Dr. Wolfram

As I have said earlier, I loved the chance to be home and to visit everyone. I also loved all of the delicious foods that I ate. Upon my return to Taiwan, I realized that I indulged a little bit too much on all of this great food.

I think in total I gained close to 10 pounds in that month home in the States. Like most Americans, I ate out too much and my portions were always too big. So as I was sitting around my first day back home, I decided that I should make some changes in my diet.

So I have a new-found commitment to health. I am not trying to go over-board on strict diet, but just in general eating more fruits and vegetables, and trying not to drink as much pop or eat as much junk food. Also, I was going to start running feveryday and trying to play basketball or lift weights whenever possible.

My roommate Kevin adopted a similar attitude upon his return from the States, so during the first couple of days both of us were reading up on ways to eat healthier. I ended up reading several articles about the health benefits of drinking green tea and eating the seeds of grapes (both of which I have tried to incorporate into my eating).

So far the new eating habits have gone well, but the physical activity is another story. In the above passage I wrote "was", because everything was going great. I was playing ball, running and lifting a bit...until I sprained my ankle.

Initially the injury hurt pretty bad and for the last 30 hours I have been icing and elevating the ankle as much as possible. I have also been reading up on the anatomy of the ankle and how best to treat, repair, and prevent ankle injuries. So to connect with the title...between reading up on ways to have a healthier diet and to treat sports injuries I feel like I have been in med. school for the past week.

But alas, I am not a doctor, however God is. So a prayer request goes out for my ankle, so it would heal properly and quickly (according to God's will of course). I especially ask for this because I am supposed to help lead basketball camp in 9 days. I also ask for prayers for this camp as me, Sam, Kevin, and James prepare for it. May God bless all of you!

Mark

Back Home

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you all know that I made it back safe and sound to Taiwan. (Yes, I know it has been a while since I blogged, so in the mean time I have finished the school year and spent nearly for weeks in the U.S. Sorry for the lack of updates.)

The break in Iowa was really good, but now I do feel little more like I am back home here in Taiwan. It is weird to think of it as being "home", but I did have that kind of feeling as I unpacked my things and saw some of my friends and students again.

What a difference a year can make! Last year, I came over almost in shock, having no idea what to expect. This year I am filled with excitement to continue the relationships that I already have established. Praise God for this and the new joys and challenges that will be provided in the coming year.

My time in the States went really fast, and I saw a TON of people and had a great time. I did not get a chance to see everyone however, so if I missed seeing you I hope that will change next summer.

For my picture today, I am going to post the latest family photo. This has my parents, Michelle and her husband (and her baby still in the stomach), and Janelle and her soon to be husband Tracy, and me.

We took several pictures. One was traditional, and another was "Taiwanese style". I will post the Taiwanese style picture. Each one of us is doing a gesture. The gesture that looks like a peace sign mean "victory", and the one with the thumb and the index finger mean "handsome". The handsome one is kind of like a frame around one's face, as if to say that the person is so handsome or beautiful that his or her face should be framed in a picture.



Enjoy!

Dinner with the Kids

You want me to eat what? What did he say? He is not even using real words! Such thoughts could go through one's mind before trying a new food, especially one that you do not eat in your culture. And these might have been the questions being that some of the Concordia students were asking this evening.

This summer, a group of 10 students from Concordia will be going on a trip to America. Norfolk, Nebraska will be their home for 4 weeks, with a brief stay in Des Moines for 3 days. On the trip they learn more about American culture, practice English, and hopefully hear more about the good news of Jesus.

This evening the 10 students for the trip were invited over to Andrew and Noel's house(they are the two chaperones and coordiantors for the trip). Me and Molly also joined the group for an evening of food and fun. Tonight, they had the joy of tasting the cheesy, meaty, tomatoey goodness that is Lasagne.

I absolutely loved the meal. And after asking several of them, found out that kids enjoyed it as well. I hope this boads well for their what will be many new tasting experiences this coming summer.

After the meal, we chatted, watched some DVDs to show the kids Andrew and Noel's family, and then played a game of Mafia. There is such a different feel and atmosphere when you do things with students outside of the classroom environment, and I am really thankful for tonight's opportunity. I had the chance to talk NBA basketball with one of students. Her two favorite players are Dirk Nowitski and Steve Nash. I really had no idea she was such a fan of basketball. We had a chance to talk about the latest happenings in the playoffs. Praise God for these small opportunities to grow in relationships with students.

