Where do people in Taiwan’s crowded cities go to relax on the weekend? Many people in Kaohsiung go to city parks, such as the cultural center park or the park around the art museum.

About three years ago a number of our English-teaching OMF Partners noticed that there were many families with young children in these parks. They wondered if the children would like to color Bible story pictures and learn the stories.

They do!

For about two hours most Saturday or Sunday afternoons you can find two or three English teachers in one of the parks. They go armed with fifty photocopies of a page from a Bible story coloring book and lots of crayons. They also have several local Christian friends with them to help translate and talk with the children and parents. To attract attention they blow bubbles. Just being foreign helps too!

Some children ask for a page to take home, but most of them want to color their pages right there in the park. The teachers tell the Bible story and talk with the children while they color. As a reward for coloring their pictures and listening to the story, the children are given a complete coloring book with sixteen pictures to take home. Each picture has an accompanying story in both Chinese and English. Parents like them because it can help the children learn and practice English! They usually give out between ten and twenty books each week.

Sometimes the parents come up and want to know who the foreign teachers are, where they are from, why they are doing this, etc. This has led to some great conversations, tracts and church information being shared in a natural way. All in all, coloring in the park is a great way to meet people and plant seeds of the gospel!

David Ullstrom – Kaohsiung