Hello all,
At long last, Christmas break is upon us, my jetlagged family has arrived and is sleeping in the other room, and I'm finally sitting down to fill you in on some highlights of this fall season at BFA. As always seems to be the case, there is a lot I could say, many stories I could tell, and more lessons learned than anyone would ever have time or care to read. If only life happened one thing at a time, these blog updates would be a lot easier--and shorter. But I'm going to do my best to sketch out my semester by offering these brief highlights.
Highlights of the Fall:
Teaching Spanish 1.
Here's a thing they don't tell you about teaching a language: it's fun. I would even hazard a guess that it's more fun than teaching most other subjects. I told you at the beginning of the year that I was uncertain how this class would go, never having taught something so "step by step," that builds on itself so much. Well I realized something. Teaching a first level Spanish class is about playing games. And I love games. Teach a concept, play a game. Review a concept, play another game. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but how else am I supposed to illustrate and offer practice in a concept or skill? Through Bingo and Battleship and Jeopardy and Murder Mystery Investigations and Lord of the Rings Body Part Labeling races, of course. Whether or not the students always love it, I couldn't say. But it is amazing to see how much language they've learned in this semester. I have a pretty great class, so that probably helps. Anyway, I'm still learning and tweaking and (hopefully) improving my teaching methods for this class, but on the whole, I have to say. I am a fan of Spanish 1.
Directing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
We jumped right into the BFA Middle School play this fall, and I was SO proud of how hard the students worked, and how well they pulled off The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I love this story (if you haven't read it, you should.), and it was especially fun to get to start off the Advent season with that quirky re-telling of the gospel. And the best part of directing a show like that is I get to watch it over and over again, and laugh until I cry at the vaguely organized chaos that would so often erupt on the stage. I don't know if you're familiar with the story, but sometimes I REALLY empathized with Mrs. Bradley. It was a little like directing my own life. But every time I wanted to just go hit my head against a wall a few times, Jesus would show up through an encouraging word from a parent or student, or through that one young actor who would wait patiently at the end of every rehearsal, just so that she could come up and say thank you. I am a fan of these kids.
Directing Treasure Island
Once the Middle School play was finished, I held auditions for the High School's production of Treasure Island. We're in the middle of rehearsals for that show now, and I have to say, I'm very excited about it. And also nervous, because this is the first show I've directed that involves true fight choreography. It turns out it takes a little more than just saying, "Here, kid, have a sword. Hit that kid with it." So it's definitely stretching me in new ways as a director, which is great. And so far, the actors have all done an excellent job, both at taking directions, and at not hurting anyone. As with any theatre production, it all feels like organized chaos somehow coming together to tell a story. And I love that. Also, there was a beautiful (and hilarious) moment hat when we were rehearsing fight choreography on Pajama Day and an Eyore onesie was having a serious cutlass fight with a pair of polkadot jammies. And it just made me step back and smile from ear to ear, realizing that I've somehow landed the best job in the world.
I haven't mentioned Freshman class field trips and parties, participating in the BFA Christmas concert, singing Wicked in the BFA Staff Recital, or the precious conversations I've gotten to have with students over lunch or coffee. Like I said, life doesn't really happen one thing at a time, and I can't include all the things.
I will finish up with a few specific lessons God has been teaching me (and re-teaching me) this fall:
Lesson One: In the chaos, Christ is constant, and Christ is home.
You probably know that this semester, I'm in a new apartment, I have a new roommate, I'm teaching a new class, and I have a lot of new co-workers and students. And with all the newness comes chaos. Chaos as I try to figure out new classes, new schedules, new expectations, and new internet contracts. (Also, I haven't had a bedroom most of the semester because my apartment has been undergoing some pretty significant renovations. So that adds to the chaos as well, as you might imagine.) But God has been reminding me that even as things change, He is constant. And even as I feel displaced and unsettled, He is home. And it is a daily exercise to remember to rest in that. We're not promised a peaceful and calm and predictable existence. (In fact I'm pretty sure we're promised the opposite.) We're only promised that in the storm, in the adventure, and in the chaos, the Prince of Peace will never leave our sides. And that's pretty cool.
Lesson Two: God cares about the small things.
There's a quote by Shane Claiborne that I've had on my wall for the past few years: "We are tempted by the spectacular, but Jesus has called us to littleness." This has been a great reminder, a great challenge, and a great comfort to me during my time at Black Forest Academy. Of course I want to do big things. Important things. Significant things. You have a problem? I want to solve it. People are lost and dying? I want to bring them to Christ. That student isn't quite sure this Christianity thing is real? Let me prove it to you. But life is made up of much smaller things than that. It's made up of tardy bells and Spanish lessons and announcements. It's made up of ham sandwiches and smiles in the hallway and dropped books. It's made up of cast lists and call backs and bird cages.
I teach theatre. In the larger mission of BFA, of international missions, and of God's plan for his world, this feels very very small sometimes. People can't even figure out what elective credit to give my students, for heaven's sake. How much does this really matter? But every now and then, God inserts himself into the ordinary littleness of my life and shows me, "I'm in this. And no, it's not about your production of Treasure Island. But I am doing things in these students' lives and if you will listen and respond, you're going to get to help."
