I’m trying to figure out a good way to post Mark’s most recent newsletter. He has what I think is a most ingenious idea. He is posting a new thing that he is thankful for on the 12 days of Christmas.

It has come to my attention that most people seem to think the 12 days of Christmas starts 12 days before Christmas and ends on Christmas Day. When in actuality, Christmas is the first day of Christmas and it lasts until Epiphany. Epiphany celebrates the coming of the Magi: Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar.

Rather than publishing them 1 at a time, or all together, I’ve decided to publish 3 at a time.

Enjoy Mark’s first 3 days of Christmas:

Day 1

1st Day of Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!

When I was in my teacher education courses at Iowa State I remember getting many pieces of advice, but one particular piece sticks out that I learned in many courses. The advice was that a teacher needs to be a thief. It is absolutely important, to borrow, steal, use and modify ideas from other teachers. I should never think I have all the ideas I need, but should rather be continually learning from others. Well I am glad I listened because as it turns out this piece of advice is definitely true. And for my upcoming newsletters, I am borrowing an idea from Ben and Amy Riley, who are missionaries with me here in Taiwan.

The Christmas season is such a busy and joyful time, with a plethora of activities. Honestly, it is very difficult to put all of these into a newsletter (or two), so instead I am going to give you the 12 Days of Christmas as a substitute for December and January Newsletters. For the next 12 days, I will give you a short update, highlighting an aspect of the ministry here in Taiwan, most of which will focus on the Christmas season.

Let me know if you like this or regular newsletters, but I thought it would be fun to try something new. So without further delay…

The Twelve Christmas Blessings that My Lord Gave to Me:

1. Messiah in Church on Christmas Eve

The most important blessing is the gift of Jesus, our savior and king. On Christmas night, Salvation Lutheran Church had a Christmas service, featuring selection’s from Handel’s Messiah. These selections were performed by many of our very talented members at church. With the church was filled with both members and non-members alike, all of whom were able to hear about God sending a savior to the world.

Praise God for his love and pray for those who came to church but do not yet know him.

Day 2

The Second Christmas blessing that my Lord gave to Me:

Water and Word

Baptism is a wonderful gift that God has given us. This past December we had our Fall Missionary Retreat in Sun Moon Lake. The focus of this retreat was our baptism and the faith and confidence that we have because of God’s work in this way. The retreat was a relaxing time to get away for a weekend, build-up our team, and refocus on God’s word.

Baptism was also part of our worship service this morning. This morning at Salvation Lutheran Church, God brought Erin Shu into his family through water and the word. Erin is a Senior in High School at Chia-Yi Girls school, and has been attending Youth Group and Friday Night Bible Study over the last few years.

Prayer requests
1. Praise God for a great retreat in early December.
2. Praise God for his work in Erin’s life, and for her baptism this morning.
3. Pray that Erin will grow in faith and that God will use the members of Salvation Lutheran church to encourage and support her in Christian love.

The 12 Christmas blessings that my Lord gave to me:

-Water and Word
and
-Messiah on Christmas Eve

Day 3

The third Christmas blessing that my Lord gave to me:

Lost Son Skit

Every Christmas season is busy with practices and preparations for our annual Christmas dramas. One of the dramas that I helped to write this year was a drama about the Prodigal Son. This drama was a modern re-telling of the parable, and was a wordless production with the action driven by a musical soundtrack.

16 people participated in the skit, and it featured roles such as the father, sons, servants, wild livers (that is people who live wildly), gangsters, and a pig farmer with pigs. My role was to be one of the gangsters who stole from and beat up the wasteful son. The soundtrack included songs such as Whistle While You Work, My Heart Will Go On (from Titanic), ABAA’s “Money, Money, Money”, and a song from the West Side Story.

The skit was really funny and overly dramatic, but afterwards we connected the skit to Christmas. We are all like that son who leaves the father and wants to live for himself. But God loves us, and accepts us even though we sin and fall short of his law of love. He forgives us through his son Jesus Christ, who was born as a baby on the first Christmas.

We performed the Lost Son drama four times. The performances were for the On-Campus Student Fellowship Christmas party, the Friday Night Bible Study Christmas party, the Saturday School Orphanage Christmas Celebration (I’ll write more about this at another time), and on Sunday morning worship. Praise God for the chance to share the message of his love through this entertaining method.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray for those who watched the drama, that they may understand and believe in God’s love for them.
2. Pray for this Thursday morning when we will perform the skit one last time for the 7th grade students at the weekly chapel service. Pray that God would help them to understand the message and pray for us teachers as we prepare to do the skit and lead songs.

