"Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us about His ways
And that we may walk in His paths. " Micah 4:2
Shortly after posting my last newsletter, I hopped on a bus and rode with my small group girls to Freiburg for our high school retreat. The weekend was filled with talks from a former ER pediatrician who has a passion to spread the gospel and encourage other believers. My small group girls were encouraged and challenged by the speaker, but also demonstrated wisdom in their critique of some things. I am so thankful to continue to watch God strengthen the faith of these seven girls, some of whom have been in the group with Libby and me since their freshman year. It will be bittersweet watching them graduate in a little less than two months.
Spring Break (pictured below center)
Islands in the Mediterranean are still cold at the end of March, but traveling in the offseason has some advantages. Because of great deals, my sister, Lorelei, came from Prague and traveled with Christian and I were able to spend five fun days in Majorca. When we picked up our rental car they offered us an SUV which we declined. The whole rest of the trip was filled with one of us saying, as we drove around the island on extremely narrow streets, "Glad this isn't an SUV!" The towns and scenery were beautiful, and it was a refreshing time away for all three of us.
Das Evangelium: The Gospel
"May I ask you a personal question? Do you believe in God?" I had already rehearsed this and the conversation that followed several times to ensure that to the best of my ability the gospel would come out clearly in my limited German. I then proceeded to share the gospel in simple German with my Physiotherapist, Caroline, as she worked on my neck. Over the past few months, we have been developing a friendship at my appointments as I practice German, and we share about our lives with one another. She is about my age and has three young children. Caroline recently shared about her husband's diagnosis of cancer, and I have been praying for her and her family. Please pray with me that God would work in their lives to draw her and her family to Himself.
ICEC (pictured above)
I was sent by BFA to attend the International Christian Educators Conference that was held in Prague. At this conference, I had the opportunity to lead 3 workshops. Two of them were specific to Special Education: Writing Goals and Progress Monitoring and the third was a roundtable on differentiated instruction in the classroom. All of the keynote addresses were excellent and challenged us both as educators but more importantly as Christians. The bonus to the weekend was staying with the Macomber's and spending a day at the zoo with Lorelei and the kids. The whole weekend was a great experience.
Easter Weekend (pictured below right)
The Macomber's came over from Prague for their Easter Break, and we spent the long weekend together. On our first day together we enjoyed a trip over to France to visit a castle and then went to a monkey preserve. The next day we hiked to some castle ruins near Kandern and played "Wandergolf" (similar to mini-golf) and on Easter Monday (a holiday here) we spent the day with Christian's family. My nieces and nephews were able to see where I live and teach.
Please Pray...
Praise God, high school retreat was a time for our group to draw closer to God and each other.
Praise God, our school's accreditation visit went very well
Praise God, for the opportunities that I had over the past two months to be with my sister and her family
Praise God, for the opportunity to share the gospel with Caroline
For Caroline and her family to have an openness and interest to know God
For my grandma who is receiving a pacemaker (she was to move with my parents this weekend)
For my parents, and mom especially with the stress of the move and my grandma's health
For an opportunity to learn more German over the summer and wisdom in pursuing the right class
For strength to finish the year well. We are down to six weeks plus final exams.
For Bridget and others who are raising support to come work at BFA next year