2005-10-02 23:03:20萊西
050707 漫遊者回憶 之 Mission: Possible
I still remember those young faces and questions they asked.
“Why is your hair spiky?”
Don’t be disappointed but it wasn’t born that way…the first thing I do after I open my eyes every morning is to gel my hair.
“Where are you from?”
I’m from Taiwan -- T.A.I.W.A.N. Hum, your expression reveals that my country isn’t well promoted enough. It’s on the other side of the world anyway, across the Pacific Ocean. Never heard of the Pacific? Ok, never mind...
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
Is it just that inconspicuous?!
Oh yeah I remember them. Not their names maybe but the time we spent together – something I didn’t expect before the trip.
To tell the truth I had no idea what a mission trip was like. I had a few friends from Pittsburg State sharing their mission trip experiences with me, one going to Kentucky to build houses and the other to Brazil teaching bible lessons. They gave me a vague picture of the trip. Seriously, many things in the world need to be “felt” than “told” to be understood. And this is so much it. With the unclear picture in mind, I wasn’t expecting I would actually join a mission trip – not until Wall Street Church came down to Campus Christian to provide an awesome lunch. Irma brought up that the church would go to Arizona for a mission trip in summer and that I might go with them. The news excited me and since then I had kept the possibility in mind.
Finally, before the spring semester ended Bruce sent me some materials about the trip and the application form, which I filled and sent back. After my trip to Texas, I hopped in the van with others in an early June morning in drizzle heading toward the state of Grand Canyon. 20-hour confinement in the van explains my ecstasy as we arrived in AICM (American Indian Christian Mission). Thus we began the mission.
In the morning, I mostly worked on shelf painting and paper folding; souvenirs I got from them were some polyurethane stains and several paper cut on fingers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this kind of souvenirs. On the contrary, I think they were part of the work making the process complete, just like you have to get some sunburn when you go to the beach. And it was also fun working with other people in the group.
The afternoon is the time for Blue Bus Ministry. Jim drove us to 4 different Apache communities with his big bus every afternoon: Canyon Day, Chinatown (when I heard the name I was thinking: wow, even they have a Chinatown! But it was called that way because of the style of the houses, not that there were Chinese people), FATCO – Fort Apache Timber Company and Cradleboard. First day I really thought it was a long way to go (around 2 hours one way) and the bus had to go household by household honking to pick up kids. But on the last day I found myself got used to that and had been having fun with these big-eyed, dark-complexioned children. We played basketball, baseball, tag ball, jumping rope, roller-skating, etc. At first glance you feel they were all a little bit shy, but after some mingling everybody was playing with everybody. The kids would hold your hand, hop on your back, ask you questions…at some moments I wished I had had more than just ONE day to get to know them and let them get to know me. Ain’t that beautiful to spend some time just playing with them? Life becomes so simple and rewarding.
Other than doing maintenance and visiting communities, there were other experiences, too, like…I was always the last to get up and wondered why others needed so little sleep, Robert let me drive his truck and luckily I didn’t crash it at all, my nose bled every morning due to extremely low humidity (3%), and I almost killed myself with that legendary snack – pickle with grape flavor cool aid (I dare you to try that!). So many things had happened during that week. I know foreign students mush have all different kinds of experiences in the States, but I still think it’s truly a privilege to go to that trip. Thanks to people who helped get me onto the trip and who helped me enjoy the trip. I don’t remember all the names but I remember that you’re all very kind people. I wish you the best.
“Why is your hair spiky?”
Don’t be disappointed but it wasn’t born that way…the first thing I do after I open my eyes every morning is to gel my hair.
“Where are you from?”
I’m from Taiwan -- T.A.I.W.A.N. Hum, your expression reveals that my country isn’t well promoted enough. It’s on the other side of the world anyway, across the Pacific Ocean. Never heard of the Pacific? Ok, never mind...
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
Is it just that inconspicuous?!
Oh yeah I remember them. Not their names maybe but the time we spent together – something I didn’t expect before the trip.
To tell the truth I had no idea what a mission trip was like. I had a few friends from Pittsburg State sharing their mission trip experiences with me, one going to Kentucky to build houses and the other to Brazil teaching bible lessons. They gave me a vague picture of the trip. Seriously, many things in the world need to be “felt” than “told” to be understood. And this is so much it. With the unclear picture in mind, I wasn’t expecting I would actually join a mission trip – not until Wall Street Church came down to Campus Christian to provide an awesome lunch. Irma brought up that the church would go to Arizona for a mission trip in summer and that I might go with them. The news excited me and since then I had kept the possibility in mind.
Finally, before the spring semester ended Bruce sent me some materials about the trip and the application form, which I filled and sent back. After my trip to Texas, I hopped in the van with others in an early June morning in drizzle heading toward the state of Grand Canyon. 20-hour confinement in the van explains my ecstasy as we arrived in AICM (American Indian Christian Mission). Thus we began the mission.
In the morning, I mostly worked on shelf painting and paper folding; souvenirs I got from them were some polyurethane stains and several paper cut on fingers. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this kind of souvenirs. On the contrary, I think they were part of the work making the process complete, just like you have to get some sunburn when you go to the beach. And it was also fun working with other people in the group.
The afternoon is the time for Blue Bus Ministry. Jim drove us to 4 different Apache communities with his big bus every afternoon: Canyon Day, Chinatown (when I heard the name I was thinking: wow, even they have a Chinatown! But it was called that way because of the style of the houses, not that there were Chinese people), FATCO – Fort Apache Timber Company and Cradleboard. First day I really thought it was a long way to go (around 2 hours one way) and the bus had to go household by household honking to pick up kids. But on the last day I found myself got used to that and had been having fun with these big-eyed, dark-complexioned children. We played basketball, baseball, tag ball, jumping rope, roller-skating, etc. At first glance you feel they were all a little bit shy, but after some mingling everybody was playing with everybody. The kids would hold your hand, hop on your back, ask you questions…at some moments I wished I had had more than just ONE day to get to know them and let them get to know me. Ain’t that beautiful to spend some time just playing with them? Life becomes so simple and rewarding.
Other than doing maintenance and visiting communities, there were other experiences, too, like…I was always the last to get up and wondered why others needed so little sleep, Robert let me drive his truck and luckily I didn’t crash it at all, my nose bled every morning due to extremely low humidity (3%), and I almost killed myself with that legendary snack – pickle with grape flavor cool aid (I dare you to try that!). So many things had happened during that week. I know foreign students mush have all different kinds of experiences in the States, but I still think it’s truly a privilege to go to that trip. Thanks to people who helped get me onto the trip and who helped me enjoy the trip. I don’t remember all the names but I remember that you’re all very kind people. I wish you the best.