Live Like a Champion Today!

H1N1

2009-10-10T23:16:00.001-07:00

I am not sure what things are like in America this fall, but out here in Taiwan, schools and the government are on full alert to prevent the spread of H1N1 (formerly known as Swine Flu). In order to ward off any widespread epidemic, there are several lists of rules and protocols that need to be followed to help ensure those that have H1N1 do not spread it to other people. I would like to outline some of those in this post, to give my fellow readers a quick glimpse into the situation over here.

Here at Concordia Middle School students have their temperature taken every day in their homerooms. If their temperature is 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F), students are required to wear a protectiv mask. This mask is simailar to what dentists wear to cover their mouths and noses when working with a patient. This is mask is to prevent spreading of germs in case the person has H1N1, but the symptoms are not obvious yet. If the temperature is 38 degrees (100.4) or higher, the student is required to go home and needs to go to a doctor to be tested for H1N1.

I also encounter these temperature protocols at church and at the gym. Every Saturday afternoon before Youth Group, all of the teachers and youth have their temperatures taken and recorded. Also, when I go to the gym to exercise, I need to have my temperature taken when I show my membership card at the front desk.

At CMS, if your temperature is below 37 degrees Celsius, you are ok. If not, there is a set of rules that are strictly followed. If a student has H1N1 they are required to be quarantined in their house for 5-7 days. If 2 students in a homeroom come down with H1N1 at during the same time, the entire class is sent home for 5 days.

The classes they miss during the quarantine period at home are made up on Saturday afternoons and possibly Sundays. While these students are home, teachers can post homework and assignments on the school website, that the students are required to check. I have 2 8th grade classes and one 10th grade class sent home because
of H1N1.

In addition to sending students home, the school has rules in place regarding airflow. Classrooms are required to keep the front door and front windows open, to keep the airflow moving. This rule is required even with the air conditioning on. It is still hot here in Taiwan, with temperatures reaching the 80s and 90s, so classrooms have been running the AC all school year. To me, it seems like a waste of electricity to run the AC and have the windows and doors open. However, this is all a result of the post-SARS Taiwan environment.

5-6 years ago, there was an outbreak of SARS throughout Asia, including here in Taiwan. I am not exactly clear on the details, but the disease spread extensively and people did not want to be in confined areas where SARS might be sitting in the air. As a result, windows and doors were left open to air out the room and maintain airflow.

This fear extended beyond the SARS outbreak, and I could see glimpses of this thought even before the current H1N1 situation. In my English office there is a Taiwanese teacher who always opens a window or door to keep the air moving, even when the air conditioning is on. It has been this way all 4 years that I have been in my current office, and is a reflection of how SARS influenced the behaviors of people here in Taiwan.

In closing, I believe these rules were in place for the fist couple months of school, and will probably be reviwed soon. I personally find it frustrating to have an entire class of students missing time, and falling behind the other classes, but also recognize the schools concern in containing the disease.

The closest I have come in contact with the illness was when one of my roommates came down with H1N1, and was quarantined to the house for 1 week. Thankfully, I did not contract the illness, and have not had to miss any school. He recovered and has been back teaching for a couple of weeks. Praise the Lord!

Typhoon Morakot

2009-09-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

On August 8th, Typhoon Morakot came through Taiwan, causing flooding and damage to many parts of the island. The worst of it was on the eastside of the island.

I was in America when the typhoon hit, but several of my American co-workers were here in Taiwan. The following comes from a newsletter written by Ben and Amy Riley, and provides their perspective on the typhoon.

This month hundreds were stranded as the water poured down from above. The rivers rose over their banks, causing the water levels to creep over car hoods on the streets and up to the second floor in some homes.

The first reports claimed a thousand people were missing. The death toll began to rise. There seemed to be little hope for many people. At times like these, when the waters are rising, hope is hard to find. But God never abandons His people.

In a community about one kilometer away from where we live, massive flooding occurred. Water reached all the way up to the second floor of some buildings: homes. After the water receded, affected families began putting their water-logged first-floor belongings onto the streets to be thrown away. Men and women cleaned their plastic items salvaging anything that could be salvaged.

Our church went into this community to help. We had to either dig the mud out of people’s homes or push it out using squeegees (since it was very liquidy). There was so much mud, but in the mud was God’s grace.

Natural disasters all over the world are miserable, but God uses these situations to further His kingdom. The tsunami in Indonesia allowed Christians to enter a place previously hostile to the faith. Christians were able to help in China when an earthquake destroyed countless homes, schools and villages. I’m sure you have seen God using a bad time in your life to show His grace and mercy.

This situation in Taiwan was another chance to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through actions. As we worked, we were able to meet other Taiwanese Christians that had come from the far reaches of Taipei (far north of Taiwan) and Kao Hsiung (the far south of Taiwan) to help. People in mud-filled houses were seeing the love of God through the work of the Church. God opened doors that may not have been opened if the Typhoon had not come.

One boy we worked with was named Frank. He was not a Christian, but was there with a church group (he has family in the area). We entered a conversation and he said he really thinks the Christians are helpful. He said, “A lot of people I know just go out and party every weekend, but you are different. I can see that Christians really like to help people.” I was able to respond that we help others because we know what Christ did for us. The Holy Spirit is working on his heart. It never ceases to amaze me how hard God pursues His creation.

Flemenco Dancing

2009-06-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

Well I just wanted to give a quick update on the show. Last night I went to the Flemenco show. This was what I had written earlier about, concerning to previous theatrical experiences that were not that great. So...last night was the third attempt at going to the theater this year.

Overall, the show was pretty good. There was a guy who played the guitar in the Spanish style that is very quick and has a lot of finger-picking. He was extremely talented, and for me he was the highlight of the evening.

The show also had a lot of rhythmic hand clapping to correspond with the guitar and footstomping. The sound of these three together was lively, and unique. On top of the music was singing, none of which I could understand. They people were singing in Spanish and almost wailing or yelling as they sang. This was not something that I was particularily fond of. In addition, I did not really follow any story line, so that made the night a little more boring.

Overall, though it was some great music, powerful dancing, and a nice night out. Much better than the old men wearing underwear and the Buddhist play.

Taroko Gorge

2009-06-06T00:19:00.000-07:00

Well last weekend was the four day vacation for Dragon Boat Festival. This provided time for me to go out to visit Hua Lien, which is located in eastern Taiwan. I went road tripping with Kevin, Heidi, Boni, Emilie, and Ray. The drive ended up being close to 8 hours including stops for gas, lunch, and stretching.

It was a tiring trip, but very worthwhile. One of the highlights of the trip was the chance to visit Taroko Gorge. This majestic mountain areas is one of the most famous national parks here in Taiwan. We drove a school van, so we were able to move freely through the mountains and explore the beauty of God's creation. As we drove on the windy roads, we stopped occassionally to take picture or to hike on trails.

One of the hightlights was the Bia Yang trial. It was not an intense hike, but was close to 4 km long. The trail went through the mountains, caves, and included a suspension bridge. Two parts I especially enjoyed include a very dark cave and the "water curtain."

At one point in the trail we went through a large cave that had no lighting. There was a hand rail to guide us along the road, but at several points the room was pitch black. It is a really strange feeling, being unsure exactly of what is in front of you. I did have the handrail to help guide, and before long I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The trail also include a water fall inside the cave, which was labeled as the "water curtain." Outside of the cave, everyone removed their shoes and put on a rain pancho, which were provided for free. This was really neat, as I took of my shoes and walked through the cold water into the dark cave. As I approached the middle water began to fall from the ceiling, and it eventually became a steady stream. It was not overly powerful, but really cool and refreshing on the hot day.

Sorry, I could not take any picture, for fear of ruining my camera.

Another highlight of the Hua Lien trip was the opportunity to visit Pastor Lio and his wife Sarah. He served as pastor of Salvation Lutheran church my first two years in Taiwan, but then left to go to a mountain congregation in Rei Schway (about an hour south of Hua Lien).

We were able to see there new church and look at the beautiful landscape. It is set in the mountains, and fresh mountain water flows in streams alongside the church. The entire area is free of much of the smog and pollution that is found along the industrialized westernside of Taiwan. We were able to meet some of the children that attend the church's Sunday school, and were also able to relax in a natural hot spring.

It was such a joy to meet up with old friends, if even for a little bit. And the four day weekend was a great get-a-way to set up the final three weeks of the semester.

Quick Hits: Holidays and Vacation

2009-05-26T08:05:00.001-07:00

As a teacher here in Taiwan, our teaching schedule is quite a bit longer than if I were to teach in America. The typical school year runs from the beginning of August until the end of June, giving the teachers only one month of vacation in the summer as opposed to 2 in America.

In the middle of the year is a two week break for Chinese New Year, which is in the end of January or the beginning of February. This usually coincides with time between semesters, so it is also a semester break of sorts.

The first semester has three other days that are considered holidays: Moon Festival (in September or October), National Day (October 10), and the Republic of China Founding Day (January 1).

The second semester has three vacation holidays: Peace Day (February 28), Tomb Sweeping Day (in April or March) and Dragon Boat Festival (in May or June).

For all of these holidays, our school gets one day off...provided that day is on a normal school day. If it is on a Saturday or Sunday, we do not get another day off that week. The weekend is our chance to celebrate.

If the day falls on a Monday or a Friday, this is great because it means a three day weekend.

On Thursday, Taiwan will be celebrating Dragon Boat Festival, which means no schoool, and it also presents another vacation scenario.

Being that the holiday is on Thursday, the school will also take Friday off, enabling us to have a four day weekend. The catch is that the following week schools (and any public institutes that choose to have Friday off), need to be open on Saturday. So that gives me a four day weekend this week, and a six day work week/one day weekend next week.

This is Taiwan!

Now, I can't complain too much because next Saturday is graduation at Concordia. This is a school wide event that will include a ceremony and a school fair following the ceremony. In other words...I don't have to teach class and can just enjoy the fair on Saturday.

As for the four day weekend, I am going on a trip to Hua Lien, which is located on the east side of the island. There is a beautiful national park and a famous site called Taroko Gorge. I look forward to a relaxing trip and some beautiful scenery.

Quick Hits: Scooter Repairs

2009-05-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

I had the realization the other day that while living here in Taiwan there have been and are many small stories and every day examples that show cultural differences between life in the U.S. and life in Taiwan. They don't make for much of a story or a long blog entry, but to me they are just interesting in and of the themselves.

I decided that I would start to write about these things as they happen in my life (or as I remember them from the past), and title these entries "Quick Hits." I think the title will help remind me that I don't have to write a novel to describe the situation, and consequently I hope to write them more often...that's the plan at least.

Today's quick hit is about repairs. I don't know about you, but in the United States I was always afraid to take my car into the repair shop...even for an oil change. I usually had to pay an arm and a leg and was afraid that the person would try to tell to me fix something that did not really need fixing. (A disclaimer on this, I did have some good experiences with a church member of my Dad's church and my great Uncle's car dealership).

However, here in Taiwan it is cheap...dirt cheap and fast. The other day I went to get my scooter looked at and had four things I needed to fix. Yes...I was procrastinating about taking it in and probably should have done so earlier. My left mirror was coming loose, I needed an oil change, my odometer/spedometer was broken, and I wanted a new basket for the front.

Without an apointment, I pulled up at 10:00 am and told the mechanic what I needed. He told me that it would be finished by noon. When I returned to get the scooter, the total price for the mirror adjustment, oil change, new wire for the odometer/spedometer, and new basket was a little under $15.00 (US).

I never feel stressed out going to get my scooter fixed, and the people are always really good about getting it done quickly and cheaply.

The Lantern Festival Story

2009-05-16T08:16:00.000-07:00

In one of my posts about my about the fireworks in Beijing, I had made reference to an experience here in Taiwan for the Lantern Festival. I said I would post if anyone was interested in reading, and my Grandma emailed me and told me she would want to hear about it. So, here it is...

The Lantern Festival is always celebrated on the fifteenth day after Chinese New Year. This marks the end of the a series of celebrations for the new year, and is a time when people put many red lanterns on display.

My first year in Taiwan, I had the chance to go watch a celebration in a small town near our school. The town's name is She-Kou, and it is the home of a friend from Salvation Lutheran Church. To celebrate vendors set up games that are on the street and sell snacks for anyone who would come out. In the evening there was a parade through the town, and many people set off fireworks.

Much of the significance of the parade was centered around the local temple and other traditional Taiwanese religious beliefs. The main feature of the parade was the "god box" which was taken from the temple and wheeled around the streets of the town. Along the way, the god box/altar would stop at many of the houses and businesses. When the altar stopped at a house, the people at those places would set off fireworks in hopes of scarying away evil spirits.

Other parts of the parade included people dressed up in the form of walking gods, and other colorful clothes. One of the most disturbing things I saw was a man who was walking in the parade. He had his shirt off and was carrying a big knife, almost like a machete. As he walked he would stop and fling the knife over his shoulder and cut his back. As I looked at his back it was full of open knife wounds, and he looked like he had worked himself into a stupor as he pressed on throughout the parade. Honestly, I don't know the exact significance of what this man was doing, but I believe it was some sort of sacrifice or ritual to please the god.

The parade culminated with the god box being brought back to the front of the temple. It was at this point that many people also gathered around the outskirts of the temple and watched what was happening. When the god box got to the temple, then the fireworks really started to pick up.

People would hold boxes that contained a set of fireworks and shoot them all off at one time.

The smoke in the areas was nearly suffocating, such to the point that many people would wear facemasks to filter out the smoke. Here's a picture of my friend Ray, wearing his facemask.

As you can see, I am in the background without one. When I initially got there, I didn't think I would need a facemask. I had no idea what I was in for, and eventually put one on.

As they did this, the god box was pushed around the square, running into all of the people. As I stood there, I needed to move to get out of the way and to keep pace with the crowd. I did not stay for the whole ceremnoy, after awhile I had enough of the smoke, the noise, and the crowds. I assume afterward there was a large spectale in which the god box was put back into the temple. Here is a picture of the people pushing the god box around the temple in the square.

The night was an experience that I will not forget. It was the closest and largest scale that I have ever seen of idol worship here in Taiwan. So it was many things to me...heartaching...frustrating...educational...curious...motivating. It was a motivation for why I am here, which is to share the hope of life in Christ to the people of this island. Even as I sit and type this over 3 years later, I am reminded of that very purpose and goal for which I have come. May God work through me to accomplish his will with the people of Taiwan.

Third times the charm?

2009-05-10T07:20:00.000-07:00

In a couple of weeks I will be going to a flamencoe dancing show here in Chia-Yi. Now, normally I am not much a show/dancing type of person. However, several co-workers are going, and it is the chance to get out of the normal routine and do something cultural.

In the hustle and bustle of every day life, it is hard to get out and do things. Rather I often find myself going through the same weekly schedule, without much change. This year I have tried this year to make an effort to get out of this and to see a show every once in awhile.

For the year, I am 0 for 2 regarding theatrical performances. Both attempts were massive strike outs and provide even more evidence that living in a foreign country is a humbling experience. Now, a little disclaimer. I do not actively find information about shows, but rather hear about them from other teachers and decide weather or not to attend based on that. Second, being that these shows are advertised in Chinese, it is not always clear what one is getting oneself into.

