Mark’s latest missive from Taiwan.

Hi everyone. Well September has come and gone, but it was a great month to get back adjusted to teaching, and all of the other activities here in Taiwan. In this month’s newsletter, I would like to share about my 8th grade small group.

Here at Concordia Middle School, the religion department organizes small group for students in 8th and 9th grade. I decided to help with it this year, and have a group of nine 8th graders. Some of these are my current students who I have English Bible class with, and others I do not teach in class. We meet every Tuesday for 45 minutes, during the students’ nap time.

I am especially excited about this group because these students love to sing. I take in the guitar and they sing English songs, and I have been working on a couple of Chinese songs to sing with them. Last week we sang “All in All”, “Be Glorified”, and a Chinese song called “Let Praise Arise.” I am most impressed with their confidence in singing loud, something that is not too common for 8th graders. In addition to singing songs, we read a couple of Bible verses and pray.

I am really looking forward to getting to know these students over the course of this year. Please pray that God would bless the group and help the students to put their trust in him above all things.

Another blessing that came from my small group experience, was at the small group teachers’ meeting. To kick off the small group year, all of the teachers met to discuss materials and the schedule for semester. At this meeting I ran into Bill, one of my former students.

Bill was one of my 10th grade students my first year in Taiwan. He was always interested in Bible class, and even came to our On-Campus Student Fellowship when he had time. As he completed 11th and 12th grade, he had not yet become a Christian. He is now a sophomore at a Jhong Jheng University, which is located 15 minutes from CMS. At the small group meeting, I was excited to find out that he is now a Christian, and had signed up to help with small groups at Concordia this semester. He told me that he attends church near his college and that he has a physics professor who is also a Christian and is someone he can talk about his faith with.

Praise God for Bill’s story. As a teacher here at CMS, it can be difficult to have many students who do not come to faith while attending high school. At the same time, God is still working on them and loves them. He works things out in his time, not my time.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Please pray for my small group, that God would bless our time and help the students to grow in faith and love toward God.
2. Rejoice with Bill and his faith in Jesus.
3. Pray for my classes, that God would help me to share the love of Jesus both through action and word.
4. Pray for Ben, Andrew, and I as we plan the missionary retreat for this fall.
5. Pray for my Chinese language study. I need some motivation to continue learning and studying.

May God’s peace and love be with you all!