LCMS World Mission Blog

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

“I am especially excited about this group because these students love to sing. I take in the guitar and they sing English songs, and I have been working on a couple of Chinese songs to sing with them. Last week we sang ‘All in All,’ ‘Be Glorified,’ and a Chinese song called ‘Let Praise Arise.’ I am most impressed with their confidence in singing loud, something that is not too common for eighth graders. In addition to singing songs, we read a couple of Bible verses and pray. I am really looking forward to getting to know these students over the course of this year. Please pray that God would bless the group and help the students to put their trust in Him above all things.

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

“Bill was one of my 10th-grade students during my first year in Taiwan. He was always interested in Bible class, and even came to our On-Campus Student Fellowship when he had time. When he completed 12th grade, he had not yet become a Christian. He is now a sophomore at Jhong Jheng University, which is located 15 minutes from CMS. At the small group meeting, I was excited to find out that he is now a Christian and had signed up to help with small groups at CMS this semester. He told me that he attends church near his college and that he has a physics professor who is also a Christian and is someone he can talk about his faith with. Praise God for Bill’s story! As a teacher here at CMS, it can be difficult to have many students who do not come to faith while attending high school. At the same time, God is still working on them and loves them. He works things out in His time, not my time.”

• Read more about Concordia Middle School in Taiwan
• Pray for Mark in Taiwan
• Learn more about GEO service opportunities