Now for the stories. Back in the fall, I went to a show that I thought would be a traditional Taiwanese style dance show. It was a Saturday night, and I thought it would be nice to get out and go to the theater. Upon my arrival to the show, I discovered that the show would not be traditional Taiwanese dancing, but rather a modern art performance to showcase frictionless movement. This is a fancy description for a show that consisted of older men in nothing but their underwear, greased up with baby oil, sliding around on a baby oiled stage. I kid you not...this was the show.

Being that I bought the ticket for the show, I decided to give it a chance. But based on the description I just gave you, I am sure you can guess what my opinion was. As I watched, I hoped to pick up a story line or practice my Chinese as I listened to the play. However the only sounds were music playing in the background, with the occasional grunts released by the old men. There were never words.

Needless to say this was not at all what I was expecting and I did leave half-way through the show, vowing that I would try to get more information about a show before attending again.

The second theater experience came this spring. It was a cultural show with ballet, dancing, songs and mini dramas. It had beautiful costumes, impressive twirling dance moves, and lively music. It also, turns out that the show was centered around a pro-Buddhist message, and had a political agenda for a group that is being persecuted in China. I remember one of the songs have the written English translation referring to the Buddha being the savior and lord that leads to life. I just shook my head, and couldn't believe I made another blunder at the theater. I feel bad that my dollars went to support this play that had a message contrary to the truth of Christ.

Again though, these examples show two more cultural mishaps in the every day life of living in a foreign country. At the time they were unfortunate but now they make for interesting stories and hopefully will guide decisions in the future.

So with those two stories in the background, it is with caution that I am hoping for a better experience at the theater this time. I have been assured from other teachers, who checked with Taiwanese friends, that this show will not feature, old men in baby oil, or buddhist doctrine. I am looking forward to an enjoyable show with bright costumes and energetic dancing. I'll keep you posted.

Thank you and 10th grade English

2009-04-29T04:50:00.000-07:00

Life is busy. That's one thing I have learned since coming to Taiwan. I remember my first year or two being surprised at how quickly my time filled up. Between teaching, Bible studies, church activities, and social events, it seemed like my time was not my own. I remember thinking, "Wow this has just been a busy streak this these last couple of weeks or month...things will settle down."

Well, four years later I am faced with the realization that LIFE is busy. It's not just Taiwan, or teaching, or serving as a missionary, but as people we make life busy. We jam our schedule full of different activities, and as soon as one ends it is not long before we find something else to take its place. I am sure it is the same way for you reading this, wherever you happen to be.

As much as I would love to say things will settle down, they never seem to in the long run. New things always pop up and the time goes by just as quick. So I realize it comes down to priorities, and how one schedules his or her time. What do you make time for, and what gets left behind in the busyness of life?

For all of you who read my blog, I am sure you can tell where my priorities lie sometimes. Obviously blogging is not always at the top of my list. As much as I say I would love to write consistently...truthfully I don't always make it a priority. And I love to use the excuse that I have been busy lately, but let's be real...life is busy.

So all of you who do come back and read, in spite of my sporadic posting, I thank you. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you continue to come back...even when I am not consistent.

I want to write today about my 10th graders. I teach a 10th grade literature class here at Concordia Middle School, which is comprised of students who have advanced English for their grade level. I absolutely love teaching these students, and this class in particular has been a joy to teach.

I really feel like they have come together and taken advantage of the opportunity in front of them to learn and practice English. In my classes, I like to have small group discussion groups to respond to the reading that we have done. These groups consist of 5-6 students and they analyze the plot and make connections between the book and their lives.

This is my third year teaching this class, and every year it seems to be a battle to get students to use English. Usually groups will try to discuss in Chinese because it is their native language and it is easier for them. I often going around the room, feeling like a policeman on patrol saying, "NO CHINESE!!!"

It's not that I have a problem with Chinese being spoken to communicate an idea. It's just that I want to maximize the amount of English my students use, to make them the best they can be. I have used participation scores based on English use in these small groups, as an attempt to help curb laziness and encourage English. Inevitably, it has always been a battle.

For the first part of this year, it was much the same. Students would fall back on using Chinese as they discuss the reading or work on their group projects. However, the last couple of weeks have been different. The students have really grown and now start to use English much more and I notice a different attitude with them as they are discussing in their groups. They now are eager to use English and encourage each other to speak and participate in the group.

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was being observed by a couple teachers. They came to sit in on my class and watch me teach. Realizing this, my students went on their best behavior. They spoke up in class, and during our small group discussions they were all speaking in English. I went from group to group and heard nothing but English. I no longer felt like a police officer, but rather went around the room simply listening to the ideas being discussed.

After the class period, I had a chance to talk with one of the teachers, who said that he was impressed with the class. I informed him that this was a really good class and that I too thought they did a good job.

The next day we had class and some of that attitude seemed to carry over, as students still did a pretty good job using English in their small groups. I was impressed and felt really good about the class' attitude.

The following class, I decided to talk to them about how things were going. We talked about when the teachers came to observe and how the class went. I told my students that I was really proud of them, and that they did such a great job of using English and participating in the class.

I then talked with them about the opportunity that they have...the opportunity to study and learn English with a group of students who also have a high ability. I talked about the importance of using each day to improve and do their best to learn, and that we were approaching the end of the school year and they should take full advantage of their last months in 10th grade advanced English.

I really think my kids bought into it. I feel like the culture of our class changed and that now they want to learn and improve. It has been really refreshing to teach them, and these last few weeks have been outstanding.

I look forward to finishing the semester. Soon we will start to read The Giver by Lois Lowry. This is one of my favorite books to teach and I really am I excited to see how this group responds to the novel.

Fireworks and Yellow Taxis

2009-02-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of other follow up stories from trip to Beijing. First I'll talk about fireworks. I was watching CNN this afternoon, and saw that one of the hotels in Beijing went up in flames. The hotel itself was in the process of being constructed, but it sounds like the cause of the blaze was fireworks being set off by a neighboring company/building.

This was in connection with Lantern Festival, which is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebration. On this day (and to certain extent throughout Chinese New Year) fireworks are set off to scare away spirits, in hopes of improving the fortune and luck for a home or business. (I have had previous experience with Lantern Festival here in Taiwan that was wild, and probably one of the craziest sights I have seen in Taiwan. I could share more at some point if you are interested). Anyway, I guess the neighboring building had paid people to sit and set off fireworks, and some of these ignited that hotel.

This piece of news reminded me of my stay in Beijing, because during my stay I was continually hearing the sounds of fireworks. Most notably was outside of my hotel. Here the firworks were set off nearly every night. They were loud and located literally right outside of my window. The fireworks were like fireworks that one would see at a city show on the Fourth of July, except probably a little smaller. Either way, they were defnitely bigger than bottle rockets or sparklers. The fireworks were continually being shot one after another with only seconds in between explosions...and many times being shot without any break in between. This lasted hours, and even into the night past 10:00 pm. I am not exactly sure when they stopped because I usually fell asleep right away. I do know once I woke up at 4am, and they were not being shot then.

So nothing terribly profound from this story, but it is another memory from the trip.

The other part of this post is going to focus on mine and Kevin's rides to and from the High Speed Railway Station. We took the fast high-speed train to get to and from the airport. The station is about a half an hour from school and we took taxis to get there.

On the way to Beijing, we had a taxi driver who was playing English music. This is actually not too uncommon, as I have had cab drivers change the music to an English station or cd when I rode. I presume this is because I am an American. Either way, this man's cd had Amazing Grace on it. I asked him if he knew what the words were or if he knew the meaning of the song. He replied that he did not, as he can't really understand English. I proceeded to tell him that it is a song talking about God's grace and love in Jesus. We did not have time to get into a big conversation, but as Kevin and I left the taxi, we reminded him that Jesus loved him. Praise God for these simple ways to witness in every day life!

On the return trip, we got into a cab of a man who had previously driven our roommate, Michael Vogel. He obviously knew we were being dropped off at Concordia, and then asked if we knew someone named "Way Ming" (this is Michael's Chinese name). I responded that he was our roommate, and we all got a kick out of it. He had remembered Michael because Michael has the same last name as him...I suppose the fact that Micahel was an American speaking Chinese and heading to Concorida helped as well, but either way it made for a fun cabride.

When we got to campus the driver gave us door-to-door service, driving into campus and dropping us off right outside our house. He helped us get our bags out of the trunk and wished us a good day.

Two great cab rides to book-end a great trip!

The Forbidden City, Tiananmen, and Chairman Mao

2009-02-10T06:37:00.000-08:00

As a history major, I always enjoy traveling to site of historical significance, and this trip to Beijing provided several chances to for me to do this. First, I spent about an hour and a half walking through The Forbidden City (now called the Palace Museum by the Chinese). This was the imperial palace for emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was first started to be built in the 1400's, and was used by the dynasties for close to 500 years.

The thing that sticks out about this site is its size. The museum is enormous, and we spent an hour and a half there, walking mostly straight from the front to the back. We went to one side room, waited in line once to see an inner room, and took a couple of pictures. However for the most part it was just a straight shot back. Yet to both the left and the right, the city expanded into side rooms and pathways. Here's a picture of just a portion of the city, after we had already walked through three or four gates.

The architecture was really intersting, and is obviously in the traditional Chinese style. We also saw some traditional wedding clothes, and one of the room's where the emperor greeted guests.

I honestly don't have enough knowledge of Chinese dynastic history to truly appreciate this site, but given that it was once the seat of power for the Chinese government and off limits to the Chinese people, I count it as a worthwhile excursion.

Just south of the Forbidden City is Tiananmen Square. This of course is famous for the incident in which student lead protests ended in death and destruction, as the Chinese government brought out tanks to stop the protesters. Hundreds of people were killed.

Today it is an open area where people can walk around with their families and look at monuments dedicated to the Communist victory and in China’s Civil War. The square itself is enormous. During my days in Beijing, the square was always full of people who just seemed to be out enjoying the day. To get in the square, you do need to pass through security in which the guards scan any bags you are carrying. But these lines move along pretty quickly, in order to keep the traffic light.

Tiananmen Square at night. It closes to the public in the early evening, but is beautifully lit up at night.

In the square are several monuments, including one dedicated to The People’s Heroes.

One that commemorates the Communist victory in their civil war.

And Chairman Moa Memorial Hall.

Inside Chairman Mao Memorial Hall is the body of Mao Zedong, preserved and on display. Before coming to Beijing, I decided that this was a must to go see this historical figure, knowing we would have to wait in line to see him. This proved to be true.

On Thursday morning we got in a line that wrapped all the way around the Memorial Hall. We had to pay to leave cameras and bags in nearby lockers, and had to show our passports as a form of ID. We went through security checks and ended up waiting close to an hour.

Once inside the hall, there was a giant display of Mao’s picture and many flowers below it. There was a reverent feel and people who talked were told to hush up. The line then broke into two parts, as we entered the room containing Mao’s body.

At this point the atmosphere seemed to change a little bit. There was a guard who spoke loudly and told the people to keep moving. The room was no longer silent, but rather people mumbled and murmured a bit as they walked by the body.
There was a glass top covering the casket, allowing the curious crowds to see the body of this Chinese leader. His skin looked rather fake and like plastic, no doubt due to efforts to preserve his body. The lower half of his body had a Communist flag laying over it like a blanket.

This is the second body of a world leader that I have seen. Last year in Vietnam I gazed upon the body of Uncle Ho, the Communist leader of that country. As I recall, both men had skin that looked fake and were sitting in caskets with glass covering, allowing the public to see them. However, Uncle Ho’s room was much quieter. There were at least four guards surrounding his body and the room was silent when we walked through. I was surprised at the contrasting feel at Mao’s Memorial Hall.

A Little Cooler

2009-02-07T00:17:00.001-08:00

The trip to Beijing brought the chance to experience some cooler temperatures that I have not experienced in awhile. During the winter Beijing dips below freezing, getting snow and ice. When I first realized this, I was excited for the chance to see snow, as it is something that I have not experienced in over 4 years.

Much to my disappointment, it is also true that Beijing is a dry climate, thus not as much precipitation equates to less snow. So when we got to Beijing, there was no snow on the ground, and the forecast did not call for any during our visit.

While there was not a big blanket of white flaky goodness, I did have other sensations that go along with being a colder environment. Most of these occured as we walked around the city to our various destinations.

On our first full day, we decided to find the Olympic stadium. According to our map it did not seem too far, so we decided to walk it. Along the way, we made several stops.

Upon coming to Beijing, we were a little concerned that some of sites would be closed for the holiday. So our first stop was to Tiananmen Square, to see if it and the Forbidden City would be open in the coming days. Thankfully, the square was full of people, assuring us that we would not have to juggle our schedule around the holiday.

After passing through this area, we continued toward the Olympic stadium. We pressed on, enjoying the excerise in the cool air. Eventually we got hungary and decided to find a place to eat. We stopped at a Chinese restaurant where we order, lamb, sweet potatoe fries, broccoli (which was excellent), and roasted duck. Beijing is known for its duck (Peking duck), so it was a must that we order this. It proved to be a little disappointing though, as we had to wait 40 minutes for it and it was rather expensive compared to all of the other dishes we had. The taste was ok, but not spectacular.

Another place we stopped was a lake that had frozen over. This was a pleasant surprise. There were many people walking out on the ice, a fisherman, some hockey players, and a man jumping into the lake in his speedo...crazy!

Kevin, Michelle, and I walked out on the lake and had fun sliding around on the surface. I remember walking on lakes up at Okoboji and Center Lake, in Iowa, but it had been awhile since I had been on one. There's nothing like side excerusions on a journey, and walking on the lake brought a simple and unexpected pleasure.

As the walk continued into the afternoon, I began to feel the bite and nip against my exposed skin. My inner thighs began to get chilly and I had to keep my hands in my pockets to prevent them from getting too cold. My lips began to get chapped, which proved to be a problem throughout the week, forcing me to apply some chapstick.

The walk proved to be a little longer than we expected and we did not arrive at the park until late afternoon. We walked around and looked at the "Nest" and the aquatic center. By the time we got there, they had stopped selling tickets to enter the stadium, so we had to gaze from the outside.

At this point of the journey, we were all a little cold, and ready to get some place warm. We ended up finding a German restaurant where I was able to warm up with some bread, German sausages, and beer.

This day did not bring any snow, but there was one point in which I experienced snow. This was up on the Great Wall. Granted there were just a few patches of snow here and there, but I was able to pick some up and throw a snowball of sorts at both Kevin and Michelle.

In retrospect, the weather was definetly colder than Taiwan, but not approaching Iowa winters. Like America, though, Beijing was equipped with heaters, so I was able to warm up after a day of travel in the cold weather. I still maintain that the coldest I have ever been was last year in Vietnam, where we had no heat and it rained frequently.

The Great Wall of China

2009-02-04T04:37:00.000-08:00

The highlight of last week's trip to Beijing was most definitely the Great Wall of China. Kevin, Michelle, and I went on a 10km hike across a portion of the wall. The history, the adventure and the enormity of this wall made it the most storied part of my excursions in China.

