Still The One In Our Hearts

 Cherry, former Hualien CEI Chinese coworker messaged me informing me that a few students I taught English and character two years ago in Hualien CEI would like to send me a greeting video. The CEI was at their school to teach character and English. I was very delighted and I was really curious about this.  "Will I be able to recognize their faces again after two years?", I was wondering. In meantime I was excited and  told Cherry to feel free to send me the video as soon as she could. In fact, I was expecting a video of two or three kids with beautiful smiles waving and saying to me something like "Hello teacher Yar. I'm Ian, Amy or Ivy or Jason, ... or whatever". But it wasn't the case at all. Instead, I received a video of a group of aboriginal kids, ten precisely, singing a song for me. It wasn't an aboriginal song though:). Even if I would have loved it to be one. I love Taiwan aboriginal songs. I even learned one by heart when I was still serving in Hualien a couple of years ago. 

What was so special about these kids singing a song for me in a video then? Everything. Everything was special about that. Despite the fact that they've grown up a lot within two years, I could still remember many faces among the group of kids. What a grace, because those faces we face every camp week change accordingly !  And in two years I can't even count how many Taiwan's kids faces I had the opportunity to meet. It was special because they still remember me and were willing to send me a video, special because they still have the sense of gratitude, a character quality they learned at the CEI two years ago; it was special because they didn't sing to me just any kind of song. The song they chose to sing for me was a special song, a very significant one. A song they learned at the CEI two years ago. It's a farewell song of love and gratitude that the CEI teachers always sing to the kids every Friday to show them how much we love them, how we care about them and how we will be missing them. And seeing those kids singing back that farewell song to me as song of retrouivaille is really touching.

 I can suddenly realize how much impact our teachings, our care, our love sharing have on the lives of all the kids we have a chance to spend time with, whether at our CEI or at their school. For me that changes everything. Because we might often think we only spend five days with them. But when days, weeks, months, or even years later, we have a chance to see them again or hear from them or see them out of the school environment, and then see that they can still remember us and even call us by our name, we suddenly realize how important those five days were to them: a lifetime experience that they might never forget, because they have a chance to come to the Character and English Institute only once in their whole educational life. This is the amazing impact Jesus has been and is still having on Taiwan's children life through Voice Missions for many years.  And what a joy to be back into this beautiful adventure! " Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Matt. 19:14).

because of privacy we will not post the video

Eyes always fixed on Jesus!

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