English Camp

It rained.

There was an earthquake!

And although I didn't see it, I heard a rock slide.

Last weekend was the Ark Fellowship English Camp.

 Seven native English speakers, four translators, six children, and about twenty-six high school/college age native Chinese speakers wanting exposure to English. It was quite an adventure.

Carl and Nick left Friday morning, where they met up with Don Bettinger, fellow OMS missionary. Traveling to nearby Shalu, they joined the rest of the camp to travel to the mountains of Taiwan by bus.

Abbi, Jacob, and I joined them Saturday. Ben couldn't come because his class had an overnight planning session for an upcoming event. 

The first night was spent at a large Bed and Breakfast, where the group played games, watched Soul Surfer, and spent time practicing their English.

The next morning Carl shared a teaching from the Bible. This, of course, was translated so seeds of the truth could be sown. He even was able to incorporate some magic into the teaching.

The view from the Bed and Breakfast was beautiful! The unique thing about this area is the type of buildings. At some point, someone decided to build European style buildings. At times, I felt I was in Switzerland instead of Taiwan.

The kids and I arrived Saturday morning just in time for some games.

It was a beautiful place, but I guess all good things must come to an end. We loaded into the vans and cars to travel to our next location: a Taiwanese campground. I didn't think we could get any more remote, but I was wrong.

The above picture shows the European chalets from the other side of the ridge. From the campground, the mountains towered over us. Here we set up our tents, on concrete slabs, and made camp.

And then it began to rain, and rain, and rain. It rained for the next six hours, not a steady gentle rain, but a hard-soak-everything-in-its-path rain. Thank goodness for those little roofs over our  tents. 

Carl and I learned that camping in Taiwan isn't quite like camping in Ohio for example:

Our idea of a camping chair.

Taiwanese idea of a camping chair.

And yes, there really was an earthquake. Trust me, I was asleep on that concrete slab with nothing but a sleeping bag between me and its hardness, I felt it. It was only a 4.4, but the epicenter was near our location. I had just fallen asleep, when its shaking woke me up.

The next morning, I heard an unfamiliar sound but couldn't locate the source. About ten minutes later I heard it again and someone pointed across the river. More rocks and dirt were falling in a previous landslide.

Overall, it was a good weekend. It was an exercise in cultural patience for this Ohio family, and hopefully, a planting of God's truth in the hearts of the Taiwanese teenagers. Thank you for praying!