Life in Between

Eating Fadia's amazing food.  I'm so happy!

Erin at Mamilla Mall.  A wonderful place to go.

 

Damascus Gate during Ramadan

Old City at Night

Wilma & Fadia in the Old City

This is where we go grocery shopping in Beit Hanina.  Wilma loves this tree!

A view of our new school.  It's huge! 

Some flowers on the road to school.

Our apartment building.  Ours is on the bottom left.

                                                

My Cozy Room.

 I'm holding Mrs. Eva's baby, Carmen.  Eva is the teacher I'm subbing for until Christmas break.

It's been over 2 months since my last post & so much has happened. First of all, I think we have a great team this year. There are around 19 or so American volunteers directly involved with the school this year and a few more that are indirectly involved. We have been praying that God would send people whom He has appointed and anointed to be here and that they would adjust well to living in this culture. It seems as though He has answered this prayer abundantly. The volunteers all seem to truly have God's heart for this challenging venture, as well as right motivations for being here. Not that all the volunteers that I've worked with in the past didn't have these - most of them were wonderful, but there have been a couple of people who either weren't here for the right reasons or they weren't suited for life here. And in this culture, just a couple of people can do a lot of damage. So then, thank You, Lord, for this great team!
The school and all the volunteers' apartments are still between a checkpoint and the wall separating East Jerusalem from the West Bank. We were promised that the checkpoint would be moved when school started, but unfortunately in this country you can't believe much of what people say until it happens. And such is the case with the checkpoint - it's still there. It can be a real problem for the parents and students at our school, as well as for our Arab teachers and even the American volunteers sometimes. The Arab teachers that live outside of the checkpoint are only permitted to be in our neighborhood during school hours, and so if any of them need to stay later for any reason, the soldiers may or may not let them pass through the checkpoint. Maybe you remember me mentioning my friend, Fadia. This is one of the problems she and her son face every day. When I invite her and Ameer for dinner or a movie, I have to be prepared for them to stay the night because they might not be permitted to leave. The soldiers will occasionally send people to a checkpoint miles away just to make them mad. It's easy to see why people here are so angry sometimes. As for Wilma, Erin & me, our visas are now officially expired. We have an appointment with the Ministry of Interior on November 12, in which we'll find out if we have to leave or if we can stay. Until then, we may or may not be allowed to leave our neighborhood, depending on the mood of the soldiers at the checkpoint, since we don't have a valid visa to enter Israel. The situation is quite frustrating, especially because the checkpoint is illegal - we are not in the West Bank, but we're treated as though we are.
Being between a checkpoint and the wall also has another down side: there have been a couple of serious instances of crime here involving our school - our school vehicles in particular. What happens is that people from behind the wall come into our neighborhood, commit crimes, and then go back through the wall to the West Bank because it's under the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government can't or won't do anything about it. And there is more than criminal activity going on against the school: some of our students are becoming increasingly violent and apathetic. We have been praying over the school for the past 5 Wednesday nights, and obviously the enemy is not happy. So for those of you who want to pray for us and the school, please pray for God's protection over all the volunteers, staff, & students at Jerusalem School and for the building & property itself, for wisdom for the administration as well as for the teachers, and for God to give us the strength to endure the attack of the enemy - that no weapon of the enemy would prosper against us - that we would not merely endure, but that we would resist this attack and fight back and be victorious, and that God would be glorified.  Also, please be praying about our visa situation. That's a lot to pray about, but then, there's a lot going on; and thankfully, God is more than able to handle all of this. 
On the lighter side, the neighborhood itself is so much nicer than where we lived before. The streets are clean, the buildings are really nice, there are lots of flowers and trees (we have a nice garden at our apartment), and it's so much quieter here. Our apartment is bigger and nicer than the one we used to live in, and I think it's safe to say that we all like living here much better than where we were before. And of course, there's no comparison between the old school and the new school. Our new school facilities are better in every way you could imagine. This new building is a blessing from God, and we know that He has great plans for the school, the students, and the staff. He has called us to something bigger and better than what we had before, and so it's quite easy to see why we are under so much opposition from the enemy. But God is and will be victorious, and I truly believe that His will for the school and for us will be done. Thanks to all of you who keep us in your prayers!