To close, I would ask that all of you keep these 10 students in your prayers. May, Antonia, Teresa, Linda, Lily, Sabrina, Michelle, Irene, Babie, and Joyce. Pray that God would bless them in their preparations, and then on the journey to America. Pray that God would prepare their hearts, and allow for them to grow closer to Christ through this entire experience. Pray that Andrew and Noel would have strength, wisdom, patience, and endurance as they prepare to leave and then travel with the kids in America.

Until next time!

To be or not to be...

I walked into Molly's Senior 1 Advance English classroom as a special guest. I smiled as I saw some of the faces of students that I myself teach for regular Senior 1 Writing class. On their desks was chocolate cake, that the students were quickly finishing eating. They have been studying Shakespeare for a couple of weeks now, and today they were having a small party in honor of his recent birthday.

I introduced myself not as Mark, but as Hamlet. I did not talk about class or school but instead described the problems that I (Hamlet) had been having. My father had recently died, and my uncle married my mother and became the new king. What is worse, I had recently seen a ghost of my father who informed me that he had been murdered by the current king. How would I solve my problems? Who would believe me? Life is so difficult?

After this brief introduction, I broke out into Hamlet's famous soliloquy that starts with the lines "To be or not to be..." After wrapping up the speech, the students gave a boisterous applause. I had a huge grin on my face as I described how and why I had learned this speech.

I told them how this is a speech that I was required to memorize my Senior year of high school, for Mrs. Blake's English class. Molly had given me the idea to come share it with the class, and I agreed to give it a whirl. I had remembered a great portion of the speech from high school, but did have to brush up on a few parts of it.

Looking at this moment, it was a great joy to take something that I had learned when I was their age, and recite it for them to help them get excited about learning. Their faces showed an energy as they listened, even to words that were beyond my vocabulary (and how much more so theirs). But yet it was a fun opportunity that made me smile as a teacher. I am sure that if Mrs. Blake heard this story, she too would smile.

A day in the Mud

I love living on campus. It is beautiful, full of open space, and of course, it has basketball courts right outside my house (ha!). In addition to this, I love meeting the other people who live on campus. My house is located in the back of Concordia's Campus, near the Taiwanese teachers who also live on campus. These people are such a blessing from God. Over this past year, we have had some dinners and many conversations with these people, trying to get to know them better.

A couple of weekends ago, I walked out of my front door to see some of the neighbors hard at work. There was water and mud everywhere. As I peered around the corner to see what they were doing, I felt a little apprehensive about getting muddy myself. Then I saw the project that was being undertaken. Kevin, Debby, Amy,Esther, and Autumn, were out planting sod on open dirt area next to our house. They had sprayed water on the dirt to help in the planting of the grass. Of course the mud had made its way onto the sidewalk.

As I me, Kevin (Foley), and Michelle watched and talked to our neighbors about the project, they jokingly invited us to help. By now my initial hesitancy to get dirty had faded, and I thought it would be kind of fun to help them. So I kicked off my shoes and got dirty. Kevin and Michelle joined me, and there was a huge group of us making the work much easier.

I kind of felt like I was a kid again, playing in the mud. The squishy sensation of the mud sliding in between my toes was kind of weird. As I picked up the grass squares and placed them in their spot, I really was not sure if there was any proper technique for doing this. I guess I have never planted sod before. So if you see a blog in a couple of months commenting on all of the dead grass near my house, I guess we know who to blame, ha!






And in true Taiwanese fashion we were offered food after we worked. Debby gave us a bean soup, dumplings (that her mother had made), and something to drink. The dumplings were outstanding, better than any I had eaten. How Chir (chinese for delicious). What great time getting to know the neighbors, and to help make the campus a little more beautiful. Praise God for these little things in life.

A small triumph

So I want to share a small story of happiness from this past weekend. I had the chance to use my Chinese to order pizza for people that live here on Concordia's campus.

A couple of things, first if you know me, you know that I really like to eat pizza. So anytime opportunity to eat it is good. Second, I have really enjoyed learning Chinese and finding practical ways to use it and practice it. So this was a great accomplishment in several ways.

