January 21, 2006—

Saturday morning began early, as the seminar began at 8:30, but doors opened at 8, and we had some prep to finish preparing. My wonderful team included, Andy, Katie, and Jessica, who also served as our amazing translator. Coming away from my first day of teaching (Friday night) I was filled with a love for these special children that God had given us to invest in. As I looked at the children, it was easy to focus in on the temporary things, such as clothes that were so obviously worn out, and teeth that were decayed, when in actuality, these are just a drop in the bucket: Christ died for these children! Do they know that He loves them? Do they understand that Christ paid the penalty for their sins, and He doesn't want any of them to perish?!

Jessica was an awesome, as well as flexible interpreter, making it possible for us to share nuggets of truth from God's word with these children. I tried to get the children to teach me Chinese by pointing at an object and having them tell me how to say it. Selena and I started with colors, and after exhausting all the colors we were both wearing, I thought we were swapping to body parts, but after her telling me the same word for ears, fingers and toes, I called Jessica over and discovered that she was telling me the color of my skin.

One of the kids' favorite games was Red Light, Green Light, and I joined in, learning how to say red and green in Chinese. I was puzzled later, when I was listening in, and they were using different words. I turn to Jessica to ask what they were saying, she told me that they were speaking in English. I had gotten so focused on the Chinese, that English wasn't registering!

I taught the Web of Untruth story, spinning each of us into a giant knot, showing them how lies build a web, that can be impossible to untangle. It's nearly impossible to tell only one lie, as we generally have to cover the first one with yet another one. But as the day went on, I unconsciously, began to believe the lies that Satan was sending my way. I was struggling with who I was in Christ, and the day became a drag, as I was bogged down, and felt like complaining. I was miserable, and just decided that I would have to live with it.

Towards the end of the day, Andy taught the lesson on strongholds, and as I listened in, I realized that I had given ground to Satan that day, and allowed him to convince me that I could do things on my own, in my own strength, that I was complete in myself. Seeing God work in my life, and being able to claim His promises yet again, offering Him an empty vessel that He was free to use to glorify Himself in any way He chose was so refreshing.

After a long day, we had cool down, and caught taxis back to the hotel. We all regrouped into our accountability teams, and headed out for dinner. My team (Dan is our leader, and then there is Kristi and Tim Cook, Jane, Josh, Angel, Ruth and me) headed to a local café, and as we ordered our dinners (we were given a budget of $250 NT, which is equivalent to about $8 USD.) we all shared random facts about ourselves. My team is awesome. It was fun to get to know everyone better in a relaxed atmosphere. On the way back, we split into two groups. We got back to the hotel around 10, and we all dispersed, heading up to bed for a well earned night of sleep!

—Jaime Rowland
ATI Student from WA