Lots of Concerts

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Jill

The last two weeks before Music Festival were full of performances. I already blogged about the Evening Recital a week and a half ago, but we had 6 other mini-recitals within those two weeks in order to give the students a chance to perform their pieces before Festival. We had Tuesday and Thursday informal recitals at BFA, and both Wednesdays we visited the local nursing homes.

Lately I’ve been forgetting to take pictures of all the events going on, but I did remember to bring it to the last nursing home concert on Wednesday.

One of my guitar students teamed up with his sister, who also happens to be one of my violin students. Here’s a portion of their performance:

These recitals definitely helped prepare the students for Music Festival! I’ve seen improvements since last week in most of the students who performed at the nursing home! Don’t worry, I’ll write an extensive post about Music Festival after it’s all done.

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Musical Quoteables

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Jill

In Guitar class, H.L. was struggling with a rhythm, but finally got it in time for a quiz. Just before playing, she said, “I’m feelin’ it! Let’s hope that Karma doesn’t fail me now! Don’t worry guys, I don’t believe in Karma I believe in Jesus!”

* * *

In a violin lesson:

A.P. “Your name lives up to you!”

Me: “You mean I live up to my name?”

A.P. “Right, that makes more sense.”

* * *

When the clock in my office was running out of battery, it started spinning out of control trying to connect to the radio signal. I took it down from the wall and removed the battery. When A.P. asked why the clock was gone, I said, “I gave the clock a time out.”

* * *

During K.N.’s guitar lesson, I was empathizing with her frustrations, but it came out as a lisp: “This pieth, it ith the death of you!”

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Musick Notes #30

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Jill

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Longido, Tanzania – Compassion Video

Posted on February 18, 2013 by Jill

Here’s another glimpse into the school in Tanzania where I’ll be going in just about 1 month!

Update on support: At this point, I have receive about 410 Euros out of the 600 I need to go. Only 190 Euros more (about $250 USD at the current exchange rate) and I’m fully covered! Whatever amount doesn’t come in, I’ll pay for using some of my monthly support funds from WorldVenture. Thanks to all who have contributed so far!

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Evening Recital

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Jill

Saturday night was another Evening Recital. There was a flurry of activity before the recital actually started (forgotten music, a missing performer), but we started the program basically on time.

I opened with a few announcements and a devotional:

It’s February in Kandern, and that means dark, dreary days. The snow was exciting when it came last December, but by now most people are tired of it. The fog, mist, rain, snow, cold, and dark days drag on. It feels like we never get to see the light of the sun.

 This seemingly never-ending darkness reminds me of Israel’s darkness in waiting for the Messiah to come. In the midst of the injustice of a falling kingdom, Isaiah says,

“Justice is far from us,and righteousness does not overtake us; we hope for light, and behold, darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men.” (Is. 59:9-10)

But Isaiah gave reason for hope, because a Light was coming.

“A Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the LORD. (Is. 59:20) 

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Is. 60:1-3)

And we know that the Light came – Jesus. In John 1 it says,

“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:4).

We have this Light living with and in us, overcoming the darkness of the world and the darkness of our struggles and trials. We can celebrate and remind ourselves of His presence through music. Any time something joyful happened, Isaiah called for music! For instance, in chapter 38, he said,

“The LORD will save me, and we will play my music on stringed instruments all the days of our lives at the house of the LORD.” (Is. 38:20)

Every day – Isaiah wanted music every day! As you listen to the music that these students have been practicing every day (or almost every day), let it be a reminder of the beauty of the Light, and the brightness of God’s presence in your life.  

Those are some good tidings!

That last phrase transitioned nicely to the first performer, who sang an excerpt from Handel’s Messiah (I filled in last-minute on the cello part):

 

Several other performances also seemed to fit with the theme of “light.”

Check out bfavideos on YouTube to see even more performances from the recital! Many thanks to Hans Fung for videotaping.

The last piece was Mozart’s variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I closed out the evening with a few more words:

Let’s give another round of applause to these students!

Thank you for coming and enjoying the joyful music.  There are several more opportunities to hear quality music this semester, but for now I’d like to highlight the next major musical event: Music Festival. Starting a week from Monday, our students will be performing solos for adjudicators, who will select outstanding performances to play or sing in the Honors Recital on Thursday night. So come back here a week from Thursday to hear high-quality music!

