How can missionaries do what they do?

The One and Only Julie Roop

(Julie's silly attempt to look like a native German in a clothing store)

It has officially been one year (TODAY!) since I have moved to Germany. Over that course of time, I have introduced you to my students at Liel as well as members of my own family. And yet, I have left someone out. You've met my Mom, my Dad, and Jake, and now, you must meet Julie.

Are you familiar with the saying, "behind every good man is a good woman?" It's true, isn't it? A man is able to be a man of integrity, strength, and goodness because of the woman who supports him, loves him, serves him, and cares for him unconditionally. He can't help but be good because of her love that wins him over.

In my case, I would venture to say that "behind every good missionary is a good God and a good family."

If you have ever been encouraged by a missionary's call or even perplexed by their lifestyle, you might ask, "How can missionaries do what they do? How can they make that sacrifice? How can they leave their families?"

Well, friends, I think the answer is two-fold. When the Lord brought BFA to mind, I couldn't help but respond. This is how He moves. This is how He works. He gave me an undeniable love for these missionary kids before I even met them. I just wanted to go. I just wanted to serve those who needed care. And so, I had to be obedient to the call. The Lord gave me the grace I needed to raise support...He gave me the strength I needed to leave my family...He gave me the courage I needed to live in a foreign country. He has surely proven Himself to be a good God. I couldn't be here without Him. And so, it is because of Him that I am who I am. I have no reason to boast in myself. I am a good missionary because of the One who holds me, sustains me, and defends His cause in my life.

But behind every good missionary, there is also a good family. Through their affirmation and encouragement, the Lord has given me the confidence and the assurance I needed to come to BFA. They also make me strong. They believe for me when I doubt or feel defeated. They cover me with their prayers. They give me their blessing. They support me financially. They never question God's call on my life. They send me notes and care packages. They always answer the phone when I call. They always make time for Skype dates. They love me.

Julie loves me. Her generosity and kindness overwhelms me. Behind every good missionary is a good sister. Julie was the first person to support me financially. She was the first person to write a check. Julie was the first person in my immediate family to buy a plane ticket to Germany. Julie was the first person to schedule me in for weekly Skype dates during her Monday lunch break. A baby sister could ask for nothing more than the incredible love that Julie has shown me. I thank God for her. It is her story-telling and jokes that make me laugh to the point of tears. It is her commitment to family and those she serves that makes me proud. It is her generosity that encourages me to give. It is her love that makes me good. And so, this is all you need to know about Julie, my beautiful sister. It is all that truly matters :)

Julie, I hope you can see. I hope you can understand in some small way that you have made me who I am. I am never the same because of the love that you have poured out on me. You have made me good. I couldn't be here without you. I love you, J!

Oh, I am only good because of the God who stands before me and the family who stands behind me. This is precisely why a missionary can do what she does. It is no secret.

Sisters!

Badenweiler, Germany

I love her!

Blauen, Germany

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

Beautiful Two

Two is a significant number, isn't it? Without two feet, we couldn't walk. Without two eyes, we couldn't see. Without two hands, we couldn't reach for or hold anything. Without two ears, we couldn't hear.

On Sunday afternoon, these pictures were taken to represent the significance of two--these are Britta's feet, my feet, and Priscilla's eyes. Beautiful things come in twos right? ...

... Yes, but recently though, it has been difficult to call these last two weeks beautiful. Sometimes the end of something good is seemingly not beautiful at all...

Britta is preparing to go back to Nebraska after spending eight years with her family at BFA. She has to say goodbye to the place that has become her home. She has to say goodbye to friends that she is not sure she will ever see again. This is hard. This is painful. She only has two weeks left.

Liel will only be a middle school dorm for two more weeks. It has been such a good place for our 10 middle schoolers. They have been safe here, cared for here, nurtured here, and loved here. Why does it have to end when it has been so good?

As I process these things, it has been so helpful and so healing to remember who God claims to be. On Sunday evening, we had dorm devotionals and we talked about the Lord as our Good Shepherd. It was so appropriate to remember the Lord as a Shepherd who cares for His sheep because considering the circumstances of Liel closing as a middle school dorm and nine of our students transitioning into a high school dorm, we are all a bit worried and anxious about next year. We don't know where the Lord is taking us. We don't know who our dorm parents will be. There is so much unknown. There is so much uncertainty. It is hard to let go of this good year. It is hard to imagine that next year could be more beautiful or better. BUT, we are all learning that the Good Shepherd is trustworthy. He knows exactly where the green pastures lie. He knows precisely where the still waters flow. It is in His nature to take us there, not to keep us hungry and thirsty.

