Our Final Family Portraits

Last week, a good friend of mine came and snapped these last photos of our Liel family. [Thank you, Dani and Israel!]

I will forever cherish this year and the incredible opportunity it was to build relationships with Britta, Laura, Joyce, Priscilla, Kate, Ira, AJ, GI, Luke, and Josh.

The 2010-2011 school year is officially complete.

Middle school classes ended Monday.

Middle school final exams were completed Tuesday.

61 BFA seniors graduated yesterday.

And at the conclusion of today, all 10 of our middle school students will be home.

Since this week was our final week together, we wanted to make it as special as possible for our middle schoolers...

On Tuesday afternoon, we treated our 10 students to an Italian dinner out on the town (which is a treat given the fact that families of 14 are difficult to seat and expensive to take out) and then we came back to the house to watch a slideshow of pictures and videos from the school year. The evening was completed with creative Dorm Awards. As each student was called forward to receive their award, we took several minutes to explain what we (as a family of staff and students) valued and appreciated about that person and then Bob, Sue, or I would pray over the student. It was incredibly uplifting and it was such a healthy way for us to close our year together. Giving the students the freedom to express thanks, affirm their friends, encourage their roommates, and articulate how valuable they find their dorm brothers and sisters to be... well, this would make any mother cry :) It was beautiful. Brothers lifted up sisters. Sisters praised brothers. And they all expressed their admiration for their dorm parents, Bob and Sue.

I always laugh when people think I am so unique because of my affinity towards middle schoolers. They explain that this is a special calling as it must require an abundance of energy and an extra measure of patience. I would agree that there are certainly those called to minister to this age group, but you must realize that this is no ordinary group of middle schoolers. It would be difficult for anyone not to fall in love with them! They are spectacular. They are mature beyond their years. They are compassionate and respectful. They are silly and energetic. They are sensitive and generous. They are wonderful.

..............

As this year comes to a close and as I have time to process my first year in missions, I hope to continue sharing some of my reflections with you over the summer. So, please continue to read this blog and please continue to pray.

This summer, I will be living in the nearby town of Holzen and watching a house and a poodle for a missionary family while they are on home assignment in the States. I am excited to have these next two months to rest... to read... to refill my cup... and to spend time with the Lord before Residence Life training begins again on August 1. As much as I have been giving and pouring out over the past 10 months, pray that I would know how to be still. Pray that God would teach me and encourage me and prepare for me what is ahead. Pray that family and friends coming to visit this summer would have a better understanding of the needs here and why this ministry is so important to me. Pray that as I continue to serve at BFA, that I would become more like Christ for the sake of my students.

Pray for our students. Pray that their reunions with their families would restore them. Pray that they might be kept protected as some are in dangerous parts of the world. Pray for our returning students to Liel (Laura, Priscilla, and Joyce), pray for the students transitioning to new high school dorms (Kate to Blauen, Ira to Witt, GI to Sonne, AJ to HBR, Marshall, Josh, and Luke to Maugenhard), pray for our 9 new high school girls coming to Liel in the fall as well as the Gallaghers coming to serve as dorm parents with their three children.

Thank you, friends, for joining me in this year of outreach. I appreciate you more than you will ever know.

May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ

just as He has so faithfully done for me.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

Yours,

Lauren

Kate: "What is your love story??"

One last introduction: Kate Lee!

May 2011

From the first day that I met her in September of 2010, I was captivated by Kate's bubbly personality. Never before have I met someone who expresses so much enthusiasm in her speech and I just love it! Kate is able to take any common or bland English phrase and spice it up with some Korean inflection and flavor--I find myself smiling just thinking about it :) Some of these phrases include, "Oh my gosh!"... "That is so gross!"... "OH! Watch the poops!" [exclaimed on several of our treks through the woods when we would come upon an animal dropping]... "Lauren, what is that?"... "Oh, that is so good!"

There is so much that I value in Kate. She is exuberant. She is funny. She is entertaining. She is brave. She is extremely disciplined and extraordinarily intelligent. At the 8th grade awards ceremony last Saturday, Kate won an academic award for being the top scholar in her Algebra 1 class. We were so proud! And then, I can't forget to say that Kate is such a romantic! On special occasions, when we have guests over for dinner at Liel, each student is encouraged to ask the guest a question of any kind--it can be serious, goofy, relevant, irrelevant, spiritual, etc. But the BEST question that always receives the BEST answers would consistently come from Kate when she asked, "What is your LOVE story?!?" Sometimes the guest would keep his or her answers brief, but others would go into extreme detail and the answer became more of a narrative that would have us rolling on the floor in fits of laughter with cramps in our stomachs and tears in our eyes. We could always expect that Kate would be brave enough to ask this question to any guest invited to our table :)

Kate comes to us from Seoul, South Korea, because it was extremely important to her parents that she receive a formal English education in an authentically Christian environment. She left all of her Korean friends, her culture, her family, and everything that was familiar in order to come to BFA. And so, I admire her strength and her courage.

Some interesting facts about Kate:

-She is obsessed with oranges and bananas...she eats them like candy!

-She wrote in her BFA application that she wants to be a foreign diplomat when she grows up

-The first thing that she is going to do when she arrives home tomorrow is kiss her two dogs!

-Kate is extremely thoughtful and encouraging--before leaving for Korea today, she left handwritten notes for all of the girls

-She is a creative and contemplative. Enjoy her poem entitled, "True Love"

It's white and pure like snow

comes to my cold heart

looking inside of my heart

and waits until the door opens.

It's warm and bright like the light

touches my cold heart

knocking the door softly

comes inside my heart softly.

It's hot and strong like fire

lives in my heart

getting bigger and bigger

consumes my heart completely.

It becomes cold and dry like ice

leaves my heart

taking warmness and brightness

gives hurts to my heart.

My heart closes the door now

tears falling down

waiting, waiting for my true love.

Kate the Romantic!

(After the girls had finished playing 'makeover')

February 2011