A First for BFA

Friday evening, 29 January 2010, BFA had its first ever wrestling match. Well, it was more of a demonstration, but it was a first for BFA.
This year some interested staff members started a wrestling club for our guy students. On Friday, due to harsh snow conditions, a visiting DoD school had to cancel the home basketball games for the weekend. As we scrambled to come up with alternative activities it suddenly occurred to us that our wrestling club could put on match for our fans. It was an absolute awesome thing to witness (Tim's opinion - some female spectators might not agree!). This might be the start of a new sport for BFA.
Here are some great pictures of the exciting event. Many, if not most, of the spectators had never seen a real wrestling match before. (Of course, we're not talking about the kind of wrestling that goes on in guys' dorms on a regular basis.)

Artwork by Luke

Luke just finished J-Term at Taylor. On Monday his second semester classes will start.
J-Term runs for three weeks and during this time Luke took a concentrated study of a specialized drawing class. Here are two samples of what he produced. Great job, Luke! We are very proud of you!

Holocaust Memorial Day

Today, January 27, is Holocaust Memorial Day in Germany.
Interesting that when we were in Freiburg last Saturday, we saw these "stolpersteine" - the German expression for "stumbling blocks, obstacles, something in the way". These memorials commemorate those who were deported and killed by the Nazis, mostly in Nazi concentration camps or extermination camps.
Schools, relatives, and various organizations investigate facts about people who were deported or persecuted during the Nazi regime. Once the investigation work has been done, the artist Demnig manufactures a 4 inch concrete cube which he covers with a sheet of brass. Then he adds the facts about the person. The stone is then put down flush in the pavement/sidewalk in front of the last residence of the victim.
There are around 270 of these on the streets and sidewalks of Freiburg! We saw just a few of them. It is very sobering to look down and see these as you are walking.
"Here lived Nathan Bloch.....deported in 1940 to Auschwitz...."


Marion and Erna Abraham...."fled to France in 1933....died in 1942 in Auschwitz"

Seven family members are represented here. All fled to France at different times. All but one died in Auschwitz.


Below, you can see the little grouping of the "stolperstein" on the cobblestone sidewalk. They are placed in front of this building where the Grumbacher family last lived before being deported.

A Saturday Outing

Yesterday Tim and I took the train to Freiburg which is approximately 40 minutes from where we live. Even though it is so close, we seldom visit this beautiful city. After our little tour yesterday we decided that we really need to visit more often!







The main purpose of our trip was to spend some time in this wonderful little pottery shop. It is definitely off the beaten trail and was a little tricky to find! It was well worth the hike to get there. We were on a mission to do some shopping for BFA and thankfully we were successful!

Home Basketball Games

Whenever we host home games at BFA we always have a very loyal and enthusiastic crowd of BFA fans who come out to support our teams. This weekend was no exception. We played against Bitburg, one of our DoDDS (Department of Defense Schools) competitors.







Brother and sister






I went outside during one of the games and took some pictures looking into our gymnasium.

Friday Chapel at BFA

Every Friday at BFA we have chapel. At least half of the service is a worship time and is student lead. Tim was the chapel speaker yesterday - he expanded on this years' theme of Jesus being our Rock of Refuge.

Winter Sunset over Kandern

O Little Town of.........

Kandern....where we live



Bad Riedlingen....where Tim once lived


Holzen....where I once lived