{FECA Vision Choir} Report 10

Monday July 29

Praise God everyone is quite well today even though Charlene had some minor stomach problems yesterday.  After breakfast, we left at 8 AM to head out to the reform school famous for training their students to unicycle.  We had expected about 20 students here but there were only 12 as some are in school and some of them are actually visiting LA, having been sponsored by a church there.  We were shown a video explaining there unicycle ministry.  We also found out that some of the boys here are orphaned, one eleven year old having come here only a year ago as a ten year old after his father died and his mother incapable of providing for him.  Some have ADD, some were abused, some have addiction problems.  This is a very difficult ministry, and even though many boys profess to believe, about 70% of the graduates desert the Lord after they leave.  But they continue to persist in the ministry, praising God for the 30% whose lives are truly transformed.  We met one young man here now in college, but returned to help the younger boys!  We sang two songs for them and proceeded to play an icebreaker game to help everyone overcome their initial shyness.  We then taught them about Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, going over vocabulary words.  We found that these boys' English comprehension is quite good as most were able to make complete sentences from each vocabulary word.  About noon, we ate lunch together, cooked in their kitchen by their staff and as the boys have an hour to rest after lunch, we spent the time doing our devotions.  At 2 PM, we sang a short program for the boys, with Eugene and a Kelly giving their testimonies and then it was play time, including unicycle riding time.  Hot and sweaty, Auntie Jennifer treated us to boba tea on the ride back.  We stopped to eat dinner in Hualien at a famous hole-in-the-wall noodle house.  No luxuries but good cheap food. We then returned to our hostel to debrief the day's activities and pray for the reform school and their loving staff.

Learning to ride unicycles.  

Vision with boys at reform school after unicycle lessons