The most recent of these moments came on the night when I was casting the high school show. (Sidenote: If you want a full version of this story, I would love to tell it. I'm just watching my wordcount skyrocket and I think I'll go with the abridged version of this.) We had held callbacks, I stayed after my crew left and after about an hour, I had come up with a cast list that I thought was right. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. I went home, I graded tests, and eventually went to bed. At 1am, I started awake and knew that something was wrong with my cast list. After unsuccessfully attempting to talk myself into going back to sleep, I finally got up and made a cup of tea. And stared at my cast list. And prayed. And made another cup of tea. And read my Bible. And changed my cast list. By 3am, I had closed my computer and gone back to bed. The logical side of my brain remained unconvinced...like I said, I thought I had put together a pretty solid cast earlier. And I didn't know why the change made sense. But God didn't care if it made sense. It was apparently important to him that I cast a particular student.
Things got weirder the next day, as God continued to affirm my crazy 2am casting decisions. But like I said, I can't tell the whole story here. Please ask me about it--I would love to tell you.
Why does God care about how I cast a high school production of Treasure Island? I haven't the foggiest clue.
But the point is: God is in the small stuff. And it's our job to pay attention.
Lesson Three: God is doing his own thing. It may or may not match up with my plans.
This is a constant lesson, isn't it? And I include it primarily as a segue into my prayer requests: as I make decisions and plans about next year and beyond, I really want to be keenly aware of God's voice in this whole thing. When I came to BFA in 2012, I had a five-year-plan. And it has changed almost a dozen times since then. God seems to laugh at MY five-year-plans. So I'm trying to listen for his.
Please pray for me as I make decisions about where God wants me next year.
God has always been faithful and he is continuing to provide what I need: whether that's wisdom or finances or community or discernment. I'm excited to see how he provides all those things in this next year, too!
Well, I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and thanks for praying.
Merry Christmas from Germany!
ajr
At long last, Christmas break is upon us, my jetlagged family has arrived and is sleeping in the other room, and I'm finally sitting down to fill you in on some highlights of this fall season at BFA. As always seems to be the case, there is a lot I could say, many stories I could tell, and more lessons learned than anyone would ever have time or care to read. If only life happened one thing at a time, these blog updates would be a lot easier--and shorter. But I'm going to do my best to sketch out my semester by offering these brief highlights.
Highlights of the Fall:
Teaching Spanish 1.
Here's a thing they don't tell you about teaching a language: it's fun. I would even hazard a guess that it's more fun than teaching most other subjects. I told you at the beginning of the year that I was uncertain how this class would go, never having taught something so "step by step," that builds on itself so much. Well I realized something. Teaching a first level Spanish class is about playing games. And I love games. Teach a concept, play a game. Review a concept, play another game. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but how else am I supposed to illustrate and offer practice in a concept or skill? Through Bingo and Battleship and Jeopardy and Murder Mystery Investigations and Lord of the Rings Body Part Labeling races, of course. Whether or not the students always love it, I couldn't say. But it is amazing to see how much language they've learned in this semester. I have a pretty great class, so that probably helps. Anyway, I'm still learning and tweaking and (hopefully) improving my teaching methods for this class, but on the whole, I have to say. I am a fan of Spanish 1.
 |
| Can YOU properly label each of Legolas's body parts before the Ring of Power reaches Mount Doom? My Spanish class can. |
Directing The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
We jumped right into the BFA Middle School play this fall, and I was SO proud of how hard the students worked, and how well they pulled off The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I love this story (if you haven't read it, you should.), and it was especially fun to get to start off the Advent season with that quirky re-telling of the gospel. And the best part of directing a show like that is I get to watch it over and over again, and laugh until I cry at the vaguely organized chaos that would so often erupt on the stage. I don't know if you're familiar with the story, but sometimes I REALLY empathized with Mrs. Bradley. It was a little like directing my own life. But every time I wanted to just go hit my head against a wall a few times, Jesus would show up through an encouraging word from a parent or student, or through that one young actor who would wait patiently at the end of every rehearsal, just so that she could come up and say thank you. I am a fan of these kids.
Directing Treasure Island
Once the Middle School play was finished, I held auditions for the High School's production of Treasure Island. We're in the middle of rehearsals for that show now, and I have to say, I'm very excited about it. And also nervous, because this is the first show I've directed that involves true fight choreography. It turns out it takes a little more than just saying, "Here, kid, have a sword. Hit that kid with it." So it's definitely stretching me in new ways as a director, which is great. And so far, the actors have all done an excellent job, both at taking directions, and at not hurting anyone. As with any theatre production, it all feels like organized chaos somehow coming together to tell a story. And I love that. Also, there was a beautiful (and hilarious) moment hat when we were rehearsing fight choreography on Pajama Day and an Eyore onesie was having a serious cutlass fight with a pair of polkadot jammies. And it just made me step back and smile from ear to ear, realizing that I've somehow landed the best job in the world.
 |
| Sword Fight Practice! |
 |
| Look at these vicious pirates. What a bunch of winners. |
I haven't mentioned Freshman class field trips and parties, participating in the BFA Christmas concert, singing Wicked in the BFA Staff Recital, or the precious conversations I've gotten to have with students over lunch or coffee. Like I said, life doesn't really happen one thing at a time, and I can't include all the things.
