Return to Blogging

Hello everyone, I am back. First apologies to all who read my blog. Beyond the busy schedule, I have been not feeling well this past week. So I will try to catch everyone up on the past week or so. Also a second note, to prevent spam on my blog, in order to post you now need to write a "confirmation" word. You will need to do this anytime you want to comment, but spammers cannot send out mass emails on my blog this way.

Last weekend was a great experience. We on Saturday we celebrated Moon Festival at a friend's house. Her family had all of the foreign teachers at Concordia over for Moon Festival BBQ. Moon Festival is a celebration of harvest, the moon, and a time for family to get together. In addition to eating a ton of food, we also had sparklers.

On Sunday, we had missionary worship. All of the missionaries in Taiwan came down to Concordia for an afternoon service. Following the service we had a reception/potluck at our house. I made chili, but unfortunately it got burned. I was told that it had a "smokey" flavor. Between the steaks, chicken, other sides, and fellowship, it was a great time!

On Monday evening I started to feel a little under the weather. On Tuesday afternoon, it hit me like a sledgehammer, and I began to feel really bad. The past days I have been drinking plenty of orange juice, taking vitamins, and getting rest. Right now I have a lot more energy, and am well on the road to recovery. I was talking with a co-worker who reminded me of the differences in strains of viruses between the US and a foreign country. So I am definitely more vulnerable to illness, and also all of the missionaries throughout the world will be facing the same problems.

New pictures:
I have a lot of new pictures on my webpage(see side-bar). In the album titled "School Stuff", I have pictures of the high school, more outside my office, and pictures of my classroom and my Senior 1A class.

I also have a new album with pictures from Moon festival celebrations.

Finally there is a album from a family worship we had our house. This is really cool, as it includes pictures of many of my Taiwanese friends from church.

Prayer requests:
Health for me and all of us missionaries.

Thanksgiving for all of the opportunities God has given us to spread the Gospel here in Taiwan.

Just a Lazy Work Day

Today has been really good. I have had a chance to take it easy and accomplish some things that needed to be done. This afternoon me, Anna H, and Molly began practicing and picking songs for Friday Night Bible Study. I love this part of the ministry. It all reminds me so much of playing at camp with the "Guys Not Named Steve" and also playing in Sergeant Bluff with Dayspring. Good times then and good times now as well. Also, the kids at Bible study love singing! It makes for a wonderful way to get them excited to learn about the Lord for the evening.

Other than practice, I have also had a chance to organize some things for teaching. I have used Excel to set up my gradebook for all 13 of my classes (thank you Molly!). Later I will finish checking the paragraphs my Senior 1 students wrote, and prepare my lessons for tomorrow and the rest of the week. I love being able to sit here and work at my own pace, while I listen to music. (Right now it is U2 for those of you who are curious)


A couple of things that need to be addressed before I finish my blog.

First, I will eat a giant helping of humble pie. I woke up this morning to check the score of the Iowa-Iowa State game, and was in shock. Much credit to Iowa State. I guess I am more surprised at the score than anything. The eternal optimist in me knows that the Hawks can still recover and have a really good season. They are going to need Drew Tate though.

Secondly, we went to a KTV (karoke) place to sing some songs. There were about 15 of us who went and it was an outstanding time. Karoke is done a little differently on this side of the world. You rent out a room and you sing songs with just the group of people that you come with. There is a big TV (which shows pictures in the background in addition to the words), and there are 4 or 5 mics that we passed around the room. For the most part, even those without a mic sang along to the music. The highlight of the night for me was singing Total Eclipse of the Heart (as sang by Nikki French). It was a blast! Zeke, I wish you could have been there to sing as well.


A picture inside the Karoke Room



Molly, Noel, Anna, and Anne Singing Karoke



Mark at his finest

Alright, I suppose it is time to get back to work.

Busy Week

Since the last time I blogged, I have been extremely busy. We all survived the typhoon, and there was not any major damage to campus, just some trees and wires that fell down. It did make for a fun first day of teacher meetings, as we helped pick up debris on campus. Also, there was a second typhoon on its way, but it ended up going North toward Japan.