I must say I was a little nervous, and did not know for sure how it was going to go. I mean, it is one thing to order something at a restaruant where you can point, and getsture. It's a totally different thing to order over the phone. You can only hear the other persons voice. No gestures, no visual help. Also, I was ordering for a whole group of people, so I did want to get the order right.

Prior to ordering I called my friend Mike to get some confirmation on words such as Haiwaiian, Pepperoni, Thick Crust, and a couple of other essential pizza vocab. I picked up the phone, and the first words I said were "DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?"

Uhhhh. Was about all I could hear and then they told me to wait a little bit. A different person got on the phone, and she tried to speak English, but it became evident to me that the conversation would have to be conducted in Chinese.

After this initially exchange, the rest of the phone call went really well. A couple of times I had to say "Wo ting bu dong" (I hear but don't understand), but eventually words were found that could be understood. I hung up, feeling good. I was just hoping know that all of the pizzas and the kinds I wanted would come to Concordia.

And sure enough, about an hour later 3 pepperoni pizzas and 3 Hawaiian pizzas from Domino's were waiting for me at the front gate. I don't know if pizza ever tasted so good. Well, maybe, but it still was a great experience.

March Madness

Alright, I just want to reiterate for those of you who do not know me. The NCAA Basketball tournament is with out a doubt the best sporting event. It is so much fun to watch the upsets, the buzzer beaters, and so many games being played in such a short amount of time. I have been able to watch a lot of games from "On Demand" from CBS Sportsline. This afternoon I came home from school to watch unbelievalbe endings to the UCLA-Gonzaga game, and the Texas-West Virginia game (wow, that was GREAT).

Let me add, that I did witness a great ending at the expense of my beloved Hawkeyes, but it's ok. I still remain excited for all of this basketball that is being played.

To school news.

This morning, the foreign teachers lead chapel for the Junior and Senior High Students. We made bracelets with different colored beads, each standing for part of the Gospel message (see previous post for a story on prep for this chapel). It was fun and the students really liked getting the bracelets. Giving them something interactive and tangible is great, because most of the time they just get a lecture or a message. Plus it empowers them, by giving them the opportunity to share the message with others.

For classes today, we had a fun day with the students. They had been taking tests all week, and this was the only day of full class. We did not want to do anything to get the students ahead of the schedule, so we played an smaller scale version of "4 on the couch". Some of you who read this might know that game, and if you are interested in hearing about it just post something and I could elaborate. Anyway, it was a much needed opportunity to have fun and build rapport with the students.

I only see some of these kids one time a week, and the others I only see 2 times a week. I realize that it has been a lot more difficult to build that relationship with the students. However, I have started to pray more about it, and asked God to give me ways to build stronger relationships with me students.

Until later....

Mark

Beads and other things...

We are trying to plan a chapel service for this Friday. Part of the service will involve giving each student a bracelet with different colored beads on it. Each color will represent some part of the Gospel message. Yellow-God created everything perfect, Black-sin, Red-Jesus' blood on the cross, White-forgiveness in Christ, Green-growth in faith, and Yellow-eternal life. (And yes, we repeated Gold).

To do this we needed to purchase the beads and string to make the bracelets. So Michelle asked a national to help us find a good store where we could purchase these supplies. Let me preface that our last chapel planning involved using technology and it ended up being an enormous hassle, but that could be a story for a different time.

Last night we went to find the store, all ready to start making our beads. Of course we got on the street and could not find the store that matched the character's in the name we had written down. So we wandered the street looking for the place to buy these beads. We finally come across the bead store, very excited that we can proceed with our bead buying. Of course when we get into the store they do not have all of the same sizes for the 5 basic colors we needed. In fact, they had about 3 different sizes for the 5 colors that we needed. Furthermore, it appeared as thought all of the beads could only be purchased in small packages of 7 or 8 (we need over 200 bracelets for chapel).

This was rather frustrating, but we rolled with it. In my broken Chinese I tried to communicate what we needed and that we required more beads than the small packages had. The situation took some more time than we had planned but, eventually we purchased materials that would suffice. Not ideal, but I mean why would a bead store have 5 of the same colored, same sized beads, right? Ah, the wonders of planning chapel!

