Great News, Hard Times

Here's the latest on what's going on:  The new school building is ours!  We're going to see it tomorrow & I'll write more on that when I've seen the building in person and have more definite information on the state of things.  All this means that there will be some major changes beginning very soon, and I've got lots of things to pray about.  I've offered to stay most of the summer to help get the building ready for school in August because I really want to be a part of that.  (I'm sure most of you know how much I love that sort of thing.)  Also, I spoke to the superintendent about not wanting to be a teacher next year.  I told him that I wanted to do a different type of "ministry," but that I would still like to be involved with the school.  I've been given the option to be an assistant in the classroom, since our class sizes will be bigger next year, and then to be a part of starting a ministry with the Arab teachers and even the mothers of the students, and anything else I would like to do.  As an assistant, I would help the slower students in the classroom (which I would love), and I would continue to help with the "extra curricular" programs for the students, and at the end of the day, be able to leave the classroom behind and have the freedom to be involved in other interests.  However, I would have to teach 2nd grade again for 3 months of school because the lead 2nd grade teacher is pregnant.  By the way, Wilma has been given the same option and she would also have to teach for 3 months because the lead 4th grade teacher is also pregnant.  What's so providential about this is that since Wilma and I already teach these grades we won't have to learn a new curriculum & it's only for 3 months.  It sounds incredible, but I have to admit that I feel quite intimidated.  Starting a ministry is way more than I imagined happening.  I really didn't think that I would be here again next year, but now I'm thinking that I probably will be.  As I said, I've got a lot to pray about.

It's clear that God is blessing the school and opening lots of doors, and when that happens, it's certain that the enemy will do what he can to stop it or bring discouragement.  It has come partially in the form of some parents starting a "PTA," though there are no "T's" involved.  They've been handing out letters to other parents and picketing the school, claiming that they and the students don't have rights, and they basically don't believe that its costs as much as it does to run the school.  There's a lot of ignorance and gossip involved - lots of people saying things that they have no clue about.  (That's actually one of the things I dislike most about this culture; it's a really big problem here.)  Right now we're just trying to keep a godly attitude and wait for the truth and the integrity of the school to show through all of this.  Last Thursday Wilma and I had back-gate duty and a picketing parent was outside and basically inciting a lot of the kids to chant "We want rights!"  (The "rights" they want are for a better playground, science labs, a nicer school, etc.  What's so ridiculous is that they know that we're getting the new building and that we'll have all those things once we're in it.  There's no way to have any of that right now in the buildings we're in, and so it's pointless to even discuss it.  They all know this, and knew this when they put their kids in our school, but for some reason it's coming up just now.)  So, a mob of kids were chanting and then they started running everywhere in the street and a fight broke out & Wilma had to run up the street to deal with it.  While this was going on, I had to deal with some other unruly kids and send them on their way to Ms. Mary's office.  After all this, and most of the kids were gone, I went inside to talk to Ms. Mary about what had happened.  One of the Arab teachers left to go home & came back in sobbing.  Someone had thrown a rock through her back window and messed up her side mirrors and license plates.  It was awful.  There's also been lots of arguing among the teachers - again gossip is a key factor, along with some back-biting.  Needless to say, we need LOTS of prayer right now.  Thankfully, God can handle all of this and so much more, so we can confidently trust Him in this.  We can and we should; please pray that we would - sometimes it's easier said than done.        

Exciting Possibilities (Plus a Nasty Encounter)

There's an exciting development with the school these days.  We're looking at a new school building and if we get it, it may affect my decision about what to do after this school year.  Here's what I'm thinking:  First of all, if we get the building, which is a 12-year-old unused school building, it will be a miracle.  There's no possible way that we could ever afford a building like this without an act of God.  It's apparently a magnificent building worth millions; it's not for sale, but it sounds like we would be able to rent it for the same amount of money we pay for our not-so-nice (to put it mildly) converted apartment buildings.  That in itself is amazing.  There are lots of factors in this that make it very much seem like God is at work, and I'm hoping we'll know in the next few days if we have the school.  If we get it, there would probably be a need for para pros in the classes because the classrooms are much larger than what we have now.  If this is so, then there's a possibility that I could be a para pro and have freedom to work with another ministry on the side, which sounds ideal to me.  Also, the new building would need lots of work because although people have never used the building, birds have made a home of it for these 12 years.  Scraping bird poo doesn't sound very appealing, but I have a very strong desire to help get the building ready for the next school year.  I'm actually more excited about restoring the building than anything else, as strange as that may sound.  The building also needs windows, toilets, etc., so it will take lots of money, time, and hard work to get this place ready.  But, God is more than able to handle all of this - if He supplies the building, He will supply the contents as well. 

