Merry Christmas!

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Giving Thanks!

While this semester has been easier in some ways it has challenged me in other ways.   Even though we don’t get Thanksgiving off as a holiday here I still want to take the time to be thankful.  It is always easy to be thankful for the things that are going well and are easy.  But I don’t want to miss the opportunity to also praise Him for the things that are hard and push me closer to Him.  Over and over Scripture tells us to be thankful and yet why am I always so slow to respond?  So I want to take this Thanksgiving week to say thank you to the One who has given me so much:

I am thankful for the privilege of living and serving in beautiful Kandern, Germany.

I am thankful for the chance to spend time with Barb Ryan in Luzerne, Switzerland and see the beauty of the world that God created.

I am thankful for my students that challenge, stretch and encourage me.

I am thankful for a successful field trip day in Colmar, France with my French 2 students.

I am thankful for BFA moments: Talking in Colmar, France about South Sudan with the mom of one of my kids who is Swiss and has just moved back after 9 years in Kijabe, Kenya.  Or eating lunch and talking about the political situation in Tunisia (elections and the writing of their new constitution) with another one of my students.  

I am thankful for the students and staff who worked so hard and were amazing in their performances in Seussical the Musical.  

 

I am thankful for the celebration of Thanksgiving and the opportunity to stop and be grateful.

I am thankful to the Lord for His continued provision, His strength and grace to tackle a very challenging semester with a heavy work load.

I am thankful for the leadership of this school, my fellow co-workers, friends and roommates who make this place feel more like home.

I am thankful for the privilege of serving Jesus and His children at BFA.

I am thankful for my small group girls.

Three of my five small group girls

I am thankful for the challenge of teaching French and trying to learn German.

I am thankful for His love that will not let me go and His mercies that are new every morning.

I am thankful for verses that come just at the moment when you need them.

Psalm 68:19 – Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation!  

Thank you Jesus for bearing us daily and being our salvation!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This Fall

Fall is finally here in Kandern.  It has been unusually warm here the last few weeks but the temperatures outside finally feel like fall.  The last month has been busy.  I have not updated like I had hoped but here are some snippets into all that has been happening in the last few weeks.

I started meeting with my small group the first week of September.  I have five girls this year, three of them were with me last year.  They are precious girls and I am excited to see all that the Lord has in store for us in the coming year.  Among the five girls there are at least five nationalities represented and that does not include the countries that they have lived in.  (American, Canadian, Korean, Dutch, French).  Their parents live in France, Germany, China, Kyrgyzstan and Korea.  We are a diverse but fun group. 

I am now enrolled in a German class that meets every Tuesday with some fellow BFAers.  It is not much but it is at least a start and I am grateful for the opportunity.

September 12-16 was Spiritual Emphasis Week here at BFA.  The speaker was Dr. George Murray from Columbia International University.  The Lord really used Him and spoke through him to not only the speak to the students but also to me and to the rest of the staff.  Praying that the words that were heard and the decisions that were made will continue to be lived out among us all. 

View from my window in Adelboden

September 16-18 the staff went away for the weekend to Adelboden, Switzerland.  It was a good time to connect with new and returning staff and spend some time with each other and with Jesus amidst His amazing creation!

 

The next weekend was the Middle School overnight.  A highly anticipated event if you are between 6-8^th grade!  It is in a neighboring town’s youth hostel.  While I did not stay the night – I did go over and spend Friday afternoon and evening with them, playing group games, singing around a campfire and making smores…fun times!  

Last weekend I was finally able to get up and visit some dear family friends in the northern part of Germany near Kiel.  I was able to see the North Sea and the Baltic Sea for the first time and discover Hamburg and the northern part of Germany.  It was wonderful to be with friends from home and experience a new part of Germany.  The weather was amazingly warm which was an added bonus. 

The Baltic Sea in Laboe, Germany

St. Michaelis in Hamburg, Germany

Germany's T-giving Sunday - inside St. Michaelis

I have had the opportunity to celebrate a couple of Germany holidays this fall. October 2 was Germany’s thanksgiving celebration.  I was in Hamburg and the church we visited, St Michaelis, was decorated for the harvest celebration.  And last Monday (Oct. 3) was a day off in honor of the 21^st year of the Reunification of Germany.     

My fellow French teacher flew back to the States last week due to her father having open heart surgery and will be out most of the month.  We praise the Lord that her father has done very well and was sent home from the hospital yesterday.  This past week I got to teach several of my former students from French 2 while I subbed for her French 3 class.  I had the pleasure :)  of trying to remember/re-learn and teach the subjunctive. The Lord has proven His faithfulness again in helping me this past week with that task.

 

I have been reminded again of how much the Lord loves it when we turn to Him with the big things and the little things in our days (from major crises to teaching the subjontive).  Sometimes the needs seem so heavy that it is easy to lean on His everlasting arms.  Last year that was an easy posture for me to take with everything being so new.  This year I have been asking Him to help me keep that posture of dependence even when things feel more comfortable and familiar.  And He continues to be faithful.  On this Sunday, may you sense His everlasting arms under you in whatever it is you are facing today.

"The eternal God is your refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms." Deut. 33:27

Hard...and yet

That is the phrase I have found myself saying when people ask me how the first few weeks back have been.  In many ways they have been hard.   

It was hard to say goodbye to my family after a wonderful summer celebrating together as my sister got married.  And yet... Jesus worked it out so that my first day back I got to spend the day with the Searls shopping and touring Alsace, France.  They had spent the week in Germany and were leaving the next day but the day together was such a gift!  

Eating crepes in Colmar, France

My first day back I found out that I was going to be teaching at the high school and the middle school.  Although the joke around the school staff is that BFA stands for “Be Flexible Always” it is sometimes hard for this structure loving girl to roll with the changes.  And yet… His grace is enough.  Somehow, in the midst of jet lag and feeling overwhelmed He gave me grace filled responses.  I praise Him for that.  It is the nature of a school like BFA and it is what I signed up for so no complaints just giving it back to Him and readjusting some of my own expectations.  And He has made a way for me. 

I am now teaching at the high school in the morning and in the afternoon at the middle school.  One of my biggest concerns was transportation as I don’t have a car and yet… God has made a way for that as well with rides arranged for every day of the week.

Juggling two campuses, two class schedules, two calendars, and rides was not my plan and yet…I find myself really enjoying my high school class and my two middle school classes.  He s good! 

Having record setting temperatures the first week of school was also something that I would not have chosen.  (Those of you who know me know that me and heat don’t get along very well.)  And yet…God gave strength and grace to get through the first week of class in miserably hot classrooms and living in a very hot apartment.

Leaving family once again and starting a new school year has had its struggles and yet…Jesus is enough in the midst of it all and it is so much easier than last year.  I arrived back in Kandern and walked in my apartment to two roommates that I know and love, to a bed and a room that are mine.  I am returning to a school and kids that I have grown to love.  

Seniors proudly holding their flags for Opening Ceremonies

 Hard, yes at times it has been, and yet…I am so grateful for the privilege of being here and for His sustaining strength and grace to accomplish what He has called me to do.