The 12 Christmas blessings that my Lord gave to me:

-Lost Son Skit
-Water and Word
and
-Messiah on Christmas Eve

Mark’s monthly newsletter from Taiwan.

Hey everyone. This is more of a November email, than newsletter. My apologies for not getting a full blown newsletter, and for not sending this in a more timely manner.

I wanted to give you a quick update on how things are going in Taiwan. November was another great month of teaching English and Bible classes. My 7th graders wrapped up a unit on Abraham and began to look at three lessons about the first Christmas. My 8th graders completed their unit on Moses, watched the Prince of Egypt and learned about the 10 commandments. My 10th graders completed a video news project, and my 11th graders wrote compositions focusing on the city of Chia Yi.

Right now, I am fully immersed in Christmas preparations. In fact I will be participating in activities to celebrate Christmas tonight. Christmas is a busy time of year, however the preparations and the activities are a great opportunity that God has given us. Christmas time opens many doors to share the Gospel with those who have not heard it.

Prayer requests:

-Praise God for the opportunities he has given for us to share about Christ at Christmas.
-Pray for energy, patience, and guidance as the other American teachers and I prepare and hold our Christmas activities.
-Pray also for the message that God would use the activities at church and school to bring faith and new life to those that hear it.

God’s peace,
Mark

Mark’s monthly newsletter from Taiwan.

“Rags! Rags! Rags for sale! Give me your old ones, I will give you new ones.” Have you ever felt like you had struggles, difficulties, or shortcomings that you continually deal with? Would you like to trade all of those “dirty rags” for a fresh clean one? This is the main focus regarding one of the skits we performed recently out here in Taiwan. It is titled, simply, “The Rag Man.”

The Rag Man is a nonverbal skit, with guitar played in the background. In the drama a strong, energetic man walks around and takes the dirty rags of people with problems, and replaces them with a new, clean rag. In our version of the skit, there was a person with headaches, a person out in the cold, a person crying, and a person with a broken leg. For each person, the Rag Man took away their problem. In the process, they received healing, and the Rag Man in turn began to experience their pain. The drama ends as they Rag Man, having taken all of the pain, stumbles around and finally falls dead. However, a little later is back to life, good as new, showing that he is stronger than death.

The symbolism, should be obvious. The Rag Man is Jesus, taking our sins and shortcoming on himself, and while he died, he rose again in victory. We have new life, “new rags” because of him. This fall, some Americans teachers and I performed this skit on two different occasions, and I would like to use this newsletter to share with you the ministry opportunities God gave us in those settings.

The first one was on the Saturday evening of Moon Festival. Moon Festival is the traditional fall holiday in which families get together, eat a big meal and celebrate the autumn. I liken it most to our celebration of Thanksgiving, however this is a bit of a stretch because it is not specifically set aside as a time of thankfulness. But nonetheless, I hope this gives a little perspective.

This year on Moon Festival, Glory Lutheran Church (our principal’s church) organized an evening program and meal for people living in a community near Concordia Middle School. The event was being put together for people who lost their homes or had severe damage from the typhoon that hit this past August. It is part of an on-going outreach by Glory Church to the people in this community. As part of the program, Principal Lin asked if any American teachers would be willing to perform a drama for the people. We did, and we used the Rag Man skit to help share the message of Jesus in a visual way. After the skit, Christy Lu (one of our Taiwanese friends) explained the idea behind the skit in Chinese to help non-Christians connect the action with the Gospel.

The second place we performed the skit was at the Senior High Chapel Service. Every Friday at CMS, students from 8-12th grade can voluntarily attend chapel from 7:30-8:15. (The school also has mandatory chapel for the 7th graders every Thursday morning at the same time.) Usually 3-4 times a semester, the Religion Department will ask the American teachers to take a chapel service. Last week, we lead the High Schoolers in songs, Bible reading, and performed the Rag Man skit. While the students are often quieter for songs at that time of the morning, all of them seemed to be paying attention to the skit, and all of them had the chance to read Bible verses both in English and in Chinese. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the message with the students here at school.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Praise God for these chances to share the Good News through skit, and pray for those who were at both performances.

2. Pray that God would work in their lives, and also pray for the Religion Department and Glory Church in their continuing ministry in those areas.

