Frohe Ostern!

On Good Friday we had some friends over for a time of worship and reflection. Here are some pictures of the prayer stations we did that evening.

  Setting up the projector for worship

 Confessing sins

 The stations set up in our living room

God I thank you for...

Offering up our lives as gifts to God

Specific prayer requests

 

Frohe Ostern!

Frohe Ostern in German means “Happy Easter!” I hope that you have had a Happy Easter and that you have had time to reflect, rejoice, and celebrate, our risen King this Easter season. May it be something that we remember especially this holiday weekend, and may it bring us hope each day.

“Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; He has risen!”    Luke 24: 5-6

Use Me Here!

So often I find myself wondering (and sometimes, even worrying) about tomorrow, 

next week, or even next year. Something that the Spirit has been reminding me of 

lately is that I need to think about today. How can I encourage those around me?

How can I make a difference at BFA today? How can I love those I work with? 

This song by Everybodyduck says it so well! 

(listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=364pchLaRaw)

Use Me Here, Where I am, 

I'm not gonna pray anymore that You'll change Your plans.
Despite my fear, I place my life in Your hands. 

The future can wait, tomorrow might be too late,
So Jesus use me here.

I lay my hearts desires at your feet, o Lord. 

Take all the plans I've made and all my dreams.
Blinded by triumphs of tomorrow, I've let sin control today.

I tell myself I want to know Your will, O Lord. 

Still I confess I've had plans of my own.
But from now on I plan to listen to Your will and to obey.

Use Me Here, Where I am, 

I'm not gonna pray anymore that You'll change Your plans.
Despite my fear, I place my life in Your hands. 

The future can wait, tomorrow might be too late,
So Jesus use me here.     Use me here.

The past year...

Yesterday, March 4, marks the 1 year anniversary of when I was accepted to work at Black Forest Academy! 

Here are some other important dates of this last year:

March 12 -TeachBeyond Acceptance

April 22 - "Met" 4 other BFA staff members over email (1 to be my new roommate, Heather!)

April 30 - Moved out of our Lethbridge house

May 20 - Received our Riedlingen housing information!

 June 19-26 - TeachBeyond Orientation in MN

July 23 - at 90% - bought plane ticket!

July 30 - Left Canada

July 31 - Arrived in Germany

August 24 - First day of school!

September 2 - 21st Birthday

October 4 - Lost a little bit of wisdom (wisdom teeth surgery)

October 10 - Canadian Thanksgiving at BFA

October 15 - Sophomore Class Party

November 5-7 - Munich, Germany and Salzburg, Austria trip

November 7 - Took the train through Singen, Germany (Where Grandpa E. lived) 

November 27 - Christmas Banquet

November 28- Hosted American Thanksgiving

December 24-January 1 - Courtney (roommate from Lethbridge) visited! 

January 28 - Sophomore Class Party

February 4 - Home Basketball Games/Coffee House

February 19 - Hosted a surprise baby shower for Valerie

This year has been one crazy ride - BUT - God has been faithful through it all. I can't wait to see what happens in this next year! Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support in this past year. I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you behind me in this!

Another weekend at BFA!

It seems that there is always SOMETHING going on in the BFA community on the weekends! It's a nice way to catch up with other staff members, connect with a certain group of students and enjoy the activities of BFA.

This last weekend had busy moments, but also had times of rest and relaxation. Friday started out with Heather and I going to a student led worship night. It was an amazing night of worshiping with the students. These kids are super gifted in music and have hearts longing to know Christ more. Not only was it a time of great worship, it was an encouraging time to see these kids pour out their hearts to their Creator.

After the worship night Heather's small group girls came back to our apartment for a sleepover! It was fun to have the girls over. They played pit, had fondue and then watched a few movies. It is great to be able to have a place for these different dorm/home students to come together and have a night of just them.

Heather had made them chocolate/powdered sugar covered croissants for breakfast before they left. Having a few left over, and knowing how to make my absolute favourite cup of coffee, she brought me breakfast in bed! What an awesome roommate I have!

Once the girls had gone home on Saturday and the house was quiet once again, Heather and I found a link to watch our girls basketball team play in the European Championship Finals! It was an intense game that kept us on the edge of our seats until the final buzzer went off. The girls lost 37-36 in literally the LAST second of the game. While it would have been amazing for them to bring home 1st in their first time ever going this far, we are very proud of the girls for bringing home second!