The morning started by taking the subway to the bus station. As we got off the subway there was friendly lady who helped us get from the subway to the bus station. She worked for the bus station and was paid to go to the subway and surrounding area to find help people get to the station. We told her that we wanted to go climb the Great Wall out in Jing Shan Ling, and she helped us get on Bus #980, which would take us to where we needed to go.

The bus was pretty full and we had to split up and share seats with Chinese people. I sat next to a college student, who I was able to converse with and practice a little bit of my Chinese. She was heading home from nursing school to celebrate the new year with her familiy. After a little over an hour, the bus reached our stop. When the bus pulled up to our stop, I said good-bye to the college student and the three of us set out to find a taxi.

We had not even gotten off the bus when a driver yelled up and told us that he would take us to the Jing Shan Ling trail. I figure the lady at the bus station called ahead and told him that three foreigners were coming to climb the wall. He was a really nice man, and we rented his cab services for the afternoon. He drove us out to our portion of the wall, and helped us find the where the trail began. He also agreed to meet us in four hours at the parking lot of the end of our trail in Simatai.

We set out on the path, and were soon joined by three local Chinese people. The started to make small talk, and asked us if we wanted to buy any books or t-shirts from them. We politely said no, and they replied, "not now, maybe later." And continued to walk with us on the trail. They guided us to the stairs that brought us up onto the wall, and set on our journey with us.

The initial views of the Great Wall were magnificant. The wall runs for miles in each direction, and overlooks open valleys and mountains. Parts of it have been redone, to make it a little safer, and other parts are old and crumbly. Standing on it, I knew I was on a part history and I was excited for the hike that was about to come.

As we hiked, the wall continued on and on, being interupted by towers. Our hike included over 20 towers, connecting the 10km of wall. As we continued to travel, our three Chinese friends provided information about the towers and the walls. They showed places where battles might have been fought. They also showed us unique features of the wall, such the ducts where the Chinese would dowse their enemies with water mixed with wood, nails, and rocks.

These friendly people even provided support as we climbed steep portions of the wall. They were older than us, but were very strong and steady handed. I asked the man how often he climbed this trail, and he responded that he usually did it twice a day. They also were most helpful in taking pictures of the three of us over scenic spots on the wall. In addition to all of this hospitality, I enjoyed the chance to practice my Chinese conversation. It will probably be the only time I have free Chinese lesson at such a historic site.

Meanwhile we all hiked along laughing, looking at the wall, the towers, and the beauty of God's great earth. There was one opportunity were we could take a short cut across a path, in order to avoid a really steep section of the wall. However, we felt good and decided to press on with the more challenging section.

When we got to the 12th tower, our guides informed us that they had to leave. But again, before they left, they asked if we would buy any t-shirts or books from them. We were really appreciative of their help and company, so we wanted to do something to thank them. So we took a look at their books and t-shirts, and decided to buy something, or at least give them some cash for helping us. Each of the three had their own things to sell, but they had seemed to be traveling and interacting as one group. We decided to buy a book of pictures taken of the Great Wall, which cost about $20.00. But they pressured us to buy more, and now brought out post cards and smaller pictures which were cheaper. I asked them if they shared the money together, or if each of them were individual sellers.

It was at this point I realized it was all about business. The lady wearing red spoke up and said that the were all separate, and that we should buy from all of them. I said that I would be happy to if, I could have my money back and disperse it evenly and buy from all of them. She then turned to the lady in green (who had sold the book) and in Chinese specifically told her not to let me have my money back. I asked the lady in green and again and she refused. The lady in red then started to pressure me to buy from her and told me how she had kids and not a lot of money. She said that we should buy from all of them and not just one. I got very frustrated and told her that I would be happy to if I could exchange the book, but that I did not want to spend anymore money. She just continued to beg, until I said I could not buy anymore and decided to leave.

Normally, I would not have minded paying a little extra to help the people, or having to spend more money on a souveniour from a historic site, but here I felt robbed. I was upset because I was genuinely happy for their help along the way, and wanted to thank them. But they made it out to be simply business and in the process I realized that I could have gotten by much cheaper if I was smarter about it. I should have tried to negotiate or bargain right off the bat, or asked to see other things. I was silly not to have tried to negotiate or get bye cheaper. I should have known the score and been on my toes. I have been in these situations many times in my travels throughout Asia. But I trusted them, not expecting the previous hour and a half of hiking and laughs to end in this tense business situation. I felt taken for a ride.

As they turned around to go back, Michelle, Kevin, and I continued on the hike. We discussed how it was too bad the situation ended like that, and I felt a dampening of the mood. It was in this context where we approached tower #13.

We walked into the tower and as we came to the exit door, there was a sudden drop. The stairs were gone, and below us was a hill. Straight below, the ground was close to six feet from the ledge, getting steeper and steeper going down hill to the left. To the right was the path, that was nearly five feet below us, but connected to the wall.

A couple who was hiking in front of us had just passed through the tower. They showed us a couple of footholds in the wall that we might use to climb down, and then went on their way. As we appraised the situation, we all realized we were a little scared. The footholds were in positions that were difficult to reach and they were not too sturdy. It seemed like we might have to take a bit of a leap and hope to land on the solid ground. Now, I don't want to be overdramatic and tell you that I felt I was heading for my certain death...however, I could foresee a missed step resulting in a slide down the hill and the need to grab onto the surrounding trees as a slid. This no doubt would have brought some bumps, bruises and scrapes.

As we examined the situation, Kevin reminded us of the importance of prayer. We took a moment to lift it up and give it to God. Asking for His guidance and protection. What a gift we have that we can go to Him whenever we need him. His strength and His love are ever present.

After the prayer, we made a plan. Michelle and Kevin held my arms as I slid down the wall and swung myself onto the higher ground. Once I was down below, I got solid footing and helped Kevin as he came down. Michelle held his arms from the tower, and I pushed his legs, so he too could land on the higher ground. Finally, we were both down there to catch Michelle and push her toward the solid ground.

We made it, thankful to God that we done so without scrapes or injuries. We could continue on our hike. As we moved toward the next towers, I remembered my thought process over previous half an hour. Not too long ago, I had been upset and frustrated about being ripped off. Now I remembered that money wasn't all that important in the grand scheme of things. I thought of how eager God must have been to re-teach me that lesson. How silly the book, money, and tension seemed after swinging to safety on tower #13. Praise God that His love and faithfulness are always there, even when we stumble in sin.

The rest of the hike went off without a hitch. The three of us enjoyed each other's company and sang praise songs as we hiked. We stopped and had a picnic lunch on the wall. It composed of sandwhiches of left-over Beijing roasted duck, canned fruit (I had mandarin oranges), and plenty of water.

The second half of the hike included older sections of the wall that were more rocky and not redone (although still safe). At one point, we had to walk beside the wall because the top was closed off. Here, I saw just how big the wall is. I could not imagine any enemy coming and trying to actually penetrate this line of defense.

As the hike finished up, we made our down the wall and back over toward the parking lot. There our cab driver was waiting for us with a big smile on his face. He was very friendly and helped us make our way back to the bus stop, to head to Beijing. It was the end to an amazing adventure!

Back From Beijing

2009-02-01T06:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I just returned from my vacation to Beijing. It is Chinese New Year break out here in Taiwan and we had a week and a half off of school. Tomorrow we start up with classes again, for four days, and then have a four day weekend before getting fully back into the saddle next week.

I was in Beijing from Sunday January 25th until Friday the 30th, and it was a great chance to get away, relax and take in some historic sites. Here's a quick overview of the trip. I went with my friends Kevin and Michelle. We stayed at hotel that was located in the heart of the city. Honestly the location could not have been much better as we were within walking distance of nearly every place we went, whether it be sites, shopping, or restaurants. That being said, we did a ton of walking, more than I have done in a long time. However this made for great exercise and a cheaper trip.

One we frequented was Tiananmen Square. This wide open area had several monuments and museums, including a Memorial to Mao Tse Dong, and is across the street from the Forbidden City.

Another highlight of the trip was a hike along the Great Wall. We took a combination of subway, bus, and taxi to travel about an hour and a half out of Beijing. There we went on a 10km hike on the Great Wall. The view was breathtaking and the hike was a good work out, complete with a couple of stories and some good Chinese practice.

In addition, we also saw the Olypmic complex were the 2008 games were held, went to a Chinese teahouse to watch Beijing style Chinese opera, and ate at several good restaurants. We sampled the Beijing Roasted Duck, ate at a German restaurant, a TGI Friday's, and an oustanding Thai-Indiand Restaurant.

That's a quick overview and I hope to write in more detail as time allows.

China, the President and board games

2009-01-23T09:48:00.000-08:00

Alright...here comes another somewhat random post. I must confess that I am having a hard time blogging lately (even though I have had an increase in free time), and I think the biggest reason is because I am struggling with what to write about. Hopefully I will have some inspiration in the coming weeks and months. I am currently on vaction for Chinese New Year, and am looking forward to a trip to China. I am heading to Beijing on Sunday for 5 days of vacation. It's supposed to be cold(although not quite Iowa cold), with the lows dipping below freezing, which I have not experienced in years. I think the most exciting thing about this trip is the chance to see some truly historical sites, such as the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City and possibly Mao's body. Too much excitement for a history major. I'll take lots of pictures. :)

Speaking of history, I would like to recognize the historic step that took place in America this past week, when Barak Obama became the first African American president. I do think this is a great thing and deserves recognition, I also was pondering this week the extent to which President Obama is feeling pressure by being in this position. I was contemplating that being he is carrying the torch for African Americans into the White House, and that this could bring extra pressure as he sets the tone and breaks the color barrier. I think back to people like Jackie Robinson and the pressure and challenges he faced being the first high profile African American in Major League Baseball. As a president, Mr. Obama's actions will be scrutinized and examined under a microscope, as his popularity with the country and media dwindles. Is it possible that him being the first black president will further intensify this? Or is the presidency enough of a challenge in itself and will race not be in the forefront of his thoughts? I don't have an exact answer, but I would imagine being the first black president would bring some extra pressure...I just don't know how much. Just something to ponder.

Either way...I am cautiously optimistic. I know that I don't agree with Mr. Obama on ever issue, especially ones regarding the rights of babies...however I feel like he is a president that genuinely wants to help the country and find solutions to the problems. I believe that he wants to be practical and work in a bi-partisan manner to meet the country's needs. Partisanship is one of my biggest concerns with American politics and I really believe Mr. Obama when he says he wants to go across party lines. I feel our country needs leadership like this during times of war and economic hardship.

I was able to stay up and listen to his inagural speech. It was 1:00 am out here, but I am on vacation and thought it was worth losing the sleep over. I think what I appreciated most is how he called on Americans to individually take responsibility and do their parts. He followed this by outlining acts of kindness or hospitality that can be done in every day life, and I am glad he outlined the importance of this for the individual.

To me, this is a great parallel to what God calls us to do. We need to carry the torch of Christ into our cities, communitiies, and neighborhoods. It is easy for us to depend on others to do this, when we ourselves could make a difference. We can share Jesus through actions of love, caring, and kindness...through words of encouragement and comfort. And most importantly, through sharing the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like President Obama said, our work of sharing love should not be something we "grudgingly accept", but rather be something we "sieze gladly." I pray that Christ will fill us with this desire to gladly sieze the opportunities to spread His love to this dark world.

Ok...that's all for the deep stuff. Today was a fun, lazy day of watching TV and playing board games. The highlight would have to be the 3-4 hour game of monopoly, which finally ended with a victorious Kevin Foley bankrupting me...sort of. I had taken over for Michael when he got bored of playing, but I represented his monopolies strong until the end. But alas, it was not enough to gain total monetary control of the board. As we were playing, I remembered all of the board games I played as a kid, Sorry, Clue, Candy Land, and of course Monopoly. Good memories and a good chance to relax on vaction. Praise God!

New News

2009-01-10T22:44:00.000-08:00

It's a new year....2009! Hopefully a new commitment to writing on this blog and sharing stories about my experiences here. I feel like I say this every 4 months or so...so all I can say is that I will do my best.

Here in Taiwan I am gearing up to end the first semester and head for New Year's break. This is the most important holiday here in Taiwan, and is the only source of significant vacation in the school calendar. Starting January 21, we will have vacation until February 2nd. This break will provide a good time to relax and take a break from the busy school year.

For this new year's vacation I am going to visit Beijing, China. I am really excited because this will be a chance to see the old and the new. The old, historical sites of the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square will both be walking distance from my hotel. I also plan on traveling to see the Great Wall, hopefully being able to walk and spend significant time there.

New things: Beijing is a modern city, one of the biggest in the world, and has recently been re-modeled because of the Olympics. I hope to see some of the new sites that were put up for the Olympics.

Another highlight will be the chance to see snow (hopefully). I have not seen that wonderfully cold and cruncy powdery substances since the Februay 2005...just before I went to Puerto Rico for student teaching. While I don't miss the cold of an Iowa winter, I do miss the chance to see and play in the snow.

While I look forward to the Chinese New Year vacation, I have some exciting news to share from here in Taiwan. First, we have a new restuarant here in Chia-Yi...Subway! It all came out of left field when one of the teachers was driving in the city and saw the sign up advertising the reastaurant, and upon a closer look it was discovered that it would be opening in the next week. And sure enough, the end of December brought fresh, tasty, subs with the marvelous smell of the fresh baked bread. In the 3 weeks that it has been open, I have gone 4 or 5 times...delicious!

Finally, the other news is that we finally have a Pastor here at Salvation Lutheran Church. Pastor Alex Wu will becoming to serve as our pastor this spring. We have been vacant since August 2007, so this is such a blessing and we are all excited to have Pastor Alex as our pastor.

Hong Kong Trip

2008-10-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody. I just realized October is nearing an end and I have yet to blog...oops. This month I had a bit of free time to take a vacation to Hong Kong. I went to visit a couple of friends who are former teachers here at CMS. One is Michelle Cavalli, who now teaches 2nd grade at the elementary school of Hong Kong International School. The other is Mike Kersten, who teaches history, humanities and a service course at the high school.

The trip was a great chance to get away and relax for a bit. Honestly the hightlights for me were just being able to hang out and play cards. A couple of activities we did include looking at some scenic temples and statues, walking around the central part of Hong Kong, going to Michelle's 2nd grade classroom, and eating at several American restaurants.

I don't have a whole lot to say about it and have not uploaded any pictures yet to my computer. Maybe I'll have some good ones to post.

Some cultural things of note:

1. People drive on the left hand side of the road, this comes from the heavy British influence.

2. Recycling is not popular in Hong Kong. Here in Taiwan, we recycle everything, even trash at McDonald's. In HK, I did not see anything at all for recycling.

3. One of the most interesting sites I saw was a statue outside of one of the banks. Hong Kong is famous for 4 or 5 of its banks, and outside one of them were two statues of lions. The lions had holes and gashes in them, and Michelle told us that these wear bullet holes from WWII, when the Japanese had come. I thought it was wonderful that the city chose to keep the same monuments on display at that the public can walk by today and see damage from fighting that happened over 60 years ago.

