Chesterbrook Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

  So it’s the final blog entry that will be posted during our trip to Little Lights. Everything is just fine. Most of the reports from the debriefing today were singing praises to the kids with a few minor exceptions. So overall a nice and easy day.  Waking up in the morning is always a sad time. It’s the end of our lovely rest and time to open our eyes and move around. But we manage to do it everyday. ^_^b Breakfast was normal. Just finishing off the cereal and wondering whether Ken would make eat the leftover lasagna for dinner or breakfast on Friday (neither of which actually came or would come true). Sandwiches…we actually had to ration because our bread was actually being finished quickly. We actually finished breakfast and lunch packing quite quickly so we had an extended quite time for our passage in Matthew. So we had a more unconventional training session with Ms. Mijin in the morning. We had an activity where we walked around the area around Mt. Joy and the other parks (as a group) and recorded our own observations of what we heard, saw, and smelled. The activity was designed to highlight the differences between the places we lived, the places the LL kids lived, and the neighborhood around Mt. Joy. First off, let me explain the buddy system that is in place at Little Lights. Sometimes, a child in the group doesn’t function well with the other kids or is disruptive during small group time. Teen or visiting counselors are then buddied with the kids to remove them from the small group setting and have some one on one time during the time the other kids are in small group. The counselor buddy also has to stick to their buddy throughout the day to watch over them. In my case, I actually had to shadow my buddy, Latrell, because he was often picked on by the other kids and would often become very confrontational and try to pick fights with the other kids that were provoking him. So because of that, the only kid in the group that I really got to know was Latrell. Today, Latrell had to go home early because he wasn’t feeling too good. Because of his absence, I finally got to interact with the rest of the group during free-time in a mostly carefree environment just to have fun. It was actually mildly refreshing since Latrell sometimes could not be reasoned with and instructions would just have to be repeated over and over again until he responded. Even though that was still the situation with some of the other kids in the group, it was still refreshing to be able to work with the group as a whole. Today was also the last debriefing we would have with the rest of the counselors and the staff. Every one of the visiting counselors (us) were praised for the help we were able to provide. Dinner was again, at the Sizzlin Express. I sense a tradition being set here. One topic that came up during our team debrief back at the Hope House was whether or not we would be sending another Little Lights  team next year and in the future. This year we sent an undersized 6 person team (not including Ken). In essence, if we cannot get enough people to commit to being on the team early we will not be sending another team. Many of us felt bad that many of the counselors for the older groups did not have the help of a visiting counselor helping them because we sent a team that was quite short of the 10 person minimum for sending a group. Ken expressed disapproval that the team was so hastily put together with very few meetings and few people committing. This is getting to be quite a long post so I’ll wrap it up by saying that we all felt that we gained something from this trip and all of us expressed interest in returning again next year.  Hopefully, we will get a good team put together early and spare all of us the sadness from not sending a team.  

 heysi got a headache at the moment so you’ll all have to excuse my failure of grammar and spelling in general.day 0: as we moved in, a thunderstorm began and we quickly unpacked and talked a bit. we settled down and played cards for a while (ERS ftw)day 1: oddly enough, i wasn’t very nervous- not because i was confident in myself but that i knew i wasn’t alone. everyone seemed a little nervous but still ready to go. as we entered the building, we were warmly greeted by tina with a shout- loud enough to wake us all up. we had a little pep talk to start and then met our counselors. as registration began, i felt alright. the girls (7-9yrs old) seemed nice though definitely not to each other. let’s just say day 1 was hard for everyone. our girls seemed to have pre formed sides and were at each other from the start. my two counselors struggled to keep brawls from breaking out. finally splitting them into groups, i discovered that they were quite gentle when separated. by the end of the day though, my counselors and i (as well as everyone else) were exhausted to say the least. we debriefed and retreated to the hope center where ken thankfully already made the dinner (spaghetti). we shoveled those down, relaxed a bit, failed to get downstairs to do our assignment, and ended up ERSing for a bit then teaching everyone to play capitalism where kyle gave a bit of luck to ken. let’s leave it at that. day 2: the beginning was pretty much the same as day 1. woke up, breakfast full of sugar and healthy stuff, and a bit of prep about racism. registration went a bit smoother since the girls knew where to go and who we were. bright eyed and excited, we all scooted to the vans and set out.  the girls were definitely more obedient though i can’t say quieter. a couple objected to the lunch but mainly they cheerfully chugged down whatever it was that they got. we went off to the park where i suppressed a rising conspiracy and broke up scuffles. back to church for drinks and opening assembly then off to our field trip- movie (enchanted) at another church. well all i can say was… the girls weren’t that interested in the movie. thus chaos. thus much yelling and running and screaming and punches. i had my hands full though i suppose i can’t complain seeing as i enjoy being surrounded with my girls. anyways, finally concluding that there was no chance for the group to quietly watch the movie, we broke up into groups and played games then sent them off home. we returned to our refuge (hope center), ate dinner (made by THE kenliu), debriefed, and cards again. oh, gloria visited.oh yeah- and now i’m apparently a godmother (to one of my girls)gnite and peace,ay 

Hey all,well today was a pretty good start to the week, at least for me  definitely. This year things were a little bit different: Instead of two ages per group it’s now three. Example: my group is 9-11 year-old-girls. A nice surprise for me this year is that my first day seemed much easier from the point of view of a “counselor” than last year. The girls were generally very well-behaved. I was surprised that while in line for water, they were quite silent. Maybe it was because the heat is not as unbearable as last year, or maybe they have matured more than i expected… Maybe a little bit of both. Anyway, they were very good during opening assembly.  As far as I was aware, they were awesome during our time at the park. I had a fun time pushing a 6-7 year-old boy on the swing.  Our girls’ behavior declined a little following the course of the day, closing assembly being the worst. I think that can be attributed to the fact that it’s the first day and that nearing the end of the day, kids become naturally more restless (i don’t know if that is the right word) But I love how they, the girls especially, love singing the songs and following the hand motions. Oh, haha, it was wonderful seeing Tina. she scared me this morning when I walked in the door, which was a good thing because it woke me up
This year’s assignments:5-7 girls = Kolina boys = Kevin, Andy
7-9 girls = Alice  boys = Kyle 
9-11 girls = Me (Dana)
I think overall this day went pretty well.  I’d like to note an observation of mine.  Alice has definitely retained and improved upon her experience and knowledge from her visit last year. Andy seems prepared to keep at it. Kevin seems to work well with kids – I saw him smile when one of Ms. Mary’s kids was around being cute. xD Kyle definitely could be the not-afraid disciplinary person (this is a good thing; i need to work on that) Kolina has the innocence that draws young kids to her.  (And of course, Ken is the great supporting pastor that is winning at caps.)I think for me, i guess i’m good at almost always being able to smile when someone looks at me. and being willing to help out with anything. 
btw, my counselor is great. it’s her first time here, but i think she’s starting off well. I also think our group is already becoming very close on the “first night”.Please pray for all of us to get a good night’s sleep, let God use us to make a difference in the lives of these kids. Oh and that Tina is enjoying her experience as a full time counselor.
Love,
Dana 

Hope everyone is having a good start to their week!