(Sorry for mislabeling yesterday's report as report 2 when it should have been 3)
Tuesday, July 23
After breakfast, we left at 9 AM to go to Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Hsinchu Branch (where we went last year) and sang at 5 different locations at the hospital: the hospice ward, two elderly sections (one is a new day care facility), a military veteran section, and the admission lobby. We were 22 strong today, 14 from LA and 8 locals. We sang He's Calling My Name, In His Time and John 14:6 (both sung entirely in Mandarin), Majesty and Glory and The Lord Bless You and Keep You several times at the different locations. The guys sang De Animals a'Comin and the girls (with Terry singing the solo and Eugene helping sing first alto) sang Shut de Do' once. We then caravaned to Tongtex for lunch and the afternoon teaching.
After lunch, Meiring and Marshall left the group to go to Hsinchu with Pastor Fan to visit the church Helen Gilkerson established. Meiring and Marshall are living at Pastor Fan's home and Pastor just returned last night from his mission trip to Korea. For those who are too young to remember, Helen Gilkerson is a long time FECA missionary who has served in Taiwan since the 1950's and passed away at the age of 90 in 2003 in Hsinchu. The Bilacha Church she founded was on a piece of land in Hsinchu but subsequently turned into a very expensive six or seven story building and the church owns the second floor as compensation. Following Helen's passion, we were told this church is now flourishing and very mission-minded. We did not meet the Pastor and his wife because they are currently in Uganda leading their youth there on their own short term mission. Pastor Fan then drove us to see Helen's burial ground in Zhudong. Helen struggled to establish the church and it is good to see how God is now using the product of her hands to bless many others, not only in Hsinchu, but around the world.
Meanwhile, back at the school, for the assembly time, Eugene conducted "Majesty and Glory" and then Pastor Chou shared a message about giving thanks because today's theme is thanksgiving (he used the story of the ten leper's where only one came back). Later on, Kayla, Gabbie, Janelle, Maddy and Rachel performed "A Whole Lotta Change" for the kids and then taught it to them. After going a little over time, everyone proceeded to their classrooms and then began their lessons. It was also a blessing from God that it didn't rain during the assembly until later on (but it rained quite hard when we returned after 4). Since today's theme is thanksgiving, our main game was the lava game, where the students had to learn how to work together and support each other as a team in order to win the game. Today, the kids had more open attitudes towards the teachers and everyone had a lot of fun! Even though sometimes the teachers were a little disorganized (we had to wing certain things), everyone still enjoyed the day! Not only did the students and teachers bond together, but the teachers within teaching teams as well. We are also grateful that we received RSVP's from ten of last year's students to come to the BBQ and concert this Friday. After dinner, we reviewed some music theory, practiced some songs in our sections, and debriefed the day. We are grateful for improved relationships with the children in school, for the visit to the hospital, and for ourselves, good health on everybody's part.
Photo captions:
Bilacha Church is on the second floor where you see the sign "Jesus ❤️ you"
With Pastor Fan at entrance to sanctuary
Marshall and Meiring in the sanctuary
Burial site in Zhudong. Helen Gilkerson's grave is on the fifth (top) level
Helen's gravestone market where her ashes are kept
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