4. I saw the skyline several times, including some of the buildings that were used to shoot the new Batman movie (I would have to go back and watch to be sure which ones I saw). Anyway, I guess the filming of it caused a bit of a stir because of problems with lighting and usage of these buildings. I don't know if it was a huge deal or not, but was informed it was a little troublesome for the city.

Ok, that's it for now. I'll blog more later to talk about the track and field day we just had here at CMS.

Taiwan Mission Video and Typhoon

2008-09-28T20:58:00.001-07:00

First, I want to let you know about a new link on my page, that I think is very exciting. In the links column I have added a connection to a new You Tube video, of the mission work being done here in Taiwan. Josh Lange, from LCMS World Mission, came out here last spring and video taped a lot of ministries that are happening here at CMS and in Chia Yi. He also interviewed me and a couple of other missionaries who serve as teachers at the school.

Over the last couple of months he put all of this together into an informational video, and it is now up on the internet. Josh did an outstanding job on this video and I would highly recommend that all of you watch it. It is a great chance to see some footage of what is happening here, meet some of my fellow missionaries and get to hear about the wonderful ways God is working in the mission field of Taiwan.

In addition to this link, I added the LCMS World Mission blog to my "other blogs" column. This blog is well organized and has tons of information, pictures, and videos about mission work being done all over the world. Also, fellow Taiwan missionary Kevin Foley has a new blog that is up and running. Check that out to get more perspectives on the mission work being done here at CMS. It is under the "Taiwan blogs" section.

Finally, today is Monday, but it is a no school day. Hooray! Everyone loves a day off, right? We are currently in the middle of a typhoon and the winds and rain were strong enough for the government to call off school. Actually here in Chia Yi it is not nearly as dangerous as being along the coast, but none the less I'll probably make a lazy day of it and stay inside. It allows me to catch up on my blogging, email, school work, and get some much needed rest.

But while I am thankful, it is dangerous for some out there, so please pray for the safety of those here on the island who are in the path of danger.

Feet Eating Fish

2008-09-28T20:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some picture from the school trip that I took back in August. First are 2 pictures of those fish that eat the dead skin off of people's feet. (see previous post for more information).

I also will include a picture of Kevin and I holding our artwork that we created. One of the stops on the trip was to a traditional arts interactive museum. Here we made incense and Taiwanese traditional tops. The tops use a string and you throw the top toward the ground and then yank the string back, to make it spin.

At the museum we painted tops to make our own design. Mine is made with the theme of a sunset.

Of Typhoons, Holidays, and Football

2008-09-14T07:47:00.000-07:00

Hey readers, I just have a couple of short times that I wanted to blog about, as nothing major or super interesting has happened lately.

First, we are in the middle of a typhoon this weekend. It started, I believe, on Friday evening, and has continued through Sunday night now. On Friday the winds started to really pick up. You can especially see it when you look up at the giant palm trees on campus and the branches sway back and forth. Some even fall off.

Now I don't want to exaggerate, this is not the biggest typhoon I have been in. Also, in Chia Yi, we are in the middle of the island and are protected on the east by mountains. So for me this is more of a giant wind and rain storm, but nothing dangerous or scary. However, it has rained pretty much straight from Friday evening until now (Sunday night). So it has regulated me to a lot of indoor activities with movies and card games, along with a wet ride to church on the scooter this morning.

In addition to being a typhoon, today is Moon Festival in Taiwan, and in China. Moon Festival is typically celebrated with family getting together and recently having BBQ as a big family meal. It kind of has the family feel of Thanksgiving in America, and it is a major holiday here in Taiwan.

In fact, it is one of only three holidays that we get a vacation day for during the first semester. But alas, the Taiwan education system is not quite like the American one. Normally if this day was on a weekday, we would get a day off of school, however, since the holiday is on a Sunday we don't have to come to school. So, there is no need for a vacation day, since every one can celebrate on Sunday. This brings the first semester count for vacation days (other than weekends) down to 2 days...October 10th and Januray 1st. But hey, Happy Moon Festival everyone!!!

Finally, I do need to bring attention to my readers that Iowa beat Iowa State this weekend in football. Go Hawks!!!!! I was not able to watch the game, but gather it was pretty ugly. I did listen to the first half on the radio through an Internet website, but decided at 1:30 that the game wasn't too exciting and that I REALLY needed sleep. But it was wonderful to wake up and check the headlines. So a good game. Iowa is 3-0 and I can cheer Iowa State on the rest of the year!

Laughint Out Loud

2008-09-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

This week is the first week of the new semester, and it has been such a joy to meet my new students and to get back in the full time swing of things. Like every year the first week is spent getting to know the kids and talking about rules and expectations for the class. I have 8 different classes this year, so it made for a rather boring week of teaching.

I would like to use this blog to tell about one more thing from the school trip a week and a half ago. Our hotel had a decent sized swimming and hot tub area that we had access to as guests of the hotel. One feature of this complex was a small pool where fish could come and eat dead skin off of your feet.

What you did was sit on the side and stick your legs into the knee-high pool. The pool is filled with small fish that come up and pick dead skin from your feet. Often there would be about 5 or 6 of these little creatures around each foot. The idea is that this will be healthy for your feet as it helps to clean them and make them more beautiful. I personally thought it was a little strange, but definitely had to try it out.

When I stuck my feet in the pool it did not hurt so much as tickle. I remember being unable to hold back laughter for the first 5 minutes while these fish "ate" at my feet. After a little bit I got used to the feeling and could control the laughter. It was actually sort of relaxing after adjusting, but more than anything it was just a unique experience.

I'll post a picture at a later time!

Gimme those eggs!

2008-08-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile since I have had a cultural experience in which I made a total fool of myself, but I had one happen recently and wanted to share about it.

To me, many cross-cultural mishaps occor when people assume things, or are unable to explain things because of language barriers or cultural differences. This is true for both serious offenses and funny social mishaps. Sometimes we don't stop to think about a situation, but get caught up in the moment and assume that we have certain rights or that a situation must be the way that we see it. This is the background for what I find to be a quite humorous and humbling story a couple of days ago on the school trip.

Every year before the first week of school, the CMS faculty takes a school trip to some location in Taiwan. Thes school hires a company to drive us around and set up sight seeing excursions in the places that we visit. It is a wonderful time to get to know my fellow Taiwanese co-workers and many of their families. It is also a good chance to see a new part of the island and have a quick 3 day vacation before school starts the following week.

On these trips we usually stop at fancy traditional Chinese restaurants where the meals are served family style and are set meals in which every table gets the same food. On the first day of the trip we stopped for lunch at a restaurant just like this. Now, these restaurants are sometimes hit and miss. Don't get me wrong, my Taiwanese co-workers seem to love each and every dish that is brought out, but not all of the dishes appeal the American teacher portion of the faculty. In fact, while our Taiwanese counter parts are stuffing themselves and getting doggy bags, I am sometimes just scrapping by to be satisfied until I can get a snack at the next rest stop. So as I sat down with my fellow American teachers to eat lunch, I was a liitle worried about what delacacies would be coming my way.

All 9 of us Americans ended up sitting together at a table, and we began discussing what would be served. A couple of things were already sitting on the table, including a dish of eggs that looked absolutely delicious. Eggs are a great food because for the most part they taste the same in all cultures. I mean an egg is an egg and provided their are no srange sauces on them, they are easy to enjoy. Thus we knew we had one dish to look forward to.

Our hope was soon to fade however. Within less than a minute of sitting down a man came back and snatched the egg from our table. He walked quickly with it over to his table, where he was seated with several other men. We were in a state of shock over why our eggs were stolen and how we could get them back.

It was decided that we should go over and talk to the person who took them, so I went and approached the table to ask about the egg. At this point my mind was a little confused and my Chinese seemed to fail me, because about all I could say as please give us eggs. I was unable to communicate what had happened or why it had happened. I stood there for a little bit, and the man looked confused but eventually he got up and went to the main counter. It seemed like he would be getting us our eggs that he took.

So, I sat back down and we continued our conversation, trying to unravel what exactly had just happened. Within in a few minutes, the waitress came by and put a new plate of eggs on our table, and we were satisfied. In fact the eggs ended up being very delicious.

As the meal wound down, we wanted to see if we could get another egg dish because it was that good. So Kevin went to talk to one of the teachers we knew and asked him to get us eggs, but he kind of joked around but didn't seem like he would get us anything. Then, we saw the man who had taken our eggs in the first place, and Kevin went to talk to him. He said that we wanted another plate of eggs, and the man eventually went up to the counter again and we soon received our second helping.

At this point we were feeling pretty good about the meal and the wonderful eggs that we had the chance to eat. We saw some other teachers and looked at some other tables and wanted to know if they too had enjoyed the eggs in the set meal. I found a couple of teachers in the English department and inquired to them about the eggs, and they had no idea what I was talking about. They had not gotten any egss. As I looked around at more tables, I did not see a single faculty table with eggs on them.

I eventually decided to go talk to the man who had taken our eggs. I spoke to him a second time and asked him more about the eggs and who he was. I soon discovered that he was a tour guide and that he was sitting on the table with all of our bus drivers. I asked him if the eggs were only for their table and he said, yes!!! He informed me that there were not supposed to be any eggs for the teachers from the school. At this point I began to feel rather embarrassed and I apologized for our requesting of the eggs. He kind of laughed and said it was ok, but I still felt bad.

We had assumed that the eggs were for us, and that this man was just taking them because he wanted some more eggs. I felt bad for going and talking to him and asking him to get us something that was not rightfully ours: more eggs. I did not take the time to consider that he was probably intimidated to speak to a group of foreigners using Chinese. He probably did not feel he could explain the situation so he just took the eggs.

On top of that, we asked for a second helping of that which was not ours, and received it. Again going back to cultural miscommunications because of things that cannot be communicated and because people think they have certain rights.

Thankfully, the tour guide (Kay-wan), was a good sport and laughed about it. In fact, Kevin and I ran into him later that night in the hotel and played some cards and had a beer with him. It was fun and we all laughed about the eggs.

On top of all of that, when we went to the restaurant on the third day of the trip (yes it was the same one, but we had a different set meal), he came up to our table and gave us another plate of eggs. He held his finger over his mouth, saying "ssshhhhh", but had a smile when he gave them to us.

So yes, we got our eggs...and a little bit of humble pie, along with a story.

Brown Bagging It

2008-08-18T03:45:00.000-07:00

The past three years, I have spent nearly all of my meals eating something that someone has prepared for more...in other words I never cook. People back home would always ask me about this and be surprised that I usually ate out. And it's that I NEVER cooked, but the times I did were so few and far between that they don't really count.

So meals in Taiwan have typically looked like this: a doughnut or prepackaged pastry for breakfast, the school lunch that is delivered to my office, and then going out to supper at a restaurant.

Let me justify myself. Going out in Taiwan is a little bit more economical than in America, so I never really have felt bad about this, plus it is a nice way to socialize. In addition the school lunch is under $1 per day, so it is impossible to argue the dollars and cents about that one. And breakfast...hmmm, breakfast. I never ate breakfast during college or my first 2 years in Taiwan, so I figured prepackaged pastries was a step up from nothing, right?

Now that I have totally justified my laziness, I want to share that I am turning over a new leaf. I have decided to cook my own breakfast before going to school. I am going to make eggs, toast, and have some fruit, in addition to other things that I might be able to figure out throughout the year. I am also planning on bringing a sack lunch most days to school. I have been making sandwhiches, both ham and cheese, and peanut butter and jelly. In addition to the sandwhich I pack some fruits and vegetables.

I came to this conclusion after realizing that I was sick of eating the school lunch, which is always rice, meat, and some vegetables. It's not that it is terrible, and in fact there are some times when I enjoy it. However, I have mostly grown tired of eating it and want to have sandwhiches and fresh fruit, which is more similar to what I used to pack during my days of student teaching.

I have one week down of packing lunches and have started week two. So far so delicious. Now if I would ever start to cook on my own in the evenings...

The First Week Back

2008-08-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

Well my first week back has come and gone. I always love returning to Taiwan after being gone for awhile. There is so much excitement as I look forward to the new school year and it seems everyone is full of energy, which is a stark contrast to the end of June when most of the missionaries and teachers are running on fumes.

One of my favorite things about coming back is seeing all of my former students walking around campus. When I see them or a group of them, we usually both get big smiles on our faces and say hi or wave.

I love seeing them and saying hi, or stopping to chat for a little bit. I try desparately to remember all of their names, which I am not always able to do. Sometimes I'll have to tell them to wait while I think for a second. I must say that for the most part I am pretty good at it. The Lord has blessed me with the ability to rememeber my students names fairly well, and it is something that I appreciate having as a teacher.

I ask them about their summer, and they inevetiable ask if I had a chance to go back to America, and then act so amazed when I tell them that I did. There is the feeling that yes I am not there teacher anymore, but it's ok to say hi and chat, and it's just fun to see them.

In addition to chatting with my former students, I have also been teaching 3 classes of 7th graders. I see each class once a day, giving me 15 teaching hours for the week. It's really not too shabby! Some of my classes have been a little bit...energetic...and we have been working on routines and basic classroom expectations. I have seen some improvement and will continue to press on in hopes of laying a strong foundation for the rest of the year.

Back on the island...

2008-08-05T05:37:00.000-07:00

Well I made it back to Taiwan without any major problems. My plane did sit on the runway for an hour and a half in Detroit (this was due to a computer malfunction, so thankfully they did take the time to fix it). However, we actually gained quite a bit of time flying over the ocean and ended up landing 10 minutes earlier than scheduled.

These past couple of days I have been trying to adjust my body to the new time zone, clean my desk and room, teach classes and exercise. For teaching, I have 3 7th grade classes everyday. We are learning basic English such as colors, numbers and simple verbs such as give, take, and stand. The trick is that we are also teaching past tense with these words and the students have had a difficult time picking up the past tense.

The excercise is to get back in to the habbit and to help shed some of the pounds I put on while back in the States. I love being home and eating all of the delicious American food that is harder to come by in Taiwan. Unfortunately, I like it a little too much and usually put on some excess weight. This summer it was 8 pounds, which is less than last year, but still will be nice to lose in the coming weeks.

Signing off for now!!!

Back in the States...but returning very soon

2008-07-30T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I know that the last post talks about me just returning from China, and that was obviously quite awhile ago. In the mean time after that post, I finished up the semester and made my way back to America. I have been hanging out here in the U.S. for the last four weeks. On Friday, I'll return Taiwan for a fourth year of teaching at Concordia Middle School.

The end of the semester was intense. I rushed and pushed to finish all of grading, while at the same time working on online courses for my English as a Second Language certification. Honestly, the classes consumed my time for much of the second semester and I have resolved to do a better job this year of time management and not bitting off more than I can chew. I will have one more semester of online classes, and in December will have completed course work for an ELL certification.

The summer has been great so far. I have had chances to see nearly all of my family, hang out with my friends from college, and even go to Camp Okoboji for 2 weeks. Monday I just came back from a Wolfram family reunion, in which we observed my grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary.

In these last few days I plan on relaxing, packing, and spending some time with my parents and sister's family.

