A Special Visit from a Very Special Visitor........  our Beka made it to Germany just fine, PTL, and to Haus Blauen, Marzell for a few days time with Mom and Dad and Abby and David.   We are most happy!

Christmas 2012, Blauen Dorm, BFA

20 folks gathered at our dorm for Christmas Dinner.  We had a wonderful and sweet time.  Our very good friends, Jesse and Doris Frank, organized the event, and Sally did a great job assisting with the cooking.  We had a true German Favorite:  Black Forest Ham...... it was so good with the mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Christmas 2012 was very special for us Euckers here in Germany.   We trust Christmas was a great time for you too!

The Departure Hug:  The girls are now gone for the Christmas Break.  As each left for Home, those remaining gave a "Departure Hug" to send them off.  It was both a happy time and sad time.  These kids are so excited to go, but will also miss their friends.  I have such a hard time getting the right photo of these sudden moments.  Here's the best one I got this past week as the girls went home.  Sally and I drove 7 trips in 5 days to the train stations and airport in Basel, Switzerland to get the kids out.  Destinations were worldwide!!  Our kids went to Peru, Mongolia, France, Israel, China, just to name a few.  Sally, David, Abby, and I will be here at Blauen Dorm for Christmas.  Merry Christmas to you all, and thanks for checking our blog !!!

Christmas Party, 2012, Blauen Dorm.   Here are all the ladies of Blauen Dorm at our Dorm Christmas Party.  We were so blessed to get a real, live Christmas Tree from our neighbor, a true German Forester.  He took his specialty tractor to his tree farm and brought back the most wonderful tree for us.  It made the dorm smell pine-forest fresh!  It was so much fun to decorate.  At our party, we had our secret santa gift exchange and treats.  It was a blast.

Banquet Photo, 2012.   There is only 3 weeks left of school this year before the kids leave for break.  With such a short time left, we have our banquets and celebrations early.  Here is our group photo for 2012 in the afterglow of our special evening of unique talent and holiday "wishes" from the staff and students.  It was truly a fun night for all.  Much laughter and chuckling together.  A big THANK YOU from the Euckers in Germany.  We are here only because of your generosity and love.

BFA Thanksgiving 2012.  With so many countries represented here at BFA, the Thanksgiving celebration is truly a compromise.  You see, Canada celebrates their Thanksgiving in October, and many countries do not have a Thanksgiving celebration at all.  So BFA Thanksgiving this year fell on Nov 15th.  And you would have been most proud of Sally.   She had this place looking like a million bucks.  Here is our table setting for each student, complete with the homemade decoration.

And here is our re-arranged dining room, complete with candles and laughter of the season.  It was a fun time.

I got the easy job, to carve the Turkey.  So, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone from Black Forest Academy in Kandern, Germany !!

Snow !     We got our first snow this weekend.  Was a surprise to us that the snow is sticking.  It ended up being about 3 inches on our deck.

So this has been a week of "First's" for us here at Haus Blauen Dorm at BFA:

1.  Our first sick student of the year.  There is a stomach flu starting to go around.  Butch picked her up on Friday at school.  

2.  Butch got sick on Saturday.  Imagine that!  So this weekend was a bummer.

3.  Our first Quarter of School is just ending.  There were lots of homework these last two weeks and some tired kids.  All in all, the students are doing great!  They have done excellent work this 1st Quarter.  Lots of good report cards.

4.  The school's first music recital.  We had 4 girls participate.  Wow!  Excellent musicians.  Our girls played the violin, the cello, and the piano.  One girl sang a solo.  All 4 did great!!

Thanks for looking at our blog!

Another Class Sendoff:  Oct 4th, 2012.  This time the Junior Class departed our dorm in the late evening for an all-night bus ride.  Destination:  Normandy, France.  The annual Junior Class Trip is to the site of the WWII D-Day Landings on the beaches of Normany, France.  They will spend 4 days touring museums and the actual beach landing sites.  Bonus:  On the way back, the entire 60+ Junior Class will spend most of a day in Paris.  Not much time, but they will be able to visit such landmarks as the Eiffle Tower, The Louvre, Norte Dame (the real Norte Dame, not the football team in Indiana), and the famous shops and coffee cafes.  Here is another photo of all 5 in the van headed to the school to catch the bus.  Bon Appetit !

Senior Trip is here!   We sent our 3 Seniors off to Rome tonight.  Each year, the senior class takes an academic trip to Rome.  They get to see all the normal cultural sites:  the Coliseum, Forum, Pantheon, Vatican City, etc.  It was a spirited send off.............

Dateline:  26 Sept 2012
Topic:     Dorm Parenting 101
Subject:  "You just never know what will happen next!"

It was "Dorm Shakeup Day" for the staff here at Haus Blauen Dorm this morning in Germany.

Last night I did all the normal checks........  doors locked? - Check
                                                                 windows locked? - Check
                                                                  kids are here?  -  Check.      
So Sally and I went to bed.

Here's what we found this morning!

