A Campin' We Will Go
We have taken three trips with the CELA staff the past four weekends. Those of you who receive my newsletter, the text of this blog while sound familiar. But Here are some pictures to go with. :) Some of the pictures on this entry have been borrowed from other peoples' cameras. :)
The first trip was the weekend of “Double Ten Day” or “10-10.” This is a holiday of the Republic of China and we had school off as it landed on a Monday. (Interestingly, 10-10 is the only planned day off of school until the Chinese New Year break, which will begin on January 20.) The trip was a Saturday night camping trip to a beautiful spot called Sun Moon Lake. One lady in the office had been planning this for some time and it ended up being very well organized. (Very detailed and full schedules for any ‘vacation’ are part of the culture here.) She is not a Christian, but she requested an hour-long Bible study for Sunday morning. Wow! She also wanted to make sure one of us brought a guitar and some songs. Definitely could not argue with that. Going into the weekend, my prayer was that there would be opportunity for seeds of faith to be planted and that God would allow us to water those seeds and that His Word would work faith. This prayer was answered in a way I did not expect... more on that after these pictures.
On the way to the camp ground, we visited a bamboo park.
We got to paint some bamboo pencil holders. I'll tell you what. If you can name it... or dream it up, bamboo, in one way or another can make it, bamboo can be it. Bamboo is amazing.
Gnomes reminiscent of Snow White's seven dwarfs are quite common... especially in such gardenous areas as bamboo parks... obviously. :)
An oven to make bamboo charcoal (which can, interestingly enough, somehow be used to purify water).
Bamboo hats are definitely in this year. ;)
Bamboo stick dancing. I wish I could somehow let you hear the song the tour guide was singing while we danced. Very catchy.
We also visited an old train station and took a group picture. Here's the whole group that went that weekend!
Though there were some good conversations with those in our group, the Lord provided opportunity outside of the group once we got to the campground. After dinner on Saturday night, it was time to sing. We set out some little circular benches, unzipped the guitar from the carrying case, handed out song sheets, and started in on some camp song favorites. Now, before I go on, I must explain that this “camping” was both like and UNlike what we call camping in the States. There were tents, yes, but that might be where the similarities end. We were actually on a cement patio of sorts and all the other people camping in the area were within feet of us and of each other. Some tents were touching each other. Needless to say, everyone figured out there was something going on when we started singing. And people were curious. And people came over. One even brought a video camera to catch the action. At one point I thought to myself, “Gosh, Lord… I should have made more song sheets.” The children there were especially curious and wanting to join in. We decided to sing some fun kid songs with actions like “The Butterfly Song”, “The Hippo Song” and “Allelu, Allelu, Allelu.” It was a hit. I was amazed at how everyone in our group was playing a part too. Some of the other teachers took charge of teaching words to the newcomers, some were enthusiastically teaching the actions, and I was strumming away with the occasional help of a curious child wanting to try a hand at the pick and strings. It was awesome teamwork, and I thank the Lord for that! Granted, I don’t know how much English many of these people understood, but Jesus’ name was sung and God’s word was there in many of the songs. The singing went on until a fireworks display began across the lake and attention shifted. After that, however, there was an especially attentive mother and three children who kept singing with us. They accepted an offer to keep a copy of the song sheets.
A trail I took for a ways, leading from the campground.
In this picture, can you spy 7 of the 16 dogs that lived at this camp site? (Each of them had a name and a separate bowl as each dog was cared for by the priest who ran the campground.)
Our tents.
This is how each meal was eaten at the camp site, provided by the Catholic priest and the cook who ran the camp site.
Dragon Fruit.
James diving right into the fun that is Sun Moon Lake.
There was canoeing.
Thomas, Anne, and I helping take down one of the tents.
After camping, on our way back, we went by a paper factory. Here is a man making large sheets of paper that will probably be used for calligraphy.
