Whirlwinds

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Well, It has been a whirlwind of activity since the last blog update. Home in the States living in Mom’s basement (the American Dream) and attending to all sorts of issues, needs, urgencies and the one huge pleasure of seeing Amanda married to Brad. Five churches in four weeks, clearing out the house for future rental (pray for that situation) caring for grandson Cameron, getting Hannah’s driver’s license taken care of, visiting friends and supporters, stocking up on supplies for the year (shopping ahead on Carl’s jeans as he grows exponentially, cheap ibuprofen, etc.), and more. We were busy and exhausted.


That hasn’t changed since returning. Each day until now has been full of either moving from one home to another or setting up and launching this year’s English Camps. Diane and I are training, shopping (enormous amounts of food are consumed by 150 campers and staff in a few short days) and “troubleshooting” for the first session of camp. It’s been exciting to see first the staffs arrive and begin to gel as teams and now working camper pickups we’re seeing the same thing happen with them. We’ll be directing at the second season of camp in a facility new to us – its structure is reminiscent of a maze. Our staff will be a mix of veterans and newbies and it will be great to see how God works out this team’s efforts.

When it’s all said and done it will be time for school to start again for staff at BFA although we might be able to sneak in a few day’s rest (plus the wedding of a former BFA student to be held in France) – I hope so. We’re also looking forward to welcoming our friends the Shumans to the staff here at BFA – they’ll be living just four doors down in our row house building.

The class of 2009!

Here's a few shots of grad stuff. What a time it was for all involved - grads, families, friends, staff - a whirl of appreciation, celebration, transition, pleasure and pain. I'm comforted in all this by knowing that as much as we all love these seniors, God loves them more!



From "Senior Skip Day"




Above is one of my favorite students (I had about 79 favorites) with her family. Below, same girl (this time underneath another fave) at the all night open house for seniors after grad celebrations.



At one point - somewhere around 3AM - we had over 40 kids in the house eating homemade pizza and just being together for their last night as classmates.



Here's a few particiants in the Spring Party with a Viking theme:
Here's Serge - an unlikely and incredibly civil Viking:
One dorm's Seniors and heir dorm parents at grad reception:

May stuff

We've got some weddings coming up, so, a few weekends ago we drove an hour over to France to buy some tablecloths for gifts (they fly a whole lot better than glasses or blenders and they make some beautiful ones there). It was a gorgeous spring day and we made a nice day of it. While walking through town we spotted this "old-timer".

Here's Hannah and some of her teammates at the last home soccer match this season. They won the Regional championship then and, as I write, the team is playing the semi-finals for Division II championship in the European DODDs league.

Here's a shot of us holding each others' head up as the Junior-Senior Banquet drew to a close. We're Junior Class sponsors and this is the BIG DEAL of the Junior year and a time of personal tribute to the Senior class. Much planning, organization, muscle, creativity, and sweat went into it's execution but it all turned out lovely.
Here's Hannah with fellow Juniors and members of her small group.

More Hannah Photos from Kenya

Hannah at Helping Hands - school for disabled kids

Spring Missions Trips

Hannah and Russ have returned from Kenya and Jordan respectively - tired, in Hannah's case a bit ill, but blessed by the experiences.

KENYA
Hannah's group worked with children in an orphanage and in a school for disabled kids (normally shunned in this culture). Here's a photo of Hannah's team: (If you're facebook friends with her, she's posted a bunch of other pics).


Above - Hannah & Grace
Below - Hannah working on the new bathroom
Goofing off with the kids.

JORDAN
Russ' crew had the privilege of working with Iraqi refugees living in Amman, Jordan. A pre-school group of up to 30 kids met each morning, our boys played soccer each day with teenage boys, our girls helped run an afternoon girls club for teenage girls, the kids helped out in adult English classes, and evening we spent visiting the homes of the refugees. The last day of the trip was a bus trip down to the Dead Sea with the refugee kids our gang had befriended. In addition to helping the ongoing programs (including also a service project of rehabilitating and indoor "playground") our goal was to build positive relationships with these kids and their families so that when emigration (U.S., Canada, or Australia were the leading possibilities) occurs (anywhere from 3-8 or more years after fleeing Iraq) they would seek out believers.
The team, including students, leaders, and the couple working on site.

The stories of the refugees included many losses and challenges - family members and friends killed, lost businesses, relatives still in peril, marginal existence now in Amman, frustrations and red tape, etc. Two things were quite clear as we got to know and spend time with the refugee families. One - no matter where the refugees stood faithwise, hospitality was very much a part of their culture. You could not visit a home and avoid a slice of cake, a glass of fruit juice or soda, a cup of coffee, etc. - even if you shared not a word of common language. There was never a question of cost and for some it must have cost sacrificially. Two - those refugees who were believers may have lost much but they had a true wellspring of joy in their lives. It spoke to me of the trap that a comfortable existence can spring on a believer - the comfort/complacency trap. There are times we must move to the edge of our comfort envelopes and beyond to really know the hope of our calling, the riches of our inheritance, and the power that is at work within us (yeah, as you might sense from this past sentence, Russ got to preach to the refugee congregation from Eph 1).

Here are some shots from the trip - eventually we'll get some more posted on Facebook.

Three of our kids and four of the refugee teens

Esther and a friend.
Above - Mahata section of Amman - one of the poorer parts of town where Iraqi refugees have settled, our home for the week, and one of the tremendous number of mosques that dot the city of over 3 million (my morning wake-up was the 5AM call to prayer).
Below, Mahata street scenes.







One of the high points for Russ was sending about two hours with our Jordanian host and the boys on the team at the new national mosque of Jordan - built in honor of the late king. There we were able to observe the afternoon call to prayer as well as the prayer time itself. When that was over a number of locals greeted us warmly and then one of the two imams (teachers/leaders of a mosque) came over to speak with us. Through our host's translations, we were able to ask many questions regarding his role, the mosque, the Koran, etc. He sang to us part of the opening sura (chapter) of the Koran - the Fatiha (In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. All praise is due to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds. The Beneficent, the Merciful. Master of the Day of Judgment. Thee do we serve and Thee do we beseech for help. Keep us on the right path. The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray.) and then his assistant did the same in his own style (both, of course, in Arabic). I'm sure they thought that they were reaching out to us but it was a fascinating time to get authoritative words from a recognized leader of this faith - wow, as a teacher currently working through a unit on Islam in my Worldviews classes - what a moment!
Above, national mosque built in memory of King Hussein - sorry, no photos allowed inside.
Below - some of our girls and guys doing the Dead Sea beauty treatment. Separate beaches used for guys and girls.


Pray for Jordan, for the refugees, for the real hope to be found.

Dramatic Month

Where's Hannah & Russ?

The photos below tell the tale of some of this past month's activities.

Russ and Hannah both took part in the annual Black Forest Christian Fellowship outreach event the "Candlelight Dinner" - the most sought after ticket in town (I'm not kidding - the shoe store lady was asking me before the fact when tickets become available). Most tickets go to German acquaintances of BFCF attenders, a quality dinner and show is produced and the gospel is clearly celebrated as well. This year's theme was "SING FREEDOM" and centered on Gospel music as it developed out the slave experience in America. The show ran for two consecutive nights with a repeat of the show (minus dinner) on a Sunday afternoon. Great fun and exhausting!

The other drama was the long awaited Middle School production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs of the Black Forest. This production strayed from the standard Snow White story line in numerous ways, most obviously in the collection of alternative dwarfs (many who were actually taller than the heroine). The dwarf who stole the show (well there were many great performances but this dwarf got huge laughs!) was Weepy, the dwarf who cries about everything played by the new star of the stage - Carl.

Check out the pics!

"Nobody Knows the Trouble I Sees"

Full Chorus (both adult and high school) led by Danny Plett.

Hannah - first left row 2

Weepy giving it all he's got!

In the middle of all this was the annual high school retreat for Hannah as student and Russ as one of the many leaders. No wonder we're a bit tired.

So, there you have it. The next big event is Spring break trips - Jordan for Russ and his team and Kenya for Hannah and her team.

"the Supremacy of Christ"

What is this "worldviews" course I'm teaching all about anyway? What I think I'm meant to do in the course is to walk my seniors through the various filters through which other people see the world.

By and large my kids have grown up in Christian families that have been doing humanitarian work or outreach in the name of Christ. They've often lived in small "bubbles" of like-minded folk and indeed BFA serves as such a sphere of protectedness yet our purpose is to launch our graduates prepared to survive in, thrive in and take on a much wider world of ideas and experiences (not that they haven't had numerous, varied and incredible experiences already - not just the North American collegiate and cultural kinds of experiences). In doing so, it will be best to know how others perceive the world, make decisions and evaluate worth. That's where "Worldviews" comes in.

We examine a host of major worldviews. "Biblical Christian Theism" is our anchor (and in which everything matters because God matters). From there we travel through Deism (distant impersonal watchmaker God who doesn't really matter), Naturalism/Atheism (no God, only matter matters), Nihilism (nothing matters), Existentialism - both atheistic and Christian (only willful action matters), Postmodernism (only I matter), Eastern religions (only the "force" matters Luke), and New Age (what matters is that the force is all about me). We see how worldviews answer the great questions of purpose, existence, truth, morality, history, life and death, etc. We ask how one lives by such sets of presuppositions and what really a "good life" is.

In the process of this I try to examine each worldview with the kids as respectfully as possible with the intent of saying, "Reasonable, normal people - people that you will meet, share a coffee or a class or a room with, be under the teaching of - live by the presuppositions of these worldviews. Let's understand them, engage with them, and know our own worldview practically and well."

In exploring these in this manner, I've learned much. I've seen the "reasonableness" inherent in many other ways of viewing things and have grown in my own faith. Just the other morning I had one of those strange "Is God actually talking to me experiences". In classes we'd been examining Hinduism in great detail and I'd listened to a few gurus online and attempted to get what they were telling. I could see some eerie parallels with Christian faith goals and practices. In my morning devotions God seemed to be saying, if not audibly then firmly and deliberately still, "the Supremacy of Christ", "the Supremacy of Christ", "the Supremacy of Christ"! WOW! what a train of thought and beauty came to mind as Christ spoke out clearly to all the philosophies we've looked at. It was just one of those incredible "spiritual" moments that would blow the doors off of any hollow, counterfeit spirituality experience offered by other traditions and certainly gave lie to the notion that God is either not there or not interested.

Boy, was class fun that day or what! We went to Ephesians 1 where Paul is praying for the "enlightenment" of the "eyes of the heart" (Eastern religions are a quest for enlightenment and many speak of the "third eye" each of us has) of the believers at Ephesus so that they might know "the hope to which he [Christ] has called [them], the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." - resurrection power as you read on. Talk about enlightenment, talk about a faith, and a worldview which speaks to every need ("God placed all things under his feet..." v.22) and desire of humanity (finding life, not death - read on to chapter 2), talk about the things that matter! Why do we matter?, why does life matter?, why does the world matter?, because Christ is supreme. Anything, any philosophy, any worldview that denies His supremacy hollows out the things that do matter.