Ok, that's all for now.

Back From China

2008-04-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Last weekend I had a three-day weekend and had the chance to travel to Shanghai China. This is my first chance traveling to the mainland, and it was a good experience.

I went with Kevin, who had some friends that are teaching at the International School in Shanghai. We stayed with them for the weekend, so that helped with expenses. The first evening when we arrived, we all went out for drinks. It had been awhile since I did that and it was a good time. We played some darts later in the evening, and it took me back to my college days, playing darts with Kevin, Tom, and Geoff at Minksy's in Ames. Good times!

The next day we went to the older part of Shanghai that has been redone as a shopping district. You go there and walk around at different shops and try to bargain for some goods. The highlight was bargaining for fake Rolex's.

They sell knock-off Rolex' that are really cheap, but look like the real thing. To do this, we often went into some back alley's that were people's houses. Inside they had the watches that they would then try to sell. Obviously they try to rip people off, but if you know what you are doing you can drop the price quite a bit.

I was there with Kevin, and Joel (his friend who teaches at the school). We kept negotiating, knowing that we were buying cheap watches and not wanting to spend a lot of money.

In the course of the bargaining, I was holding a couple of watches and the lady knocked one of them out of my hands. It was an accident, but the watch fell to the ground. It did not break, but it did stop running and thus needed to be fixed. This is how cheap these watches are. She did not make me pay for it, but they weren't happy. I figured it was her fault, plus they sell such poorly made watches, that it was not my problem.

We went to a couple of different places and eventually we did buy some watches for a pretty good deal, but mine broke in a bout 10 minutes. I think the problem might be with the battery, so I am going to get it checked out here in Taiwan. I guess it's probably fitting given that I broke one. Outside of the watches, I also bought a couple of propaganda posters from the Communist governments led by Mao, and some DVDs, including Growing Pains Season 1.

Outside of bargaining, we also had a chance to go to the downtown area and walk around at some of the modern buildings, including the famous Pearl Tower. That was pretty fun as well, and me and Kevin had some good adventures trying to figure out how to cross the rive. We eventually wound up on a ferry. It began to rain and we got soaked as we walked around, but the whole experience made for a good story.

Hopefully I'll have time to put up another blog on the China trip.

Back to School, Debate, and Basketball

2008-03-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

I know it's been awhile since I blogged. Things have gotten quite busy, but I did want to give a littel bit of an update on how things are going.

I am not sure if I wrote about it, but this semester I have officially become a student again. I am taking online courses to work for my ELL endorsement to teach English Language Learners. I am learning quite a bit about teaching ELLs and being able to draw on experiences from the past few years. At the same time it has increased my workload, in addition to the Bible Studies and regular teaching. So, I can always use some prayers for a bit more strength, energy, and discernment in time management.

Other highlights from the month so far include the English Debate contest here at CMS. I was the chairperson for 1st and Championship Round. This contest is a wonderful opportunity for students to practice English, critical thinking, and learn to work as a team. It was entertaining to watch all of the debates. I might be having a more in depth post concerning debate at a later time.

I also have increased my basketball playing the last couple of weeks. For much of the time last semester I spent more time lifting weights and running, but honestly there is no subsitute for ballin'. I love getting out there playing defense, rebounding, and just competing. Furthermore I usually play with students, so it is a wonderful chance to build relationships.

I think one reason I had quit for awhile was that I had problems twisting and rolling ankles when I played. I think I got sick of being injured. As I go out to play more, I am extra careful to tie my shoes nice and tight. As the rainy season approaches, I am going to try to play as much as I can over the next couple of weeks.

Speaking of basketball, March Madness is fast approaching. As I like to say, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Well, that might be a small exageration, but I do really love it. Unfortunately my beloved Hawkeyes will not be making an appearance this year, but Drake will be representing the state. I plan on watching as many games as possible on my computer through CBS on Demand (a free way of watching all of the games that I recommend for anyone who loves college basketball, check it out on the Internet).

Well, I know this is kind of quick, and not very in depth, but I hope to post more some other time.

Peace!

Uncle Ho, Water Puppets, and Dog

2008-02-24T06:37:00.000-08:00

I think this will be my last entry about my experiences in Vietnam. If you have any more questions or would like me to write more, please post a comment asking a question, or shoot me an email. I'd be happy to write more.

I wanted to enclose a picture of me and a bust of Ho Chi Minh. One thing that was definitely evident in Vietnam was the country's and people's respect for this man. I saw his picture or busts of him many places, especially at the college. The people of Vietnam affectionately refer to him as "Uncle Ho". As I understood it, he is viewed as the most important figure in creating the country, held in the same respects as most Americans would view George Washington or Abraham Lincoln.

This picture was taken in the main hall of the college where I helped with the English conference. You can see the bust of Uncle Ho and then in the back the red banner with the communist symbol (the hammer and sickle) and the star. There was another set up exactly like this in the college's main theater/performance stage. They had a talent show the night after the conference. It was in celebration of the upcoming Tet Festival, and many students sang songs and danced. They even had us Americans go up there and sing a couple of songs.

A lot of the music incorporated keyboards and synthesizers. Before the show started, I looked up at the stage at the red banner with the communist symbols, as I listened to the synethized music. I felt like I was in Rocky IV, hearing "Hearts on Fire" as they showed Ivan Drago training. It was really interesting.

I also wanted to share a little bit about a puppet show I went to. Vietnam is famous for it's water puppets, which originated in the country. The show involves puppets that rise above the water, but are connected to long poles that remain under water. These poles are controlled by puppeteers who are behind a backdrop. Meanwhile there is a band that is playing music and narrators tell a story. The whole thing was in Vietnamese, but was really enjoyable nonetheless. It was neat to watch how the puppets moved along the water and the different ways that they interacted with the water and the other characters.

Here's a scene from the water puppet show.

Finally, in Vietnam I had the chance to try some new food. That's right, for the first time I ate dog. I remember before coming to Taiwan, asking people if they would eat dog if given the chance. Well, I haven't ever seen it in Taiwan, but in Vietnam it is pretty common. Now, I wasn't looking to eat at a dog buffett or anything like that, but James did buy some for some of us to try.

To me it tasted a bit like sausage but it was pretty grissely (sp?...fatty). Part of that might have been how it was prepared. It was cut into small cubes, and I only wanted to eat one piece. It was mostly a mental thing, because if I didn't know it was dog, I might have eaten more. So it didn't taste bad, but it was more the fact that I was actually eating a dog.

Dog for carry-out

Here I am ready to eat a piece of dog.

Well I hope you have enjoyed Vietnam stories. I'll try to move the focus back to Taiwan now.

Health, Trash, and Propaganda

2008-02-17T05:39:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. First I want to share a joy with you all. I am finally feeling fully recovered. I had a pretty nasty bout with the flu or something like it for over a week. However this past week I felt fully recovered. Praise God! I was reflecting about how much I take my health for granted, and that it isn't until I am sick that I truly appreciate the health and abilities that God has given me. So I am really thankful for my health.

For the rest of this blog I want to spend a bit more time explaining some things from Vietnam. I'll start with trash. I am curious to learn about different daily routines for the people living in the countries I visit. I know it's not necessarily the most exciting thing to write about, but I do find it interesting to learn about how people live in different parts of the world. So I am going to explain a little about the trash collection in Vietnam.

I guess in America, it doesn't seem like anything special. We put our trash in bags, roll-out the dumpster and man driving a big truck comes around and takes it far away from us. Well in Vietnam, it's not too different, except they just throw the trash on the curb. I saw it bagged, but also just lying spread out along the street. I was told people leave their trash on the streets at night and then someone comes around collects it early in the morning. Again this doesn't seem too fascinating. However it was just interesting walking around Hanoi seeing trash lying in the streets, and then being informed that this was the system put in place.

Trash collection in Vietnam

Of course both systems are a contrast to Taiwan. In Taiwan the big garbage truck comes around in the evening, playing a very loud, repetive tune. Upon hearing the sound, people run out of their homes and toss their bags into the truck as it slowly rolls by. It often reminds me of an ice cream truck for adults. The tune is very similar sounding to one that an ice cream truck might play, and wherever it is heard, people run to try and catch it.

Not the ice cream truck...it's the trash man!

Finally I did want to share a little bit more about proganda. I had written earlier about propaganda posters. Another common site in Hanoi was posters commemorating events in Vietnam's history. One of particular note was the poster celebrating the shooting down of American jets in the 1970's.

Remembering the jet that was shot down.

Several posters similar to this hung around a scenic lake in Hanoi. The area is kind of set up like a park where you can stroll and enjoy being by the lake. These and other posters hang up, remembering that jets had crashed into that very lake.

I don't want anyone to be confused about the treatment of Americans in Vietnam. I had no problems at all, and I felt safe and accepted by the people their. Many places took American currency, and the people were friendly to me. So it's nothing personal, but it is the government celebrating their past victories.

As I understood it, the war with America was just a small portion of many conflicts that Vietnam has had over its history. In fact, for some the war became a source of profit. Near my hotel there were a couple of stores that were propaganda stores. They sold old propaganda posters that were from the war. They had authentic prints, re-prints, and even t-shirts, mugs, and shot glasses. I bought a couple of smaller prints of posters from the war. One is a picture of an American plane shooting at a school child, and the Vietnamese message talks about the atraucities fo the American enemy. The second poster I bought was promoting the greatness of the communist party. I thought both were fascinating, and I hope someday to be able to use them in a history classroom of mine.

Finally, I also had the chance to visit the Hanoi Hilton, which is the POW prison that held American soldiers during the Vietnam war. Much of the museum is dedicated to the time when the French controlled the prison. At this time, they used it to keep Vietnamese prisoner. The prison showed models of how the prisoners would be chained up, starved, and it even had a guillotine that was used for executions. All of this was to show the horrible conditions for the Vietnamese when the French were in control.

Conditions during French control

Michael, beware of the guillotine!

Of course the other part of the museum showed highlights from when it was used in the Vietnam War. This was the POW prison where John McCain was held. They had an air force pilot's suit, that was supposedly his. They also had a couple of pictures of him, one of which spelled his name "Mc. John Cain". We got a kick out of that.

John McCain's Suit

In addition to McCain's stuff, the Vietnamese showed the luxurious life that American prisoners enjoyed during their stay. There were no pictures of starving soldiers, interrogations, or rough conditions. Instead, all of the men were healthy and smiling. They showed pictures of the soldiers playing basketball, worshipping at a church, even cooking a Christmas dinner. These were the only types of pictures they had to describe the prison when the Vietnamese controlled it.

I was about ready to go out and rob an old lady, so I could leave my hotel for the resort that is Vietnamese prison. :)

McWhat?

2008-02-10T22:09:00.000-08:00

One main goal of my trip to Vietnam was to help lead a workshop for prospective English teachers at a local university about 3 hours north of Hanoi. James, my old roommate from my first 2 years in Taiwan, is currently serving at this university and helped set everything up to make the trip and the English workshop a reality.

My part of the workshop was to co-lead a session on teachers observing other teachers. As part of the workshop I designed an opening ice breaker activity that would get the group comfortable and segway into our discussion about observation. For the ice breaker, I showed a picture on a powerpoint, but only left it up for about 1 second. Obviously it was not enough time to see everything in the picture, so I would then tell the partipants to discuss with each other what they saw. After we shared ideas, I would show the same picture, this time for a couple of seconds. After that discusion I would put the picture up for good and we would look at what it really was.

For the ice breaker I chose 3 different pictures that we could talk about. One a picture of Ha Long Bay, which is a very scenic and famous place in Vietnam. It would be something the students would immediately relate to.

Pictures from Ha Long Bay when I went later that week.

Another (and the last picture for the ice breaker) was a man looking through a magnifying glass, as if intently studying something. This picture was used as a segway to our session, as we discussed what it is like to be overanylzed or how one feels if someone is watching their every move. One goal of the workshop was to make students understand that this was not the goal of teacher observations, rather they can help us grow as professionals.

Those were my last two pictures for the ice breaker, and everything went fine. My first picture, however did not have the result I intended.

I wanted to pick something that would be eye catching, and yet easy to recognize for people from any culture. So I decided that I should think of something I have found in common in all of the places I have traveled, and I settled on McDonald's. That's right I have seen those Golden Arches (under whose employment I slaved many hours of my life away, ha!) in many different countries, all with similar menus, but each restaurant with something distict or unique for that country or area. Regardless of where, you can always see Ronald McDonald and his bright outfit smiling for the customers.

All of this was true, until I went to Vietnam. You see, as I found out, there is no McDonald's in Vietnam. The government would not let the business set up shop in their country. So the picture I selected of Ronald and his friends was completely foreign to all of the students in my workshop. The photo featured Ronald, Grimace, the Hamburglar, and another McDonald's character. When I asked the students to describe what they saw I got responses like:

"4 people"
"A man with stripes"
"Bright colors"
"A clown"

But not a single person could identify the anyone from the McDonald's picture. A Malaysian teacher who helped in one of my workshops pointed out that, "We have a cultural misunderstanding here."

I could not have agreed more, and was completely surprised that none of the students had heard of McDonald's in Vietnam. It was the first country I have found that does not have a McDonald's.

I thought that was an interesting story from the trip.

Back from Vietnam

2008-02-08T02:15:00.000-08:00

Well earlier this week I returned from my trip to Vietnam. I went with some of the other foreign teachers here at CMS. We helped out with an English Teaching Conference, and also had sometime to relax and go sight seeing. Over the next week or two, I would like to use my blog to reflect and share some aspects of my trip, mainly cultural things I noticed.

Vietnam's Flag

Honestly, throughout the time I was continually looking for signs that made it a socialist country. I was not sure what to look for, and I only have a foreigner/tourist perspective. A couple of things I did find.

First, we were asked to register every place that we stayed. Most of my time was spent in the capital, Hanoi. When we got to the hotel we had to give passport information for the government. Our workshop was actually in Phu Tao, which is about 3 hours from Hanoi. Our hotel in Phu Tao also required us to register ourselves, including passport information.

Another thing I noticed was propaganda poster in Hanoi. Here's an example of one. It is telling the city that 2 children is the perfect size for a family.

There were many other posters and signs up in the city. I need to get a couple of pictures from other teachers that went, and then I can post another picture or two.

Alright that's it for now. I'll save more for a later time.

End of the Semester and Winter School

2008-01-19T01:51:00.000-08:00

Well, here I am sitting on the weekend after we just finished the semester. It went extremely quick, and as any teacher knows the last couple of weeks are much more intense as grades are being compiled. The next 2 weeks start something called Winter School.

Winter School is "non-mandatory/mandatory" school for students. This is kind of like open practices or summer gym sessions for basketball players in America. You don't have to attend, and the coach cannot make you...but everyone still does and knows that unless they have a great excuse they need to be there.

The same is true of this school time in Taiwan. The government does not allow schools to have mandatory school during these next 2 weeks, but nearly every Middle and High School has a Winter School time. On top of that all of the students still come to class, even though they are not required. Taiwan also has a summer school time that is similar to this, and here's how most schools approach the situation. Maybe they send a letter home that says something like this:

Dear Joe Tenth Grader,

We will be starting winter school for the next 2 weeks. As you know you do not have to come. During Winter School we will continue in the curriculum and our physics class will be analyzing Chapters 8-10 of the textbook. If you choose not to attend please catch up on your own so you can continue next semester.

