The Kummers at Black Forest Academy: Liel Dorm 2010/2011

Black Forest Academy and the Liel Dorm

This past year Sue and I have been dorm parents of a co-ed middle school dorm in the village of “Liel”, Germany. Liel dorm is one of seven residential facilities of the Black Forest Academy. We had seven girls and four boys, plus our son Marshall who was a 9^th grader this year. Also in our dorm “family” was Lauren, our resident assistant (or RA). As dorm staff our goal was to create a home atmosphere where each student felt loved and a part of “the Liel Family”. With God’s help we succeeded, and in this nurturing environment our students were enabled (in the absence of their parents and siblings) to achieve their academic and extracurricular goals. We need to add that we had a lot of help by our “dorm subs”, who filled in for us on our days off, and by several teachers who donated a lot of their time coming to our dorm in the evening to tutor our students in their studies.

As a family we played together, ate together, did chores together, attended one another’s sporting and musical events, worked on homework together, and went to church together. As dorm staff, we laughed with our kids, cried with them, had times when we were not on the best of terms with them, had fun with them, worried about them and prayed for them, instructed them, were at times disappointed by them, and were many times awed by them. Our role in their life journey was only one school year, but we believe it was significant – for them and for us!

Lauren (our RA) Sue and Bob