Michael Vogel

Concordia English Language Academy

31 Chien Kuo Road, Section 2

Min-Hsiung, Chia-Yi County 621

Taiwan R.O.C.

You have given me your friendship, your prayers, news from home, and many generous gifts. You have taught me about the love and salvation that we have in Christ Jesus, which is offered to all people. You have also given me opportunities to grow in this faith through Christian education in the Lutheran School system, Catechism, Youth Group, Youth Choir, the GLEAM program, and Missionary Training. Finally, you have sent me so that what you have lovingly invested in me will continue to grow in new places. In the same way, Abraham sent his dearest servant on a journey with a mission. I pray that God will give me success, so that your love to me will not be wasted.

Proverbs 22:6

⁶ Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

The majority of my missionary responsibilities are to my eleven fifth grade students at Concordia Academy. Our schedule provides for a Bible lesson once a week. So far the theme I have chosen is "expecting a Savior." We have read the stories of Creation, the First Sin, and Cain and Abel. In each story, I have tried to highlight God’s plan of and our need for salvation. In each devotional period, the students receive a set of questions.

The first week, when I asked the class, "What do you believe about Jesus?" the most common answer was, "he good." This told me much more about my task as an English teacher than as a missionary. When I asked, "What do you think about God and the world (during a lesson on Genesis 1)?" About half of the class said either, "We are relatives of monkeys" or "I don’t think that God made the world."

The other half gave apparently believing responses. After hearing that Jesus is "good," I was most interested to hear what the students believed about the problems in the world. Again, about half of the class agreed that, "It is people’s fault," while the other half said that they didn’t know. One student startled me by saying "It is God’s fault." This convinced me that I ought to continue on to Genesis 3 the next week.

John 3:2

² Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God.

Coincidentally, Matt Wasmund, our mission leader, presented devotion on the Fall into Sin that week. To me it seemed a routine paraphrase of the Bible. However, by the end, one office secretary (who doesn’t yet believe) was wiping her eyes. When Matt got to the promise of a Savior, he asked all of us if we thought Jesus loves. Another of the Taiwanese teachers (who regularly brings her son to Saturday church school and has often defended Bible Class at Concordia) said, "I don’t know, do you think so?" This was the first time I had heard her speak of herself in relationship to Jesus.

One thing that I never expected was to meet people who generally believe that Jesus is God’s son, that the Bible is the truth, and that all of these things are worth hearing, but somehow think that this Promise is not for them. Nicodemus believed that Jesus was from God, but as far as I know we are not told whether he became a disciple or not. This is a heartbreaking but strangely common thought among people who know Christians in Taiwan. Pastor Liu’s wife, whom we call Shi Mu, told us that her own brother was heavily involved in the church and was even baptized. But when it came time for him to "honor the ancestors" (the duty of all oldest sons in Taiwan) he quickly left the church. I hope and pray that those students and friends of mine who believe in general will, by the Holy Spirit’s power, also learn to trust that the salvation of God’s Son is for them.

Please Pray for…

• Yule, the husband of Yi-Wen and father of Annie. These two women hope and pray that Yule will come to faith.
• My students. That somehow God would bring them to saving faith despite the pressures all around them to rely on tradition and their own work ethic.
• My eight missionary peers: James, Anna M., Michelle, Sam, Anna H., Mark, Anne, and Kevin. Please ask that we would boldly and kindly tell about the hope of eternal life; that we have peace with God the Father, which comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection, through faith by the Holy Spirit’s power.
• My CELA office-mates: Nikki, Monica, Joy, Tina, Callie, Pearl, Peggy, and Judy. Judy has attended Friday Night Bible Study twice now. Pray that she and the others would have increasing interest in "this great thing that has happened" (Luke 2:15), and that they might all come to true and solid faith in Jesus and his salvation.

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