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Kristi Schliep

kristi.schliep@yfci.org

JANUARY 2024

A couple months ago, I was gathered with a group of family and friends talking about my experience of being in the United States this year and anticipating my return to Black Forest Academy. In a gut level, honest cry, I said my life feels fractured.

This description actually speaks to the beauty of my life. In the States, I am within walking distance of my immediate family. There are weekly dates with my nieces and nephews. I can help with gardening or homeschooling or errand running. I am within easy driving distance (or decent flights) of friends and family who have known me for a long time and love me very well. I am plugged into an awesome multiethnic church which is super missionally-focused. Every week I attend Community Bible Study with my mom where we just completed a study of Ephesians. I am soaking up the California sun.

Grateful for time with the whole family, even the sliver of my brother

Grateful for the years of friendship developed at Black Forest Academy

In Germany, I am within walking distance of friends who have become like family. There are weekly rhythms of hikes and meals. I am directly involved in global Kingdom work, supporting missionary families through the education of their children. There are opportunities to pour into staff development at BFA. I am plugged into a community that sees church lived out seven days a week as we grocery shop, work, play, and worship together. When there, I soak up the beauty of the stunning hiking trails that are just blocks from my front door. There I am known and loved.

Both places are gifts to me. There are people in both places who know and love me well. There are communities where I am formed in my faith in both locations. And the worlds are mutually exclusive. My family comes to visit me in Germany. My friends come to visit me in California. Yet those are very temporary overlaps. The California sun does not exist in the verdant Black Forest. I can’t have both.

Living in Germany is not hard. Despite the struggles to learn the language while working in an English language environment, I feel very at home in Kandern. What is hard is the relational toll of not only living in a community where people perpetually come and go, but living across the world from my family. I am fractured. The people I love are scattered across the globe and there is no way to make my heart whole again. In this life…

I must keep an eye to the day when my life will be un-fractured. “God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” (Revelation 21:3-4). The goodbyes will be over. The fractured life will be done. Home will be one place… with God.

Until that day, I live in the grief of a fractured life and the joy of a beautiful life. It is important for me to take time and space to grieve a life marked by “goodbyes.” It is important for me to take time and space to celebrate a life marked by “hellos”... until the day when there is a forever “hello.”

Kristi Schliep