Have a good break,

Jane Physics Teacher

Now...letters like this are probably not written and I threw in a little saracasm, but the general idea is the same. Classes continue as they normally would and if a student misses class they will have to make up all the work their classmates did. Parents also like to have their kids in school because they don't get a break from work, and would rather have their kids studying then home alone playing games.

So during Winter School I will have the same schedule as the first semester. Andrew and I are not too keen on the idea of winter school. We fully believe our students' lives already revolve around studying and could use a break, so we decided to show movies during this time. It will give them a chance to relax and also the movies are in English, so it is a chance to practice some listening. Plus it is no prep work or grading for me :) The exception to this is my Advanced English class, who will be working on a fun project invovling Shakespeare. I know...I know..the words "fun" and "Shakespeare" do not go together, but I think the students really will enjoy it. I can write about that at a different time.

During the second week I will going to Vietnam on a mission trip. The school approved the trip and thus are excusing me from the second week of teaching. Andrew will be around to finish showing the movies and I will have a substitute for a couple of classes.

I'll write more about Vietnam in a future post.

Christmas Skits and Pictures

2008-01-10T07:15:00.000-08:00

One more post. I would like to post a couple of Christmas pictures and also some links for those of you interested in seeing more. First the pictures come from one of the skits that I helped with this year. Every year the school asks the foreign teachers to perform a skit for the Christmas Worship. This year Emilie helped to create a skit based on High School Musical, a Disney Channel Movie that many students at CMS love! In the play I played the part of Ryan Evans, and was made my dancing debut. Believe me, my dancing wasn' pretty, but it was all in good fun. I think the kids loved the play and pray that they understood the message. So here are a couple of pictures from the performance.

This is Noel and I in the middle of our dance. She coreographed the dance based on what was actually done in the movie. It took me some practice to get it down, but in the end it was quite fun to perform.

This picture is of the entire cast for our play. All of us teach at Concordia Middle School. The cast is as follows: Emilie, Ray, Noel, Me, Molly, Kevin, Michelle, Andrew (left to right).

If you are interested in seeing more from Christmas, our coordinator here in Taiwan (Matt Wasmund) does a good job of taking pictures and posting them on the Internet. Check out his personal website at: http://picasaweb.google.com/mattwasmund

There are several albums for Christmas activities. Feel free to check them out and ask me any questions if you have them.

Enjoy, don't laugh too hard.

Christmas Caroling

2008-01-05T03:23:00.000-08:00

I wanted to write a little bit more about our Christmas celebrations from this past year. One of my highlights is always Christmas caroling. This year I went twice, once for the Friday Night Bible Study Christmas Party (the Friday before Christmas) and the second was with the CMS students that live on campus (on Christmas Eve). I always love the chance to work up and down the streets with the students and fellow teachers singing favorite Christmas songs. I would like to quickly share a couple of quick stories from the two activities.

First, during the Friday Night Bible Study time, I was leading a group with an 8th grade student accompanying me. This was pretty exciting because this student has been helping with guitar off and on this semester and continues to improve at it. It is nice to see him taking ownership and interest in helping us lead songs at Friday Night Bible Study. As we were heading back to church, a lady rushed up to me and told me to stop at small shop. Upon arriving at the shop, I found that was a store that sold ghost money. Ghost money used in Taiwanese folk religion to offer a sacrifice to local gods, in hopes of ensuring better luck in the future. The lady brought out here baby and wanted to listen to us sing songs. Immediately I decided to sing Silent Night, which is the only song that we have a Chinese verse for. The lady and her child seemed to really enjoy the music, and I pray that it can be a witness to the love that God offers them in Christ Jesus.

The second caroling experience was with the students who live at school. On Christmas Eve we all met at 8:30pm and split into 3 groups. We then went to different streets near the school to go sing Christmas Carols. One highlight from this actually came the day prior to our caroling. I went to a local tea stand to buy a green tea (my usual) and the owner asked if we would be coming around the next day to sing Christmas songs. I was really touched that he remembered and was anticipating our arrival. I told him that we would, and he was excited. He knew that Christmas was approaching and that we would be out celebrating and singing. I praise God that things like Christmas caroling can make such a strong impact. It is just one simple way to share the love of God with others.

Christmas Trees

2007-12-29T04:09:00.000-08:00

Well the Christmas celebrations have come and gone. The season is always filled with anticipation, build-up, and much joy. As I write this, I am currently on a four day break for New Year's. It is a much needed time of rest and relaxation, as I set to finish out the final three weeks of the semester. Over the next couple of blog entries I would like to reflect a little on the Christmas season and share a couple of experiences that stand out in my mind.

Each year the students of Concordia Middle School have a Christmas Song Competition and Christmas Tree Decorating Contest. For the tree decorating contest, each class is given a tree in the main courtyard of campus. They must decorate the tree to show a story from the Bible. The classes are given suggestions, but they can choose any story they would like.

The trees by the courtyard.

To decorate the trees the students must use recyclable products. Many students uses boxes, newspapers, and bottles to create elaborate decorations for the tree. In the 2 weeks prior to Christmas you can see homerooms filled with partially created decorations, and the students are allowed to use class time to create decorations. I allow each class to have one class period before Christmas that they can use to prepare for the activities.

Senior 2 (11th Grade) Class A: Moses and the Red Sea.

Senior 2 (11th Grade) Class F: Simon Peter, a fisher of men.

On Christmas Eve, the school holds the song competition in the morning and the afternoon. When they are not singing, students are outside decorating the trees. Then in the evening the kids are allowed to stay on campus until 8:30. They light the Christmas trees and can walk around and look at the other class' finished products.

Christmas Trees at night. Picture from my first year in Taiwan.

I think this is the most beautiful time of the year. I treasure the chance to walk around and look at the trees when they are lit up. The school leaves the trees up for a couple of days and each night lights them for people to enjoy.

This year on Christmas Day I went out and enjoyed a quiet evening, walking around and looking at the tress. I love the look of the lights glowing in the dark. I love seeing the different recreations of famous Bible Studies. I love seeing all of the hard work that my students put into making their trees.

I took time to stop at each tree created by my students and former students. I carefully looked at in and thought of the kids in those classes. I took a little time to pray for the kids in the classes. It was a quite, peaceful, heartwarming way to spend part of my Christmas Day.

Christmas Decorations

2007-12-16T04:37:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, Kevin, Michelle, Michael, and I took a Saturday evening to decorate the Hanson Manor. Christmas decorations are a little hard to come by here in Taiwan, but we did our best to make the house look festive. We hung lights on the inside and outside of the house, and put up two small Christmas trees. I would like to post a couple of pictures, showing the two Christmas trees and some of the decorations. Enjoy!

The view leading into the kitchen.

One Christmas Tree

Our Second Christma Tree

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

2007-12-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

That's right boy and girls we are getting close to the big day. The celebration of the birth of the Savior, who has changed our lives, and given us life, hope, peace, and joy. I would like to use this entry to reflect a little as I prepare for Christmas.

Christmas is such a wonderful time. I remember my first year here in Taiwan. I was not sure if I should stay for a second year. I was still debating if God was calling me to serve overseas in a ESL setting, or to return to the States to teach, allowing me to interact with students in my native language and to be closer to family and friends. I remember fearing being away on the holidays would be difficult and possibly push me back home.

The first year Christmas proved to be the opposite. It was a time where I was sure that this is where God wanted me. All of the Bible Studies, skits, Christmas caroling and other activities really encouraged me. Christmas was busy, but exciting. It was full of joy, but not secular or focused on getting and receiving gifts. The focus was the joy that Jesus brings us, and sharing that with others.

Last year provided the same environment, and now I am in the midst of preparation for this Christmas. One thing that fills December is skit practice. Each year the school asks the 8 American teachers at the high school to perform a skit for the entire school (over 2000 students). We take time to meet, plan, and then usually have 3 or 4 practices to polish things. This year our skit for school is based on the cheesy Disney movie "High School Musical". The kids out here love the film and we have adapted songs and the message to point to Jesus and following him.

The second skit I will be in this year will be for our Friday Night Bible Study and Salvation Lutheran Church. All 13 Americans will be involved in this skit and it is based on the parable of the tenants. The master is gone and sends servants to check up on the vineyard. The tenants beat up the servants, and then the master finally sends his son...who the tenants kill. Of course we tie this in to Christmas and how we remember Jesus coming as a baby, who ultimately came to take our punishment for sin. We had our first practice for this skit tonight and will have 2 more before we perform it.

Other highlights of the Christmas season include Christmas caroling and Christmas parites. I will have the opportunity to go Christmas caroling 2 times this year. Once on Friday December 21st, in the city, and the second on December 24th here near the school.

There are several other Christmas parties or activities that I will have as well, including get togethers with friends, and leading the Sunday School students in Christmas songs.

This coming Saturday will be the annual Christmas potluck. Many teachers and friends from school will get together to eat and watch a Christmas movie. I will be making my famous chili, known out here as "Smoked Chili", but that's a story for another entry.

Ahhhhh Christmas...the intensity...the joy...the fun...God is with us.

The Worst Nightmare...

2007-12-04T05:49:00.000-08:00

That's right everyone, this week I experienced everyone's worst nightmare...going to the dentist. Let me preface this by saying it has been a long time since I have been to the dentist, and this trip came after much discussion, anticipation, and dread. This entry is a novel...so brace yourselves and enjoy the ride.

To begin, the last time I had been to the dentist was when I got my wisdom teeth pulled...I am not exactly sure when that was. It was either my sophomore or junior year of college. Which would have been 4 or 5 years ago. I was out like a light the whole time, so I don't know if he actually cleaned my teeth or just pulled my wisdom teeth. Prior to that experience it would have probably been the summer before when I had last been to the dentist for a cleaning and examination. So it had to have been at least 5 years since I had been to the dentist.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this is not good for my oral hygene. However, since moving to Taiwan I had been in a little bit of a dilema. Upon my arrival to Taiwan in 2005, I was not worrying about making an appointment to get my teeth checked. Rather, I was more worried about survival in this new environment. Towards the end of my first year however, I began to realize that I probably should head to the dentist at some point. I heard horror stories of other missionaries returning from Taiwan with 3 and 4 cavities in their mouths (much of this can be due to the high consumption of green tea, which usually is sold with a lot of sugar in it).

After hearing this, and reflecting on my personal absence from the dentist office, I decided I should start to think about getting my teeth checked. Here was my dilema. I inquired some of the other missionaries about the dentist in Taiwan, and did not get an overwhelming vote of confidence. In fact some that I asked had instead gone to the dentist in the U.S. when home for summer break. So I thought about this, but then realized that I do not have dental insurance. And if there is one thing that is definitely true it is that health and dental care in America is outrageous without insurance. Some missionaries have spent well over $100 to get a check-up while home in the States. I soon realized that I did not have that kind of money, and decided that I would not worry about it that summer and would instead try to get an appointment while in Taiwan. Even if it is not as good as America, a check-up can still tell me if I have cavities and some cleaning is better than no cleaning.

Well my second year came and went and I never seemed to make time to go to the dentist. At this point it became a little psychological, as I really did not have a desire to hear how dirty my teeth were, or how many cavities I had. I did however decide that if I was not going to the dentist I should start to take better care of my teeth. I began flossing somewhat regularily and started using Listerine in addition to brushing. I also started buying green tea with half sugar instead of full sugar. When my parents came to visit in January, the dentist saga was brought up at some point, and when my mom realized how long it had been since I had gone, she too started actively encouraging me to go get a check-up and cleaning.

Like I said the second year came and went, and I was not about to spend an arm and a leg for dental care in America. However this past summer, the topic did come up again and I was strongly encouraged to see a dentist in Taiwan.

As I returned for this my third year, I was determined that I would see the dentist at some point this year. Fearing that if I did not do it sooner, it might not happen, I resolved that it would get done before the middle of October. Well that date came and went, but soon realized I needed to act fast. So after some rescheduling of appointments, I finally got in this past Monday.

Now about dental care in Taiwan. For one, it is cheaper because Taiwan has national health care. Thus everything is cheaper here. In terms of how each office operates I do not know how they work as a whole, but can share my specific experience. The dentist I went to is the father a worker at CELA (the English cram school that some missionaries work at here in Min Hsiung). His office is open in the evenings from 7:30-9:30. I found this strange. My appointment was for 7:30 and I went about 15 minutes before, as I thought this was proper protical for a dentist appointment. When I got there all of the lights were off and no one was in the building. So I drove around for about 15 minutes then came back.

By the time I got back, a little girl had already come and he began to examine her. This is pretty typically of health care in Taiwan, as it is more like waiting at the driver's liscense than making an appointment. I have been to the doctor before and you literally get a number and take a seat.

Well after waitng for another 10 minutes in nervous anticipation, trying not to think of all of the cavities he would find, I finally was escorted to the dreaded chair. When I sat down I found the dentist to be quite pleasant and he spoke English well. He had studied in Canada for a little bit and has a daughter that lives in Alabama.

He examined my teeth right away and then turned me over to his assistant. She did not speak any English, but before he left he informed me that they would clean some stains (no doubt originating from my large consumption of tea), give a general cleaning and give me some flouride.

As his assistant worked in my mouth, it was not terribly uncomfortable. She did do a little bit of scraping, which is never pleasant, but overall I held up pretty well. One big difference from my experience in America was with the light. In the States, my dentist's have always moved the light out of my eyes, but it still shined on my general face. At my appointment on Monday, the light was move out of the way for a little bit, but then a towel was wrapped around my face. It covered my eyes and only my mouth would have been visible from the towel.

After the cleaning she gave me the flouride. It was pink jelly substance that she applied using a wire with a swabb-like device on it. She put it around my mouth and told me she'd be back in one minute. After a minute she returned and gave me paper cup with water, for me to rinse with.

She had done this previously after the cleaning and then told me to swish it in my mouth and spit it out. She said all of this in Chinese and I did not fully understand what she meant, but after some gesturing and clarification I eventually figured out what I was to do with the water and where I was to put the excess.

After rinsing my mouth, she removed the towels and cleaned up the area a little bit. Then she looked at me with a huge smile on her face and told me something, which I did not understand. I asked her to repeat it a couple of times, but I still did not know the meaning. Eventually she told me that "my teeth were good" and that they "had no holes". Starting to understand, I asked a couple of clarifitory questions. I asked if my teeth were "not good" then would I have to come back and have more work. At this point I made the drilling sound. She nodded her head energetically and we both realized we understood each other. She was telling me I had no cavities. YEEEEESSSSS!!!!!!

After five years, my teeth were ok. I went to the counter to pay my bill. It ended up costig $100 NT, which in the United States is $3.20. I knew it would be cheap, but this was even better than I thought. After I came home, I thought I might have to go back in the spring for another check. In the meantime I will continue to brush, floss, and rinse.

Cold Spell

2007-11-29T06:22:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on the weather. Many times people ask me if it gets cold in Taiwan. I always reply that cold is relative to a location, these last couple of days have provided a perfect example.