This moment can be beautiful because He doesn't change in His care or concern for us. He will always be our source of nourishment. He will always be leading us, even if He requires us to leave something good behind and keep pressing forward.

We do believe that the One we are waiting on will not disappoint us.

So, as we wait, we pray that the Lord will gives us eyes to see the beauty of

His character and His plans.

...........

One more quick story about another "Beautiful Two..."

This morning, I was encouraged by something so true and yet so simple. G.I. was speaking with me about someone who had given him advice yesterday. This man said, "All that the Lord requires of you, G.I., is to love the Lord your God and to love your neighbor as yourself." These two commands, alone, are what the Lord requires of us. G.I. was so comforted by these words because no matter how difficult school can be, he knows that he will always be able to love the Lord and love his neighbor. In that moment, life suddenly became manageable for G.I. He was given purpose again. These two beautiful commandments free him. After our conversation, he walked out of the door to catch the bus with a smile on his face :)

A.J. the Miracle Boy!

A.J. on defense

May 6, 2011

JV Girls vs. 8th Grade Soccer Game

So, I have three weeks left of school and I still need to introduce you to two more students! This afternoon, I wanted to highlight A.J. for the true miracle that he is to our Liel family but also to his own parents, Warren and Laura. This past fall, we anticipated welcoming two military students to our dorm--Laura and Roman (R.J.). R.J.'s application had been received and accepted. He and his mother were moving to Germany and his mom was to be stationed at the U.S. military base in Stuttgart. On the day of our students' arrival, R.J. never came. The director of ResLife at BFA received a call explaining that R.J. had decided to remain with his mom and go to school on base. This left us with one open bed. Who would fill it?

While Bob, Sue, and I were getting to know our 9 new students while also processing the loss of a student that we had expected to join our family, A.J. was helping to move his 15-yr-old sister into the Palmgarten dorm in Kandern. A.J. had applied to BFA, but since there was no room for him in the boarding program, he would be required to wait a year and attend Italian schools before he could join his sister, Olivia, at BFA. But, the Lord certainly had other things in mind... A.J. would go back to Italy with his parents, but only for a day to get all of his things! The same day that A.J. was helping to move his sister into Palmgarten, he received a call from the ResLife supervisor inviting him to stay at BFA after a student (R.J.) suddenly withdrew his application. And so, A.J. joined our family at Liel!

As months have passed and as the school year is about to end, I think I can speak for all of the staff at Liel and say that life certainly wouldn't be the same without A.J. The Lord was so good and so generous in allowing us to share life with A.J. Though he is certainly a quiet and introverted young man, there is such incredible depth to his personality.

In so many ways, A.J. is your typical middle school boy--he loves sports, he will eat everything (up to 8 servings of lasagna...haha, seriously!), his room is messy, he doesn't like to wear shoes around the house or a jacket to school on chilly mornings, his feet smell, and he loves to sleep! And yet, he is also unlike most boys... he is always singing worship music around our house (while he does his homework, while he plays on the computer, while he washes dishes, while he is shooting basketball...), he has memorized passages of Scripture, he always has something profound to say, and the Lord has given him such confidence about sharing his adoption story...

You see, before A.J. was even born, his biological mother had already made plans to give him up for adoption in Mexico. At the time, A.J.'s adoptive parents were serving as American missionaries there, planting churches and taking in Mexican children as their own. A.J. was Warren and Laura's second child to be adopted from Mexico.

I love A.J. and I am so impressed by his character because at age 14, there is no shame as he shares his adoption story. It is not something to hide. It is not something to be embarrassed about. Instead, it is something that he rejoices in! He is Mexican and he is proud of his heritage, he is American after being raised by the parents whom he so affectionately loves, and he is also Italian as he supports his parents' current ministry outreach. A.J. is exactly who God has created him to be.

One more encouraging story about A.J...

This past Sunday, we were talking about God as 'Light of the World' during our dorm devotions and I challenged our students to think about practical ways that they could be light. For just as Christ called himself the Light of the World (John 8), He also explained that we too are to be cities on hills, lights that shine before men (Matthew 5), and people who declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness and into His wonderful light (I Peter 2). After several students had shared their thoughts, A.J. said something quite unexpected, but incredibly true and profound, "Maybe, it's not about 'doing' anything. Maybe all we need is just to 'be.'" I see the light of the world in A.J. just as he is--he is kind, compassionate, loving, respectful, and gentle. He is a young man whose mind has been transformed by Christ. A.J. doesn't have to 'do' anything to be light, he just is light--it's so natural, so real, so authentic. Because of what God has done and because of the love and forgiveness that A.J. has received, there is remarkable light shining forth in this young life.

