August BFA Update

Hallo from Deutschland!


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 

Week One in Maugenhard: Picture Summary

1st Campfire with Brother/Sister Dorm

School Shopping at a French "Super Walmart" type-place

Saturday Pancake Breakfast Prep

Successful shopping thanks to a French-speaking student

Fire-building in a wet season

Some of the dorm guy at an opening meeting

Fun times doing school lunch prep with one of my co-RAs

 

Corey (RA), Mark (DP), Sue (DP), Tiffany (RA), Michelle (RA)

This is our full Maugenhard boys' dorm staff -
A God-ordained mix of Ireland/Montana/Georgia/Tennessee/Germany/Canada/Indiana/Texas

The Boys Are Moving In!

The time has arrived! The new guys to Maugenhard dorm move in tomorrow! 
We are going to pray through the rooms tomorrow morning for the guys.  Please pray with us over them, asking God to draw them to Himself, grow them in maturity and develop an authentic community among them.


We will have 21 guys in the dorm and five staff members.  As I said in my welcome notes to several guys, I am excited for them each to be a part of Maugenhard dorm.  I look forward to getting to know them.  I believe they each have a great deal they bring to the dorm.  I am glad they are here. 

It is not an accident that this group of students and staff are here for this season.  May God be honored and glorified and the spiritual forces of darkness be resisted.

Please pray that I, the other RAs and dorm parents will abide in Christ and allow Him to do the work in and through us this year specifically.

Peace be with you,
Michelle
(email me at mwaters@teachbeyond.org)

A Brief Photo-Journal Survey of My Last 3 Weeks in Germany

A Brief Photo-Journal Survey

of My Last 3 Weeks in Germany

Holzen, Germany (location of Storch dorm): Where I stayed when I was in transition for the first 1.5 week, living out of a suitcase.  It was a time of serious culture shock and info overload but beautiful walks every once and a while.

I am mastering driving stick.  This is an earlier driving lesson.  Tomorrow I have my driving test in the vans to certify me to drive students.

BFA high school building!  - with one of my Co-RAs, Tiffany (but we didn't know we'd be together at the time of the photo)

Herr und Frau Fields, my Australian German language and culture teachers for the 1st week. They are great teachers and much fun!  We had field trips :)

Orientation each week has many topics to cover, so we have spent many afternoon in Storch dorm having ResLife meetings.  They are interesting  topics but a lot of information.  I am taking notes and hoping other people will remember, too.  We are a team.  ResLife here is full of quality people from amazingly diverse backgrounds.  It is neat to see everyone's uniqueness come out.  God has definitely put together the unique teams for a reason.  It is not an accident we are here.

Peace be with you,

Michelle

I've Been Placed: Maugenhard Dorm!

Michelle  (RA); Susan and Mark  (Dorm Parents); Tiffany (RA); Corey (RA) [unpictured]

Hallo!

I am ending my second week of living in Germany.  It has been an experience comparable to "drinking out of a fire hydrant."  Moving to a different country (learning to speak Deutsch, drive stick, do things differently) and becoming involved with a relational ministry (ResLife and support) therein is "different" (the word I am learning to say instead of "weird").  I've had numerous opportunities already to laugh at myself driving, speaking, and buying (i.e. I accidentally bought to two shampoos, thinking one was conditioner.)

The big news is:

I've Been Placed: Maugenhard Dorm! Click: Maugenhard Dorm

After a week of getting to know the other new and returning ResLife staff, I was assigned to Maugenhard BFA high school boy's dorm with RAs Tiffany and Cory!  I get to be a caring and involved older sister to the guys and support to the dorm family.  It was been a phenomenal opportunity as well as a definite growing experience to have 21 new brothers. :)  God said He will equip me for what God calls me to - even this!

Lord willing, the RAs will move in this Wednesday after the summer English Camps are finished with the dorms.  The students then will start returning around August 21st.  Until then we will continue with staff bonding and meetings as well as additional ResLife and German culture training.  It has been fast, fun, challenging, but good.

I am excited to share a short video and more pictures with you soon about life here and the staff I get to work with.  Keep posted to my blog for more of these things.

For now, "Tschuss" (bye) - and please share this update with your church family as well as any others you think would want to know.

 Peace be with you, Michelle Waters (I'd love to hear from you - email me at mwaters@teachbeyond.org)