Last Friday we started our Friday Night Bible Studies at Salvation Lutheran Church. This was a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel with students and young adults. Some were Christian, and others were coming because they were interested. Either way, the Lord was there working, and we all had a good time in the process. I will give you a more detailed post on Friday night Bible Study after I have been there a couple of more times. It was most definitely the highlight of my week.

This Monday, I began to teach. I have about 200 students, in 13 different sections. Needless to say, going over the rules that many times can get a little redundant. It has been a true joy and blessing to meet my students, and now I look forward to beginning their instruction. I know there will be many joys and also many challenges this coming year.

To close, I want to leave you with a story that is the highlight of this week.

After class on Tuesday, I was approached by a student with some general English questions. He wondered if I would help him with various words and phrases. I said that I would be happy to, and that we could go back to the English office right after class (it was the period before the hour of lunch/break that the students have everyday).

When we got to the English office, he asked me a couple of questions about some sentences he had written. Judging by his questions I could tell he was very intelligent (one of his questions involved the difference between "colossal" and "gargantuan"). After answering some questions, he said that sometimes he would want to just practice talking.

He looked at me (I could tell he was thinking), and he asked me if I wanted to "Shoot Breeze".

I had a big smile on my face and told him that I would love to shoot the breeze with him. So he asked me why I came to Taiwan, and this was a great chance to witness. Next he asked me what I knew about Taiwan's history. I said not much, and he began to explain a little.

Before long, lunch was over and he had to go. But he was very excited at the opportunity of talking to me some more in the future.

So tomorrow, I am going to shoot the breeze with Rick during lunch. I look forward to building that relationship throughout the year.

Prayer requests:

That God would provide opportunities for me and all of the missionaries here to build strong relationships, and use these as a means to share the Gospel.

Pray that God would bless our Friday Night Bible Study time, and that the Holy Spirit would open the hearts and minds of the students who attend.

Pray for wisdom, energy, and guidance as we are now in the full swing of teaching.


New Pictures:

There are some typhoon pictures (courtesy of James).

Into The Storm

As I write, I am experiencing my first typhoon. A typhoon is the name for a hurricane sized storm that takes place in the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday saw a lot of rain and some powerful winds. Today there is even more rain, and the winds have continued. On campus, branches and wires are down on the ground everywhere. I was told that the worst is up North closer to Taipei, but it still is affecting us down in Chia-Yi. Today was to be the first day of school. We were to have meetings and an assembly where new teachers were going to be introduced to the students. The school closed however due to the typhoon. So this is a “snow-day” of sorts for me.


A picture from my front door of some of the fallen tree branches.

In spite of the weather, yesterday was very productive. I had meetings with Andrew and Mike and we planned our grading policy and first week of lessons. All three of us will be teaching the same classes. We each have 6 sections of senior 1 (sophomore) writing, 6 sections of senior 1 Bible class, and 6 sections of senior 2 (junior) writing. Doing the math shows that there are 18 sections of 20-30 students for each grade level. I will post another time on practical and logistical aspects of teaching at the school.

This Friday is our first Friday Night Bible Study. It is a time of song, games, and learning about the Bible for kids. On Friday I will be playing guitar and Molly will be playing piano to lead music time. Yesterday we selected the songs we will play and practiced them. I am very excited to get started with Friday Night Bible Study and will post in detail sometime in the next week.

Also, if you notice there is a new link on the webpage. On the right you should be able to find Mark’s Pictures. I have started an online photo album. You can click on the link at it will take you to a website that will store my pictures throughout the year. If I add pictures to it, I will write a note about it on this website.

Prayer requests: Safety for all people caught in natural disasters, especially New Orleans and Taiwan. Pray that this would be a chance to witness Christ’s love.

Pray that our Friday Night Bible Study will go well, and that the Holy Spirit will work to strength faith or bring faith to those that attend.


New Pictures: I have albums for Concordia Campus, my house, school stuff, general pictures from my first week in Taiwan, pictures from our group trip to Tainan, and pictures of a trip to Taichong. If you ever have questions about the pictures please post them in a comment section or send me an email. I would be more than happy to explain them further.



Interaction: I would like to know if you have heard about the Taiwan typhoon in your part of the world. I really have no idea how widespread the coverage is. Also anyone from the states I would be curious to hear the latest about what has happened with New Orleans.