A special report on the life-affecting camp 2004 Literary Practical Camp
[Current key ministries]
The literature camp hosted by Kingdom Resources for Christian Association is held at the Mary Immaculate Center in the north of Allentown, PA. "Christ's Messengers Association", "True Love Family Association" and "Shofar Evangelistic Group" are co-organizers. Mary Monastery was built and opened for use in 1939. It has a history of 65 years and covers an area of 460 acres. It is located on a hillside on the outskirts of Allen Township. It overlooks the nearby Lehigh Valley. The scenery is beautiful and the courtyard is full of ancient trees. It is towering and full of flowers and plants. Living here, there is no feeling of summer. The monks who come from far away to hold retirement meetings speak softly, so that the students participating in the literary camp do not dare to "make noise". In this quiet fortress, you can put aside the secular world. Don't worry about anything, just enjoy the literal and spiritual feast.
In addition to training courses, in-depth interviews, and special classes, this year’s writing camp also held additional “workshops” for “veteran” students who have participated for many years. The training class hosted by Mr. Su Wen'an was held from July 22nd to 25th, with a total of 23 students participating; the in-depth class focusing on interview skills was held from July 25th to 29th. , a total of 22 students. According to Teacher Su's "Workshop" class and Teacher Chen's "Special Class - Writing with Spirit" were held simultaneously from July 29th to August 1st; 20 and 15 students participated respectively. Then Teacher Chen taught the "Special Class - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants" on August 1st and 2nd, with 20 students participating.
The training class focuses on introducing the panorama and importance of writing work, and leads students to train in basic writing skills. It also emphasizes the role of writing in personal life in the future. In this year's training class, almost all the trainees met for the first time. After getting to know each other through the game, they found that there were many talents and everyone quickly became familiar with each other.
All students who take Mr. Su’s class will be deeply impressed by his wonderful video clips and examples, and will never forget his “famous words”: “Workers come before work, authors are more important than works, sincerity is more important than anything else” to remind everyone that Christians The "whole character" that a writer must first possess; the "Seven Beauties Movement" is a lesson that trainee students must first learn and practice: "Ten Tips for Writing" emphasizes that "showing" is more important than "telling" (Show rather than telling) The secret.
The first task to practice writing is to write a travelogue. It happened to be raining that day, so the students braved the rain to roam in the woods near the monastery. After returning, they changed their clothes and immediately started writing. They received comments from Teacher Su that night, and enjoyed many moving and interesting works with each other amidst laughter and laughter.
This year’s advanced class focuses on interviewing skills. The students who come to the advanced class have all attended the training class, so many of them know each other. After everyone studied and observed during the intensive study process of five days and four nights, Teacher Su divided the class into four groups and assigned an interviewee to each group (the interviewees in three groups were classmates or teachers from the Chinese Literature Camp) ).
Before the interview, each group of students discussed and formulated the interview topic and listed a summary of questions, and worked with the interviewees to prepare for the interview the next day. After an hour and a half of field interviews, each group worked together to write an interview report, which was then handed over to Teacher Su for comment. After discussion and revision, the interview transcripts become good articles that can be published in official journals.
Teacher Chen Huiwan’s class title this time is “Writing as if There is Spirit”. The content includes "Creation is a spiritual experience", "Writing a spiritual diary can release creativity", how to write "my story, my song", how to "tell stories, storytellers", "character combinations", etc. Finally, everyone is encouraged to pursue spiritual growth and work hard in writing, so that students can use "the rafters and the brush to build the temple."
The workshop is a new attempt started this year and is hosted by Teacher Su. The students are mainly "old" students who have participated in all the courses of Teacher Su and Teacher Chen. Some people say that they are like graduate students. In addition to reviewing the writing secrets they have learned in the past, they also arrange several special lectures. Entrepreneur brother Li Guanting told everyone how he trusted God, broke through the traditional framework, and lived the color of life; painter Zhou Lanhui, who is also a student of the literature camp, gave everyone a painting appreciation class; travel literature writer Jiao Ming shared her trip to the Himalayas ;The content is very exciting.
After the "workshop", Teacher Chen then gave everyone a one-day class "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants", instructing how to read classics, which benefited the students a lot. In the literature camp, the bookstall set up by the "messengers" is always a popular place for students; everyone enjoys browsing various books introduced by teachers and can also enjoy discounts. After listening to Teacher Chen’s class, everyone rushed to buy the classic works introduced by Teacher Chen.
After several years of hard work, the influence of the literary camp has begun to appear: many students' articles have been scattered in magazines, newspapers and books both inside and outside Christianity, becoming a new force for Christian literary writers. The "Life Tonic Series", which was compiled into a book by teachers and students of the Chinese Literature Camp, has been published by Tian'en Publishing House in Taipei in one volume (cup) every year since 2002, and the third volume has been published so far; The fourth episode is being compiled.
The annual "Literature Camp Special Issue" is submitted by teachers and students who participated in that year, compiled and published for reference by teachers, students and people interested in Christian literature work, and has also received a very positive response. These extremely challenging target language process sets closely connect early and late students with Chinese language camp teachers to work together for the gospel ministry.
We hope that more brothers and sisters who are interested in literary work will participate in the literary camp, which will not only help renew their spiritual life, but also gain a better understanding of "why to write" and "how to write", and become elite literary soldiers reused by God. . The 7th Literary Camp of 2005 will be held from July 21 to August 2. Details will be published in "Divine Resources Magazine" and other publications. Early registration is welcome.
(Part of this article refers to the comprehensive reports of each class written by the students of the 2004 Literary Camp, including Deng Xiaoyun (training class), Zhao Hong (advanced class), Shen Xueshu (special class), Luo Cunxin (workshop), etc. , hereby express my thanks.)