The remainder of the weekend was very restful as I spent time reading a new novel, had the opportunity to worship at G5 and was able to get a few good naps in.

To end off a great weekend, we spent Sunday evening playing guitar and piano. While that sounds pretty normal on a Sunday for Heather and I, it was in fact quite different. I was playing the piano, and Heather was playing the guitar! The last few days we have spent teaching each other chords on the opposite instrument. Last night we were even able to play through some songs! It was indeed a great way to end the weekend.

Encouragement from afar...

This morning as always, I went and got the mail at the Post. I sorted through staff and student mail, along with bills and advertisements. There were about 10 envelopes left over that were only addressed to the school. As I do with any other mail like this I opened it up to see what it was.

The first letter said:

Hello, 

My name is April. I’m 6 years old in the first grade at "name of school". We learn about God every day. Each week we have chapel where our class will be saying a special prayer for your school. We want you to be encouraged about all the great things God can do for you.

God Bless you,

April

I read the other various letters that came in, and all were alike. They were from different aged students in Alabama who had chosen to write to our school in Germany for Heritage Day. So while I look for classes/teachers to hopefully write back to these American students, I can't help but be encouraged that there is a class of first graders who are praying for our school and the good work God is doing here.

A wonderful night at BFA!

Last night there was a lot going on at BFA! We had our basketball teams playing, there was a huge book swap in the auditorium, and the Junior Class had a coffee house fundraiser! I thoroughly enjoyed taking part in all of the activities at school last night!

As I told some of you in an update this past week I am continually amazed by the talented students we have. We don't just have athletes or musicians, we have students who are both! I remember seeing one student in particular open at the coffee house with some great guitar playing/singing and then saw him an hour later dribbling a basketball down the court! I am so thankful that our students don't have to chose between or another, BFA allows them opportunities to excel in both.

I have missed spending time drinking coffee and listening to live music. It was a wonderful treat to be able to do that last night while listening to our students play and sing! While I know it was a lot of work for them to put that on last night, I hope they do it again sometime!

"I'll be home for Christmas..."

(I apologize for the gap of time in between posts this fall. A quick update on my computer situation -- I will hopefully be receiving my new power cord in the mail tomorrow and my computer should be running if all goes well!)

A very Merry Christmas to you all! I hope that this time with family and friends has been a blessed time, a time of joy and laughter but also a time of reflection as we remember Christ being born into this world.

This Christmas has been a very different one for me this year. As you may already know simply because you have not seen me - I have spent this Christmas in SW Germany. It was something that from the beginning I was looking forward to. I was excited for spending this holiday in Germany because I would get the chance to experience how this country celebrates. While there were definite times of homesickness and wanting to be with my family it was also really neat to be in Germany for the holidays.
A good friend of mine told me not to think about all the traditions I was missing with my family as they happened, but to be excited about all the new ones we were making in our new home here.

Kandern had a Christmas Markt about once a week for the few weeks leading up to Christmas. Here there were lots of great German foods (wurst, goulash, kinder punsch, waffles) and there were also bands and choirs that performed Christmas carols. They would close off main street and set this all up along with big tree trunks that were upright and on fire! It was lots of fun!

My roommate, Courtney, back from Lethbridge times has been living in Scotland this past year to study abroad. On Christmas Eve she flew into Basel to spend Christmas with me! It has been really nice, especially since both of my roommates in Germany have been gone for the Christmas break.

For Christmas day we were invited over to the Storch dorm (where I dorm sub when the students are here). The dorm parents had all their kids there, as well as many of us who weren't with their families for Christmas. It was so great to have this time together and to celebrate the birth of Christ! We had lots of fun reconnecting (as some there were dorm staff and we share very opposite school schedules), eating amazing food and playing games together.

After coming home from a great evening with friends, Courtney and I both called our families, brought out the Christmas cookies and watched "A Christmas Story."

All in all - a great day!

I hope and pray that as we continue on in this Christmas Season and will soon be entering back into our busy schedules, that we will have spirits like Mary did. In Luke 1:35 she says "I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered, 'May it be to me as you have said." May the Lord be at work in our lives in 2011 and use us in ways that we could never possibly imagine.