Homecoming

This past weekend was Homecoming in Boone. This ended up being quite the production for Johnathan, Elainie, and Brandon. Below are some pictures of them all dressed up and looking slick. As you can tell, Elainie was really into getting her picture taken. Brandon and Johnathan? Not so much.

Greg and Amanda

Saturday was a momentous occasion. It was first time in the history of my knowing Greg I saw him not wearing a hat. Oh yeah, he also married Amanda too. Here are a few pictures from the reception and a few random candle pictures thrown in at the end.

The Presbyterian Experience

I've just had a few random thoughts cross my brain in the last few days.

Harvest Moon

Last night was the Harvest Moon. I didn't really get to check it out myself because it was cloudy and I fell asleep on the couch waiting for score updates from the Padres game. I hope somebody else out there enjoyed it.

Iowa State's New Uniforms

Yesterday Jamie Pollard announced the new Iowa State football uniforms. Take a look:











My main thing is that I'm very thankful that they didn't decide to go with white helmets. The cardinal helmets look awesome. I am not crazy about the logo. Nobody in the world identifies us as "I State", but at least the logo looks good on the helmets even if it doesn't make perfect sense.

The home uniforms do have a very distinct USC flavor to them, but I can handle that because I'd rather look like USC and have our real colors than look like a loser franchise like the Chiefs and be sporting red and yellow for some reason.



The New Peso?

I don't want to tell you what to think politically, but thanks to the completely unnecessary war in Iraq, Mr. Bush's War (thanks to all the people that caught that sweet reference to and indictment of our 4th President), the United States is borrowing 2 billion dollars a day from foreign governments. This has lead to the weakening of the dollar. So much so that the Canadian dollar is now worth more than the American dollar. To think just 5 years ago, the Canadian dollar was only worth 64% of the American dollar and now it is worth more. If we continue on this kind of decline it might at least resolve one political issue that I personal could care less about but am sick of hearing about, the United States might be come little more than flyover territory for illegal immigrants trying to make their way to Canada.

Why should the average American care? That two dollar package of tube socks at Wal-Mart is about to go up in price. The American dollar can't buy what it used to buy.


The Daily Show

Tomorrow night Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show is going to be speaking at Stephens Auditorium. I'm pretty excited for this event. It is going to be awesome.

A little fun fact for you. I have revealed this fun fact before, but it is sort of related to the title of this journal entry.

Presbyterians is an anagram for Britney Spears. That is really about all I know about Presbyterians. However, after watching this video, I might have a clue what it is like to be a Presbyterian.

However, below is a video of Buck Henry's recent appearance on The Daily Show. The bit itself is only moderately funny, but there is a line in there I think Iowa women should hear. It is an interesting theory on why Iowa gets to have the first caucus in the nation. So if you are an Iowa woman or a fan of Iowa women, watch the video.






My only real response to this is, I guess I'm glad I was born in Iowa.

Thomas the Scam

Every year I feel myself compelled to go down to the B&SVRR when they are scamming small children and draining the coffers of their parents with Thomas the Tank. I admit that it really isn't their doing. They put on a pretty good show. There is a magician and a petting zoo. There are characters from the show. There is a funnel cake stand. Actually it is "the funnel cake stand". If you've never had a funnel cake from the Kruse funnel cake stand my friend, you've never actually had a funnel cake at all. Plus they have real train rides like their dinner train or their excursion train. However, Thomas the Tank is a lie. He is no train engine. He is a glorified caboose and the kids fall for it every time.

I'm a firm believer that a person shouldn't lie to their children. There is no reason to have your children believe in things like Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. It just sets them up for a lifetime of disappointment when they realize that other mythical objects like social mobility and the American Dream are as real as a 7 foot rabbit that hides eggs on the day that Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God. Although it does teach them to learn at an early age that authority figures (employers and the government) will lie to you at every conceivable opportunity. Perhaps there is something to lying to your children.

It is because of this that I think that parents should make it very clear to their children that Thomas the Tank is nothing but a glory hound. He isn't doing any real work. The real work is being done by that engine in the back. It doesn't have a face, but it is the one that deserves your respect.

Why is it that I feel compelled to go see this charade every year? I admit that Thomas does have a certain allure. For not doing anything, I feel compelled to look into his eyes to make sure that this isn't the beginning of the machine revolution. The one foretold in the book of Maximum Overdrive. I believe you may have seen the movie they made based on this prophetic text starring Emilio Estevez. What I saw when I looked into Thomas' eyes this year is that we are still at least a year from the coming of the semi with the green face.

Also, I go down there to see Shorty. He always volunteers for the B&SVRR when Thomas is in town. He is also going to do the Santa Express again this year. However, I got a surprise when I found out that Johnathan was going to be volunteering. He has never been a community service type of chap, so this I definitely had to see and digitally record.

Mark's September Newsletter

Here is a copy of Mark's September newsletter from Taiwan.

Start of a New School Year: A Recap

Hi everybody! I know it has been a while since I have written, and this newsletter comes after a much needed break in America, and then a quick start to the school year. It is hard to believe that it is already nearing the end of September.

