BFA's back in action

The Senior Parade!
Hear no evil, speak no evil - or is it just amazement that they're seniors?
You can only carry off the white belt look if your family works in Italy.
BFA is a strange and wonderful place - look at the smiles because school is starting!



BFA held its opening day last week. Traditions run hard here so it began with the procession of Seniors carrying the flags of many nations followed by the less colorful (but with way more straight lines) teaching, support and dorm staffs. As the roster of forty plus nations currently hosting the families of our student was read, cheering of various volumes rose up, largely dependent on the number of students directly involved. The United States rang loudest as most of our kids hold US passports. My seventy-six seniors have families working in twenty-eight countries. I polled my students and had them list the countries that they had personally lived in for a period of greater than six months. Fifty-seven different nations were tallied. By most accounts, there are currently 195 nations in the world. How big is the impact of Black Forest Academy? You do the math!

School now means for me (Russ) the dance of developing classroom climates and relationships that will allow my Worldviews classes to transcend the sharing of information and arrive at the place of spiritual and life in general growth. Pray for the tone and spirit to be conducive to real sharing and challenge and maturity. Pray for insight and wisdom as each class develops. Pray for kids to have the courage to examine their own faith worlds and recognize the beauty of Christ for themselves.

It feels great to have classes back I front of me! I love teaching these guys and Diane and I love being involved in other aspects of their lives. The big deal, coming up one month from now, is the fulfillment of our duties as Senior Class sponsors – we “have to” go with them to Rome for Senior trip!

This weekend is filled with a conference for classroom teachers to be held in the beautiful Alpine town of Adelboden. Two full weeks of classes connected by a weekend conference doesn’t really sound very conducive to rest. I say this because for the first time in about six months, Diane and I had a relaxing (not a whole lot on the gotta do right now list) weekend and it was fabulous! We didn’t do much of anything really special (well, we showed our friends the Shumans around the local hot baths) – we mostly just relaxed. I guess that’s why I’m a little less than eager to go away and "do" this weekend – we need more down time. God is good, it will come.