By Christopher Hsu
This year’s VGM at Chiayi was my very first mission trip. As the youngest team member, I knew I had to work hard to meet the expectations of other team members. Before the trip, I practiced origami and magic tricks for months so that I could entertain the students.
When we first arrived at church where we stayed, I was overexcited and fascinated by everything I saw. Sleeping conditions were not what I expected but it was still fun to sleep on the ground. I was one of the first to wake up for the first few mornings but every day became more tiring. When I found out I had to act and dance, I was afraid but I ended up enjoying both when I tried them because I was doing it for God.
Our class was all girls so it was unusually quiet. We had to constantly encourage them to speak up. However, when they eventually began to communicate with us, the students used Chinese mixed with Taiwanese which I found really difficult to understand. They realized this and laughed or whispered to each other whenever I messed up or did anything weird. But instead of feeling ashamed like before, I laughed along with them. One student that stood out to me was Cindy because she defended me when the other students said something mean that I couldn’t understand. She was always confident and eager to learn English. She also loved my magic tricks and origami and chose to partner with me for the dance.
One thing that particularly surprised me was when we were teaching them about Christianity. At first, I thought the students’ own religion would interfere with our teaching but what really surprised me was how enthusiastic each of them were to learn. They loved to pray before eating lunch and sang along or did the motions in Christian songs. When team leader George was reading a story, he talked about a person watching and taking care of us. Some students immediately jumped up and pointed out the connection with Jesus.
What made this mission trip truly special was seeing the kids change through God. I never thought I could make such a big difference other people’s lives. From this mission trip, I learned how to be a better leader while growing closer to God. I want to thank all the VGM staff for making this the best experience ever. I am really looking forward to next year’s mission trip.