I would like to use this newsletter with as a quick reminder of the ministry that I have going on here in Taiwan. I live on the Campus of Concordia Middle School in Min Hsiung, Taiwan. My primary ministry is to serve as an English and Bible teacher here at CMS. This year I will be teaching 2 grade levels. The first is Junior 1 (7^th graders) . I teach 3 classes of kids 2 times a week, once for Bible and once for English conversation. The conversation class is new this year, but has been a real blessing so far, and I will have to spend more time on that in a future newsletter.

The other grade I teach is Senior 1 (10^th graders). I teach 6 Senior 1 classes, twice a week. Each class I see one time for Bible class and one time for English writing. In addition to these Senior 1 classes, I am again teaching the Senior 1 Advanced English class. I see these 33 students twice a week. In this class we read and discuss English novels. Our first one this year will be Bridge to Terabithia.

I have several other ministries that I help with on the campus of Concordia Middle School. Every Tuesday morning I lead a small group for 8^th grade students. We meet from 7:30-8:15 and sing a couple of songs, talk about the Bible and share thoughts or feelings with each other. In addition to this, I help with a Thursday evening Fellowship Group for students that live at school. The English name for this group is On-Campus Student Fellowship (OSF). This fellowship time is used to play games, talk about God, sing songs, eat snacks, and grow closer as a group of students who live at the school.

Outside of school there are a several other ministries that I help with. Every Wednesday night I help with a Bible study in Chia-Yi City (which is about a 20 minute scooter drive from Concordia). This Bible Study has been a real blessing so far this semester. It started about a year and a half ago. Last March it was down to 2 members who attended, both of whom were members of that church. There were 2 other missionaries who attended that Bible Study with me, and we debated about stopping it for a while, until there was a need again to continue a study at this church. It started to pick up in attendance, but remained a small group of about 4-5 people attending for the rest of last spring. This August has brought great blessings from the Lord. The group has had 23 people attend the last 2 weeks, and every week attendance has been in the teens. Praise God for the growth of this group, and continue to pray that He will guide it and bring more students eager to here about His love.

In addition to this Bible Study, I help at Salvation Lutheran Church, which is my church home here in Taiwan. At Salvation, I help with a Friday Night Bible Study which meets every week from 7:30-9:30. We sing songs, have 4 English Bible classes, and then have snack and fellowship time. There are usually about 40-50 students who attend FNBS, and it has been one of my highlights of my time here in Taiwan.

I am also helping out this year with the Salvation Lutheran Church Youth Group. This group is comprised mostly of Jr. High and High School students from Chia-Yi City. The Youth Group is currently in a state of transition, as Salvation does not have a Pastor, and the old Pastor (Pastor Lio) was the leader of the Youth Group. Pray that God would bless this group in its transition, and that He would build it even stronger than it was before.

Well, I know this is quite a bit of information. I look forward to sharing specifics about these ministries in future newsletters. If there is something specific you would like me to share about in a future newsletter, please do not hesitate ask me.

If you want to learn more about my mission work, I would encourage you to check out my online blog. I am going to try to update this online journal 2 or 3 times a month this year. The address will appear at the bottom of this newsletter.

It’s Prayer Time!

Here are the prayer requests. As always we lift these up according to the will of God, praying for Him to be glorified through everything.

1. Pray that God would be with all of the ministries I described above. Pray that God would give me wisdom and discernment in how to best use my time and gifts that He has given me.
2. Pray for the new missionaries: Ray, Heidi, and Matthew. Pray that God would help them to get adjusted to the culture and that He would give them opportunities to share His love and word with the Taiwanese people.
3. Pray for my continued learning of Chinese. Pray that God would help me to continue to improve, and that I can use my knowledge of the language to bring glory to Him.
4. Pray for Salvation Lutheran Church, as we do not have a Pastor at this time. Pray that God would prepare the people and future Pastor for work together in the kingdom.
5. Pray for my students that I will be teaching this year. Pray that God would bless my relationships with them, and help me to boldly share Christ’s love through my words and actions.

It is great to be back on the field. I absolutely love serving out here in Taiwan. It provides wonderful opportunities to share the love of Jesus. While I serve as an overseas missionary, I also recognize that there is much work to be done back in America. While home in August, I had a wonderful conversation with one of my teachers from high school. We talked about sharing Jesus with people throughout the world, but also talked about how many people back in America need to hear of God’s love. She commented on how difficult life must be without the support from Jesus, our foundation. These words are so true. Christ gives us strength, hope, peace, and joy in this life, and the promise of a home in heaven. This is great news that we can share with people everywhere, even in our home towns and at our jobs. May God give you all the strength to boldly proclaim His love wherever you may be, overseas or in America.

God’s peace,

Mark

Mystery Barn

I spent Saturday morning hanging out in an old barn on my Aunt Linda's acreage. She had suggested it as a place to find interesting photo subjects. I scouted it out on Thursday night after work and came back on Saturday morning when there was better light so I could shoot everything with available light. All of the pictures on the inside of the barn were shot with only the light that was filtering into the barn through the one door I propped open and holes in the roof. I'm nice and filled up with dust now.