Taoyuan Camp Underway

Greetings! The RH team and I are now in Taoyuan, which is a city just 30 minutes south of Taipei. We are here for our second camp at Banner's church plant here. It's our second night here and there are 30 co-workers (Banner and RH) in all having one large slumber party at a church the size some living rooms. On top of that there are only 2 bathrooms to share! The queue for showing can be an hour or so.

We had our first day of camp today which was for mainly elementary school kids. It's kind of like a VBS for them. I think I had the most rowdy group of them all. I had at least 4 kids who probably would be diagnosed with ADD in the States, in my group. It was definitely a handful to look after them, and especially because the camp is held in the cramped space described above.

Even though our responsibilities as foreign teachers aren't as extensive as our previous camp, keeping up with the kids is a huge task in and of itself. We did lead them in some songs (YMCA, Going on a bear hunt, Father Abraham, Pharaoh Pharaoh) and co-led the workshops (Basketball for me). It was VERY hot today! Thankfully we were indoors most of the time.

Today was a good day. I'm pooped, but I feel good. Time for bed.

-Wes

Safe...and good

So the typhoon has all but passed. Yesterday was declared Typhoon Day. Like snow days at home, all school and government buildings were closed. It's still raining, but that's nothing new in Taiwan. There was some flooding, but nothing real major, at least in Taichung. Thank God for that.

Melody is also better, her blisters are on their way to recovery!

Tomorrow, we leave for Taoyuan for the other camp. This will be more like a VBS. Please pray for us and our local co-workers.

-Wes

Typhoons and allergic reactions

Like Tyler said, we made it through our first camp, which went really well. Taiwan is currently being hit by a Typhoon, but thankfully it will miss Taichung as it sweeps across the eastern side of Taiwan. It has been raining non-stop though for the past 8 hours.

Please pray for our team member Melody as she had a pretty bad reaction to a bug bite. The bites turned to large blisters on her two feet (pictures to come). She was taken the hospital for examination and should be ok. Pray that the reaction isn't serious, that there's no secondary infection and that she'll be fully healed before the next camp which we leave for in two days.

Being back in Taiwan feels great. I definitely needed this. The team is doing awesome and more importantly God, like always, is doing some awesome things here in Taiwan.

-Wes

My Cell Group


Lonely Goy

1st Camp A Success

Hey, well we just got back from our 4 day camp with mainly high schoolers and college age kids. It was a blast. From super heroes, to the super hero band, to acting, to volleyball, to basketball, and of coarse worshiping the Lord and sharing his love with others, it was amazing. The kids were wonderful and i feel so much closer with them. Anyways it is late so more to come but enjoy these pics. - Tyler

KTV madness

After a loooong day of meetings, drama preparation for the camp, and attending Banner's Saturday night service, the team along with some local and foreigner friends all got our American/Australian/Taiwan Idol on at a local KTV.

KTV is a popular place for Taiwanese people to go and sing Karaoke in a private room. Tyler and Brian all got loose busting out classic jams like Love Don't Cost a Thing - Jennifer Lopez and Beautiful Day - U2. Not all of us made it through as some of us dozed off through song fest. I had a good 20 minute nap at the end of the night, but not before I busted out some Wang Leehom (Taiwan artist) with my buddy Anderson.







-Wes

We're Here!!

After a 30 minute plane delay and a 13 hour flight, the ROCKHarbor Taiwan team (minus Jen) arrived at the Taipei International Airport early yesterday morning. We were greeted by workers and youth volunteers from our partner, Banner Church. After changing our money, we hopped on the Taiwan High Speed Rail and got to Taichung, which would have taken 2 and half hours by bus, in 30 minutes!! This is the same type of bullet train they have in Japan.

When we arrived in Taichung, we had a brief moment to collect ourselves before we took off in a couple of vans to Sun Moon Lake, a lake an hour and half away from Taichung. There, we visited a longstanding temple (see below),


went swimming in the lake (the water was perfect), and went up top of a high pagoda where the weather/time of day gave us a perfect view of the lake and the surrounding hills.




We were all pretty tired by the end of the day and were glad to be able to go to our host family homes to rest for the night.

For me, what was interesting this time was that coming here didn't feel new anymore. iIt feels like this place is already an extension of my home. It's good to be back.

-Wes