We walked out of the store to go buy some dumplings for supper, satisfied that we would be able to actually make the bracelets. As we rounded the corner to go to the food stand, I saw a big sign with red characters. I looked at it closely to discover that those characters were the characters for the bead store we had originally been looking for. Ugh! We went to the wrong store, and did not even know it.

As supper was being purchased Michelle went to that store to see if the supplies were more fitting for our needs. And of course, that store also failed to have the 5 same sized beads with the five basic colors that we needed. So it had made no difference which store we went to, but was definitely something I can laugh about.

Ok, that is a story was just another crazy experience of trying to purchase things in Taiwan. I should share more stories on my blog, and will attempt to do this in the future. For now, it is way past my bedtime, and I still have 40 Senior 1 tests to check tomorrow. I would like to finish those before I get the 100 Senior 2 tomorrow afternoon. I must say I continue to have appreciation for all of those teachers I had in high school English, and upper level history classes at Iowa State. Reading all of those essays and paragraphs can get a little taxing.

Peace!

Mark

Thursday Night Fellowship

We just finished doing a Thursday night fellowship activity. It went really well. We sang 5 songs: This is the Day, Peace Like a River, Behold What Manner of Love, We are One in the Spirit, He Hung Upon the cross.


Song Time

After Song Time we had a short message. For the message we read a Bible Story, and the kids helped to tell it. They had an action for each time certain words were said. So when ever I said "Jesus" they had to point up to heaven and say "Christ the Lord!" Any time waves was said, they had to make wave motions with their arms. And there were 4 other actions. Then I read the story of Jesus calming the storm. It was a lot of fun, and the kids liked it. At the end, we said that just like Jesus was in control with the disciples and the storm, he will also be with you during life's storm.

After the message we played games. The Senior High students had an acting game where they had to make various kids of household machines. They had to act like it, but could not speak. The junior high students played balloon volleyball. Both groups had a lot of fun.


Balloon Volleyball


To end the evening we had snacks and pray time. I must say that this group is becoming one of the highlights of my time here in Taiwan. We have only met 3 times, but it has been such a great chance to have fun with the students, and to get to know them better outside of the classroom. I pray that God would use this group to help bring people closer to him.

Until later!

Mark

On Break

Alright everybody, I am currently on and have done a little bit of traveling, and will continue to do a little bit more. After the first week of relaxing at home, I went to Seoul, South Korea. It was a good time, and I had some pictures, however I have been unable to access them at the moment. So I am going to wait to tell about my trip until I can have some pictures to accompany the post. Tomorrow I will leave for Thailand, and that will be the last of my travels for break.

For this post, I would like to include a picture of me and my scooter. I bought it in early December, and have enjoyed riding it. Last week, during break, I went to the motor vehicle place and got my liscense. I had to take a computer test and a driving test. The computer test was not too dificult. On the driving test, the hardest part is driving in a straight line. For the test, you need to drive on a 10-20 foot straight line for at least 7 seconds. The line is between 1-2 feet wide, and there are sensors on the sides that trigger buzzers if you go off of the line. This is to simulate the need to drive straight when you have many scooters surrouning you in traffic. With some practice, I was able to pass this test on the first try as well.

Ok, I will write more after my travels.

Mark

End of the Semester

Well, the semester has ended. This past week was really stressful and long getting all of the grades together for my 200 students. Also we had there final tests to check, and I can now sympathize with all of those English teachers out there who check essays for grammar and content. But thank God, I am finished and now it is break time.

We have 3 weeks off for Chinese New Year, and I will have an opportunity to travel. I am going to South Korea for 3 days to visit my good friend Tom. Also, I will have the chance to go to Thailand for 6 days. I am very excited for both trips, and will be taking a lot of pictures.

One picture, before I go. Every other Saturday, students of Concordia come to school in the morning for 2 periods of club time and 2 periods of class. On campus there are many clubs. I have visited several including guitar club, drama club, dancing club, economics club, volunteer club, greenhouse/animal club, and various sports clubs. Another club is the Coffee Club. Students make coffe and also have some breakfast during this club. I have 6 or 7 students who are in this club, so I have stopped by a couple of times to see what they were doing. A bonus of course is that they immediately give me coffee, a small piece of the breakfast, and chair to relax in. To show my appreciation, sometime next semester I am going to try to make French Toast for them.