Dorm Shakeup Day really surprised us!  Our Dorm Council had secretly coordinated with another Dorm Council for Dorm Shakeup Day.  All of our girls swapped dorms in the middle of the night with the boys from Dorm "Sonne" which is an all boys dorm across the street.  So we found a pile of sleeping boys in our living room this morning.  And then it was Breakfast Time.  Needless to say that 17 boys eat just a little more than 13 girls.   Yes, we ran out of Food!   There was much laughter, and the morning was sweet as the kids left for school.  

Sally is the Master Chef.  Last night was home-made pizza night here in the dorm.  Sally started out by herself making the pizzas.  As the girls watched, one by one, they asked if they could help.  Soon the kitchen was nearly filled with kids and pizzas.

And the pizzas were really good.  The dorm has this big "convection" rack oven.  It is perfect for fast baking of large numbers of all kinds of goodies from cookies to rolls to pizzas.  This may fast become our favorite Saturday Night activity.

Haus Blauen Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors.  First Day of School, 04 Sept 2012.

Blauen Seniors, Class of 2013.  First Day of their Last Year of High School.  May it be a Great Year !

The 1st day of School for 2012-2013 arrived, and here is the proof!   Flags!   Yes, that's right.  The proof is flags.  The opening ceremony tradition here at Black Forest Academy is the shown above.  The senior class has the honor of carrying in the flags.  It was a moving time, one filled with both reflection and enthusiam.  For Sally and I, it was confirmation that this is where we should be.  Thanks everyone for helping us achieve this day!   Thank you!

We are ready !   All the training classes, driving instruction, and dorm prep is as good as we can get it.  It's time to start school.  Today, Sunday, Sept 2nd, 2012 is the first day of student arrivals here at Haus Blauen in Marzell, Germany.  Our first two girls arrived just after 12-noon.  They came all the way from Korea, an 11-hour flight, with a 2-hour layover in Munich, then another flight to Basel, Switzerland.  Sally had a great lunch waiting for them after the shuttle van dropped them off.   All in all, we'll have 13 students in the dorm.  School starts on Tuesday, Sept 4th.  Thanks everyone for all of your support.  We are truly blessed!

The rain from the weekend left and beautiful sunshine came today, Monday.  We had classes all morning, and then went back to the dorm to prep menu items for next week.  In the mean time, we stopped to take a photo at the village sign.  Although BFA is located in Kandern, we actually live in a smaller village 11 kilometers (6 miles) up in the foothills to the Alps.  Our village is called Marzell.  The sun was just right for a good photo.  Our dorm is barely visible in the background.

Here is a better shot of our dorm's West side, and in the background you can see the local church with the traditional bell tower.  It has an automatic bell-ringer, and every hour and half hour we get a "gong" or series of "gongs" to help keep track of the time.  And note the blue shutters on our dorm windows.....  Our dorm is called "Blauen" which means "Blue" in German.  More photos later this week.

Abby's Birthday was this week.  She wanted some stuff for her dorm room, especially a pillow.  So we all treked off to IKEA!  Now the trek has a story.......  bottom line, we got lost on the way there.  3 times we took a wrong turn....  so when we finally got there, it was crazy photo time.  We laughed and laughed.

And then once we got there, the place was so BIG !   Abby had a great time picking out a pillow !  With Abby in the pillow dept is Lauren, an RA (Resident Assistant at a nearby dorm).  What a hoot !  That is Sally looking on.

We are in our 2nd week of orientation and admin training here at Black Forest Academy.  Just this last Sunday, our 2 new Resident Assistants (RA's) joined our dorm.  Jessica Kauffmann and Nadine Peterson each come from an MK (Missionary Kid) background.  We are truly blessed to have them!  They attend training and team-building classes right along with Sally and Butch.  The students will start arriving on Sunday, Sept 2nd.  Ten (10) more days until school starts here in Germany.  Pray that we finish our classes strong and our team is totally prepped for that monumental day.  Thanks for keeping up with us!  The photo above is our beloved Haus Blauen, the dorm where we live.  Pictured from the left are Butch, Sally, Jessica, and Nadine.

We made it !      Here we are arriving at our dorm, "Haus Blauen" in Marzell, Germany.  There to surprise greet us were Jesse and Doris Frank, our good friends from our previous missions trips to BFA.  Look over on this blog at the picture from 2010.  These two pictures are nearly the same, just 2 years & 5 months apart!

Arrival at Black Forest Academy, Kandern, Germany.  It took 22 hours of travel to get to BFA.  The flights took us thru London, England during the last week of the Olympics, so the airport was really, really busy.  We traveled with our friend, Pat Embling, who will teach math this year.  This is the BFA welcome sign near the offices on Hammersteiner Strasse, Kandern.

OK, the day finally came to fly to BFA in Germany.  August 8th, 2012.   Here is a photo of our church family who came to see us off.  We took this picture near the gym door at Calvary Community Church in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

Sunday, August 5th, 2012      Our church commissioned us during all three services this last weekend.  It was an uplifting time of fellowship, encouragement, and prayer.  We Euckers humbly say Thank You !!

