Oops, I skipped posting last weekend. Things begin to get crazy around BFA during the month of May. Students turn their brains off, and teachers have to fight with them to turn their brains back on until finals. There’s new content to cover, late work to grade, and various responsibilities to deal with around school. I also have visa paperwork, medical bills, insurance claims, and therapy rides on my radar in addition to still trying to be a good teacher.
I had to change up my lessons this last week for my second period students who have been struggling to focus since spring break, and my fifth period class had some serious questions they wanted to address on the goodness of God in class discussions. From my perspective, the last two weeks have flown by in a blur, so it’s hard to come up with a clear picture to share of my ongoing recovery amidst this madness and ministry. I can say with confidence it’s been a good two weeks – I’ve seen consistency in capabilities that I didn’t have months ago. My balance is improving imperceptibly over the weeks so that I can now look back to the fall and recognize a difference between then and now. My stamina is slowly increasing as I try to accomplish more physically each day. Also, students are bringing me questions outside of class as they want to go deeper in their learning.
Yesterday, my fifth period class was spent in deep discussion about the goodness of God after a student emailed me specific questions and concerns about how we understand the world as Christians. After school, two roommates came over for tea and between stories of whether or not they were justified in their physical beatings of one another, they talked about how they want to mature into better people. Tuesday I had the added delight of a previous student who is home from college sharing with me some of her experience over the last year and encouraging me with the fact that my class had a positive impact on her. I taught her the semester before my accident, and she has watched much of my recovery process face to face along with many of her peers.
I’m consistently humbled by the way in which students tell me they’ve been positively impacted by my journey. This alum had shared with me last year a college application essay she wrote about how significant my response to trauma was in her faith. Tea with her was a timely reminder of the big picture of my life here in Germany. I’m not seeing many of those daily improvements in my physical health, but I’m still working hard each day to take care of my body, brain, and soul. Sometimes those days blend together into weeks of madness, but I can occasionally see how the big picture shows progress from my faithful daily actions.