In the meantime, here's a picture of me with some of those students. I am holding a cup of coffee that they made.

January 15th

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. Yes boys and girls it has been quite awhile since I posted on my blog, but now I am back.

For this entry I want to reflect on the Christmas season. This holiday season was a true joy for me. I was extremely busy preparing many things for school and church, it all of it came full circle when Christmas came. It was not at all a commercial Christmas. The entire focus of the holiday was telling the Christmas story to bring people closer to the Gospel of Jesus. This was done through songs, skits, readings, and countless number of conversations. These were done both at school and at church.

At Concordia, the preparation for Christmas is enormous. Students decorate Christmas trees and sing songs as a class. Both of these are competitions which get very intense. The cullimination of the event this year was Thursday during the week of Christmas. Students performed their songs during the day, and at night the students lit their Christmas trees for the first time.

The weather was cool, but the atmosphere was electric. Students were buzzing about their competitions both their singing and their Christmas trees. That evening after the major events were over, a group of teachers and students went out to sing Christmas carols in the neighborhood. This was my personal highlight of the entire Christmas season.

We sang songs at the 7-11 and the Family Mart Convenience store. We also went to a couple of local places that we frequent. One of these is a restaurant that we refer to as "the Curry place", because most people order curry when we go there. We also stopped at Mr. Wang's tea stand, where you can get fresh fruit tea with real fresh fruit.

It was enjoyable to walk, sing, and talk. A couple of people saw us walking and singing and motioned us to come sing in front of there house.



Their smiles and the enjoyment everyone received from our songs was amazing. They were so thankful and happy to have a group of 30 students and teachers stop by and sing a couple of songs. At every place we stopped, we handed out a small piece of paper. On the paper, written in Chinese, was a paragraph describing our joy. It said that we were happy because Jesus was born and He is our Savior. The entire evening was such a blessing. All in all we sang and walked for about an hour and a half.

If you would like to see more pictures from the Christmas season, I have new pictures on my photo's page. There you will find an album with Christmas pictures.

Until later!

Mark

Halloween Fun

Jean, Sun Rose, Me, and Angela

These past few days have been a lot of fun as we have celebrated Halloween. The holiday itself is not extensively celebrated in Taiwan, but the foreign teachers have gotten together to do various things.

On Saturday, we had a Halloween Party at our house. People wore costumes, and we ated food listened to music, and played a couple of games of "Mafia". I went as a vampire. I must say that it turned out pretty well. I would like to especially thank Pastor Mark for sending the toy teeth which were the inspiration for my costume.

On Monday we went to "The Golden Eagle" (which is the local Western-style restaurant/pub and is owned by a friend of us Concordia teachers. They had a special rum-apple cider, and a dart competetion. 3 of us won the competition, and container of beer. It was a really enjoyable evening.

Then today, I watched "The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" with some of my Senior 2 students. It was great to watch, and my kids seemed to enjoy it. Snoopy is really popular around here, so it made for a good lunch today.

All in all the last days have been a lot of fun.

Ready, set, "Jeye-oh"!

Sam hands off to me in the 4X100 Meter Relay

These past two weekends the school has had a track meet. Last Friday was a preliminary competition for the students. This Friday and Saturday were the finals. The entire event was a lot of fun. I saw many of my students run, and I had a chance to run in a couple of events as well. (oh yeah, "Ja-eye-oh" a chinese equivalent to go. In a race you would yell "Mark Jio")

There were two events in which only teachers ran, and I ran in both of them. One was the 1500 meter run (which is just a little shorter than a mile), and also the 4X100 meter relay. The mile was a lot of fun, and I was the second teacher to finish.

In the 4X100, I ran with the English department. This event kicked off the finals competition on Friday morning. The atmosphere was electric, and it was so much fun. Sam, Mike, and Jackson (a Taiwanese English teacher) were also on the team. We won the event, and apparently I ran pretty fast. This is shocking because I do not find myself to be the fleetest of foot.

All of this took me back to my days of running track in high school. I really enjoyed the experience, and also it was a great opportunity to see my students outside of the classroom.