That's the bigger picture of what's going on with the school, but thank God for the smaller details of each day that make life so interesting.  Take yesterday for example.  It wasn't a good day, but it was definitely eventful.  I stayed late after school to catch up on some work and to clean my classroom.  When I finished my paperwork I was the last one in the building, and I headed downstairs to get some hot water to mop my floor.  As I was going into the kitchen, a cat ran past me to the front door which was closed.  There I was with an empty mop bucket it my hand and a wild dumpster cat frantically scratching at the bottom of the door trying to get out.  I tried to talk calmly to the cat and hoped it would let me come near enough to open the door, but as I came towards it, it ran past me and up the stairs.  I ran up too, and saw it go to the second floor towards the second grade rooms.  I looked in one room and then I found it on the veranda.  It saw me and went nuts - jumping and clawing at the windows, hoping to escape.  Then it ran into another classroom and I followed it in and shut the door behind me.  The cat was running and jumping all over the room, knocking things over, and clawing at the windows. I kept trying to calm it down, but then it started hissing at me and I decided that I couldn't be nice any longer.  I got a broom and started trying to pin it down so that I could grab it behind it's neck and take it outside.  That's the most obvious and sensible thing to do, right?  I finally got it pinned down & I think it either urinated or sprayed some malodorous substance; whatever it was, it was terribly stinky.  I tried to grab it by the back of it's neck, but I didn't grab it high enough.  It pulled a Linda Blair on me and turned it's head completely around and then it managed to get it's legs around and tried to claw me.  I let it go, saw blood on my hand, and realized that it had succeeded in it's attack.  Yikes.  Ferrel cat scratches are not good.  I left the room, washed my hands, and prayed sincerely that I wouldn't get a disease from this cat scratch.  I decided that I needed a garbage bag to put this demon-cat in.  I got a bag, went back in the room, and prodded the cat out from behind a shelf with the broom.  The cat jumped back onto the window and caught onto something at the top.  There it was, hanging on for dear life, with me holding a garbage bag underneath it, praying that it would fall in.  It lost it's grip, but it fell to the side and missed the bag.  At this point, it was too traumatized to put up much more of a fight.  I slowly drew the bag over it until it had nowhere else to go but in the bag.  Once it was in the bag, I think the cat gave up hope completely.  It just laid there, totally limp and defeated.  I took it outside and opened the bag, gave it a nudge, and away it ran.  I was so happy to be rid of it.  I cleaned up the room that had been trashed, cat pee included, and then proceeded to mop my floor.  It was getting very close to time to go to church, so I needed to hurry.  I finished mopping my floor and as I was pressing the mop in the bucket drain, I accidentally knocked the bucket full of dirty water over on the floor.  Sigh.  I cleaned that mess up & rushed home to catch a ride to church.  I still had that nasty cat smell on me & I had to change coats & run out the door.  The stench lingered in my nose all night, but thankfully no one else could smell anything.  Church was good, and afterwards Rula and I had dinner at a nice restaurant, which she paid for even though I asked her not to - she's pretty stubborn.  But, I was thankful and we had a really nice time.  The day was long and full of surprises, and I was so happy to finally get back home for the night and look forward to a day off today.  Hurray for the Sabbath!!   

      

A Weekend Getaway

You know that extra snow day I was hoping for? Well, it happened - thank you, Jesus! Three days off in a row and then back for a half-day on Saturday - hurray! I didn't know how much I needed the rest. I spent much of the day Thursday getting reacquainted with cross-stitching. Erin and I have a Palestinian needlework book and we've started some small projects. I'm working on some cute little coasters (actually, I'm still on the first one), but I had forgotten how time consuming it is. But, it's the rainy season here and going out isn't very appealing these days, so I should have more down time to do needlework. I hope to have a couple of sets of coasters when school is finished; we shall see. The only unpleasant thing about this day was that our pipes were frozen and we didn't have any water. Thankfully, our neighbors across the hall had water and let us take a few bucketfuls for bathroom purposes.
One of our thoughtful friends back home blessed Wilma by paying for a rental car for her this weekend. Friday was Tommy's birthday (Tommy is Wilma's late husband), and this was a special gift so that Wilma could have some fun and enjoy the weekend. So, on Friday Wilma, Erin, and I went to Tel Aviv and stopped at IKEA on the way. It turned out to be pretty much pointless, but it was a little bit of an adventure. We went in the wrong direction, starting with the checkout section. It was packed and so we had to squeeze our way through only to be there for 10 minutes and then get escorted out as the store was closing. It's best that we left when we did though, because it was a truly gorgeous day & it would have been a shame to waste time in a line. So, we headed for the beach and tried to find a place that a friend of ours had recommended. We never found it and we got a little lost, but we did get to see the Mediterranean for a bit. The waves were nice and big and there were several people body surfing.
We then headed to Cinema City in Herzilyya to watch a movie and got really lost on the way there. It took a while, but we made it and bought tickets to "The Bucket List" and then we ate at Black Bar 'n' Burger. I tried a veggie burger which unfortunately turned out to be disgusting.  It wasn't a total loss though, because I got a couple of pics in the restaurant that Sarah A. and Allison P. will appreciate. The movie was good and I'm thinking that I may make a list of my own, not necessarily a "bucket list," but something along those lines. It seems like a good thing to do.