And there's a look at the camping trip. :)
The first trip was the weekend of “Double Ten Day” or “10-10.” This is a holiday of the Republic of China and we had school off as it landed on a Monday. (Interestingly, 10-10 is the only planned day off of school until the Chinese New Year break, which will begin on January 20.) The trip was a Saturday night camping trip to a beautiful spot called Sun Moon Lake. One lady in the office had been planning this for some time and it ended up being very well organized. (Very detailed and full schedules for any ‘vacation’ are part of the culture here.) She is not a Christian, but she requested an hour-long Bible study for Sunday morning. Wow! She also wanted to make sure one of us brought a guitar and some songs. Definitely could not argue with that. Going into the weekend, my prayer was that there would be opportunity for seeds of faith to be planted and that God would allow us to water those seeds and that His Word would work faith. This prayer was answered in a way I did not expect... more on that after these pictures.
On the way to the camp ground, we visited a bamboo park.
We got to paint some bamboo pencil holders. I'll tell you what. If you can name it... or dream it up, bamboo, in one way or another can make it, bamboo can be it. Bamboo is amazing.
Gnomes reminiscent of Snow White's seven dwarfs are quite common... especially in such gardenous areas as bamboo parks... obviously. :)
An oven to make bamboo charcoal (which can, interestingly enough, somehow be used to purify water).
Bamboo hats are definitely in this year. ;)
Bamboo stick dancing. I wish I could somehow let you hear the song the tour guide was singing while we danced. Very catchy.
We also visited an old train station and took a group picture. Here's the whole group that went that weekend!
Though there were some good conversations with those in our group, the Lord provided opportunity outside of the group once we got to the campground. After dinner on Saturday night, it was time to sing. We set out some little circular benches, unzipped the guitar from the carrying case, handed out song sheets, and started in on some camp song favorites. Now, before I go on, I must explain that this “camping” was both like and UNlike what we call camping in the States. There were tents, yes, but that might be where the similarities end. We were actually on a cement patio of sorts and all the other people camping in the area were within feet of us and of each other. Some tents were touching each other. Needless to say, everyone figured out there was something going on when we started singing. And people were curious. And people came over. One even brought a video camera to catch the action. At one point I thought to myself, “Gosh, Lord… I should have made more song sheets.” The children there were especially curious and wanting to join in. We decided to sing some fun kid songs with actions like “The Butterfly Song”, “The Hippo Song” and “Allelu, Allelu, Allelu.” It was a hit. I was amazed at how everyone in our group was playing a part too. Some of the other teachers took charge of teaching words to the newcomers, some were enthusiastically teaching the actions, and I was strumming away with the occasional help of a curious child wanting to try a hand at the pick and strings. It was awesome teamwork, and I thank the Lord for that! Granted, I don’t know how much English many of these people understood, but Jesus’ name was sung and God’s word was there in many of the songs. The singing went on until a fireworks display began across the lake and attention shifted. After that, however, there was an especially attentive mother and three children who kept singing with us. They accepted an offer to keep a copy of the song sheets.
A trail I took for a ways, leading from the campground.
In this picture, can you spy 7 of the 16 dogs that lived at this camp site? (Each of them had a name and a separate bowl as each dog was cared for by the priest who ran the campground.)
Our tents.
This is how each meal was eaten at the camp site, provided by the Catholic priest and the cook who ran the camp site.
Dragon Fruit.
James diving right into the fun that is Sun Moon Lake.
There was canoeing.
Thomas, Anne, and I helping take down one of the tents.
After camping, on our way back, we went by a paper factory. Here is a man making large sheets of paper that will probably be used for calligraphy.
And there's a look at the camping trip. :)
posted by Anna at 1:05 PM
3 Comments:
Enjoyed seeing the pictures.
hey, did they show you guys tinnickling at that bamboo park? we used to do that as part of our gym class in gradeschool... sweet!
Excellent, love it! » » »
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