It is hard to believe that it has been 4.5 weeks since I moved to Germany. Thank you for your prayer, encouragement and support!
Seeing that I connected well with the guy students and knowing that I expressed openness to serving in a guys dorm, the BFA residence life leadership placed me in Maugenhard. It is the boys’ dorm here in Kandern, which is walking distance from Black Forest Academy and the village downtown.
What does a typical weekday look like at Maugenhard dorm?
7:15-8:15 - Breakfast (Tues - hot breakfast)
8:30 - Walk to school (except on days of extreme weather and then staff drives)
9:00-12:00 - STAFF: Res. Life Staff meetings/chores/shopping/food prep/laundry (various tasks)
12:00-15:50 - STAFF: Personal rest/correspondence
16:00-16:30 - After school snack
16:00-18:15 - Free time
18:15 - Dinner (staff picks up from central kitchen at school, except weekends which are made at the dorm)
18:45-19:45 - Gratis (chores)/Free time
19:45-19:30 - Study Hours
21:45 - Toast time (Snack)
22:00-22:30 - Prep for Bed (underclassman)
22:30 - Lights out (underclassman)
Within these hours there are many opportunities to connect with the students. Our twenty high-school boys here at Maugenhard Dorm are dear [of course, I don’t say that to their faces :o) ]! It’s been a little over a week living with them all; my heart overflows with gratitude to God that I get to serve here.
The guys are all so different; they have passports from countries like the USA, Malawi, South Africa, and South Korea. The students in the school at large represent 54 countries. I felt like a proud mother at BFA’s opening flag ceremony, where our 6 seniors and many others carried their countries’ flags. We, here at Maugenhard, represent roughly 16 different countries of residence, such as Bosnia, Slovenia, Poland, France, UK, Korea, and many other places in Central Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.
Returning staff is amazed at the change in this year’s seniors at Maugenhard. God is using them to influence the climate of the dorm. Below is a free verse poem that I wrote upon reflecting on what God’s been teaching me through my observations in the dorm:
SEEING: A Ministry to Their Peers
Realizing and admitting,
In a sense, “they don’t need me,”
Is immensely humbling.
Seeing
The steady stream of senior guys’
Quiet parade through the underclassman hallways,
Weaving in and out of each room
To deliver, “goodnight” wishes and hugs to all the younger guys.
Seeing
“Strong,” macho guys
Melt in the arms of their peers,
the upperclassman role-models.
Seeing
The dancing eyes of a junior tell “goodnight stories”
And zealously pray with the dorms’ youngest dorm brother
As he eagerly soaks up his every word.
Seeing
A couple seniors persistently
Entreating the staff to include
A former Maugie, who is now a “home student,”
(But “once a Maugie, always a Maugie”) in dorm bonding activities,
Knowing it would mean so much to him to be included again.
Seeing
The guys wait for the others to walk to school,
Making sure a struggling new student had adequate water
To ease his nauseatingly anxious stomach.
Seeing
The guys minister to one another
In a way I never could
So, I wonder, Why am I here?
I am here
to encourage those seniors that what they do is not in vain
to sit silently alongside a juniors’ goodnight prayer
to continue fostering a safe and inviting environment, so Maugenhard can be a safe place, a haven
to minister mainly without words - at least for now.
to serve and love and continue to make myself available to listen or for God appointments
From seeing Maugenhard guys give to one another,
I’m learning what they need and how they need it.
I see Jesus in them - actions, more poignant than words.
I see Jesus in the love they have for one another - their brothers.
This has to be what Jesus talked about all throughout the Scriptures - “love one another.
They will know you are my followers
Because you love one another.”
Ah, that must be it.
Prayer: Please pray that
- The guys and staff will have a growing desire to know and love God; especially a hand full of students, who are more closed, and, the one student, who has expressed that he is not a Christian yet.
- I will be a humble learner and servant, who does not compare myself to others, and God will guide me as to what my specific role is within the staff and with the guys.
- I will be patient with the process of getting to know most of the guys; that God will supply discernment on when and how to enter into the things they enjoy when I need to as well as creativity to draw the guys to engage in other things at times.
- Additional financial support would come in.
- When relationship building proves difficult, God will remind my heart of what is true about Him and consequently about me.
Thank you for your prayer, encouragement and support!
Peace be with you,
Michelle
I’d love to hear from you: mwaters@teachbeyond.org
