(All photos are of the final choir concert that took place yesterday. I can’t adequately express to you how much joy and reward this group of 57 students has given me. I’ve been blessed to teach them, coach them and experience them…) I’m frustrated! There are just four days left before grad and, as usual, […]
(NOTE: You can now subscribe to this blog by sending an email to michelesblog@gmail.com and writing “Subscribe” in the subject line. You’ll receive a brief email every time a new blog entry is posted. How easy is that?!) To honor the nearly 20 years I’ve worked at BFA, the school recently gave me 80 euros […]
[At the bottom of this post, a video that will warm up your chilled body and brighten up your mind!] Welcome to BFA’s final home game. Sunny, warm, cheery, soccer’y… WRONG! Welcome to mid-May in Germany, visibility nearly zero, temperatures hovering around 40 degrees (7 Celcius), when spectators wrapped in blankets wait for an hour […]
[Most photos taken at BFA’s Junior-Senior Banquet yesterday…more at the end of the post.] I’m convinced that our lives contain at least one pivotal moment when duress forces a choice. When God is in those moments (in our perception and reaction to those moments), they can be life-altering and mission-forming. For Wess Stafford, president of […]
TDT [Noun] Acronym for To-Do-Trauma. Condition resulting in loss of sleep, sanity and perspective, often the result of stress inflicted by an over-full and over-long list of items to accomplish within a finite timeframe. When a bunch of students came over the other day and installed themselves in my living room, I wasn’t expecting the […]
[You’ll find my “If These Walls Could Speak” video at the end of this post.] The trip that took me to Normandy over Spring Break (see previous post) also took me back to the small French town where I grew up. Its name is Lamorlaye (Lah-more-leh). As I wrote in the postscript of my last […]
[Extra Normandy photos at the bottom of this post.] April 11, 2010. I wasn’t prepared for the sea of white crosses that spread across the horizon when I turned away from the desolate beauty of Normandy’s Omaha Beach and faced the American Cemetery where 9,387 white crosses and stars of David marked the graves of […]
This past week, BFA hosted the International Christian Educator Conference, an occasion for which 300 delegates descended on Kandern from all over the world. In anticipation of the large number of MK-teachers involved, I decided to revamp the video I made last year, a collage of photos and self-descriptions that allows MKs to define themselves […]
Meet Bob. He’s the father of BFA-teacher Mike Hill. This week, he celebrated his 48th wedding anniversary, and he marked the occasion with a romantic élan that would make a Tramp (ie. “Lady and the…”) proud. He bought a helium-filled balloon and attached a note to the end of its ribbon, inviting anyone who found […]
Under the best of conditions, it’s a recipe for chaos: load 300 teenagers into five buses and a couple of vans, then head off to the mountains for three days of skiing, snowboarding, worshiping and learning. Every year, I ask myself if I have the courage to face the weekend “retreat” of perpetual loudness, busyness […]