This past week at BFA was Spiritual Emphasis Week, a time for us as a school to re-focus on God. Every morning started with a chapel session involving worship music then a message by Dave Martin, a BFA dad.
The most catchy tune of the week was “We Are the Free.” The entire middle school was reportedly singing it at every free moment; our small group girls burst into a chorus of “Oh oh ooooh oh oh…” on Thursday night; and several teachers were prank called with a recording of that song the same night. Here’s a clip from Friday:
The messages were filled with interesting stories from the speaker’s life – some funny, some soberingly serious. He talked about wounds and scars throughout the week, walking us through some of Jesus’ parables of healing: the blind Bartimaeus, the woman who was healed from 12 years of bleeding, and the paralyzed man whose friends broke through a roof to get him to Jesus. Just like the blind Bartimaeus, we all need to recognize that we are in need of healing. We need to admit the things that have wounded us in the past. Like the woman who endured 12 years of bleeding, we need to recognize that Jesus is the only One who can heal our wounds. And like the paralyzed man’s friends, we should bring our sick and wounded friends to the Healer so they too can be restored.
Thursday was a dramatic day. During the first three days, students had been writing words on a mirror on stage – words representing hurt, pain, wounds – the things we see when we look at ourselves. After walking us through the story of Jesus’ death, in which Jesus Himself was wounded, the speaker smashed the mirror with an axe! Because Jesus bore our sorrows, the pain of our past is smashed – we are no longer those people, we are being re-made in God’s image. By His wounds we are healed.
Friday was also a dramatic, moving day. The speaker walking us through the excitement of Jesus’ resurrection. Then several staff members were involved in a dramatic representation of the transformation from wounded to healed. They walked across the stage holding pieces of cardboard showing something that had been a struggle or caused them pain; then, one by one, they flipped the cardboard to reveal how that thing had been changed to the opposite.
At the end, all staff and students were invited to take a rock from the stage, write their own personal struggle or pain on the rock, take it outside and throw it in the creek (reminds me of Leviticus 14:40). When we came in, we picked up a smaller rock as a “stone of remembrance” (Joshua 4). As the Israelites crossed the Jordan river and left the desert of wandering behind, so we have crossed over from death into life. The stone is a reminder that we are not enslaved by those things any more; the wounds have become scars. We are the free! (oh oh ooooh…)
As a whole, I had never seen the student body of BFA so engaged in the week. Pray for continued growth and transformation in the lives of these students!
