I’d like to tell you a story about the photo above. It is a bit of a long story because it has several parts. This photo has come to mean a lot to me because of the story it tells. I think it may be the perfect picture of what my life has been for the past three years. It is a great image that captures exactly what is boarding ministry at BFA.
You will see several people in this photo. The curly haired one in dark clothes is Kynza. She has given me permission to write about this picture. She is wrapped in a towel because she was just baptized.
Standing next to her is Jill. Jill is the Storch dorm mom. She is holding the microphone speaking a blessing and a prayer over Kynza.
Behind Jill you can see a sliver of an older gentleman. This is Kynza’s grandfather. He had just baptized her when the photo was taken. He is a retired missionary. He has worked over much of North Africa and parts of France. He and his family currently reside in Marseille. Years before he also baptized Kynza’s mom.
You’ll see me in the bottom left of the photo holding a phone. I’m one of Kynza’s RAs.
And on a phone screen you will see Kynza’s mom, Christine. She is a BFA alumna. She works in China and in Marseille. Christine couldn’t come to Kynza’s baptism because she had a set work schedule in China that couldn’t be altered.
You may be wondering why this photo, with these people, is so important to me now. It is because I think it shows so well what this ministry is about.
You see, Kynza didn’t come to the dorm spiritually void. She had a Grandpa and Grandma, aunts and uncles, and a Mom, all of whom have spent years “training her in the way she should go.” This is the reason I am grateful her Grandpa is in this photo. He represents that legacy she came with to our school.
Kynza has a dorm mom who so very beautifully speaks blessings and life over her each and every day. A dorm mom who mothers Kynza as a way of honoring Kynza’s actual mom, Christine, and her work and life.
Your eyes catch on a mom on a phone screen. It's hard to tell in the smallness of the photo, but Christine was weeping. I can’t speak to exactly what she was feeling, but from knowing her, it seemed to me she was crying for two reasons. She was weeping with joy to see her daughter taking this step of faith publicly and weeping with sorrow that she can’t be there to see it in person.
And finally, in the photo, you see me. I’m there doing the best I can to make certain that Kynza is supported and her mom is fully included. On this day that looked like the simple act of making a video call in church, so Christine could see her daughter being baptized in real time instead of watching a video of it later.
All these pieces fit together to make this ministry of mine. My girls come to Storch Dorm with stories, and history, and families, and friends who have loved them before. Their parents allow them to come to BFA for various reasons, but all of them do it with great hope and belief that this is what their child needs in this season. And they do it trusting that the dorm staff will love them well.
In each dorm, a team of people works together to speak life and Truth and love into these students’ hearts. Sometimes that looks like standing on a stage during church and praying with them after baptism. Sometimes it looks like being the one who had to stay home and miss the baptisms because another student is sick. And sometimes it looks like video chatting a mom so she can be a part of things, even when she is far away. All of these pieces are critical. All of them are necessary to be the support the student needs.
So you see, I love this picture. It encapsulates so much of what we do here. I have loved these three years serving families around the world by supporting their children.
