12 Year Anniversary!

 It has been 12 years since I arrived in Germany to teach middle school students at Black Forest Academy. Filled with ups and downs, I have grown and learned so much in the years I have been living and serving here in Kandern, Germany. 

I thought I would share with you a photo journey of the past 12 years. So, scroll on! :)

This was from a Spirit Day from my first year! We dressed up as chocolate bars!

This is from one of our prayer and devotional times in the middle school before school started for the day. Again, from my first year.

This is from a cooking class where we used the high school kitchen. To make cookies!

One of my former math classes! They would write silly messages on one side of their whiteboards, do the problem on the other. They would hold up the silly messages until I asked them to show their math problem side. :)

This is from the second small group that I led by myself. This was their freshman year and we were up in Lenk, Switzerland for the annual high school retreat. 

Another first year photo! This is from the Math 8 class and we were learning how to graph on a coordinate plane. They were struggling to understand and I was trying to find fun and different ways to help them understand. I had created a large coordinate grid on the floor and they were different points to create a line. 

Also from my first year! TeachBeyond had it's first world conference in Antalya, Turkey. After the conference, 4 of us ladies spent a weekend in Istanbul. 

This was my second year at BFA just before we began! This is the middle school staff for that year! Besides myself, those who are still here is Clarence, second from the left in the first row. He was our chaplain when I first started and now is serving in the TeachBeyond office here in Kandern. His wife, Anna, serves in the high school as an administrative assesstent. Their oldest is in his freshman year in college and their youngest in in his sophemore year of high school. When this photo was taken, their youngest was around 3!

I think this was during my first year. Rachel, first on the left, was preparing to go on her home assignment year. Instead of returning to the US for the year, she was going to serve in another TeachBeyond school outside of Madrid. This was one of several trips she had to take to Frankfurt for her spanish visa. Several of us came with for this trip. We went to have lunch at Chipotle and visited the Christmas market in Frankfurt! 

Same trip to Frankfurt.

The first few years I was here, we would have a faculty retreat in Switzerland for a weekend in February! Here I am sporting my Evje (Norway) hat. 

Remember that trip to Frankfurt? Well, Rachel made it to Madrid! In May of that year, I traveled to Madrid to spend a weekend with Rachel and also to see friends, Dick and Carole from Loveland, CO! They had hiked part of the Camino and ended their trip in Madrid. I met up with them and spent a day wandering around Madrid with them. What a joy to see them! 

Here is the two of them. 

Rachel and I at a local coffee shop. I remember ordering my drink using spanish, german and french! Haha!

My first small group! I was invited to co-lead with Chrissy Bryan, who is still here! Her husband teaches the Yearbook class for high school and they have three kids. We were just recounting how I've taught all 3 of their kiddos! This was from a Make a Difference day in the fall. During my second year I think. We helped clean up some picnic areas.

My friend, Becky, found a bike and so we went on a few bike rides together. She is married now with a 3-year-old. :)

This is from my first or second year. Another high school retreat up in Switzerland. All of our names are Karen! I've never lived in a place where there was more than 1 or even 2 Karens! Karen on the far left was a piano teacher at BFA, Karen in the middle was the high school art teacher. She and her husband served for many years in Ireland and I think all of their girls went through BFA. They had several. 

First small group again. Chrissy, my co-leader is the first on the left. The one on the right recently got married and just had her first child! 

This was from my second or third year at the middle school fall party! The student council kids would pick a theme and the teachers would pick a theme within their theme. I just remember Beth (in the middle) was the box-thing from Dr. Who. Sorry, don't know my sci-fi. ;)

A few photos back, I introduced you to Karen, who taught piano lessons. Well, this was her scooter. When she was gone for two weeks in Canada, I cared for her kitty (she was kitty sitting for another family for the year) and used her scooter as well. I remember going to Bauhaus in Binzen (kind of like Home Depot), buying some potted flowers and carrying them back on the scooter. One was in the back and one right between my feet in front. :)

I've enjoyed having friends over for dinner and old movie nights and for painting nights. Here is a photo from a painting night. 

I have so many hiking photos with friends as hiking on trails is a very common and fun thing to do around here! Katrina is on the left and is our middle school chaplain. Becky is on my right and is teaching Math 8. She is also my friend, Becky with the 3-year-old who is my heart niece. :)

Before I left on my second home assignment year, I hosted Thanksgiving in my apartment. This was such a special day and meal with these lovely friends! Sarah, on the left, is still here. She came to Colorado to visit me last year (she was also on home assignment) and we road-tripped to Canada. Becky, at the back on the right is sitting by her husband, Christian (who is German and grew up in the area). Stephanie, next to Sarah, first came this year and lived in my apartment last year while I was in the US. She has been such a blessing and incredible friend! Jesse and Sam, next to Stephanie, are also close friends. Jesse was the high school art teacher before they started their family and her husband, Sam, taught 6th and 7th grade Bible in the middle school for the last several years. Marsha, in front on the right, was serving as admin for a different organization and had recently arrived after the war started in Ukraine with her kitty, Grace. 

This is my friend, Lisa, who came to visit me for Christmas the year before my home assignment year. We had such a great time visiting Christmas markets in Germany and France! I've been blessed to have others visit me as well from the US. My parents came my first summer, Dick and Carole did a cruise from Amsterdam to Basel then I picked them up and they spent the weekend in Kandern. Dennis and Beth (friends of my parents and from Wtn, SD) also did the same cruise a few years later and came to Kandern to visit. Hmmm, I wonder who might be next? :)

It has been such a blessing and privilege to serve missionary students and their families here at Black Forest Academy for 12 years. It is only by God's grace that I am able to live here and teach! He enables me everyday to do what He has called me to. It is for His glory! I look forward to the day when I see the full picture of how God has worked in the lives of students I have taught, along with colleagues I have served alongside. I'm sure it will only cause me to praise Him more. 

The photos I have shared are just a small snapshot into the past 12 years here. There is so much more I could share! Of course, then I would be sitting here for hours on end as well. :)