Elvis got a little too friendly with me in Cinema City.

 Saturday we went back to school and afterwards Wilma and I decided to go on a road trip and stay somewhere for the night. We ended up staying at a bed & breakfast about 10 minutes from downtown Tiberias. It was such a lovely place and we met some great people. There was a woman there that we had met before who works at Christ Church in the Old City. She's Slovakian & I have a Slovakian friend that she reminded me of; I liked her very much. We're planning on going to see her again. There were also some other Europeans there, some New Zealanders, and a couple of Americans; all that combined with the way the center was run and the duties of the staff was almost like being back in the U.K. at one of the Ellel centers I worked at. It brought back so many fond memories & I was reminded again of how much I loved working with Ellel and being in Europe. Hmmm.

After breakfast and devotion, in which I was unexpectedly asked to give my testimony, we headed out and took the scenic route to Mt. Tabor - the Mount of Transfiguration. I've wanted to go there for so long and, oh, it was truly beautiful. We didn't get to stay very long because they were closing (there seems to be a theme here), but it was worth it just to spend a little time there. It's very high up and the view is breathtaking - I must go there again soon. On the way up, we came upon a very peculiar sight: we saw a cow eating on the side of a cliff. It was right in front of us and so we stopped and got a couple of pics. How random! Is there such a thing as a mountain cow? I would have to say yes to that.

The Mountain Cow  

Caesarea was our next destination, but the drive itself provided a special treat. Wilma brought Chicago's Best Hits for our listening pleasure & I made an amazing discovery: I know every word to almost every Chicago song, and to celebrate this happy realization, I sang as loudly and dramatically as I could. Power love ballads must be sung with as much passion and intensity as possible, and so I put forth my best effort. Wilma endured it well.
When we arrived at Caesarea, we walked around a bit on the shore and then had lunch outside overlooking the sea. There we were enjoying the gentle sea breeze and a nice, relaxing meal, soaking up the sunshine and having a lovely time, when suddenly I was startled by a loud thud next to my chair. I looked over to see what had happened and was appalled at what I saw. A huge and disgusting fish head had fallen from the sky and had landed about two feet away from me. Horrified, I looked up and saw that a big bird had dropped this grotesque thing, apparently his intended meal which was a bit too heavy to carry. It took me a couple of minutes to get over the thought of how close that fish head had come to hitting me, and I kept running my hands over my hair and clothes just to make sure there weren't any pieces of dead fish on me. Birds started congregating over us and the coveted fish head, making me wonder if I was really going to get out of this unspoiled. I've had a bird poop experience before that I

The Fish Head  (It was actually much bigger than it looks in this picture)

wish never to be repeated, and I was beginning to think that it might be. It didn't happen - thank God. We were laughing hysterically and several Asian people came over to see what had fallen from the sky. Finally, one of the staff came over with a tissue and tossed the head over the railing, starting a bird fight over the fish head. What fun! Then one of the Asian men asked me to take his picture as he looked thoughtfully out at the horizon. It just doesn't get much better than that.

We sped home to get the car back in time, returned the car, and then made the final stage of the journey back home. The whole trip was delightful and surprising; so much so that we decided to take a roadtrip once a month. Erin will be joining us in our future ventures - we missed having her with us on this one. Now we have something fun to look forward to, which makes the frustrations that come with school much easier to bear. This trip was truly a gift from God, and my thanks goes to Him for such a sweet blessing. Wilma got to have a great retreat instead of being sad and I got to enjoy it with her. How wonderful it is to have a Father Who knows all of our needs and takes care of us. I am blessed to be His.