Host Families

Posted on July 31, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Jonathan, James, Peter, Leo and Timothy visit a host family in OKC

On Sunday afternoon, after church, we went to the host family. And I am with Jonathan, Timothy, Peter and Leo. The man who picked us is the husband of a TESOL student’s sister (the student had just had a competition with my roommate in ping-pong.) So we went to his house, and I gave him a Pokémon ball for a present. After that we went to Walmart, and bought some instant lunch. And then we went swimming. After that we had dinner time, and the dinner was made by ourself. We made sushi and cheeseburgers, and it’s very tasty and delicious! I can say that it is my best meal in VOICE. And we played One Thousand, and I won the game. I like my host family, they’re really kind.

James Chen
Team 1

Queen of the Dark Chamber

Posted on July 30, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Venetia Liao

I felt so honored being offered the role of Christiana. But after looking deeper at the script, the music and this wondrous woman’s life, I felt scared. Scared that the challenging songs, and scared that I could not portray this great of a woman well. Nevertheless, I have peace in the heart. I will pray for God to give me enough wisdom, energy and sensitivity to play this role. I also shall pray that I may not be tied up by want for playing her perfectly. As the Bible and the Bible class has reminded me, I should remember the importance and the meaning of rest. I should have trust and faith in not only myself, but my team and my God. Though it may be even greater a challenge, I should and will try.

Venetia Liao
Team 5

[Editor’s Note: The VOICE ‘16 musical is titled and based off of the book “Queen of the Dark Chamber”, the true story of the life of Christiana Tsai, a Chinese woman who came to know Jesus despite persecution.]

Team Life

Posted on July 29, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Timothy, Jamie and Annie celebrating Christmas at VOICE

I am in Team Four. There are eight girls in my team, including the team leader, Grace. I do like my team. Although we have known each other for about two weeks, we treat one another as family. I think team times will be the thing that I miss the most. These days we have chatted much at team devotions and team prayer. We chat about everything like our family, friends and experience. And the most special and my favorite part of my team is that we hug each other after team prayer. I consider hugging is really important to our team. It improves our relationship. And I do appreciate Grace. She is not only a team leader to me, but also a good teacher, friend and sister.

Jamie You
Team 4

God’s Love and the Memorial

Posted on July 28, 2016 by the VOICE journal

VOICE ’16 visiting the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

7/25

It was a good memorial hall that we visited. It demonstrated the bombing incident in chronological order. It let us feel the whole thing just like it happened in front of our eyes. It was really scary, sad and even angry.
A part of the memorial I liked the most is the feedback. This memorial hall didn’t only write down the happening, the terrorist, the rescue and the people who died in the explosion, it also let visitors think deeper about how we will face this incident if it happens to us. There were some questions like “How do you want to treat the terrorist?” and “Do you want to forgive him?” These questions let me think deeper about forgiveness lesson. It will be really a difficult lesson for me if these kind of things happen to me. And I realized how big God’s love is. He didn’t only forgive us, He even let His son die for us. That was what I learned the most at this memorial hall.

Joanna Lin
Team 5

Visiting the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial

Posted on July 27, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Katherine Hsu and David Chang leave a message at the bombing memorial

7/25

Today we went to the OKC bombing memorial and museum. There it is really beautiful but has a really sad story in there. When I saw the picture of the people who died in the bombing, I was so sad. I feel pretty bad and angry with the guy who did this. Just kept thinking “Why.” But that is useless to be asking why. And what we should do is love and show to the world who Jesus is. When I saw the skyline of the Oklahoma City I just kept thinking what is our responsibility. Because we are the man who shall live in the world, and we know the story of it. So that is what we should do. Love the world and bring them hope in Jesus’ name. I know this kind of story will happen again. But if we stand together, everything will be okay.

David Chang
Team 2

Rehearsing the Musical

Posted on July 25, 2016 by the VOICE journal

7/21

When I attended camps in Taiwan before, we sometimes played dramas, so I had a few experience in acting. This time in VOICE, it’s my first time to play parts in a musical, this is really fresh for me. I will play an Angel’s part in the musical. Even though it’s just a small part in the show, I still enjoyed it a lot when i was practicing. Yesterday, me and Jamie practiced singing a song called “The Search”. The melody was lovely, but I also liked the lyrics a lot. We haven’t finished learning the song, so we’ll keep on going today. I hope that I can learn more about musicals during this chance.

Joy Liao
Team 4

Thanksgiving Celebration

Posted on July 25, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner

We celebrated Thanksgiving last night and it was my first experience of how people celebrate Thanksgiving in America. First, we made our own turkey hat and wore it during the dinner. While we were eating, we watched a video about Snoopy celebrating Thanksgiving with friends and family. For Thanksgiving dinner, we had mashed potatoes, turkey, steamed pumpkin, beans and pumpkin pie. I am not such a fan of pumpkin, though. After the meal, Rebecca shared a story of a man who was a refugee from Iran. The story was touching and it made me think if I had been thankful for the Savior. Then we had some activities related to Thanksgiving. We played two games; one was about biting apples from a box of water, and the other one was jumping in a bag. I didn’t join the game because my foot was injured, but it was hilarious to watch others play. I wish we celebrated Thanksgiving like last night in Taiwan.

Spring Huang

Team 5

Thanksgiving Day

Posted on July 24, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Thanksgiving Day is a very special holiday. It’s not in Taiwan, I’m glad to experience Thanksgiving Day. It means thankful. We have a lot of things from someone’s help. If we always have a thankful heart, this would will be precious better. This is the reason why I think Thanksgiving Day is special. The dinner last night is delicious! I loved that turkey, it was very yummy! And Olivia told us a story about Thanksgiving Day, it was very good. It’s a story about Jesus helping the main character to avoid the kill by soldiers, because he believed Jesus. And it was amazing that Jesus blinded the soldiers, and saved him. In the end, he came back to Kenya to help ones who were like him before. That touched my heart, and that story is real. I like this holiday very much, and I had a nice evening yesterday.

Eric Guo

Team 1

Coming to America

Posted on July 22, 2016 by the VOICE journal

Orientation after arriving in Oklahoma City

I was very happy but a little nervous before I got on the airplane. I wondered if the airplane would drop off. But our God really help us come to America safely and fast. It took us a lot of time to America. In fact, it was not comfortable in the airplane, so I didn’t sleep well. Although we did nothing in the airplane, we still ate a lot. The food in the airplane really surprised me. We had pasta and ice cream! After a long time journey, we got Oklahoma City. The air here was really dry, my skin even hurt. Although America is very different from Taiwan, I still like here and hope to have a happy time during this month!

Lisa Huang
Team 5