Shine your light

We found a place to stay that has air conditioning! Praise God! This morning we finally had the pleasure of meeting our Taiwan team. They are amazing people. We headed over to the cultural center to set things up for "Yilan Alive". Setting up consisted of bringing in tables and chairs and moving a lot of other things around to accomadate whoever came in. Scott and I didn't get to see much of eachother during this time because we both had different jobs. Our leader, Thomas, got heat stroke by early afternoon. It was scorching out and we couldn't get enough water. It kept sweating out faster then we could drink it. Everyone is extremely helpful and responsible on the team. It is exciting to see such awesome teens really work hard.

After things were all set up we socialized. We invited everyone we found to come in a play games, get their face painted, and listen to music. They played "Have You Ever" to really break the ice and get our guests feeling at ease. Then, we split up into smaller groups and had more conversation. At that time I felt so blessed to be here that I cried. I slipped out of sight to hide my tears. I couldn't even look out at the events happening for about 10 minutes because I was completely filled with emotion. Scott prayed for me and we praised God for it. After I emerged from my hiding place I went back to meeting people. I can tell that I have made some great friends already!

The Taiwanese love to learn English. A woman and her son that came into the cultural center stayed to speak with us and listen to the music. She asked me english questions for 30 minutes. I hope that she comes back tomorrow! It's hard to do any direct speaking about the Lord but I have handed out a lot of salvation booklets that are written in chinese.

Face painting was hilarious! There weren't a lot of kids that participated but the ones who did were absolutely precious. They loved to say thank you in english. The american team was covered in face paint. One of our guys, Tony, doesn't get to do a whole lot because of a knee problem right now but I made sure he had a pretty pink hearts painted on each side of his face. It was a great way to make all the taiwanese kids comfortable getting it done. We even let some of them paint our faces.

The worship team sounds excellent! Scott is really pumped about using his talents here but I think he's fatigued. He's sleeping very sound next to me right now.

Today was incredible. I don't know if I have ever been filled with this much joy in such uncomfortable weather. The Holy Spirit has filled me up with comfort, energy, and laughter. The Lord has been providing us an abundance of laughter. It is one thing that both of our cultures have in common.

Lord, thank you for this gorgeous day! I pray for Thomas to be healed. I pray that you would fill everyone up with your Holy Spirit for guidance in conversation as we go into our VBS week. I ask that you would prepare the hearts of everyone involved in the events of tomorrow and the rest of the week. Thanks you for all that you have done to make this go as well as it has. Thank you for the energy and a cool place to stay.