I spent time to prepare lectures and teaching materials on Tuesday (1/19). In the morning, I walked around the neighborhood farmland. There are many kinds of vegetables and crops. Birds rested on the trees, plants and fields. Groundwater was pumped to irrigate the field.
Wednesday (1/20) afternoon, my classmate of VGM Adult Training Camp, brother Huang came to visit me from Donshih. He started serving at VGM Donshih center two days a week, mainly on “elder’s ministry”, e.g. teaching songs and Bible study.
Thursday (1/21) morning, I taught Leadership Training-1 for hosting small group to Guogou coworkers and one brother from nearby church. They are planning to start neighborhood small groups. The purpose is to invite neighbors to come for drinking tea and chat to build relationships.
Around lunch time, I walked to the town and took some pictures — Guogou Middle School, Guogou Elementary School, old house, temple and temple gate.
Thursday (1/21) evening, I observed the women’s choir practice and provided some suggestions. The choir has about 20 singers to sing in two parts – Soprano and Alto. They were practicing three folk songs. The choir will sing in the coming music recital on January 30th.
Friday (1/22) morning, I gave a lecture to the 9th grade honor class at Guogou High School. The title of the lecture is “WATER- Essential for Life; Distribution, Usage and Treatment”. In the lecture, I showed them the shortage of safe-drinking water in Africa and how Saddleback Church joined with a company to provide inexpensive equipment for making safe drinking water. I showed them the water crisis in China that has been reported by World Bank and other reporters. I also showed them the sewage treatment plant process and a video of touring the plant.
Friday (1/22) afternoon, the children went to exercise at the nearby Guogou High School after they finished the homework. These children were well disciplined by the teachers at the center.
Friday (1/22) evening, Pastor Chen from Dohshih center dropped by and we had a warm chatting. I told him that our Saddleback Mission team is planning to come back to visit VGM in May.
Later, I went with Ruth to visit a family that the husband is in mental hospital and the wife is taking care of three children. The wife was from Indonesia and is struggling to support the family. She was in depression and tried to take her own life. Ruth and Guogou center has been helping her for a while. She is very proud, worked very hard and doesn’t want to receive financial help from the center. The three children witnessed their father used knife to cut their grandfather almost to death. The trauma must remain in the memories of these children. I can sense the insecurity in them, e.g. the eldest daughter kept saying that she hope that her mother will not leave them. The children were cared by the center.