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 !!