It was a Wednesday on December 5th, with drizzle in the morning and heavy rain in the afternoon, which made it seem a bit cold and cheerless. However, the teachers and the students were all looking forward to this learning event outside of school. The teachers, Mei-Du Chiu, Zhi-Yong Lin and Ming-Cheng Chang, lead around 10 students with great learning abilities, and walked into the temple excitedly.

Former Chairmen explained history of San-Sen Temple.

Students nodded along and asked questions.

              The keen former chairmen explained the Gods’ names, their power, the organization, the environment and the future goals to everyone. He took out invitations, and invited everyone to the praying ceremony a few days after. The students were already sorted into groups, and were all busy with note-taking. Some took out their cameras and took pictures. Students nodded along and asked questions that were impressive to the chairman. Through this event, not only can the school be connected to the community, the knowledge can also be passed on to the next generation.

Students in different groups were all busy with note taking.

Everyone were discussing what they had learned from the interview.

             Besides the explanation from the staffs at the temple, our expert Miss Chiu also guided the students and taught them how to appreciate the beautiful and treasured architecture. The painted calabash, vases, books and animals all had their educational meanings. The wall in the Guan Yin Hall on the second floor still had the Jian-Nian artwork left from long ago. The artwork of dragons, morning bells and tigers all brought amazement to the students.

The former chairman answered questions from the students.

Everyone was recording, discussing and enjoying the process.

               The view from the second floor was especially broad, and was the perfect location for the students to observe the community. To the north was fields of farming land and houses. To the west was the finished construction of the new roads, as well as buildings of Yuanlin Junior High School. To the south was Yuanlin High School and the stores on Jing-Shou Road.

The former chairman lead the students to pay their respect to the Gods together.

Students learned the formal ways to worship Gods.