Christmas Banquet

Last weekend (November 28th) we held our Christmas Banquet here at BFA. I believe 20 out of our 24 gentlemen had dates for this night. The day of the banquet, it was the same old routine. We were outside playing pole soccer on the basketball court roughly an hour before it was time to leave. Then everyone started getting ready and the questions started coming. "Brandon, do you have a black belt I can borrow?" "Does anyone have an extra pair of black socks?" "Can someone help me tie my tie?" "If anyone has a pair of black shoes they're not using, come to my room!" Eventually, everyone looked presentable and we took off in our vans heading towards the school and a successful night.

Here are all seven of our sophomores in the dorm before we left.

A few of the students from student council were already at the school getting ready, but here are most of our juniors dressed up with an undressed Titus wandering around in the foreground.

The senior class looking dapper.

Here are all of the students meeting up with their dates outside the school before heading in to the auditorium. There's Greg snapping a picture of a good lookin' fella.

If you've read much of my blog, you might remember that at Christmas Banquet, there are several activities that take place on stage, such as acts performed by the students, wishes of the students being granted, and emails from parents being read aloud. If you've read much of my blog, you might also know that whenever there are people using their musical gifts on stage, you're probably going to find Phil. Here he is playing and singing a song with Deborah and Hannah.

One of the odd wishes that was granted with hilarious consequences was a wish by one student that Austin, a junior from Maugenhard dorm, would have a rap battle with Mr. Bowen, the junior year English teacher at BFA. Really funny. Austin on the right, Mr. Bowen on the left, entourages behind and on the far right.

And Phil was on stage again at the end of the night with these other students performing a bouncy rendition of "I'll Be Home for Christmas." This song was performed last year by a student, and the song was given new meaning to me because last year was my first year celebrating Christmas away from home. If you haven't heard, this year I have been afforded the huge blessing of being able to come home and spend Christmas with my family! I'm also going to be in the wedding of Andrew Tebbe on January 8th, which was part of the reason why I made the decision to fly back for Christmas break. Andrew was an RA with me at HBR last year. Needless to say, I'm really excited to be coming home this year!

Here is a rushed picture of the Christmas court voted upon by the students. There is a boy and girl from each high school class. Yes, it's blurry - they were barely up there long enough to snap a pic before they all hurried back to their seats. This year HBR's very own Hangil Jung was voted onto the Christmas court for the sophomore class (third from left).

Tony and me.

And this is every student and staff member from HBR this year!

Christmas Banquet was a great event that the school body all enjoyed together this year. I marveled and agonized at some of the awkwardness on display (and I don't mean only from the students), but it all added up to be a fun night.

There is only about a week and a half now before the students start leaving for their own homes for the break. And I will be leaving a few days after them. This Sunday night we all met as a dorm, and we asked the guys to share some things that they think God has been teaching them this year. The answers were varied, but some of the concepts that came through consistently were that God is sovereign and every person who lives in the dorm is there for a reason, the students are blessed to be where they are, and they should take advantage of the situations they are in and the friendships that they have. Pray that the students and the staff both would be taking advantage of the opportunities we have in these last days together before our Christmas break. God bless.