Music helps us celebrate not only what we already have, but also what we do not have yet! We can look forward to the time when…

“The sun shall be no more your light by day, nor for brightness shall the moon give you light; but the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.” (Is. 60:19-20)

Thank you for coming; feel free to enjoy tea and coffee in the lobby.

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Masks and Community

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Jill

Yesterday in chapel, the speaker talked about a very relevant subject for BFA students: wearing masks. TCKs are very good at blending in and acting in a way that will allow them to fit in; they’ve learned to adapt to various cultures, including “Christian” culture. They’re not always so good at being themselves or being honest about who they really are. It’s a problem of humanity; we try to look good for the people around us. It is difficult to share our struggles because we start to think that if the people around us knew how creepy we really are, they wouldn’t like us any more.

The chapel speaker challenged everyone to tell at least one close friend about a struggle in our life. He said we don’t need to tell the whole world all of our personal struggles, but it is a weight lifted if we can share a burden with a trusted friend. Then he said if you are the friend that someone goes to, you should do 2 things to encourage your friend who just shared something difficult:  1. Admit – You’re a lot worse than I could see from the outside, and 2. God’s grace and love are a lot bigger than you think.

Church, or a fellowshipping community like BFA, should be a welcoming place where people are free to take off their masks. How can we make it more like that? That’s a question I’ll be pondering. What can I do to allow others to share their struggles openly and honestly with me? Maybe if I take the first step and share my own struggles with others, they will find the freedom to share their own with me.

In guitar class, we played “Eleanor Rigby” – I asked “What does the line mean ‘wearing the face that she keeps in the jar by the door?'” They figured it out – She puts on a happy face when she goes outside, even though she’s lonely. She wears a mask. Then we started talking about chapel. One student said BFA is harder than public school to be who you really are, because if you have problems, they’re not accepted. Another student said BFA is a lot easier than public school. Perhaps for those who already live Christian lives, it’s easier to act like a Christian at BFA because everyone else does, whereas living like a Christian in a secular setting (public school) is difficult because your morals and faith are often mocked. But some of our students are either not Christians or struggle more with significant sin issues; these kids find that they have to wear a mask of “Christian look-alike” to fit in at BFA.

Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners. Do we really accept and love people who have problems? Don’t we all have problems? Does it help at all to cover them up? What if we all took off our masks?

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Introducing a New Character

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Jill

My blog is a collection of stories that give you as readers a window into my life. My purpose in writing is to celebrate the work God does in and through my life, to process my own thoughts as my overseas adventures happen, and to share these thoughts and stories with people in the US who are praying for me. Hopefully, these stories reflect the complete story God has been writing in and through me. He is the great Author, and I must give Him credit for everything that appears on my blog, because He has written it into my life first. I don’t generally separate “work” and “ministry” from “personal” things, because God is at work in all areas of my life.

Last summer, God decided to introduce a new character into my life story.  You know those times you watch a movie and there’s a twist in the plot toward the end that makes you want to watch the whole thing from the beginning so you can see the clues that fit it all together? Or those times you’re reading a book and you don’t realize the significance of that minor character until he becomes a major character? Well, I’m about to take you back over the last 6-7months from a new angle. But first, I need to introduce you to someone I thought was just a minor character last summer: Lane Selin.

I blogged about my road trip adventures over the summer. I spent the 4th of July  in Minnesota at the Selin family celebration. On that day, I was introduced to Lane Selin, Elizabeth’s cousin. I didn’t think much about the meeting; though he was an attractive guy with an infectious laugh who seemed to get along really well with all his cousins, I was heading back to Germany and wasn’t looking to meet any new people, especially so far from my home in Illinois. Plus, he’s a farmer, and what do I know about farming? Nothing, really. How could I really relate to him?

    

Well, I got back to Germany and started getting ready for the new school year.  The day after writing that post, I got a facebook message from Lane. This started a whirlwind of messages, back and forth almost every day. We talked about corn, BFA, music, missionary kids, faith, snowmobiles, road trips, and combines, among other things. August, September, October: In the midst of a road trip to Bremen, caring for a cat, starting up guitar lessons, orchestra, small group, running, castle camping, nursing home performances, and other stuff in my life, I was also writing to Lane. Sometimes his thoughts or reflections turned out to be just the thing I needed to say to a student in a particular situation later that day. We also started finding that God was teaching us the same things, often through the same Bible passages, though we were on 2 different continents. So many “coincidences” appeared; it seemed that God was writing our story as we wrote to each other.

