October 20, 2009
The original scheduled KSCC mission trip was six days, from October 17 through October 22. Due to the unexpected events, KSCC requested the starting date be changed to October 19 and hoped us to stay until October 25. Because most of our members could not change their original schedule, the mission trip was reduced to four days.
On October 20, we arrived at Kaohsiung HSR (High Speed Rail) station around 10:20 a.m. and contacted KSCC for transportation assistance. After some waiting, we took a taxi to KSCC headquarter which is inside the 39th floor of a skyscraper. They claimed it is the highest church in Taiwan. A sister from KSCC gave us a tour of the church worship center inside the 32nd floor which has a beautiful view of the city.
KSCC then arranged Brother Lo to take us to Dongang which is about one hour driving distance from Kaohsiung. Arriving Dongang, we saw the town was cleaned up after the flood and the village life returned to normal. Dongang SCC church is a small one floor building with a worship center and an office. We were briefed on their relief works including lunch program and after school tutoring of the elementary school children. We were also briefed on the life style of this fishing village and the existing social/family problems. We helped the team in washing dishes, buckets, containers and the transportation van. We were surprised on the efficiency of their cooking team that provides lunch for couple hundred people.
The team then separated into two groups for the after school tutoring. We were assigned to the newly started tutoring center at Jiadong and the other group went to the well established center at Linbian. It is the opening day of the tutoring center at Jiadong which has no air conditioning and no audio/video equipment. The teacher is in her 30th drove us to the center. We opened the doors and windows and set up the chairs. We met two assistants from the local village. Then, we looked around the surroundings. The building is next to a large fish pond and the safety is important. We have to watch the students and prevent them to get close to the pond.
Around 3 pm, the students came in, some with their parents. The number of students was more than 50. They received their name-tags and sit at the right tables that assigned to them. There were chaos and the teacher had to use the voice amplifier to give instructions and maintain orders. Some disciplinary actions were imposed, too. The teacher seems very experienced in tutoring school children. We helped in their home works and maintained the order in the class room.
After they finished their home works, Annie gathered them to another room for games. It was difficult to get the attention of these students. We have been warned by Dongang SCC coworkers that this will be one of the problems. Particularly, this is a newly opened center that the students were not accustomed to this type of activities. We received the assistance from a gentleman who was able to get some order and attention from the students.
The teacher instructed some students to clean the toilets. The students were very happy and worked very hard in the cleaning work with water, detergents and mops. This was a good training for them to learn to serve the others. The parents or grandparents came to take their children home after the class. Some parents expressed their deep appreciations to us. The love of their children and the hope of their children’s future could be felt.
We left the center and boarded a small bus that took us to meet the other team members and Pastor Hu. Then, the bus took us to a seaside restaurant and we were treated with a delicious seafood banquet. After the dinner, we went back to Dongang church for a prayer meeting.