I will finish up with a few specific lessons God has been teaching me (and re-teaching me) this fall:
Lesson One: In the chaos, Christ is constant, and Christ is home.
You probably know that this semester, I'm in a new apartment, I have a new roommate, I'm teaching a new class, and I have a lot of new co-workers and students. And with all the newness comes chaos. Chaos as I try to figure out new classes, new schedules, new expectations, and new internet contracts. (Also, I haven't had a bedroom most of the semester because my apartment has been undergoing some pretty significant renovations. So that adds to the chaos as well, as you might imagine.) But God has been reminding me that even as things change, He is constant. And even as I feel displaced and unsettled, He is home. And it is a daily exercise to remember to rest in that. We're not promised a peaceful and calm and predictable existence. (In fact I'm pretty sure we're promised the opposite.) We're only promised that in the storm, in the adventure, and in the chaos, the Prince of Peace will never leave our sides. And that's pretty cool.
Lesson Two: God cares about the small things.
There's a quote by Shane Claiborne that I've had on my wall for the past few years: "We are tempted by the spectacular, but Jesus has called us to littleness." This has been a great reminder, a great challenge, and a great comfort to me during my time at Black Forest Academy. Of course I want to do big things. Important things. Significant things. You have a problem? I want to solve it. People are lost and dying? I want to bring them to Christ. That student isn't quite sure this Christianity thing is real? Let me prove it to you. But life is made up of much smaller things than that. It's made up of tardy bells and Spanish lessons and announcements. It's made up of ham sandwiches and smiles in the hallway and dropped books. It's made up of cast lists and call backs and bird cages.
I teach theatre. In the larger mission of BFA, of international missions, and of God's plan for his world, this feels very very small sometimes. People can't even figure out what elective credit to give my students, for heaven's sake. How much does this really matter? But every now and then, God inserts himself into the ordinary littleness of my life and shows me, "I'm in this. And no, it's not about your production of Treasure Island. But I am doing things in these students' lives and if you will listen and respond, you're going to get to help."
The most recent of these moments came on the night when I was casting the high school show. (Sidenote: If you want a full version of this story, I would love to tell it. I'm just watching my wordcount skyrocket and I think I'll go with the abridged version of this.) We had held callbacks, I stayed after my crew left and after about an hour, I had come up with a cast list that I thought was right. Spoiler alert: I was wrong. I went home, I graded tests, and eventually went to bed. At 1am, I started awake and knew that something was wrong with my cast list. After unsuccessfully attempting to talk myself into going back to sleep, I finally got up and made a cup of tea. And stared at my cast list. And prayed. And made another cup of tea. And read my Bible. And changed my cast list. By 3am, I had closed my computer and gone back to bed. The logical side of my brain remained unconvinced...like I said, I thought I had put together a pretty solid cast earlier. And I didn't know why the change made sense. But God didn't care if it made sense. It was apparently important to him that I cast a particular student.
Things got weirder the next day, as God continued to affirm my crazy 2am casting decisions. But like I said, I can't tell the whole story here. Please ask me about it--I would love to tell you.
Why does God care about how I cast a high school production of Treasure Island? I haven't the foggiest clue.
But the point is: God is in the small stuff. And it's our job to pay attention.
Lesson Three: God is doing his own thing. It may or may not match up with my plans.
This is a constant lesson, isn't it? And I include it primarily as a segue into my prayer requests: as I make decisions and plans about next year and beyond, I really want to be keenly aware of God's voice in this whole thing. When I came to BFA in 2012, I had a five-year-plan. And it has changed almost a dozen times since then. God seems to laugh at MY five-year-plans. So I'm trying to listen for his.
Please pray for me as I make decisions about where God wants me next year.
God has always been faithful and he is continuing to provide what I need: whether that's wisdom or finances or community or discernment. I'm excited to see how he provides all those things in this next year, too!
Well, I think that's all for now. Thanks for reading, thanks for supporting, and thanks for praying.
Merry Christmas from Germany!
ajr
Hi Amanda and the Rumbaugh family,
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas and Happy New Year. Encouraging as always!
Forget the word count, I want to hear the rest of the story! If you're going to be in NJ, then come stay w/ us or have dinner w/ us and tell us...otherwise type away:)
Love and prayers,
Claudia or Mrs. Mattson:)
Thanks, Amanda, for your wit and your hospitality. Some of us would love to read about the details of your 1am tea time with Jesus. Would you please publish it or send it on email? Merry Christmas Love, Mom and Dad and Amy
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the wonderful lessons God is teaching you, Amanda. Really good things for me to think about too. Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete