Well,...

Okay, well you will have to forgive me for not writing more often, but as you will soon see, I have been wonderfully busy....


...Service Camps in Hualian...




...visiting aberiginal dances and festivals...



....loving the little children...





...traveling for hours along the whole coast of Taiwan while traveling back to my "home"...







...getting wet...







...walking barefoot (of course!!) ....






...having people laugh at me and take pictures....






...of me helping people have fun in the water (...what do you think?!?!)...






...enjoying God's beautiful glory...







...making new friends...





...hating to leave old ones...



That is my last three weeks wrapped up in a nut shell. Of course there is more, like:
touring Taiwan...getting my pink razor cell phone...jumping on to trains...ripped bags..feeling like laughing like crazy...duct tape...vacation at a French Catholic dorm...eating seafood...hair salons...walking in the rain...moping the flooded floor of my bedroom...moving into my home...meeting a bunch of new freinds...almost laughing like crazy...watching movies until very late...staying in a hotel...checking out the town...working out...getting "bangs"...laughing like crazy...etc.,etc....

Well, thatz all for now folks!

My Team!

I have been here for so many weeks, yet I have been so rude and I have not yet introduced you to my team (or family, as it were...)!

THE GIRLS

TERESA!
A wonderful roommate, mentor, and a bundle of enthusiasm! If you met her, you would be a bundle of energy for the rest of the day! She has taken on the leadership position along with her brother (Nathan) and God is giving her the strength to conquer the giant obstacles of life!

EDE

WOW - this is my friend for life! I met here at Journey to the heart and loved her since the day I met here. She is a Jane Austen queen and has such a big heart for the children here in Taiwan. The beauty of Christ shines through her beautiful face! :)

CHARITY
This girl is so amazing! She has boundless energy and her creativity comes in so handy! ;) She is really an encouragement in her walk with the Lord and when there is a need in the group, she makes sure that we take it to the Lord in prayer first!

SARAH
This girlie always has an encouraging word for everyone! She always has a smile and a laugh is not far behind. She is also always carrying around her little Bible and has a verse for someone who may look in need!

SUSANNA
This girl is my sunshine! She is always brightening my day! She always keeps her head about her, and if she was tired no one would know it because of the great smile that she has! She is also one who likes to give surprises - like little juice boxes with scripture on them to brighten ones morning!

THE GUYS

TYLER
This guy is so amazing - by Gods grace he maneges to get up really, really early every morning, go jogging, and still make it through one of our "average days". He really loves to teach these kids in class - but he would rather be teaching them basketball! ;)

DONALD
This is truly a man of God. He has such a willingness to do whatever God gives him to do. He can be firm with the children, but he know how to have so much fun with them as well. He is the newest member of our team!

NATHAN
This man has taken on a huge responsibility - He has taken on the organization/running of the camps. He is the leader, yet he can be so goofy sometimes...WOW is the only word to describe him.

CAMILLE
...and then there is me. I am the "baby" of the team - though my height compared to some would say otherwise! ;) It is so fun when people ask me my age and I tell them - they totaly flip out and do not believe me!! They all say "You are so young!" and I just smile and reply, "Yes, and I am enjoying every minute of it!"
Other than that, those who know me can put whatever they want here. I just ask that all of the glory goes to God - he is the one who gives me strength! :)

THE MUSICAL CHAIRS SKIT

I was not the worst one in the skit - but I was pretty bad. I would not give up my chair until the very end!

No one could get it away from me! :-)

I finally gave up and got a "prize" for giving up my rights!

FUN TIMES!!

This is my team for week #5. I had team D this week (goodbye team F!). For performance I had my kids sing "You are my Sunshine" :)

I love hanging out with my girls! They were so precious to me! I always hate to see them go... :(

Oh, and this is cookie night for team F - We had a blast stirring that stuff!

On a sad note though,...
We said "Goodbye" to the last of our "old leaders" tonight. We got really close during the time that we knew each other, so it was sad to see her go... :(

Okay, well that is all the time I have for updating right now. Some prayer requests would be that this week would go awesome! I have team B this week (very little English) and today was just the first day, but it all went awesome! I can really feel a team bond already - it's great!! Please pray that I would go out strong! This is our last week at these camps (we have not had a break since getting here) and I can almost see the end. I want to keep Heb. 12:1-2 in mind:

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,..."

Yet another week...

Yep, the title says it all. We are now into our 5 week of camps (it is hard to believe that I have only been here for a month!) and my daily prayer is that my teaching and love for theses children would not be put into manual, but rather that I would live each day to its fullest and enjoy these last and few precious days with theses children.

Week 4 was here and gone in the blink of and eye, and looking back on it I realize that if I could, I would have changed so much about it. The main thing that the Lord revealed to me was my failure in showing the children love by spending quality time with them. I love it when people spend quality time with me, yet I have not been a good example of showing it to others.
For example, this last week during "movie nights" with the kids, instead of staying and sitting through the movies with them (boring as some of them are) I would leave at the beginning of the movie and go for a walk or go to my dorm room or with my friends to "Seven Eleven" to get a snack, and come back to get my kids at the end of it. However, when I would leave the kids would always ask me to stay and to sit by them and I would decline, making up some excuse that I was going to be busy somewhere. As I would leave I would see the disappointment in their eyes as they turned to watch the movie with an empty seat that they were "saving for Teacher" next to them.
Looking back now, this breaks my heart to see that I was so mean. The Lord has really opened my heart and shown me that, even if I just sleep through the movie, for the kids it is just important to know that the other is present. That is it! Quality time is not always going out for coffee and chatting the whole time. It is just being there for the other person and letting them know that you care about what they care about, even if there is no talking at all! Yes, I did just discover this ;)

Yes, on a lighter note, this is team F from week 4! They were all so awesome! There were 14 little bundles of joy (and big bundles of energy!!), but we all had a great time and we had lots of fun together!

These are my TA's from weeks #3 and #4! Amy (the shorter one) stayed for an extra week (after she was done being my TA) so that she could help out with other kids for the 4th week! Jocelyn (the taller one) was my TA last week. She was a good translater and she will be missed in the upcoming weeks!

And "this one's for the girls!" All of us girls went out one night and bought "matching" shirts so that we could be random for one day! It was great! We all found shirts with buterflies on them and all of the American girls wore them for that weeks BBQ!