Monthly Archives: April 2009

Baier, Bill

Doing a Brother a Solid

Sometimes you think you know a guy and then something comes out of his mouth that makes you wonder if you know that guy at all.

I had one of those moments on Monday night. I was hosting an NCAA Championship game watch when a commercial for Hardee’s came on.

At the conclusion of the commercial one of my compatriots announced that he had gotten in trouble with his wife for watching that commercial.

It is a strange concept for me to think of somebody getting in trouble for watching a commercial, no matter how over the top the sexuality of the commercial. But putting that small tidbit aside, what came out of his mouth next was the truly shocking part.

“I just wanted to see the commercial to see what was on the burger.”

With all due apologies (and I’ve never doubted the veracity of this man’s statements in the past) but that is the equivalent of “I only get Playboy to read the articles.” Of course, that is still an improvement on subscribing to Playboy and telling your mom that your friends got you the subscription. Yes, I’m still bitter about that.

But because my friend can’t watch this commercial in the privacy of his own home to figure out what is on the burger, I am posting the extended cut of the commercial below so that he can at least solve this burger conundrum in the privacy of his cubicle at work. I just hope I don’t get ratted out to his wife.




If you subscribe to this blog vie email or RSS feed, you will have to actually go to the website to watch the video.

Baier, Basketball, Faust, Frank, Jesse, Lowell, Mark, Music, Nader, Robert, Russell, Toby

Big Empty

Too much walkin’, shoes worn thin
Too much trippin’ and my soul’s worn thin
Time to catch a ride it leaves today
Her name is what it means

I’d say that there is a fair chance that when the Stone Temple Pilots recorded the song Big Empty, they were not thinking about how I feel the day after college basketball season ends. But it will pass as a close approximation.

The end of the season means the coronation of a new King of the Brackets in my pool of friends. This year the person that displayed the most prescience was again Mark Wolfram.

Roundball Oracles 2009 Final Standings
1. Mark Wolfram – Taiwan Hoops – 135 Points
2. Jason Baier – Mcdermite – 133 Points
3. Frank Meiners – Frank Meiners – 131 Points
4. Russell Kennerly – thefightingmattfortes – 128 Points
5. Dan Dill – dandydanl – 126 Points
6. Christopher D. Bennett – The Future – 124 Points
7. Nate Buckingham – Wade Lookingbill Allstar picks – 91 Points
8. Corey Faust – Tubbyville – 82 Points
9. Toby Sebring – Car Ramrod – 79 Points
10. Jesse Howard – Goldies Dance Card – 73 Points
11. Robert Henning – Fill It Up – 69 Points
12. Nader Parsaei – Charlie Chaplin – 45 Points
13. Lowell Davis – Waiting For Baseball Season – 0 Points

Past Champions
2005 – William McAlpine
2006 – William McAlpine
2007 – Tim Peterson
2008 – Mark Wolfram

It is admittedly slightly embarrassing that a dude living in Taiwan has won our NCAA tourney pool back to back years.

Christianity, Mark

Taiwan Times – March 2009 Issue

Mark’s March Newsletter.


The Taiwan Times
By Mark Wolfram
Reporting on God’s mission in Taiwan
March 2009

Exciting News!

Greetings to everyone. I would like to open this newsletter by informing everybody that I have decided to extend my service in Taiwan for another year. After much prayerful consideration, I feel that God is calling me back to serve here at Concordia Middle School. There are many exciting ministries and activities that I am part of, and my teaching is always a joy.

Another piece of exciting news is that Pastor Alex is now officially serving at Salvation Lutheran Church. This past Friday I was given the keys to open up the church for Friday Night Bible Study, and I arrived expecting the church to be locked and dark. When I pulled up on my scooter, I was surprised to find the church wide open with the lights on. To my delight, I was greeted by Pastor Alex. I had completely forgotten that he would be there, but rejoiced to see him smiling and welcoming me.

That evening, he and his wife, Ruth, helped at our study. I taught the Junior High Class. We were teaching the Easter lesson. We looked at the idea of surprises and what kind of surprises the students get. Of course we talked about how Easter is God’s big surprise, and how that is so important for our lives now and for eternity.

