Students.....

All the high school students are leaving in a few moments for high school retreat, and they seem really excited. They will be staying in a castle, so I know they are excited about that. The retreat is a time to hang out with friends, but also a time to dive into the Word. A guest speaker and musician will be there, and each student will be placed in a small group with a leader from the school. Nolan and I opted to not go...I actually needed today to catch up on grading and lesson planning. A lot of teachers are taking advantage of this day off :) They had too many adults sign up anyway, so I didn't feel so bad when I heard of this.

This morning I woke up and just began reflecting on the life of my students. I have one class of mostly boys who have been giving me trouble this year. They are new students to BFA and they all live in the same dorm, and seem to be best friends...so all of these factors have not made it easy in the classroom. I have prayed and struggled this year in what to do with these boys. I have talked to the administration and other teachers. I can't seem to pinpoint whether they are just being typical 17 year old boys, or is there something deeper within them. As a teacher, I just ask that they be respectful, but this is a challenge for them. And it seems to be getting worse. I know a few other teachers are having trouble as well. So my prayer is that this weekend would be a time of growth for them--and me as I stay home and reflect. May God intervene in this situation.

This was on my heart today and I felt like I needed to share on my blog so people could be praying.

Driver's Test and Prayer Requests

I was so excited to write about Candlelight Dinner and our wonderful weekend exploring Germany that I forgot to mention Nolan passed the German driver's test. He has an official European driver's license. Now it is my turn to take the test!

Prayer requests for this week:

1. High School retreat this weekend in Nurnberg, Germany
2. Music Festival for all music students...including Nolan's guitar students
3. Motivation for me to begin studying for the driver's test
4. As always, keep us in your prayers as make decisions regarding next year...this is tough and emotional for us. Pray that we have a clear direction from God and are obedient in following.

Thank you again for all those who support us with prayer, encouragement, and finances. Much love to you all.

Candlelight Dinner Pictures

Frau Jenne, Nolan, and I
Korean dancers
Les Miserables: This particular song performed by Kate Harrop and Michelle Young
Nolan and his BIG hat singing "La Bamba"

I thought I would put the pictures I took in a separate post. Enjoy some of the pictures! Remember you can see even better pictures on my friend's site seen below:

www.xanga.com/serenitymine

Candlelight Dinner

Herr and Frau Jenne

Candlelight Dinner is an event put on by BFA for the Germany community. It is a time to get to know our fellow neighbors a little better and an opportunity to share the hope of Christ with them.

Every year there is a different theme and this year was "Time Travel" through different parts of the world and different time periods. Students and staff performed various dances and songs, and of course Nolan had a part in this year's event. He and some students performed "La Bamba". They have been working on this performance for weeks now, along with all the other performers for the dinner. At the end of the show, Christian Kockersheidt (a good friend of ours) preached on the hope of Christ in the various circumstances and troubles we may face in life. The entire show and message was in German, and students and staff who speak German fluently helped by serving or ushering.

We invited our former landlords Frau and Herr Jenne, and they loved it! Their favorite performance was "Les Miserables" performed by some of my and Nolan's students. We were proud of them! Some other performances included a Korean dance, swing dancing, and a bluegrass song.

It was so nice getting to spend the evening with our former landlords...thank goodness Frau Jenne speaks German :) I wish I could speak more German. I had some of my students help translate from time to time.

What a wonderful evening! To see more pictures go to my friend Michele's blog...she was in charge of the whole event and she is a better photogapher than I am :)

www.xanga.com/serenitymine

Germany and all its Beautiful Scenery

Nolan and I were in the exploring mood today, plus it was an absolutely gorgeous day here in this part of Germany. We decided to see places around our village that we have never seen before. We drove about 15 minutes out of Kandern (where we live) to NochBlauen, which is the top of the peak in the picture. We had a wonderful time watching the people hang gliding and just looking at the beautiful scenery. Because it was a clear, sunny day we could see both the French and Swiss Alps. Of course, we cannot have a BFA free day; we are always bound to run into a BFA student or family, and we did. So we visited awhile with a BFA family and then headed down the mountain to Badenweiler. Badenweiler is known for their Roman baths. You can see ruins and they have a more modern bath house you can enjoy. We opted to just walk around the town and look at the local castle and Roman ruins. And of course we had to stop by a cafe and have coffee and little sweet. Such a wonderful beautiful day here in Germany.

Tonight Nolan is participating in the Candlelight dinner. Stay tuned for more info on what this means....... Enjoy the pics we took today.

Sunny Days

Downtown Kandern

Top of this blue house is where we lived August-December

The white building is BFA....a view from our new apartment behind the school

The weather has been unusually mild these days. It is not too cold and the sun is shining, so it has been quite lovely the past week or so. You see locals out walking and hike, but I have to say, it is still a little cool for me to go for a walk. Sunday I did go out for a little walk to take advantage of the sunshine and get some pictures of Kandern, our little town. The white building you see in one of the pictures is the school and is taken from our balcony. The picture of the blue house is the vacation house we lived in for the first 5 months. we lived on the top level.

More sickness

So Nolan came down with the nasty virus that has been going around the school. He has been in bed for 2 days with fever and all the other crud that goes with it. Pray for him because this is a busy month for him. He has musical performances with students for 3 different occasions. Plus he has to take the German driving test (thank goodness it will be in English).

As always I am busy with teaching English to the 11th graders. I am teaching Huck Finn and the students and I are both enjoying it, so it makes classes fun and interesting. So many deep topics to explore in Huck Finn. Good stuff!

Also, pray for our friend Brenda (in Nashville) this week as she has had surgery, so pray for her recovery. Her husband Bill has lost his job due to some reorganization taking place at the company he was working with. Pray as he goes on interviews and finds a new job.

A lot of prayer requests this week. Thank you for everyone's support and prayers. Please keep us informed of any prayer requests you may have in your lives. Love you all!

G-5

Outside of attending Mosaic, the new church plant, we go to G-5. Nolan has had the opportunit to play a few times with their worship team. He thoroughly enjoys it and is becoming friends withs some of the musicians. We love going to G-5 and look foward to Sunday mornings. The church is also a restuarant and hotel as a way to serve the community and draw people into church. So after Sunday service, we eat at the restuarant. Families stay and eat so we get a chance to meet many different people. It has become a fellowship time with other believers, German and American.