I also had a chance to learn just how out of shape I am. My muscles were aching, especially after I ran in the 4X100. I seriously thought I pulled muscles or snapped something. I guess my body does not work the same way as it did in high school.

And now for new pictures. I have some pictures from our vacation to Kaoshung, which we took with the church group. I also have several pictures from the track meet this past weekend.

October 22

Well what can I say,

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged, so I would like to begin with a disclaimer. I now realize that I will not have the time to blog as much as I thought I would when I first started this site. With that being the case, I will try to blog a couple of times each month, and this will probably coincide with times that I post pictures on my yahoo photo albums. Lately I have had some issues with the photo website and the pictures I had loaded were not able to be viewed. I hope to have time in the near future to sit down and remedy the situation. I would like encourage all of you to read the blogs of my friends here in Taiwan. They are posted as links on this website, and I know some of them are better about blogging than I am. Plus we all write about different things and this can give a better perspective of the total experience for those of you who are interested.

At school, these past two weeks have revolved around the students’ monthly tests. This last Monday and Tuesday the kids took their first set of monthly tests. They have these in October, November, and December. For two days each month, the students take tests in all of their classes. They have 4 extended periods each day, and school gets out an hour and a half earlier than normal. The atmosphere is similar to a finals week in college. Us teachers proctor the tests over those two days, and do not watch our own test. I watched chemistry, physics, and junior high English tests.

Before the tests, much time was spent to prepare students for their test in my class. After the tests, we have to check those tests. The obvious disadvantage to this system is that we have all of our test grading at the same time. So I had about 170 tests to check, from my Senior 1 and Senior 2 classes. They were not multiple choice tests, but rather creative written tests. So that is how I had been spending much of my time in the past week. Thank God that I am done checking the tests though.

Also in this post I would like to comment the importance of the test in Taiwanese society. I know in America there is debate about teaching to the test, and various concerns about No Child Left Behind and putting great emphasis on tests. Well, here in Taiwan teaching to the test is taken to a new level.

School here is designed to teach to “the Test”. In the final year of school, students take a big test that showcases their intelligence in all of the subjects. This test will determine their lives. Universities admit students based on their scores on this test. A good score on the test allows students to go to a good university, a poor showing means they cannot go to a school they would otherwise like to attend. The pressure for this test is immense. Beginning in Junior High School, the entire education system is designed to prepare students for this test. The goal of every class is to help students do better on this test, so they can go to a good school. So the entire goal of education here is to teach to the test.

During my first week here in Taiwan, I remember meeting a student who was entering his last year of high school. I asked him what he thought about it, and his reply was that it was too much pressure. He was nervous, and the test was months away.

There are so many more things that I could reflect on about education over here, and I can do this in another entry. For now, I should get going.

May God bless all of you, and I pray that you remember me and my students in your prayers. May God bless our efforts as we learn, and may God give us peace, strength, and faith.

Update

Hey everyone,

I know that I have not been the best about my blogging lately. I guess I have just been busy and it has not been the priority as of late. I did want to give an update on some new things that have been happening here.

I have just began going to a college group that is interested in learning more about English culture. This has been a good opportunity to build relationships, and meet some people my own age. I am very thankful for this opportunity.

Also, I am starting to take Chinese lessons. I will be having them twice a week, with 2 different teachers. I hope that this will greatly improve my speaking and comprehension skills for Mandarin.

I have posted some new pictures from the Moon Festival. I guess I should explain a little more about the circumstances of that event. A friend from church (Sun Rose) invited us out to her house to celebrate it. She is in some of the new pictures, as is her sister Angela. Ray, their brother, is also in some of these pictures, as well as Jean, another friend from church. Beyond them, everyone else is a member of the missionary team here in Taiwan. So I hope that gives some perspective on those pictures.

Forthcoming (I hope) will be pictures from my first haircut here in Taiwan, and also a trip we will be taking next weekend with some people from church.

What I would like to know is if there are any specific requests for pictures to be taken, or for topics to be blogged about. I can go take pictures or write about anything you would like, just post a comment or email me and I will do my best to get to it. My Grandma Wolfram is curious about the school store, so that is in the works, but please tell me some more ideas.

Ok that's all. Take care!

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.