Well folks, it’s been a looong time since our last update. I’ll skip the list of reasons for our silence, and jump straight to the good stuff.
Summer Happened
This summer was full. We did some manual labor, had family visit, and moved twice. July was filled with an intensive German course, which gave us a little more language confidence. Wir sprechen Deutsch ein bisschen besser. (If you speak German, you may be able to tell just how little better by that sentence.)
School’s back in session!
In late August, BFA started up again. We’re so glad not to be new this year! It’s wonderful to know how BFA operates, know what all those crazy acronyms mean, and best of all, to know students! God has already blessed us with some amazing, truth-filled, life-changing conversations with students.
Israel and the Screaming Girls
Israel is coaching JV Girl’s Volleyball this year. Last year he helped out, but now he’s an official coach. This means daily practices and traveling to games every weekend. Israel seems to be uniquely equipped, by his five sisters, to deal with all the screaming involved in a six hour bus ride with 20 teenage girls. He’s very much enjoying coaching, but it makes for a very tiring schedule.
Dani Goes to School
I am in my last few weeks of a Biblical Counseling class through the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation. The class is called Foundations of Biblical Change and has been incredibly applicable, both to my own life and to my conversations with girls. Already this year, several girls have come to me with some pretty serious things, so the training I’m receiving through this class has been incredibly helpful. I hope to continue with more classes next semester.
Hello Long-Term Commitment?
Our initial commitment to BFA was for two years; this is our second year. Because it takes several months for BFA to fill empty positions, the school asks us to make next year’s commitment in October. A few weeks ago, we turned in a sheet of paper indicating that we would be at BFA next school year. We feel that we need to stay here until God tells us to go somewhere else. We’re excited about this decision and about being able to invest here longer term. This will mean more support raising this summer and, hopefully, more language learning, but we’re excited about the ways God will provide through these opportunities.
Pray for Us. Pretty Please!
Busy, Busy, Busy — As our lack of updates indicate, we’re crazy busy! We’ve had very little free time since school started. We hope things will slow down a bit in mid-November, once volleyball and my class are over, but we’re already looking forward to Christmas Break.
Chapel Talk — I, Dani, am speaking in High School Chapel on November 11th. I think I’ll be speaking about the miscarriages and what God’s been teaching me through them, but I don’t really know what “the point” of my talk is yet, partially because I’m still in the middle of this journey. I’m also sharing my story of dealing with sexual addiction in a dorm on Sunday. Prayer is much appreciated!
Student Issues — God’s allowed us to join girls in pretty serious issues this year. We feel privileged to get to walk with them toward Jesus, but we can also feel rather helpless! We know, though, that Jesus is the only one who saves and changes. Pray for wisdom for us, and for redemption and salvation for the students!
Summer and Future Plans – We’re still many months away, but summer will be upon us sooner than we think. This will mean travel, finding temporary housing and a car, and raising more support. We’re also in the process of deciding what direction to take for our family, whether fertility, adoption or something else.
We love you all! We’ll try to get another update out before Christmas!
We went to our first Staff Appreciation Evening for BFA. It was a great evening without students and appreciating staff who are leaving. Lots of tears were shared by those who are not able to be here next school year. The evening was full of joy and great friendship.
Finish Strong
The semester is almost completed. Please pray for everyone at the school. That they will all finish strong, and complete all the projects and work required of them. Also pray for Dani and I as we have actually been substituting for a few classes, and hope that we are doing a good job.
So this last Sunday we had two students come and cook a meal for us. There is a class that the students can take called Independent Living. One of the aspects that the class provides is the opportunity for students (usually a girl and a guy) to go and cook a meal for staff. It’s a great way for the students to learn how to cook and for staff to interact with students in ways that they might normally not.
We did this last semester, and it was a great opportunity for us to eat good food and learn about the students’ lives outside of BFA, so we signed up again this semester. A Senior boy and Junior girl sent us a list of ingredients and the menu, and we went shopping the day before, since stores are closed on Sunday.
What Did They Cook?
Our students cooked us Pasta Amatriciana, garlic bread, roasted veggies (Dani ate those) and Tiramisu. The food was really tasty, and it was fun to interact with the students while they prepared it in our kitchen. They came prepared to cook and even brought their own music, ipod + speakers. We provided all the cooking materials, but they had to do all the cooking with no help from us. They did a fantastic job, and we even had enough for leftovers. Yum.
Photos
Stirring the Dessert{|}Stirring the Dessert
Stirring the Dessert: Part Duex{|}Stirring the Dessert: Part Duex
Passing the Whisk{|}Passing the Whisk
Mmmmm batter{|}Mmmmm batter
Working Together{|}Working Together
Picking the Perfect Music for Cooking{|}Picking the Perfect Music for Cooking
Food Preparation Stuffs{|}Food Preparation Stuffs
Slicing and Dicing!{|}Slicing and Dicing!
Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing!{|}Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing!
Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing!{|}Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing! and Slicing and Dicing!