And so, I praise God for A.J. and the great encouragement he is to me. He is one of the most precious little brothers that an RA could ever ask for :)

A.J.

September 2, 2010

Runners! Take your mark... Get set...GO!

The countdown: 3 more weeks of school!

To illustrate the significance of the number 3 , Laura and I thought our pictures this week should be taken with the 30 km speed sign conveniently marked on the street in front of our house. And now that our track season has ended, we also thought it would be neat to show the three positions that a runner takes as he or she prepares for a sprint off the blocks... check out the following three pictures as Laura demonstrates:

Position 1, Taking the mark...

Position 2, Getting set...

Position 3, Taking off!

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

While there are still three weeks of school left, the BFA Track season has ended, but let me give you a quick update and brag about my girls for just a second :) ...

Last week, Laura, Priscilla, and I traveled to the Frankfurt International School with the BFA track team for the first track meet of the season open to junior high athletes. Laura ran the 1500m race in 6:10 minutes and the 800m race in about 3:05 minutes. Priscilla ran the 100m dash in 14.31 seconds, the 200m dash in about 31.03 seconds, and the 400m dash. I was incredibly impressed by their performances! And for me, it was such a blessing to be able to travel with the team in order that I could coach, encourage, and cheer for these stellar athletes.

Next Spring, I hope to continue coaching and perhaps be a bit more involved if I can. I have found track to be such an intimate sport and I love that fans and coaches can watch and attend to one athlete while he or she competes against others. Team sports are certainly great, but track and field is just so unique. I get goosebumps watching some of our athletes run and truly push themselves to the limit. In one race, a spectator can see an athlete showcase his or her greatest skills and talents, which is not always the case in team sports since individual performance is typically dependent on the team. I have so much respect for these BFA students and I look forward to our next season together.

Priscilla, Lauren, and Laura

Frankfurt, Germany

May 7, 2011

4!

4!

The Liel Family (minus Marshall and Lauren)

"4!" may be equivalent to 24 if you see this as an equation and solve it as a factorial, but for us at Liel, "4!" means something so much more. It's official: four more weeks of school...four more June birthdays to celebrate...four more weekends together...4!

These last four weeks are extraordinarily special at Liel for several reasons. Next year, it looks as though our middle school dorm will be converted to a high school girls dorm to accommodate the abundance of applications for the high school girls boarding program. Just as the life of a third-culture-kid (TCK) seems to be defined by change, Black Forest Academy is also a place of constant change. I think we were all sad to hear the news about Liel, but we are certainly going to embrace these last few weeks together. We can be happy and glad because we have made history at BFA! Never before has the school opened a dorm specifically for middle schoolers. We are also unique in that we have a co-ed dorm with an awesome mix of guys and girls... AND we represent the smallest dorm with 10 students and 3 staff members (which has allowed us to be a more closely knit family). We can also rejoice that with this change, 10 more missionary kids will have an opportunity to receive an education at BFA. For these young women, all of the change is worth it.

If you can pray with us, we would be so grateful. Pray for the placement of four middle school students who have been accepted into the boarding program next year (it looks as though a home placement is most likely where missionaries in the area will open up their homes to house these students...one of our own, Laura, is included in this). Pray for our own 8th grade girls at Liel who now have the option of staying at Liel after they already decided to go elsewhere. Pray also for a couple to come to BFA to serve as dorm parents--Residence Life at BFA is still searching for willing servants to fill these vacant roles. And finally, please pray for me. Though, I will remain at BFA for another year, I am not sure where I will be serving. My placement is dependent on so many factors and so, this is a season of change again for me... a season of uncertainty... a season of waiting on the Lord.

Though I do rejoice today because as I was reminded in the Gospel of Luke (ch. 12) that the Lord has instructed us to not worry about our LIFE. It seems easier (in part) not to worry about tomorrow, but to not worry about my LIFE? This is radical. This is hard. Though He does give me the desires of my heart, He certainly doesn't include me in the planning of my life. He doesn't ask about my thoughts on converting the Liel dorm. He doesn't warn me about the possible loss of my current position, ministering to middle schoolers. He just acts. He just decides. And sometimes, He takes away. In the midst of this, He also asks me to replace my worry with belief. After all, He says, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This is a promise that I cling to.

And so, despite the change, I am more at peace now because I know that I will SEE the kingdom in the children that I will get to serve next year, regardless of their age or gender. It's simply not worth worrying about... My Jesus came to GIVE me the Kingdom, certainly not to take it away.

To the One to whom all children belong,

Lauren

The girls say "Guten Morgan!"