It is an awful, terrible thing that it has been almost a month since my last blog post and almost two months since we arrived in Germany. I’ll lay aside all my excuses and reasons and simply say: Please forgive me! I hope to make up for this just a bit in the following paragraphs.
First, happy Tag der Deutschen Einheit (Day of German Unity) to you all! This day marks the official reunification of Germany in 1990 following the Cold War. We have really enjoyed the chance to sleep in and not go in to work today. 🙂
We’d also like to dedicate this post to some new friends here in Kandern. They are out of town and went totally out of their way to leave us their house keys and internet password, and we have enjoyed an afternoon of sitting on a comfortable couch, enjoying internet at “home.” We’ve been in the process of getting internet for almost two months now. I have to laugh at some of the eccentricities of living here, like living in a modern country yet also living in a town so small that it doesn’t have enough internet connections for all the houses.
So many things have happened in the last month. Tuesday night small groups have begun at the high school. I am co-leading a group of six wonderful 10th grade girls comprised of both home and dorm students. These girls have lived all over the world and tell the most amazing stories. I love hearing about BFA life through their eyes as they discuss everything under the sun every time we get together. We are always cutting off their conversations to focus on our study (I love that they love to talk so much), which is Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This Tuesday my whole small group is coming over to our apartment for dinner. I’m looking forward to spending a whole evening with these sweet girls. Keane is co-leading a group of seven freshman boys. I haven’t met them yet, so I will let Keane tell you about them.
We are really excited to be freshman class sponsors this year, which means we will help the freshman class student council plan class parties and will also help chaperone different class events. Our first real stab at being sponsors is this Monday, when we will travel with the freshman class to France to visit some French-German WWI trenches. All day long, we will be exploring these historical battlegrounds with over 34 fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds. Yikes!! We are glad to have a day to get to know these students better.
Every Thursday, Keane and I “sub” at two different dorms for dorm parents who are enjoying a well-deserved weeknight off. We get to eat dinner with the students and help the Residence Assistants (RAs) bake snacks and prepare other meals, and help students with homework. We are really looking forward to introducing you all to Haus Blauen and Haus Bad Riedlingen this year!
I have not even begun to describe our jobs, church, language study, and personal lives, but I think I’ve already used up my allotted ten minutes. Friends from Illinois, we miss you all more than we can say. It continues to sink in that we are so far from all of you every time we get Ultimate Frisbee emails or Open House facebook invitations. We miss our LGC small group and Sunday mornings at LGC (and sermons in English!). We thank you for your prayers for us, and we have felt God’s hand in our lives here. Homesickness has been present but not too acute. Our health has been fantastic, even with me working in a new school! And God has been helping us so much in our work here. We love and miss you all.
sarah and keane
P.S. We have a guest room, and it is guest-ready!! Let us know if you want to come visit southwestern Germany. 🙂