Our Prayer Card photo is above.  Sally and I, David & Abby are getting packed and ready to go to Black Forest Academy.  Our good friend and neighbor, Ben, let us use his ripe wheat field to take this pic.  Our good friend Brook took the shot......  Thanks Ben and Brook.

  

The Big Auction....... Dateline:  Elkhorn, Wisconsin, July 28th, 2012

Well, we did it.  We sold our "stuff" to this big crowd above.  Folkers Auction Service did a GREAT job getting everything done.  It took over 3 hours, and lots of packing up afterwards, but the big auction is done!

We could not have done it without the help of our friends at Calvary Community Church.  So many folks came to help pack the "flats" and toss out the junk.  And did we have a lot of both.  Many neighbors commented that they did not realize we had so much.......  nor did we!

Thanks again everyone for your support and prayers.   One step closer to Germany !!

Preparing for the auction.  Here Charlie Cervenka, a good friend from Calvary Community Church, and our Son, David in orange, sort lumber for the auction line.  Zach Dempsey is in green and helping by our shed.  Thank you Charlie and Zach.

And here Pastor Dave Cousens from Calvary Community Church helps toss out junk from our "pile" out back.  It was bulk garbage day in our township, and Pastor Dave is assisted by Zach Dempsey.  We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff that had been sorted out in June by our good friends, John & Josiah Ferraro, who were up from Jacksonville, IL.  Dan Finet also helped in June   Unfortunately, I didn't think to get pictures of the Ferraros or the Finets in action.

Thanks everyone for your help.  We so sincerely appreciate it !

Hannah & Jordan came over tonight to help.......  More sorting of boxes and passing out of the memories.  Here is one of my favorites.  This is our Beka from what we think was her 1998 Sunday School Class at Calvary Community Church, Williams Bay, Wisconsin.  She and those wonderful ladies made this Christmas Tree Ornament for Mom & Dad.  Beka was, and still is, one precious child !  More packing tomorrow.  Our auction is next Saturday, July 28th. It is supposed to rain Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so it may be a mad scramble on Friday!!  Need your prayers!

Happy Birthday Beka !!!    Our middle Daughter, Rebekah, celebrated a birthday recently.  It is a longstanding tradition with these three "Girlies" to snap a photo doing their "smile" for the camera.  When they were little, they always seemed to have their eyes closed for pictures, so they made a practice of doing this whenever we have photo time.

Here they are at Hannah's Wedding last September, 2011.

Packing boxes tonight in preparation to go to BFA in 26 days.  Sally and Beka are going thru all the family "Stuff" that has collected over the past 22 years.  Tonight's mission:  the photo album bookshelf.  Low and behold, Private First Class Butch Eucker, 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 9th Infantry Divsion, Fort Lewis, Washington showed up for duty.  Hey, it was payday Khaki Inspection sometime in the Spring of 1978.  What do you think?

Sunday, July 8th, 2012:  Pastor Doug Anderson formally presents our calling to the congregation during Calvary Community Church's annual business meeting.  Pastor Doug is so excited for us to go to Black Forest Academy to minister to TCK's (Third Culture Kids).  Pastor Doug is a TCK himself, having grown up in Haiti where his parents were serving.  Also introduced were Pat Embling and Tess Cervenka (pictured with Pastor Doug).

Sally and I got home this afternoon from Minnesota.  In the mail was this official picture of our REBEKAH!! Again, we are so proud of her.   She did great at Elkhorn High, Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  Now she is off to college to be a nurse.

For our TeachBeyond Orientation Conference, we were able to spend quality time with our new missionary family.  Here Sally chats over lunch with a personnel rep from our assignment posting, Black Forest Academy, Kandern, Germany.

Sally and Butch attended TeachBeyond's Orientation Conference at Bethel University in St. Paul, Minnesota from June 24th thru June 30th.  Pictured is Sally (center), Don Storrs (long time missionary friend and conference speaker), and Pat Embling (a good friend from our church, Calvary Community Church, and fellow candidate for Black Forest Academy).

The Euckers from Nebraska (Megan, Jesse, and Evan Eucker) join the Euckers from Wisconsin to Celebrate Rebekah's Graduation Party on June 22nd, 2012

Rebekah Eucker's High School Graduation, June 2012.  Here is Rebekah (right) with one of her fellow grads from Elkhorn High School, Elkhorn, Wisconsin.  We are so Proud of You Rebekah!

David Eucker's 13th Birthday Party (1st week of June, 2012).   David is now a Teenager.........  Wow!  Where did that time go?

May 21st, 2012.   Our official acceptance arrived in the US Mail today!   We are accepted.  We now face the big task of prepping our home and belongings for the transitions.

More to be posted soon!

Butch

Well, here is the photo that started it all.   March 2010, arrival in Kandern, Germany at Black Forest Academy.  Transportation provided by our good friends:  Doris and Jesse.  It was a wonderful trip for our whole family.  The Lord was tugging at our hearts!