The Table is Set{|}The Table is Set
The Table is Set - Close up{|}The Table is Set - Close up
Us Eating Together - without Dani{|}Us Eating Together - without Dani
Us Eating Together - without Dani (using a flash){|}Us Eating Together - without Dani (using a flash)
The new website for the school is now officially launched! An announcement was made to the student body before school on Monday. I say it’s about time. Dani and I are excited that it’s live. Dani, because now I will be at home more. And myself because now I feel like I have something to show for my time here. There’s still plenty that needs to be done, but it’s a great starting point. And I am hopeful that it will improve BFA’s ability to communicate.
Check it out at bfacademy.com. And feel free to let me know what you think.
So I’m getting ready to launch the new BFA (Black Forest Academy) website! That’s what I’ve been doing during the beginning of this semester. Calling, emailing, talking, calling, emailing, talking, calling…that’s what I’ve been doing half the time. I’ve been collecting all the content, getting it updated, typed up, edited, and approved by all those involved. Hopefully by the time you read this post I will have most of the content ready to go, and formatted for the world to see. I’m really excited, and can’t wait to hit the launch button.
It’s been a busy last few weeks. The first week of school I had the flu. And over here, doctors don’t just hand out antibiotics for everything like in America. So I had to resort to the good ol’ juice-and-rest routine. After that I was able to start thinking clearly and got to work on finishing the website.
It’s all about the little details.
There are still some minor issues I’m having with different areas of the website, and some content that I need to write up for some of the new sections. But all-in-all, it’s almost there. I had hoped to have launched it by the beginning of this last week, but was unable to since I lost a week. Personal deadlines are typically arbitrary anyways.
So look forward to an update from me soon about the website being launched, and a link for everyone to go check it out.
New Features
Better organization of the content
Easier to update content
More content (from 100 to now over 350 pages)
Specific content geared towards the school’s main audiences (parents, students, staff)
More galleries and photos at the tops of pages!
Fun staff profiles (now you can see staff by category, like: Athletics or Personnel)
We made this video for the Missions Day of our home church, The Grove, in Arkansas. We wanted to share this glimpse of our lives with you all. Maybe you should create your own video and send it back to us. Okay? Okay.
Definition: One who works on the website. My Interpretation: Communicating about BFA to the world outside of BFA.
Expounding Upon My Role
I honestly have been working primarily on the website. But not in the way most would perceive. Within the first month of the school year I came up with a 35+ page brief about how the school could improve their web presence. I came up with this goal.
To create a dynamic website that enables the specific audiences that we are trying to reach to find and use content that is focused for them personally and for their ease-of-use. BFA’s website is not just text on a sheet. The website needs to become a reliable resource and a secure environment for parents, staff—new and returning—and students to share in the experience that is BFA. Our vision for BFA needs to be clear and communicate that we are a school that prides itself on excellence and moral standards; not just as an international school, but also in our brand—our face—to the outside world.
The website has been my primary focus. After writing that brief I was able to spend a half-day brainstorming/way-too-short meeting with the main directors of the school. We spent time pouring over the main points of the brief, and exploring the different areas that each division wanted to focus on. It was great for me to be a part of that meeting. At that point I hadn’t grasped the feel/story/vibe of BFA. So it was very helpful for me to be a part of that meeting. I’ve been busy working on the website and expect to have it finished by Christmas.
Early on I wanted to make sure that communications as a whole had a vision and a drive behind what is communicated and created. A brochure won’t by itself tell people about the school. Or a website won’t by itself be the first place people find out about the school. I want everything communicated to tell the story of BFA.
The first few weeks at the school they announced all of the staff openings and needs for all the departments. Athletics needed an assistant coach for girls’ volleyball. I hadn’t planned on having anything to do with sports. But I expressed some interest, and was able to fit it into my schedule. The volleyball season just finished with the Varsity girls winning the championship. Coaching was so much fun, and building relationships with the girls was great.
I’m not a teacher, so being able to be more involved on an almost daily basis was a good escape from work, and a great way for me to build relationships that I wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. I hope that next year I will be able to do it again, and that I will be able to be more involved.
Photos of What I’ve Been Doing
I’ll probably try uploading some more pics of a few other things later. But for now this is just web related. If you want to see what I’ve been working on you’ll just have to wait until late November or early December when the site will hopefully be launched.
The home page{|}The starting page for the new website. At least in it's current state. :)
Example of a sub menu{|}This is the Welcome page with a message from the current director. And is showing the main navigation roll-over sub-menus.
Contact Page{|}The contact page for the new website.
New Image Gallery{|}This is made with HTML, Javascript and XML. Loads much faster, creates dynamic thumbnails, and is easy to setup. http://bfacademy.com/galleries/dorm_liel/2010-11/10/
New Image Gallery - Large View{|}This is the enlarged view of an image, for the new version of the gallery.
And myself because now I feel like I have something to show for my time here. There’s still plenty that needs to be done, but it’s a great starting point. And I am hopeful that it will improve BFA’s ability to communicate.
