A Significant Milestone for BFA

On the second Friday of June each year, our little provincial town of Kandern, Germany is suddenly filled with visitors from across the world. Representing its uniquely global and missional purpose, BFA's graduation welcomes parents and family working in approximately 50 countries on 5 continents. Like all graduations, the ceremony also provides a unique window into the school's life and culture. Perhaps the most important and authentic glimpse into that culture is the student address. With her permission, Catherine and I would like to share with you the words that this year's speaker (Hannah Kooiman) shared with her classmates.

Family, Friends, BFA staff, and those watching from afar, I want to express my gratitude that I have the opportunity to speak here today about and to the class of 2025.

 A little background about me, I was born in Bucharest, Romania. I lived there until I was 8, spent a year in the US, and moved here to Kandern, Germany in the 4th grade. When my parents told me that we were moving from Romania, I felt like my world was ending. It was the only place I ever thought that I would call home. In pure Hannah-fashion, I wrote a song, drew a picture, and cried my little heart out. I thought that my communist block apartment, the park next door, and my school, Bucharest Christian Academy, also known as BCA, was the whole world. I didn’t know if my little 8 year-old self would ever recover, how in the world would I have the strength to move on? But God must have a sense of humour because he only asked me for the strength to change one letter. 

And from BCA to BFA we went. But it truly is a testament to God’s faithfulness that I’m here, and that the world, and God, are so much bigger than I could ever imagine. I’ve been in this community for 9 years, and I’ve grown to know and love all its ups and downs. But I’m not standing here on my own power. I owe it to my teachers, my mentors, my friends, and my parents for this opportunity to share with you all today. As Carmen put it at JSB, “as much as any of you might say that it didn't affect you being here, it did.” BFA has affected me in so so many ways, and I am grateful for the wonderful community that has helped me grow for the better. 

Now, if you, the class of 2025, can think back to the beginning of the year, you may (or may not) remember the speech that Dr. Dow gave us at opening ceremony. It had the beautiful theme of building cathedrals. He challenged us, way back in August, to consider the call to excellence presented to us in scripture and asked us “What will your cathedral be?”. What ways will you work to impact the student body this year, and to give that glory to God? So, with a special emphasis on stewardship and selfless ambition, we started off our senior year. And looking back now I am truly amazed by how our class rose to the challenge.

Taking into account all my years at BFA, I can distinctly remember a theme with each senior class. Some classes are the ‘sporty’ one, some are the academics, others: the artists. But what I absolutely love about our class is that we don’t have a label like that, because what I have seen this year, and throughout our time at BFA, is an intentional investment in all parts of the BFA community. I’ve seen you serve in ministry, love on and off the court, be encouraging in academics, and create art and music in complex and thoughtful ways. Just to illustrate my point, I want us to take, what Mr. Elkins would call a standing break, SO class of 2025:

• If you participated in a sport at BFA, would you please stand? Thank you. Y'all can have a seat. [At least 75% stand].

• If you participated in theatre at BFA, would you please stand? [Over half stand].

• If you were on a worship team, an SPT (international Service Project Trip), refugee ministry, or Chrysalis (leading the Middle School discipleship program) would you please stand? [Again over 75% stand].

• If you went to small groups at all (the voluntary discipleship groups that happen weekly), would you please stand? [100% stand]. Thank you.

And honestly I could go on and on, because the ways that you have built your cathedrals this year is simply amazing. And those cathedrals were not always built in public. The ways you’ve been kind and mentored the underclassmen, the behind the scenes search for truth, the service that goes unnoticed, the NHS hours – it all adds to the wonderful people I know and love as my class.  

But whatever you call excellence, be it cathedrals, a legacy, or achievement, it all has to be based on something. The why and the motivation behind this pursuit of excellence. What is it exactly that we are building those cathedrals on - our foundation? We live in a world where it is so easy to get distracted, and to lose sight of our ultimate goal. 

Something that I heard as an underclassman that has really stuck with me is this: 

Nothing created was ever meant to be the center of your universe. Only God. 

Your looks, your strength, popularity, money, whatever it is CANNOT handle being at the center of your universe. For me, earlier in high school, I put friendships at the center of my universe. I’ve been crushed because I wasn’t invited to so and so things. I’ve sat alone at lunch feeling that I had nowhere to go, I’ve felt anxiety, I’ve been lonely, felt worthless, but it was because those things were never meant to be the center of my universe. Only God. 

Someone who knew and trusted deeply in her foundation on God was Elizabeth Elliot: Christian missionary, author, and speaker, says, “God is God. If He is God, He is worthy of my worship and my service. I will find rest nowhere but in His will, and that will is infinitely, immeasurably, unspeakably beyond my largest notions of what He is up to.”

Only God is powerful enough, worthy enough to build your life on. He is worthy of your surrender and of your excellence.

It’s this beautiful recognition of the ultimate goal and ultimate reason for our excellence. We strive to worship and serve him because of who He is. 

Me (Phil) with my graduating Small Group guys

Now not to say that everything else in life is worthless, if it was, my whole speech about excellence would kind of be a moot point.

But I want to remind us of Dr. Dow’s ever-so-catchy, truth-filled rhyme:

“Even good things change their hue when God is placed at number 2.”

This phrase speaks deeply to the truth that God is meant to be the center of our lives, but He often uses friendships, grades, sports, music, and ministry to grow us and to bring glory, but they never were and never are meant to be the ultimate goal - Only God. 

And that is what I want for the class of 2025, for us to pursue excellence in response to God’s worthiness. Because we are about to join a world, which, as Mr. deTombe so aptly put a couple weeks ago, is built on narrative. A world where truth may be subjective, happiness reigns over all, and excellence is an individual game to play. 

But we have an ultimate hope, an eternal hope, and a hope that is so, so very worthy of our excellence. Choosing that humble excellence for God’s glory, not for our own, is something I have seen our class thrive doing, and it’s something I continually pray for in our futures. 

And while we all have taken the time to invest well in this community it's that many of us love dearly, we’re all heading out soon to communities around the world. This is a map showing where the class of 2025 will be for this coming year. We have an amazing opportunity, as Mr. Batluck put it: to pray, live, and friend out of an overflow of the worthiness of God. To build cathedrals to the glory of God around the world. 

And this is echoed further in scripture as Paul begins his letter to the church in Philippi like this: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Philippians 1:9-11

This is my prayer for the class of 2025. That you would seek the balance of truth, knowledge, and belief of God’s worthiness. That you would walk alongside God throughout your life and that you would be filled with the fruit of the spirit and continue to give glory and praise to the LORD. 

THANK YOU.

Hannah was this year's valedictorian and will begin her studies at Pomona College in California in the fall. Pomona is currently ranked as the number one liberal arts college in America, has an acceptance rate of less than 7%, and is not a faith-friendly environment; but Hannah wants to be a light in that challenging context, and we believe she is well-prepared to meet that challenge.

Please join us in praying for Hannah and BFA's graduating class of 2025 as they launch into the next chapter of their lives!