The temperatures the last 3 days have been in the upper 60's with lows in the upper 50's. Now some of you sitting in Iowa or Minnesota might not think this seems very cold. However, here in Taiwan we do not have heated buildings. You can buy a little space heater for your room, but the house is never fully warm when you enter it. So it is more of perpetual state of coolness, and yes, you can add more layers, however once become cold it is hard to ever fully warm up.

Transportation can add to this, as I usually ride a bike or scooter to get from place to place. I recently have been reflecting that I prefer to ride a bike in the cooler weather. First, a scooter can get quite cold when the temperature is lower and the wind is rushing against you. Second, on a bike my body is working, and this keeps my lower body much warmer than on a scooter. So while you are outside longer on a bike, you stay overall warmer. Plus when I arrive at my destiniation there is no heat to warm me up. Thus I have decided for the time being I prefer to ride my bike.

One more thought on the weather. The other thing that made the last days worse was the rain. I have found there is nothing worse than a cold rain. I think we will get some warmer weather in the coming days, but before long it will stay cooler for the winter season.

Colder weather is not all bad though. This morning I woke up and Kevin had made some hot green tea. So I enjoyed a couple mugs of that before heading into the office. I must say I have grown to enjoy tea a lot more since coming to Taiwan, and cooler weather makes the hot stuff even better.

Ok, enough talk about the weather.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-24T21:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! This past week I had a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving a couple of times. In addition to a phone conversation with my parents, I had many different activities here in Taiwan to remember how God has crowned the year with abundance.

On Saturday evening we had a huge Thanksgiving dinner. Matt and Dee Dee, hosted the dinner, and over 85 people attended. I enjoyed turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, bread, and peacan pie. It was a wonderful time to give thanks for the many blessings (especially food and friends) that God has given me.

Thanksgiving was also celebrated in my 10th grade (Senior 1) classes this week. In all 6 classes we did an activity to help the students remember things they are thankful for. First each student wrote down five things they were thankful for, and then they had to go around the room and ask all of their classmates to share one thing each person was thankful for. After getting an answer from each classmate, the students then had to ask 5 people to explain why he or she was thankful for the thing they shared.

To end the activity each student wrote 4-5 sentences explaining why he or she was thankful for one of the items on his or her list. The students really enjoyed the activity because they could walk around and interact with their classmates. I thought it was great because the students could reflect on the many blessings they have in life, and they could also practice speaking in English.

Finally Friday Night was a time to watch a little football, as some of the other missionaries and me all sat down to watch an online archived showing of the Packers-Lions Thanksgiving day game. All in all it was marvelous week of remember all that God has provided.

Now to get ready for the intensity that is preparation for Christmas...

Bike Trip

2007-11-18T03:20:00.000-08:00

I just returned today from a bike trip to another city. Earlier this semester, I had gone on a trip with 3 friends to TaiChong, a city 80 km north of Min Hsiung. This weekend 7 of us traveled down to Tainan, which is a city 70 km to the south. We set off Saturday at 11:15 and finally arrived at our hotel at 6:00 pm. We had several water breaks along the way, and got lost in Tainan for about 2 hours, but God kept us safe and we eventually reached our destination.

After bathing and changing (because I was REALLY gross), we all went to eat at a wonderful German restaurant in Tainan. I enjoyed some cheddar stuffed German sausages, with deliciously fresh bread. Then in the evening we just crashed and went to bed by 10:00. After a day of biking, it is amazing how well one sleeps at night.

This morning we went to a Lutheran church, that I had been to before as part of traveling song and skit group. After church we set out to bike back to Min Hsiung. In the course of biking, we eventually split into 2 groups. I was traveling with Matthew and Michelle. About 30 minutes into the way home Matt's leg was bothering him, so we decided it would be best to take the train the rest of the way.

The three of us went to the nearest train station, only to find out that that train station would not let us take bikes on the train. A nice man who spoke English well helped us to ask if there was anything we could do. The person at the ticket counter informed us that the Tainan train station would allow us to bring bikes and store them on the train. So we rode back to Tainan, and caught a train to Chia Yi. We then had the 3o minute ride from the train station to Concordia, and our trip as complete.

In total riding time was close to 7 hours. We rode over 120 kilometers, averaged 17.3 kilometers per hour of riding, and burned almost 1600 calories from biking. What a great chance to get away and put in some heavy excerising.

Pictures from Halloween

2007-11-04T23:21:00.000-08:00

Kevin as a hippie

Michael as Dumbledore

Me as Severus Snape

Going Trick or Treating

October Recap

2007-11-04T01:42:00.000-07:00

Already November…wow!! Well October came and went, at it was filled with a lot of wonderful activities. During the month, I took a bike trip to another city, participated in the school’s track and field day, and hosted a Halloween party.

The bike trip was on a school vacation day. Me, Kevin, Michelle, and Michael took a bike trip to Tai Johng, which is about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from our school. It ended up being quite a journey. We set out at 8 am, and ended up at our destination, a Chilli’s restaurant, at about 2:30. We stopped several times along the way to rest and re-hydrate, but we also got lost a couple of times and had a exhausting journey through the hills. In the end we were beat, and decided to take the train back instead of attempting to bike back.

Every year, the school hosts a track field day. During this day students compete as classes in various individual and relay races, and also events like the high jump, tire roll, and three legged race. It is always great to be able to see my students outside of the classroom and especially when I have the chance to cheer them as they compete.

During field day, the teacher’s also have the chance to compete. This year I ran in the 4X100 meter relay, representing the English office. I also ran in the 1500 meter race, tire roll, and the large group teacher’s relay. My team got 3rd in the 4X100, 3rd in the tire race, and I got second in the 1500. My favorite races were the tire roll and the large group teacher relay. For the large group relay, we had 30 teachers, and each one ran 100 meters. We competed against some of the Junior 2 (8th grade) classes, and ended up winning the race. It was really enjoyable to be able to be on the large group team and cheer on many of my fellow co-workers.

Finally, the end of October brought Halloween and the Hanson Manor Halloween Party. Kevin, Michael, and I all live in the Hanson Manor and we hosted an evening of events for Halloween. We had two parties for the night. The first one was a kids party, which lasted from 6:30-8:30 pm. We invited families from school and church, and had activities such as “pin the nose on the Jack-O-Lantern”, decorating Halloween cookies, and went trick-or-treating. I think the kids enjoyed trick-or-treating the most, as they went to the houses of teachers who live at school, and filled up their bags with candy. To end the evening we watched “The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown”, which is a classic show for Halloween.

Check out the following link to pictures from the children’s party:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mattwasmund/HansonHalloween

Beginning at 9:00 we hosted a party for adults. We invited friends from school, church, and Friday Night Bible Study. There were a ton of snacks and drinks, and most people wore costumes. We gave away 2 prizes for best costumes, one to an American and one to a Taiwanese. After a summer of Harry Potter reading, I decided to dress as a character from the book: the highly controversial Severus Snape. All in all it was a great night of fun.

Junior 1 Chapel

2007-10-04T08:23:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a quick highlight from the day. 2 or 3 times a semester the foreign teachers are asked to assist with a chapel service either for the Junior 1 (7th grade) students, or Junior 2-Senior 3 (8-12th grade) students. Well today was our first chapel service for the year. We lead it for the 7th graders, all of whom are required to attend. When the foreign teachers lead chapel we typically perform a skit or two, sing 7 or 8 songs, pray and read a couple of Bible passages.

Normally 7th grade chapels, are a little more difficult because their English is not quite as good, and many are there even though they may not want to be. I usually enjoy the Senior High Chapel more. Today however, the kids were absolutely wonderful. Our first song was "This is the Day" and we sing it in 2 groups, and when your group sings you are supposed to stand. Normally the kids fumble through the song and kind of stand when they are supposed to. Today, I could hear the kids singing loudly and they were full of energy. It seemed to spread through all of the other songs and skits as well. I thought Junior 1 Chapel was great today! Praise God for the chance to share the message of Christ with these students, and their willingness to be engaged in the chapel service.

Small Group

2007-09-22T00:52:00.000-07:00

As stated in an earlier entry, I have started a small group with some of my students from last year. We get together once a week to discuss a novel we have been reading outside of class. As many as 15 have shown up, and this last week I still had 9, with a handful who came to apologize that they would be unable to make, but assured me they would still come in the future.

We have been reading Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt, outside of small group. Each day when we get together we discuss what happened in the previous week's reading and do some sort of activity. 2 weeks ago they wrote a little about what would be the perfect age at which one could live forever. We then shared these ideas, with answers ranging from 5 years old to 35 years old, but most were smack in the middle of 20's (I said 24, so I guess I have passed my prime, ha!).

This week we acted out vocabulary words. I gave the students 10 vocab words for the novel. They worked in pairs and had to find a way to act out the word for the rest of the class. The class then had to guess what their vocab word was. Our words included elated, melancholy, searing, perilous, gallows, oppressive, and others. The kids loved it, and were laughing and having a good time as they watched each other.

I have really loved this group, and know that God is blessing it and the relationships that are being built with the students. I am so thankful to be able to spend time with some of these kids again this year.

New Link

2007-09-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let you all know about an exciting new link that has been added to my blog. Under links you will see one titled "Friday Night Bible Study". This will take you to the brand new Friday Night Bible Study Blog. This will be updated weekly (unlike my blog, ha!) and provide pictures and information about Friday Night Bible Study here in Chia Yi, Taiwan. Feel free to check it out.

First Week of School

2007-09-08T23:59:00.000-07:00

Well...one week down. The first week can be a little long, going over the rules multiple times, establishing routines, and just getting used to the full work day again. So I was definitely ready for the weekend.

At the same time I am was so excited to have the chance to meet my new students and get to see some of my old ones around school. A couple of things that I am especially excited about this year are my Junior 1 Conversation Class, my literature small group and the American football club.

The Junior One (7th grade) Conversation class is new at Concordia this year. For this class, we take one class of 50 and divide it into 4 small groups. This groups of 10-12 students then practice conversation and vocabulary from their English book. It is nice to have such a small group of students and to get to know them.

The literature small group is a group of 17 students who meet with me on Tuesdays during the nap time. These are Senior 2 (11th grade) students who I had in my Advanced English Class last year. We are going to read books outside of class and then discuss and do activities during the nap time. I am really excited that 17 students are willing to do this extra work, outside of class and that I will still be able teach and learn with my former students.

Finally the football club is something Kevin and I are going to do during Saturday morning clubs at Concordia. Students come to school every other Saturday and have 1 hour and a half of club time and then 1 hour and a half of meeting time or study time. We have 18 kids who have signed up for it. We plan on teaching and discussing rules and basics about football, watching some games, and playing games. Of course it will not be tackle, but rather 2 hand touch or flag football.

Tomorrow starts week 2 of school, and the pray is that God will keep the energy and pasison going throughout the semester, as I serve Him here in Taiwan.

Back in Taiwan

2007-08-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody. I just wanted to write and let you all know that I did make it back safely and have been spending the last 2 weeks getting ready for the new semester. I have already helped with 2 Bible studies, both of which were well attended. Friday Night Bible Study will start up next Friday, and the On-Campus Fellowship group will be starting in 2 weeks.

On top of the Bible Studies and Fellowships, there is of course school. There's nothing like buzz surrounding a new school year. I am absolutely pumped up for the chance to meet my new students and continue building relationships with my old students and teachers. Today I just returned from the annual faculty trip. The past 2 years the school faculty has taken a 3 day trip to another part of the island. Last year we went to Taipei. This year we went to Shin-Joo. It is always nice to travel and see new things on the island, but for me the highlight of these trips is the chance to converse and meet more of my Taiwanese co-workers. It is easy to get caught up in my office and not meet that many teachers outside of the English department, or have the opportunity to chat. Each year, I feel like I get to know more and more teachers, and I definitely felt like that on this year's trip. There were many more teachers I felt comfortable chatting with on the trip, and I feel my Chinese improving to where I can have short convesations with those that cannot speak English very well.

I am thankful that Lord has provided such an excellent faculty to work with and that I can continue to build relationships with the teachers that I work with . I pray that God will bless those relationships and give me the strength and words to witness Christ to those who do not yet know believe in Him.

The Departure

2007-08-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I write this the evening before I head back to Taiwan. That's right boys and girls, at 6 AM I will begin the long voyage home. Home...almost strange to write, but it definitely feels right. Soon I will get back to friends, co-workers, and of course my students. I pray that God will grant me a safe journey and the strength, wisdom, and passion to serve Him in Taiwan this year. I'll write you again from the flip side!

Return of the Blogger?

2007-07-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well...kind of. Let me be real here! I have no dillusions of grandeur that I will start providing a detailed account of events in my life on a weekly, bi-weekly, or even monthly basis. I have learned that's not going to happen.

What I would like to do with this blog is provide short comments, feelings, reflections, or stories from Taiwan. I don't know how exactly it will turn out, but I do want to start up blogging again in some form. I antiicapte entries to be rather short and maybe a quick relfection or a verse or idea that sticks out in my head, but hopefully they will be appearing on a somewhat regular basis (ie. weekly or bi-weekly).

So with out further delay, my thought for today. I miss Taiwan. I love teaching and I miss my kids, the people, and the work that is going on there. A couple of friends are already back teaching the summer portion of classes, and my brain is dancing as I think of what I want to do in the classroom this coming year. I head back August 15th, so it is not that far away, but I have started to become mentally ready for a return.

Prior to my return, I do have 2 weddings to go to. One of which is my sister, Janelle's. It's going to rock being out in Wyoming and celebrating with a whole bunch of my family. Prayers for God to bless the day and the travel as everyone heads out there.

Later!

Cats and Dogs

2006-10-13T20:25:00.000-07:00

Alright, I realize it has been awhile since I have blogged, so I know you are all DYING to know, how is the little kitty doing? Well, truth be told the cat is no longer in our possession.

Shortly after I first blogged about the cat, Elsie, a Senior 2 student (Junior in high school), approached us about taking the cat home for the weekend. She absolutely loved the kitten and has always wanted a cat of her own. But she had to see what her mom thought of it. So we loaded up cat food, kitty litter, and some bowls, and let Elsie have the kitten for the weekend.

On Monday morning, I went right away to find Elsie and get the cat back. Much to my joy, Elsie did not have the cat with her. She said her mom was not sure about keeping it, but said they could have it for another week until she decided. I have not seen the cat since, and I know Elsie is very excited about having a new pet. Good for the cat, and good for Elsie. The situation worked out perfectly.

The more recent news about pets around her is the addition of baby puppies to our campus. One of the stray dogs was pregnant and baby puppies. For period of time, the small dogs were living right behind my house. The mother has moved them since, but the little dogs are very cute. They are probably about 2 weeks old. So in the not too distant future we might be trying to find some homes for cute little puppies.

For now I will add a picture of the baby pups.

Holy Cats!

2006-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

I think the title says it all for this one. I actually cannot believe that I am blogging and talking about the cat that is living in my house. I guess it is such a surprise because I am not much of a cat person. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate cats or have a fear of cats, but when it comes to owning one...thanks but no thanks. So how is it that one is staying in my house? Well...

