Joyful Noise

In the past few weeks, the students at CELA have been practicing for the Easter Pageant they will present to their friends and family on April 11th. Each class will be acting out a part of the Passion week story as well as singing songs about Jesus. My class will be singing three songs: "I'm in Love with the King," "I Have Been Chosen," and "He Hung Upon a Cross." They really enjoy singing all the songs but their favorite is "I Have Been Chosen." They like the song because they get to scream some of the words and as they are children, they love any excuse to scream. It is such a blessing to me to hear them singing about the love of Jesus in such enthustiastic voices.

Last Friday, we had our first all school practice. All the students from E3-E6 went to the gym and sang the songs together. I hope heaven sounds like this day. Voices lifted up in praise to Jesus. People from "every tribe, every tongue, every nation" laying claim to the promises of God:

I have been chosen. I am a child of God,
A royal priesthood, selected by the Lord
To proclaim the excellenct of Him who made me.
And called me from the darkness to the light.

Please continue to pray with me that my students not only sing the words of these songs but they may come to believe them and hear the truth in the words. They are chosen children of God, chosen to love and to be loved by our Savior. Pray they become what they sing, "children of God."

Little Bears and Evil Fish

This weekend, I went on a trip to my student/friend, Angel's, house. It was a unique experience for a number of reasons. First, Angel's family does not speak English .She has two sisters, a brother, and parents. One of her sister's speaks English and another understands it, but they were all to shy to actually talk to me. Secondly, Angel lives on the coast, in a very small community. The neighborhood is very Taiwanese and the older people do not even speak Chinese. The children in the community had never seen a white person before. They stared at me and whispered about how I looked, ate, walked, and talked. This is something that, surprisingly, you get used to with time.

Angel was very excited to have me visit and wanted to make me everywhere. We went to her schools, her parks, and her temples. She introduced me to her family (she seemed to be related to everyone!). We went fishing and walked along the harbor. Her sisters and I baked cookies together and her family had a barbecue on Saturday night.

I loved talking to her family and getting to know them. Because they did not speak English, Angel spent a lot of time translating. Her younger brother was particularly interested in me. He is twelve and loves American baseball. He asked so many questions. Once, while we were fishing, he started to ask me the "real" names of the teams. He knew their Chinese names but wanted to know their English names. Some of my favorite were the Chicago Cubs which are the "Little Bears" and the Florida Marlins which were the "Evil Fish."

The whole weekend, I was feeling like a bad missionary. I never found a time when it would be appropriate to talk about God or ask about their beliefs. I was so discouraged because even with friends, I was struggling to talk about the Gospel. I didn't want to be awkward or rude, so I just continued to pray.

The best part of the weekend, by far, was my last hour. While Angel's mom was making lunch we were all in the kitchen talking. Out of the blue, Angel says "My mom said that now we will all be Christians now!" I was overjoyed! Praise God. The Holy Spirit works in such amazing way! Here I was struggling, thinking I was failing Angel and her family, when in truth, God was working through me despite me.