Through our writing, I came to realize that Lane has an incredibly strong faith, shows spiritual leadership, desires to continue growing in knowledge and love of God, works hard with his hands and his mind, is responsible, loves kids, has a great sense of humor, appreciates music deeply, and is a passionate do-er rather than being passive. November-December we started talking on Skype in addition to writing. When Lane stated his intentions to continue getting to know me more (late October), he followed it up with a trip to visit my family in Illinois (and had a significant conversation with my Dad). During Finals week, Lane visited me in Germany, and officially asked me to be his girlfriend on top of the Sausenburg castle tower!

      

Just a note of clarification: we’re “dating,” but in the serious sense, using this time to see if God is leading us to get married. Some might call this “courting,” but we figure that term might cause more confusion than it’s worth, especially among teenagers.

This post is far too short to fully explain this epic story being written, but already much too long for the average attention span of a blog reader. If you would like to know more details, email me or call me up and we’ll have coffee (if you’re on this continent)! I can already imagine some of the questions . . . “Wait, so you had only seen him in person 1 day before he came to visit you? Were you nervous?”  “How could you know him well enough through writing to really trust his character?” “Can you really see yourself as a farmer’s wife?” etc.  But at least this post gives you the gist of the events that have been happening behind the scenes!

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Snow!!!

Posted on February 8, 2013 by Jill

Today, the friendly Fedora-cigar man saw me walking by again, this time wearing my snow boots. He muttered in Alemannisch, “Heut isch glatt, na?” which means approximately, “Slippery out today, huh?”

Yes, today was slippery but beautiful. We woke up to a big snowfall yesterday morning, and it has been snowing off and on for the past two days. Yesterday the school celebrated with a snowball fight, and I made a large snowball in the field above the school. Today, I was able to take 2 short walks, enjoying the sunshine as it pried its fingers around the clouds to touch my face with warmth.

Thank you, Lord, for days full of sun and snow!

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Rain Boots

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Jill

Today, I was walking into town to send a letter to a lady I met in the hospital over Christmas break. As I walked by one of the nursing homes, I saw one of the familiar old men out with his walker. He’s the man with a fedora, a smile, an occasional wink, and a steady flow of conversation for any human he meets. Unfortunately, most of his conversation is in Alemannisch, so most of us BFA people have a hard time understanding him.

Today, I saw him pushing his walker toward me, and I smiled. He smiled back and said something unintelligible, partly because he was still far away from me, and partly because the thick cigar hanging from his mouth prevented the words from coming out clearly.

“Wie bitte?” I asked. What was that you said?

“Deine Gummistiefel! Prima!” he said, gesturing toward my feet. Your rubber rain boots! They’re fantastic!

Yes, I have fantastic rain boots. Even old Fedora-cigar-walker man noticed them. My bright yellow-blue plaid boots can brighten a rainy day, and today is one of those gray days that needed a boost of color.

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Start-Stop-Restart

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Jill

This year is different than every year before it at BFA. Our school year started 2 weeks later than usual, so everything, including finals, has been pushed back. In years past, students took finals and midterms before Christmas break. This year, they came back to 2 more weeks of class before having finals the week of January 21.

Start: 2 weeks of classes.

Stop: Finals week, Jan. 21-23

Restart:  Beginning of 2nd semester classes, Jan. 24

So what did I do with orchestra  guitar class, and lessons for the end of the semester? Well, orchestra did a mini chamber music unit; we all played a student composition as a group of 7, and I broke the students into 3 duets. It ended up being a beneficial time that allowed me to challenge the more advanced students and give the less advanced students easier music to work on. We performed the pieces Tuesday January 15. For the remaining 3 days, we did a listening project in the class. We listened to Dvorak’s String Sextet in A several times (about 6 total), and the students wrote their impressions of the mood, color, emotion, and pictures evoked by the music, then they wrote out the form, then created a story using the images and the form. Listen and see what images would come from your imagination!

Guitar class worked on their second half of their final exam: leading a worship set. The first week back was fairly relaxed; we discussed elements and factors in leading a worship set effectively, then they started to plan and practice their own sets. The second week was the performance, and half their final grade (the first half was the Christmas concert before break).

In thinking about leading worship, I have found this blog to be very helpful. If you lead worship, consider checking it out!

During this Start-stop-restart season, I have had many students missing lessons. We barely adjusted back to the school schedule before changing the schedule entirely. It’s difficult to remember a lesson when the routine hasn’t been set. It’s making me more than a little nervous for Music Festival, which is coming up at the end of February!

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