they enjoyed clapping the rhythm as we sang. We then spent several minutes greeting the residents. The head nurse of this section even sang with us as we sang "In His Time" as an encore. Finally, we went to the veterans section of the hospital. This area has even more active patients who enthusiastically greeted us. Charmaine shared her testimony and we sang three songs, but they kept asking for an encore, so we kept singing, two (or maybe three) more songs. We saw one elderly man weeping as we sang. We later learned he is a believer who was weeping tears of joy. Then the head doctor, a friend of Elder Albert, came (this doctor is also a believer and an elder in his church) so we had to sing yet another song, this time "Majesty and Glory". By now, it was past 4 PM, and we were tired but so blessed by the experience. We returned home and spent a few minutes to polish some of the songs and ate an early dinner at 5 PM.
Tracy came to lead tonight's devotion after dinner. The passage is from John 10 about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. Tracy then led the ten Taiwan students to discuss this passage while we did the same led by Joleen. We then got together and each Vision member talked to a Taiwan member and spent about 15 minutes praying for them. The person Marshall prayed for was completely ready to pray the sinner's prayer which he did enthusiastically. Meiring prayed for a girl who also wanted to follow Christ but was concerned about her family's opposition. The details of the responses of the other students will have to be reported later because all the young people wanted to go spend a few minutes at the local night market. Nevertheless, it was clear that the week these students spent with us had a profound influence on their lives. Each is so much more open to following Jesus even if they have not yet stepped through the door and deep friendships were developed. Today was a good, good day. Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for your prayers.
No comments:
Post a Comment