This summer, The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) Asia region partnered with the China Evangelical Lutheran Church for the second year in a row to hold English Bible Camps — two camps in 2024 and four camps in 2025. At the end of July, LCMS missionaries Mindy Thews, Rebecca Bartelt and Barb Rebentisch served, respectively, as camp director, music leader and translator for a camp at Songshan Church in Taipei, Taiwan. Hannah Hester, who serves the region as business administrator, volunteered to help with the camp and later wrote about it in her newsletter:
There are four camps in Taiwan partnered with [the] China Evangelical Lutheran Church (CELC). I was asked to help with the five-day camp in Taipei. We went up early for training and practice. … There were also some volunteers from St. Louis — two college students and one of their dads.
It was the first time [in] Taiwan for all of them, so we got to do some sightseeing. … The college students do not speak much Chinese, but they could understand when someone was talking to them. I have similar capabilities. However, over this last decade, I can now answer [in Chinese] for the most part.
The camp had Bible stories in Chinese, English games, lunch, singing and crafts every day. We ended with a performance of the songs we sang all week. We invited their parents to listen and join us in some singing to close our program.
For the most part, when I have volunteered for English camps, I have been only using English with students and other teachers. This time, however, there was opportunity for me to practice Chinese and not feel as much pressure. Before and after the camp each day, there were different board games available to play. We did not always have a translator at that time, so in my broken Chinese, I either taught the kids how to play or they told me how to play.
I enjoyed meeting all the [camp participants]. … The U.S. volunteers … had a great time, too. It is always great to connect more people to the church here in Taiwan. Pray with me that … God continues to place more opportunities for the kids to hear more. … Prayerfully consider if you would like to volunteer for a future camp; we would love to have more [people] come and share Jesus’ love with some elementary students.
Posted Sept. 19, 2025
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