Autumn Update from BFA
Dear Family and Friends,
Grüße aus Kandern: greetings from Kandern! For three months already, my days have started with the breaking of first light over our small town and the now changing colours of the surrounding forested hills. It’s a morning-by-morning reminder that new times and seasons, while sometimes seemingly slow at the outset, give opportunities to glory in the unfolding of fresh grace and great faithfulness. So, with these earliest days in Germany behind me, I hope that I can convey something of the goodness they have evidenced and shed a little light on the landscape of life here in the Black Forest!
‘It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness.’ Lamentations 3:22-23
Orientation
August was a month of orientation for newcomers to BFA, which on a practical level meant training and conference meetings to help us take our bearings. The time in between was also invaluable for getting to know each other, with many returning staff surrendering time to open their homes, show us around, and help us start off on the right foot. Everyone knows what it is to be new here, and arrival at BFA meant a warm welcome into a community that lives to give, where sharing and helping one another are a way of life.
Our first weeks also gave opportunity to turn together to the Lord as our Light and Guide. At All Staff Conference, each new member shared their testimony of God’s leading to BFA, and it was encouraging to learn how He had been working in our lives simultaneously, unbeknown to each other and in so many parts of the world, to bring us eventually to one place. We spent time considering what it means to inspire and influence our students to make a stand in this world, drawing especially on lessons from the life of Daniel. Most importantly, we had times to pray for the coming weeks and year. BFA only exists as it does because God continues to answer prayer, and seeing staff together for the first time really brought home the extent of that, knowing that countless prayers lie behind my own arrival alone.
Start of School
After a few weeks with just staff on campus, it was exciting to start having hallways filled with students’ voices and energy! Each school year begins with an Opening Ceremony in which the new seniors process with flags representing nations with which they are connected. This is followed by a listing of every nation represented by the current student body through birth, citizenship, or family ministry, accompanied by cheers from those for whom they bear relevance. Aside from being a fun way to launch the year, it was a vivid visual representation of the multinational melting pot that is BFA, not to mention of the extent of labour that the school supports.
From this we moved into our teaching schedule, which for me involves a breadth of classes and age groups across our Middle and High School.
Beginning Strings is my youngest class, with seven students in Grades 5-7 (UK Years 6-8), but what they lack in size is more than compensated in enthusiasm! Their initial excitement over choosing instruments has shown no sign of wearing off: every session is heralded by a rush of running footsteps, at least two ten-year-olds couldn’t sleep the night before getting their instruments, and I am never without eager volunteers who would rather help set up our rehearsal space than take their whole lunch break. No class begins without a barrage of “When can we…?” questions, and since studying a stringed instrument is a notoriously slow process at the outset especially, we have had ample opportunity to talk about patience, perseverance, and the need to lay strong foundations by practicing good habits! Learning the value and beauty in waiting time is such a key life lesson, and one that I hope they can learn a little of in this context already.
During the first class of each week I take and pray for their prayer requests, which proves a simple way of seeing a little further into their hearts and minds. Their requests invariably concern classmates, family members, or far wider circumstances, and I love seeing how even at this young age they are so aware of others’ needs. And while classroom management requires a little more deliberate action here compared to elsewhere, it is lovely to observe how naturally they help and encourage one other as some grasp techniques and concepts more quickly than others.
My Intermediate Strings class (Grade 8/Year 9) is a string trio this semester, two violinists and a cellist, and spending a lot of time with such a small group has enabled me to get to know them very well already. While they had some prior experience, they hadn’t been able to study methodically until this point, and this, along with the fact that they are at an age of so much inquisitiveness, means that classes are often filled with ‘Why’s?’ and ‘How’s?’ and consequent spontaneous mini history or physics lessons. I love seeing them wanting not only to know, but also to understand, thinking for themselves and actively seeking answers, and trust that mindset will persist as they grow older.
Advent always starts early in the music world, and Intermediates’ current main project is a strings arrangement of The First Nowell in preparation for our Christmas concert. This has already allowed us to talk about the message of Good News behind the carol, but I am looking forward to thinking more about how that might inform the way we shape the notes once those are better learned. Considering not just what we play, but also how we play it, has been a recurring theme through the semester, and it has been rewarding to watch the musicians discover how even the simplest strings of notes can take form and flight.
