Taiwan Times - April 2009 Issue

Mark's April Newsletter.

The Taiwan Times
By Mark Wolfram
Reporting on God's mission in Taiwan
April 2009

Daddy Doug and the Boyz...

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

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


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

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

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

It's Prayer Time!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mark