Earlier this week a co-worker of mine, Amy, came knocking on the door of my house in the early evening. Me and Kevin were home, and answered the door, expecting it to be a fellow missionary asking about dinner plans or something like that. But much to my surprise it was in fact Amy and her little daughter. They had with them a stray kitten who they had found on campus. Amy asked if we could watch it for the evening, and then it would be taken some where else the next day.

Me and Kevin agreed to this. I mean, how can you say no to a fellow co-worker, her little daughter and a cute stray kitten. So we decided to watch it for the evening. I can only imagine what James was thinking after he heard we agreed to take it in.

So the next day came and there was not a place for the cat to go. Another day came and went, and no one has wanted to take the cat. We are currently on day 4 of caring for this kitten, and honestly I don't know if the end is in site.

The kitten with no name is living in our back enclosed porch area. This is a non-finished part of the house that has the washing machine, and clothes racks for drying. It is dusty back there, but very hard to keep clean because it is cemented with screens for windows. Thus when any typhoon or rain storm comes blowing through, dust and every else gets kicked up and the room gets dirty.

So to close I will leave you with some pictures of our furry friend. Enjoy and God's blessings on your day!

New Photos

2006-09-16T01:22:00.000-07:00

Hey everbody! I just wanted to let you know that I put some new pictures on my photo page. These are from the school trip to Taipei. The school gave all of the teachers a 3 day trip to Taipei (the capital). While there I had a great chance to talk with many of my co-workers, and also got to see some great sites. Here is a picture of me next to Taipei 101, which is the tallest building in the world. Check out the photo album for more.

One Week Down

2006-09-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Well, the first full week of the semester came and went. It went rather fast, and I am very excited for the things that God has in store for the upcoming semester. I think most of all I am anticipated the growth, learning, and relationships that will be developed in my Senior 1 Advanced English Class. I have 35 students in that class, and I will get to see them 4 times a week. 4 TIMES A WEEK!!!. That is twice the amount that I saw any of my classes last year. We have already met 5 times, and I think they are a real fun group of kids and I am know this is going to be a great year with them.

As I am teaching this class, I definitely feel more like a real teacher. I have found myself typing lesson plans, preparing weekly schedules for the students and creating a sheet of notes for the upcoming classes and their corresponding discussions. It is a little different than last year, but I do think it is a good thing.

I am also very pumped about all of the other ministry opportunities that will continue this semester at school, with church, and in other places. I will try to elaborate on these in future blogs and newsletters.

Finally this past week I found an Chinese teacher for the upcoming semester/year. Her English name is Grace, and I first met her on a school weekend trip to Taipei this past July. I had the chance to have a conversation with her and found out that she was Pastor Carl Hanson's former Chinese teacher, and she is also a Christian. Furthermore she teaches Chinese to the students at Concordia, so this is what she does professionally in her life. She is a really nice lady and we are going to start lessons this week. Each week we are going to do both work in a book and also reading from the Bible. Praise God for the opportunities He has provided this year.

To close, I want to have a new picture of "The Family." This is a photo taken from the last English worship and includes all of the missionaries in addition to some of our Taiwanese friends.

More Basketball Camp Pics!

2006-08-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, I know this is getting out of control, I mean I have blogged 3 times in less than a week. But I wanted to post some more pictures of basketball camp. Enjoy!

Jack takes a shot

Group Photo: Victory!

Ending each day with prayer

New Links

2006-08-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Check out the side the 2 new links on the side. They are for Emilie and Jenny, two of the new missionaries serving here in Taiwan. Go check out their perspectives on the ministry and culture.

Basketball Camp

2006-08-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I just wanted to give a bigger update about the Basketball Camp. Everything went really well. God blessed us with 4 days of perfect weather. It did rain on the 5th day, but it all worked out ok. We were planning on ending early that day to have a pizza party and give out certificates of participation. So the rain did not interfere too much.

There were 9 kids who participated in some fashion at the camp, and we also had 5 teachers who helped run things. Each day we started with stretching, and then broke into two groups. One group was the really basic skill group. I led and helped with this group. We did VERY basic dribbling, passing, shooting, and defense drills. It took me back to my days of basketball practice.

After the drills part we played some sort of game. Games throughout the week included knock-out (a Camp Okoboji favorite), a dribbling competition, hot-shot, 3-on-3, and a free throw competition. The kids really enjoyed these and us teachers also had a chance to compete in some of them.

After the competition we took a small break and then had a Bible reading, message and prayer. I posted the theme verse for the camp in a previous post. Each day we tried to relate the message to how Christ gives us victory in life with some component of playing sports or competing in basketball. For some of this kids it was their first introduction to Bible from the foreigner teachers here at Concordia. They all will have Bible class starting next week, and I think this was a great foundation for them from which the year's Bible class can be built upon.

Here are some pictures from the camp.

Practicing dribbling

Pastor Lio gives a message

Get the rebound!

Victory!

2006-08-17T19:56:00.000-07:00

"But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!"

This is the theme verse for the Concrodia English Baskteball Camp. I just wanted to give a quick update. We have had 4 days of camp and so far it has gone great! God has blessed us with four beautiful days of weather and also some great kids and teachers who are all having a good time. My ankle has even recovered well enough to allow me to participate and help in the drills.

I will post more information and some pictures some time in the near future after the camp is finished.

Mark

Dr. Wolfram

2006-08-05T06:29:00.000-07:00

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

2006-07-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

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

2006-05-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-04-24T08:51:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-22T00:57:00.000-07:00

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

2006-04-02T07:03:00.000-07:00

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

2006-03-24T00:28:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-03-21T08:26:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-02T20:02:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-21T07:42:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-15T06:45:00.000-08:00

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

2005-11-02T05:07:00.000-08:00

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"!

2005-10-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

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

2005-10-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-23T00:14:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-11T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-08T06:15:00.000-07:00

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

2005-09-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

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.

On Housing...

2005-08-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

The house I live in is really nice, and I do enjoy living here. It is called the Hansen Manor, named after the missionary family that had lived in it up until this spring. He is an Iowa native and ISU alum, so the house is staying in good hands.

I have my own room, and we have stove, TV, microwave, toaster oven (always reminds me of Tom), laundry, a full bathroom, and a half bathroom. It is in a wooded part of campus, and very close to the basketball courts. I am most happy about this. Playing basketball has been a great opportunity for me to meet students.

While my room is not huge, it has all that I need and more. I have a desk, dresser, air conditioner, clothes basket, Iowa Hawkeye football poster, and even my “Play Like a Champion Today” print-out to slap each day as a leave. I hope to add some more decorations to my walls, as they are still a little plain.

And now about the bed. It is a single bed, so nothing that I am not used to, however beds are a little different here. To put it frankly, it is hard as a rock. They are very common in this part of the world.

After waking up the first 3 or 4 days I was extremely sore, to the point that I really had no desire to lay in bed any longer. However, my back is now used to sleeping on this type of mattress, and I feel fine waking up in the morning. I was also informed that this is better for the back than the soft beds that are found in the States. So all is well now. And when I do eventually come home, I might just prefer the floor!

Safe Arrival

2005-08-20T02:26:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Just wanted to update from Taiawan. Me and the rest of the group made it over safely. Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled. The last couple of days have been spent recovering from jet lag, and getting famaliar with the surroudings. The first two nights I woke up in the middle of the night, and then for good at 6 am, because my body told me I should not be sleeping. Today however, I slept until my alarm went off at 8 am. I was never so happy to hear my alarm. It meant I slept through the entire night, and am getting more adjusted to the time change.

We took a bike tour of the city today. On the tour we saw an enormous Taoist temple. The temple was ornate, and interesting to view. At the same time it reminded me of all the work that needs to be done to further the Kingdom in Taiwan. I look forward to seeing how God will work throughout the coming year.

On a practical note, right now my computer access is not as good as I envisioned it to be. This will change in the coming weeks, but my apologies if my blogsite and communication is a little lacking in the mean time.

Prayer requests for the coming days.

Pray that God would prepare hearts and minds of people I will be witnessing to in the coming weeks and months.

Pray that the me and the other eight new missionaries would get over our jet lag and become accustomed to our new home.

It Starts...

2005-08-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Well here I sit, the evening before I leave. Today was a really good day. Trinity Lutheran in Des Moines had a commissioning service for me this morning. It went really well, and was emotional. My dad commissioned me, and the vicars and leaders of the congregation laid their hands on me. I went back to my seat to give my crying mother a hug as we sang the closing hymn “Go My Children, With My Blessing.” My older sister was there, and my grandparents were there as well. Words really can’t describe how wonderful it is to have such amazing support from family and friends, both in church this morning and throughout the country.

I am a bundle of emotions right now. Excited, nervous, sad, and happy. I just finished playing cards with my parents, sister and grandparents. My team cleaned up in both Pinochole and Hand and Foot, so I guess I am going out on top, ha! The laughter and joy as we played cards one last time before I leave was truly a blessing.

Next time I write will be from Taiwan. I do not know what the future will bring, but I do trust the Lord will be guiding me. I can feel the Lord as He has shaped my ways to get me to this point. So much of my life I wondered and worried about what I was going to do with my life and career…always questioning what I was doing. But as I sit here pondering the future and remembering the past, I can feel God calling me to this mission.

I ask you all to pray for the safety of me, my fellow missionaries to Taiwan, and all other missionaries embarking tomorrow and this week. Pray also that we could adjust to the cultures we will soon be immersed in, and pray for our friends and families that we leave behind. For all of you departing soon, you have my prayers.

Now I would like to leave you with the following words. They are from a song on a CD that was sent to me for encouragement during my final days of preparation (again, thank you Anna). It really became a theme song for me in the past week, and I want to share it with all of you.

A Servant’s Prayer

Christ before me to guide me on the way,
Christ beside me so I am not alone,
Christ within me to give me words to say,
Christ behind me to bring the harvest home.

May each word from my lips be a song of good news.
Every touch of my hand be a gift of grace.
Every beat of my heart be a prayer to you.
And the sum of my days be a life of praise.

The Road to Taiwan

2005-08-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

I like driving. I might not be the best at it, or the most focused, but I do enjoy it. I like long trips. When these trips are by myself, I love to listen to the latest CD I bought and the ones I have not listened to in a long time. Driving on the Interstate I can sing with the music, or spend time in reflection. I did both today.

My return this weekend was from the Twin Cities to say good-bye to my family and a friend that lives up there. While it was a 24-hour trip, I had a relaxing and enjoyable experience while I was up there. In the space between eating, laughing, playing games, and saying good-bye, I was driving.

I did spend some of this time singing the lyrics to some of my favorites songs (your eardrums can be thankful you were not in the car with me, ha!), and I did stop to eat at a Green Mill that was in Albert Lee, MN (some of you can appreciate that from our orientation in June), but I also spent a good deal of time in thought.

I realized that this is it…I am truly on the road to Taiwan. I understand that God probably had me heading down this path long ago, but right now I see it in a very practical sense. I have been with some of my friends and family for the last time before I leave. I realize that I really should be home more so I can start to pack (5 years of college did teach me a little procrastination, ha!). The realization that it’s time for the rubber to hit the road brought a lot of questioning in my mind.

Will I be able to pack everything and see all of my friends before NEXT MONDAY? Can I really adjust to such a different culture? Will I be able to survive my first year in a high school classroom, especially outside of the subject area I had training in? Am I spiritual, physically, mentally, and emotionally ready for this journey? As I drove down I-35, the answer was no! But I have week to fix the practical sides of this, and have a lot of trust that my boss, the Lord Jesus, will help with the rest. He will carry me not only as I prepare, but also throughout the coming year.

Lord, be with me as I prepare to serve you overseas. In Jesus name, Amen!

Prayer requests:
-For strength, confidence, and God’s comfort for me and other missionaries as we prepare to leave. Also comfort for the friends and family we leave behind.

-That, if it is God’s will, Kevin Foley would be able to leave for Taiwan with us on August 15th.

Interaction:
What is a trip you have taken that you really enjoyed and why?

Welcome!

2005-07-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ. While I have posted a couple of times before, this is post will start my regular upkeep of this website. So welcome to “Live Like A Champion Today!” I will use this website as a means of conveying information about my mission work in Taiwan and my experiences throughout this next year. It will be a supplement to my newsletters and emails. Think of this as an online journal of my experiences, which will showcase my thoughts and feelings as I live and work in another country.

This journal will focus on the spiritual, physical, emotional, and practical aspects of my journey. Above all, my hope and prayer is that this will be an INTERACTIVE website. I would like to use this as a means to communicate and grow in relationships with people who stop at this site. Please feel free to comment or ask questions at anytime. I will either answer questions within the comments section of each post, or I will answer them in the next journal entry. In order to post, you do need to register at the site. Just pick a screen name and password, and enter this when you post. There is no cost to do this, and if you have any questions about it please email me at mark.wolfram@lcms.org.

So here are my thoughts for today:

Camp was an awesome experience as usual. The thing I love most about camp is that it is an escape from the rest of the world. Being up there for one week, I never left the grounds. The most important things were the kids in my cabin and the other kids at camp. We had fun together playing games, sports, crafts, and learning about God’s love and his mission for us. The theme this year was Spy Cubs, and we were all secret agents working for the Cheif. This year was especially joyous as I got to share with my campers about my upcoming mission to Taiwan.

I returned home to Des Moines yesterday, and was exhausted. Today I met with Rev. Stephen Oliver, who is serving at China Lutheran Seminary at Hsinchu, Taiwan. I had a chance to hear him preach and then enjoyed lunch with him. It was a blessing to meet him and hear about his ministry. Through all of these experiences this past week, God stirred up excitement in me. The departure seems really close and I eagerly await the chance to go over to Taiwan and witness Christ’s love.

Prayer requests for the coming days:

Thanksgiving that God has provided friends and family to fund and pray for me throughout this coming year.

Interaction:

Describe something that you are thankful for today.

Leaving for camp!

2005-07-22T14:23:00.000-07:00

I have to post once more before I take off. I am on my way to camp for a week of camp counseling. After listening to Anne's blog, I look forward to similar stories of screaming kids. Oh well, I love it up there! Okoboji is such a fun time in the summer. Sorry this is going to be short, but my mother is in my ear about the fact that we have to leave ASAP! I do love her, but right now I think her urgency is comical. I'll be back in one week, and will have this thing going on a regular basis. Possibly I can get some pictures on the site as well. Alright, I need to go. Take it easy.

Really up and running

2005-07-14T18:05:00.000-07:00

Alright, I think I have figured some of this stuff out now. So while I had the site up before, now I want to actually use it. Thoughts from today:

I went and visited the elementary kids I used to work with in Nevada, Iowa. It was truly a blessing to see them, and was reminded of why I love working with children and being a teacher. It sure beats the monotony of McDonald's. I have only one week of that left, and then will be taking a week to camp counsel at Camp Okoboji. I am so excited about going back to camp this summer.

That's all for now. Take it easy!

Up and Running

2005-07-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, I actually got this set up. I am just writing this post to see if it will actually work. Nothing flashy, but I have to go to work soon anyhow.