3. Pray for my teaching, that I would also be ready to share the love of Jesus with my students, in what ever capacity God presents it.

4. Pray for Andrew, Ben and I as we plan the upcoming missionary retreat which will take place the first weekend in December.

Thanks for your continued prayer and support. May the love of Christ and his true peace be upon you all!

Mark

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!

Quick Update

Hello everyone from Taiwan. Just wanted to write and let you know that I made it back over here safely, after a wonderful time in the United States. I spent 7 weeks in America this summer, which is the longest I had stayed since coming overseas as a missionary. I really enjoyed the chance to meet many of you and come speak at several churches.

One prayer for the summer, was for the necessary funds to be raised for the coming year. Praise God that He always provides. I am elated to say that I am fully funded for the coming year. I thank so many of you who provided financial support for the mission work that is happening here in Taiwan.

As I write this, Concordia Middle School has just begun a new semester. After a month of optional summer classes, the students are now beginning their mandatory school. I am excited for another opportunity to teach Bible and English classes here at CMS. My schedule this year will include 7th,8th, 10th, and 11th graders. The 11th grade will be a new class for me, although I am blessed to be able continue teaching an amazing group of the students I had last year as 10th graders.

In addition this month will start up our Thursday evening On-Campus Student Fellowship, and Friday Night Bible English Bible Study. The Salvation Youth Group has continued through-out the summer, and I have been able to attend the last two Saturdays.

That’s right boys and girls, it’s the start of a new year, and it brings excitement, energy, and many chances to share the love of Christ through words and actions.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Pray for me as I start a new school year. Pray that I may get all of my classes organized and off to a good start. Pray that I may love my students and share Jesus with them in all things.

2. Pray for Friday Night Bible Study, On-campus Student Fellowship, and Salvation Youth Group. Pray for God’s blessings as these start and that many kids may come eager to hear about the love of Jesus.

3. Pray for all of the missionaries here on Team Taiwan. May God bless all of us as we work together and share the Gospel.

4. Pray for my barber (whose name is Sue Hway…some had asked). Pray that she may come to faith in Christ.

5. Pray that God would help me continue to improve my Chinese.

May God bless you all,

Mark

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. 1 Peter 3:15

Every Tuesday night we have Bible Study in English for the missionaries that serve here in Chia-Yi, Taiwan. Recently we have been going through the book of 1 Peter. A couple of weeks ago, we were discussing 1 Peter 3:15. As a missionary, I have learned that this verse is very important for our lives. I am often surprised at how God presents opportunities to share Christ, at times when I don’t expect it. I would like to share a couple of quick ways that God has presented for me to witness in every day parts of my life.

Hair Cuts

I get my hair cut from a lady who lives a couple of houses down from Salvation Lutheran Church. She runs the place out of her home, and is a very nice lady. Her hair cuts are cheap ($6.00, including a hair wash after the hair cut). She does not speak much English, so our conversations take place in Chinese, but she is always asking about church. She talks about how she does not like the traditional Taiwanese religions and would like to be a Christian some day. I am always glad to hear this, and invite her to church. She has yet to come because she always cuts hair on Sunday morning. However, we recently talked about Salvation’s new Pastor (Pastor Alex). The lady said she had the chance to meet him, and thought he and his wife were nice. I pray God will continue to open doors and help me to continually be a witness to her as she cuts my hair.

Chinese Lessons

A second example is in my Chinese lessons. This semester I began studying Chinese on Monday nights at church. One of the church members organizes teachers to come in and teach a couple of the American teachers. I have had 4 or 5 different teachers this semester who are not Christians. As part of the lesson I always ask to include 15-20 minutes of Bible reading. This is great because it helps me increase my vocabulary and acquisition of Bible words, but it also gives the non-Christians teachers a chance to read the Bible. Just this past week at Chinese class, another missionary and I were able to have a conversation with a high school girl (Ginny) about why we believe in God and what she believes. She comes from a Buddhist family, but her parents have given her freedom to believe what she wants. The conversation was a great chance to let her ask questions and understand more about what Christians believe and why we believe it.

These are just two examples of ways that God presents opportunities to share Jesus outside of worship or the classroom. As a missionary, I feel this is what God has called me to do. I have life, hope, and peace in Christ, and I need to let that overflow into all parts of my lif. I need to always be ready to be a witness of God’s faithfulness.

God Calls You!