At the end one of the 9th grade students who frequently attends FNBS asked a very good question. He asked why God needed to punish Jesus and why people had to believe in Jesus. I discussed a little about how sin needs to be punished and that we can choose to take the punishment ourselves or give it to Jesus.

The student was not totally satisfied with the answer, so he pursued his line of questioning. He surmised that if God was so powerful, He ought to just forgive everyone, regardless of what they do. At this point, Ruth jumped into help answer. She talked about how God is righteous also. It would be against his nature to not do what is right and punish sin. But because of Easter, we have great news. We don’t have to take the punishment. We can let Jesus take it.

The student did not pursue the answer further. I am not sure if the student believed or not, but he heard the message and will be able to think about. I pray that God will continue to work on his heart. I am thankful for the chance to share this news and to have the help of Ruth in witnessing the love of Jesus.

Want to support the ministry?

Because I am extending for another year of service, I will once again need to raise funds to be able to stay here in Taiwan. This year, the total sum has increased significantly. I need to raise $8,820.00 to continue my service. Now this higher goal is due to some changes in LCMS World Mission policy for my position. I am now classified as full-time employee of LCMS World Mission, as opposed to a volunteer. The practical result of this is that I now have extensive American health insurance and retirement. These are two things that I did not have in the past, as I had emergency insurance while in the US and relied on the Taiwanese health care system.

This new policy is exciting as long term missionary, but it does mean an increase in fundraising. As always, I ask that you prayerfully consider if you would like to help financially support this mission. Even if you cannot, prayer support is always important as well. I am just so blessed to have so many supporters back home, making this mission possible.

If you would like to support me, you can send a check to the following address:

Missionary Support
LCMS World Mission
1333 S. Kirkwood Rd.
St. Louis, MO 63122

On the memo line for the check please write “Mark Wolfram account #50152”.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Please pray for Pastor Alex and Ruth as they begin service at Salvation Lutheran Church. Ask that God would bless them and help all of us members to support them in the ministry. Praise God for the answered prayer that Salvation now has a pastor.
2. Please pray for my friend Doug Larson and his sons, Jacob and Caleb, who will be coming this week to minister to students here in Taiwan for 2 weeks. Pray that God will bless their travels, adjustment and ministry.
3. Pray for my students that they would be open to hearing the Gospel and that God would use me to share the love of Christ with them in word and deed.

God’s peace to you all, and have a blessed Easter!

Mark

House, Jason, Life, Movies, Nader

Saturday’s Accomplishment

On Saturday, Jason and I got the garage opener put on the garage door. This makes parking in the garage a lot easier. This was a good thing, because when I looked out my back door on Sunday after I got home from church I saw the following:


IMAGE LOST

Thanks to that garage, I didn’t have to clean off my car. I just backed the car out of the garage and onto the street and I was off to Ames.

Once in Ames, I picked up Nader so that we could check out Adventureland.


IMAGE LOST

Maybe you can’t tell from that picture, but he was complaining about the weather. Despite my best efforts over the years, I fear that I have failed to man that guy up.

Adventureland turned out to be a fair movie. It does have an incredible 80s soundtrack and a great performance by Kristen Stewart, but I found the movie to have more ambitions than it could deliver on.

After the movie I took Nader to Super Wal-Mart to buy groceries. I found something very disturbing in the frozen food aisle.


IMAGE LOST

Excuse the crude cell phone picture, but that is the best I could do under the circumstances.

My favorite captain from Deadliest Catch is hawking his own brand of frozen fish products?!?! Captain Sig has become Captain Sellout. Oh the humanity!

Shannon

Saturday Ames Tribune

In case you didn’t look through your Ames Tribune on Saturday, I would like to draw you attention to an advertisement.


New House

I can say that I gave a small bit of help with this advertisement and if you still haven’t switched over from the evil corporate soap monopolies to a high quality soap product, I recommend that you give Little White Lye Soap a try.

Any time that you are in my humble abode you can take it for a test run in both my bathroom and kitchen. In the kitchen you can even try one of their high quality crochet washcloths.