BFA in Basel!

Three hundred BFA staff and students descended on Basel, Switzerland, on Friday night.  It was Herbstmesse time!

My roommate, Brittany, and I walked around the city with two other BFA teachers.  We enjoyed Wurst and Kaffee on the bank of the river looking out across the city of Basel before crossing the bridge to the historic part of town.

Basel looked a little different than it did last time we were there back in August during New Staff Orientation!  Herbstmesse dramatically changes the city with its bright lights, loud noises, and increased volume of visitors.  We boarded the ferris wheel right around dusk, which gave us a breathtaking view of Basel, as well as Germany and France beyond that.

The bumper cars were the main Black Forest Academy meeting place for the night.  We arrived during the middle school bumper car time, about a half hour before the BFA high schoolers would overtake the place.  I saw several of my third and fourth graders standing on the platform and attempting to maneuver the bumper cars.  Bruised knees and a headache were small prices to pay for the chance to ride around with one of my third graders!  It was so special to have a chance to spend some time with several of my students outside of the classroom context.

I also caught up with my small group girls!  It was so great to be a part of the BFA community, even removed from the school campus.

I am so thankful for this place that God has provided for me to live, work, and serve.  It is evident over and over that this is most certainly where He wants me to be "for such a time as this" (Esther 4:14)!  I praise Him for His faithful leading and continued blessings.  Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!

The Mirror

How do you teach third and fourth graders about CREATION, FALL, REDEMPTION, RESTORATION in a way that they will really understand?  That was my question about this time last week.  And God gave me "the Mirror."

This week in Bible, the students created paper handheld mirrors to represent all that God has done for us.  During each lesson the students had to do something different to their mirrors...

DAY 1: CREATION
"God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them."  Genesis 1:27

When we see ourselves in a mirror, we aren't really seeing a person -- it's a reflection, an image.  A baby may think that there is a real human inside the mirror, but we know better than that.  God has created us in His image, different from all of the rest of creation!  We aren't exactly like Him (we aren't omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, perfect), but He has created us special.  The students created a hand mirror by placing a circle of aluminum foil over the construction paper cutout.

DAY 2: FALL

"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden your face from Him so that He will not hear."  Isaiah 59:2

Something happened when Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Sin.  God's perfect creation was broken, imperfect, and separated from Him because of temptation, selfishness, and disobedience.  The students resisted and some outrightly refused to do what I asked them to do next -- cut their mirrors in half.  "But we created them yesterday!  No, I don't want to ruin my mirror."  I explained to them that our sinful brokenness also breaks our Creator's heart.  Our wrong choices prevent us from having a right relationship with Him.

DAY 3: REDEMPTION

"But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."  Romans 5:8

You don't keep a broken mirror.  You either fix it or get rid of it.  Praise God that He doesn't toss us aside, but rather redeems us in our brokenness and gives us new purpose!  The students taped their mirrors back together to represent the salvation possible through Jesus Christ.  "But Miss Brown, why did we have to cut the mirrors if we were just going to tape them back together?"  Because a crack remains to remind us of our imperfections that make it impossible for us to attain salvation on our own.  It's only by His blood. 

DAY 4: RESTORATION

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"  2 Corinthians 5:17

To end the week, we pasted new aluminum foil circles over the back of the hand mirror.  On one side, it is quite evident that the mirror has been cracked and then patched with scotch tape.  However, on this side, the new silver circle covers over the imperfection.  God makes us new creatures -- not just eventually when we spend eternity with Him in heaven, but right now as we serve as His ambassadors on earth.  May our lives clearly testify to the transforming power of Jesus Christ!

The mirrors are now hanging in our classroom to remind the students of the truths that we have studied this week!

God Speaks German, Too!

I was in eighth grade when I first took a German class.  All of the eighth graders took each of the foreign languages for just a few months to get a "taste" of each one.  Then we had to pick.  Why did I decide to take German in high school?  I reasoned that I liked the German teachers the best and enjoyed the language -- even though it didn't seem as "practical" as Spanish.  Little did I know...

Of course, we can say that God has a master plan for our lives that is beyond our understanding, but I wonder how much we really look for evidence of His work in our lives.  More than ever before, these first few months in Germany have repeatedly pointed me back to the realization that God has, is, and will continue to orchestrate even the seemingly small details of my life.  Like German.

German church.  For the past two Sundays, I have attended G5, a German church about 20 minutes away.  What a blessing it is to worship with German believers, sing contemporary Christian songs in German and English, and hear a sermon auf Deutsch!  I am so thankful for this body of believers who are clearly passionate about Jesus.

New German friendships.  G5 meets in a restaurant/cafe/hotel, so every Sunday there is a €3 lunch following the church service.  This is a great way to fellowship with other church attenders and enjoy the Sabbath together.  Last week I had the opportunity to eat with Petra, the first grade teacher of the BFA bilingual school ("Christliche Schule Kandern" or CSK).  Petra and I are in very similar situations, as she is also new to BFA.  It really helps to eat lunch with Petra and her friends because they speak to me in German and help me learn new vocabulary.

Cheering in German.  When I student taught last year, I loved attending a few of my students' football games.  "Fussball" here is soccer, so I went to the soccer field on Friday night to see four of my students play.  It was great to talk to their parents on the sidelines, and I think seeing me may have made them run a little faster...  I almost shouted "shoot!" when one of the guys got near the goal, but then I heard their coach yell, "Shiess!"  Oh yea, this is Germany.  Oops!

German dinner guests.  After the soccer game, my roommates and I had a German family over for dinner.  One of my roommates, Jennifer, works in the Janz Team Germany office with Ralf, so this was an opportunity for us to meet him and his family.  I enjoyed entertaining their 2- and 5-year-olds while the "adults" talked at the table.  Realization: I know enough German to speak with a 5-year-old!  :)

I didn't really plan on moving to Germany after college.  I didn't necessarily anticipate speaking German after high school classes were over.  But God's ways are so beyond ours!  I pray that we will be attentive to how He works in our lives -- acknowledging His presence, thanking Him for His faithfulness, and living passionately to testify to His goodness.

Vielen Dank, Gott, für Deinen Plan für mein Leben!  Mit Freude werde ich tun, was Du für mich willst.

Ist es wirklich schon Oktober?!

Is it really already October?!  Time is FLYING by!  There are so many adventures to share from each day.  I hope that these pictures and brief stories will give you a good glimpse into this past week...

We have begun a new unit in science about plants entitled "Let it Grow! Let it Grow!  Let it Grow!"  The students brought in leaves from home to classify on our leaf bulletin board...

In our morning devotions, we talked about what it means to praise God  - not specifically for things He has done or given us (that's thanks), but for who He is.  Here are some of the things the kids came up with:

 "Praise" was just the beginning...  I taught them the acronym "ACTS" (adoration, confession, thanks, supplication), and I was amazed at the way they really were receptive to it.  Here is one third grader's response to our discussion on how to pray. 

We are also working on writing letters to our partner fourth grade class in Grove City, Pennsylvania, where I did my first half of student teaching.  There are only 7 kids in our class, but we are writing letters to all 25 students in their fourth grade!  It's a big job, but they are rising to the challenge:

And those are the highlights from this week!

I'm looking forward to more adventures this weekend -- seeing the "cows come down" in Switzerland, Holzen's pottery festival, movie night with friends, attending a German church for the second time...  I'm overwhelmed by God's blessings and provision!