A big celebration weekend ~ it’s Mother’s Day tomorrow and lots of local schools were holding their annual Sports Day today ~ so off we went to our local elementary school, Xingren, to help them celebrate not only Sports Day, but their 99th birthday.  So next year will be a great centenary year ~ 100 coming up!

Alumni of all ages were there too, from the just-graduated up to the oldest – in his 90’s! Lots of VIPs, the Mayor of Tamsui, local councilors, community leaders and heads of other elementary schools all put in an appearance.  Oh yes, and Andrew Charity Foodbank were also there, collecting food for distribution…

We had the National Anthem, flag-raising, performances from all ages and then the sports competition, ending, of course, with the Tug-of-War!

First thing every Monday morning, a group from Advent Church teach the Champions Course 得勝者 (character education) to the children at Xingren, assisted by some of the children’s parents and our students.  It’s a widely-used programme in Taiwan, using stories, games and drama and all sorts of fun activities to help the children to grow in character and become mature.

So today at the Sports Day our team organized a Champions Game – throwing the sticky ball at one of the words on the whiteboard – forgiveness, honesty, thankfulness, obedience, sincerity or dedication – then identifying which of the sentences described the word they had chosen – the end result was a balloon with the word – and all revision of things they’ve learned so far!

A great morning for everyone, lots of fun and games!  Such lovely children ~ some of them came time and time again and went home with a whole load of balloons – and of course great big smiles on their faces ~ YES!