Chillin' and Grillin"

This is the first party of our school year and it took place last night. The student council plans these events, so Tyler was busy since, as senior class president he is automatically part of student council.
This picture shows the student council members.

One of the team-building games of the evening involved team members having to "untwist" themselves without letting go of each other's hands! Whoever could accomplish this first was of course the winner.

We have seven dorms at BFA this year and each one, in keeping with an Olympic theme, made a flag to represent their residence. Then they marched in, parading their flags to Chariots of Fire music and a lot of screaming in the background as members of each dorm loudly supported their team!
HBR is the guys dorm where Tim once lived and worked as an RA.

Even though this picture isn't in focus I like it a lot because it is a true picture of the energy and enthusiasm of the amazing and crazy group of students that we get to minister to!

The Pursuit

This is the theme for our new school year at BFA. It is taken from Isaiah 51:1...."Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord....look to the Rock!" Our school chaplain, Sam Stemple, addressed the theme in our opening chapel today.
Luke designed both banners. Those are his hands in the picture!

First chapel of our school year

Back to school!

We have this long-standing tradition in our family that on the first day of school we take a picture of Luke and Tyler on the front steps of our house where they are about to embark on a new adventure and enter a new grade in school! This tradition began way back when they were in kindergarten. This year is the last time I get to take such a picture! Very sad! Here is Tyler, our senior at BFA.

Another school year at BFA is in session. It begin on Tuesday of this week with our annual opening ceremony. The ceremony always begins with the senior class carrying flags into our auditorium - the "parade of the nations". Here they are - 79 of them altogether! They are an awesome class and we love them dearly!

Fellow Canadians - Lindsay, Tyler, Cassia, Phil


Tyler is also American. And he has lived in Germany for 17 years, one of his best friends since Grade 1 is Korean, so he is an international inter-cultural delightful blend! We are very proud of him! Oh, and he is president of his senior class this year!

Every year during our opening exercises Tim brings the first graders up on stage and interviews them and gives each of them a gift(a BFA T-shirt). This year there is only one first grader! He was very brave to come up on stage all by himself and he did a great job of answering Tim's questions and talking with him.

Another tradition that Tim initiated years ago at our opening ceremony is to talk about a famous person from the past who has left a lasting impact on our world. This year he spoke about a famous mathematician. He also incorporated our school's theme for this year - The Pursuit(taken from Isaiah 51:1) into his talk.

One of our BFA families and good friends, the Friehes, who are leaving their daughter here to attend BFA for the first time.

Stephanie(on the left) is a Sophomore at BFA. Her sister Katharina(on the right) graduated from BFA in 2001.

Time to celebrate!

Yesterday was Tyler's 18th Birthday! We had a great time celebrating this very special day with him and some of his friends.

"Happy Birthday to you!"

Billy, Cameron, Tyler, Phil, Ben, Luke, Ginny, Josh - some very special friends that God has given to Tyler!

Billy, Luke's good friend from BFA days, is visiting from Canada. He got here just in time for Tyler's Birthday!

After eating cake, Ty and his friends went next door and played beach volleyball on an outdoor regulation-size sand court. This court is on a large piece of property that houses one of BFA's girls' residences. They had a great time but finally had to quit because it got too dark.


Tyler opening some gifts including a very cool watch that Tim purchased on eBay!

Bella Italia

We have returned from a week away to one of our favorite destinations - Italy! We stayed in the town of Porlezza on the eastern shore of Lake Lugano. Only 3.5 hours from home(barring traffic - Gotthard Tunnel that is!) and only 20 minutes from Switzerland, 25 minutes from Lake Como and 30 minutes from the city of Lugano. Great location for sightseeing and relaxing, and we enjoyed doing both.

Random Italy

All I want for Christmas..........

It didn't quite fit in our suitcase, but almost!

Celebrities captured on digital!!

The obligatory family vacation photo

Day trip to Lake Como

We took a day trip to Lake Como which was only 25 minutes from our apartment. We visited 3 different towns on the lake and traveled on 3 different types of boats to get to our destinations - a hydrofoil, a ferry, and a "normal" slow boat.


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