Since my High School strings class will only start after Christmas, musical interaction with this age group has so far been mainly through one-to-one lessons. Coming from all over the world, it is fascinating to see how students’ backgrounds influence their approaches to music. “I used to count [musical time] in Korean, then later switched to Bulgarian, and now I try to do it in English, so I sometimes get a bit confused,” was a recent offhand remark that demonstrates how unique they are in their experiences and ways of thinking! Another student arrives with a blackened Soviet cello which was found abandoned in one of the dorms, yet another reminder of how many stories and journeys constitute the school and its community.
The greatest beauty of individual instruction lies for me in the quality of teacher-student relationship that it can allow through the ability to meet and respond to students where they are. With time and trust, lessons often become an outlet in much more than a creative sense, and it has been special to see particular students begin to open up little by little already, resulting in conversations that have sometimes taken at least as long as the lesson itself. Another joy is seeing relationships go both ways as many of our students take active interest in teachers and look for opportunities to serve in their own right. One of my violinists volunteers to help clear up after my previous class before his own lesson each week and does it with so much joy, and seeing such instances of character are another thing that makes teaching at BFA so rewarding.
Elsewhere at BFA
In addition to music teaching, my days involve other, more general elements such as supervision of independent study throughout the week and leadership of a 9th Grade Advisory (like a UK tutor group). There are also numerous opportunities to be involved in extracurricular activities; for example, this quarter I was asked to run a jigsaw puzzle club on Fridays after classes finish, which is a fun way to cool off and chat with students at the end of the school week!
Another major involvement in student life has been coaching our High School cross country team this past season, training with them through the week after school and accompanying them to Saturday races at schools in Germany and Switzerland. Again, this has proved an invaluable way to get to know students, who naturally view and relate to a teacher very differently when running alongside them outside of school walls. Training in such beautiful surroundings and seeing medals and trophies achieved were undeniable blessings of the season, but further highlights included seeing students pray together before races; watching them cheer on other school teams as well as their own; having them take turns counting in their numerous languages during cool down exercises; witnessing older, more experienced athletes lead younger ones by example; and observing the perseverance and improvement of those who had a tougher season. Scripture speaks of the Christian life as a race to be run with endurance, and above all it was encouraging to hold and hear conversations about the wider lessons students were learning through the ups and downs of the sport, which I trust will prove invaluable as many continue to ‘run with patience the race that is set before [them]’ long after this athletic season concludes.
Outside BFA
Although much of my time is naturally spent within the BFA community, I am also very thankful for the ability to have the other foot in the surrounding German world. I have enjoyed slowly getting to know some of my neighbours in Kandern, particularly my landlords, who, being in their early nineties and having spent most of their lives on our street, are a hive of information about the area and its history.
However, my primary German community has so far been based in another nearby town, through the church where I have been worshipping: a small, independent body of believers who adopted me warmly and readily as a new part of their spiritual family. Among the lovely attributes of the fellowship is its spirit of prayer for and encouragement of one another, and it is such a blessing to have that binding tie and experience the care and interest they have shown me as I settle into this new life. Making another country home as a believer requires seeking to learn about and understand its spiritual contexts as much as, if not more than, anything else, and I have been grateful for many opportunities to talk, ask questions, and learn in these early days, as well as for the church’s willingness for me to be involved in various ways from the outset.
All the above and much more have contributed to such a rich first quarter here in Germany. Adapting to new cultures, communities, and essentially a new line of work could never also be without challenge and can at times be tiring, but orientation to our Light is a continual assignment and never fails to bring fresh supplies of strength. The prayers of supporting family and friends also remain a bedrock of strength, no doubt in far more ways than I am aware of, and I hope that many of you will be encouraged to know that these have by no means been in vain.
As we enter the next period between now and Christmas, please pray especially that the Lord would:
continue to work in the hearts of our students and give them greater, if not the initial, desire to know Him.
give me ever growing love for my students, as well as the wisdom and sensitivity both to encourage and challenge, and use me to show them more of His own love and truth.
help me to plan and teach effectively in the next quarter, especially now that I have a better knowledge of classes and how the school operates as a whole.
give continued strength, health, and provision, and help me steward each of these things well.
Yours in Him,
Hannah