I think this is idea is true for you as well. Really, we are all missionaries for Christ. I happen to be a teacher in Taiwan, but maybe you work at a bank, in a business, a school, or are retired. The apostle Paul made tents. Regardless of what you do, Peter’s words are the same for all of us. “Always be prepared to give the reason for your hope.” What ways and areas of your life is God presenting for you to be a witness in your community? People all over the world need God’s message of hope and life in Christ, even where you are. Can you be a missionary to them?

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Pray for me as I finish school year here at Concordia Middle School. My last day of classes is June 19th. Pray for God to give me focus, patience, and a heart overflowing with his love to share with students.

2. Pray for the school as they consider changes for next year’s teaching school. I am truly blessed that I work at a school which is committed to share Christ with the students, teachers, and those outside of the campus. Pray that whatever changes that will work for God’s glory.

3. Pray for my barber, that God would work in her life and continue to use me as a witness to her.

4. Pray for the people who have taught me Chinese over the past semester. Pray especially for Ginny that God would continue to help her know Him more.

5. Praise God for the support He has provided through people like you. I have raised over $2,000 toward my goal for next year. Pray that God would also continue to provide the remaining $7,000 to raise.

If you feel called to support the mission work here in Taiwan, you can send a check to the following address:

On the memo line for the check please write “Mark Wolfram account #50152”. Even if you cannot support financially, prayer support is important as well.

Mark

Mark’s April Newsletter.

Daddy Doug and the Boyz…

Greetings to all of you, in the love of Christ. The title of this was the name given to a group of Americans who invaded a public school here in Taiwan this past month. April was full of excitement, as I had visitors from America come to help serve in the ministry here in Taiwan. Doug Larson, my friend and co-worker from Camp Okoboji, came to Taiwan with two of his sons, Jacob and Caleb. They came to perform music ministry and relationship building at one of the public high schools in the city. In addition, they helped at several of the ministries already set up at Concordia Middle School and Salvation Lutheran Church. The last several weeks have been extremely busy as I prepared schedules, transportation, activities and coordinated with teachers for Doug’s arrival. Then when he and his sons were here, we were continually on the go between ministry and social events.

The primary goal of their mission trip was to build relationships with the students of Chia-Yi Girls High School. They visited 10th and 11th grade classrooms and played songs and shared about their faith in Jesus. They were immensely popular with the students, and had wonderful opportunities to share Jesus both through their words and actions. This in itself is such a great ministry because it took place at the public school. Many students there do not have much interaction with Christians or the message of Jesus.

Doug’s visit also proved to be a great help for our on-going ministry here in Chia-Yi. Doug and his sons invited the girls to come to our Bible studies and church. The girls responded in a big way. Our Friday night Bible study had over 120 students, including a large showing from the Chia-Yi Girls school.

Our Saturday youth group normally has 4 or 5 students, but we had over 50 the day that Daddy Doug and the Boyz were there. I lead one of the small group discussions for that day’s Bible Study. We were discussing the 10 Commandments, and over half of my 12 students said they had not read the 10 commandments before. While we did discuss the law, we also talked about Jesus’ fulfillment of the law and how he took our punishment.

We even had 8 or 9 students attend church on Sunday morning. This was especially exciting as they had the chance to worship and hear the message in Chinese. These and all the other students also had the chance to meet our new Pastor and his wife, in addition to the other foreign missionaries. This was such an energy boost for our ministry, and a great way to build some new connections with students who had not been to Bible study or church before. I am so thankful to Doug for all of the help he provided to reach out to more students with our current ministries.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Please pray that God will continue to bring these girls back to Bible study or church. Pray that the seeds that were planted and the relationships that were built will continue to grow.

2. Please pray for me as I enter the final months of the school year. Pray that God would give me energy and focus to finish up the semester.

3. Pray for CMS as the school is considering changes to the teaching schedule for next year. Pray that God would be working in the process and whatever the result would be for his glory.

4. Pray for my continued language study. I have not been very focused the last couple of weeks and pray that God would continue to bless my efforts. Some of the teachers I study with are not Christians. Please pray that God would use these lessons as an opportunity to witness to those teachers.

I am still fundraising for next year’s mission work. If you feel called to support the mission work here in Taiwan, you can send a check to the following address:

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

Even if you cannot support financially, prayer support is always important. I appreciate everything that you all do for me as I am serving overseas. I could not ask for a better support system.

Mark