Past 3 Months/Heading Back

As I'm sure anyone reading this knows, I've been in Georgia for the past 3 months. My dad and my grandpa have both had health issues which are hopefully now resolved, or at least on the mend. It has been quite an emotional roller coaster in many ways, but like I've already told so many of you, God's timing for everything has been spot on. And now it seems as though His timing is bringing me back to Jerusalem for the next 2 months to finish out the school year. As far as I can tell, I'll be a teacher's aide (which unfortunately probably means substitute) for the bulk of the time, and then take Wilma's class for the last 2 weeks of school because she's leaving early - again!! - this time for her granddaughter's graduation. (She always has some sort of good excuse to get out of school early!) ;) When I come back to Georgia in June, my plans are to begin fundraising to be able to live in Israel and work with Chrissie S. in the ministry of reconciliation between believers. I have never attempted to raise support before, so this is going to be something new for me.
I'm now heading back to Israel and this is the 2nd day of my journey. However, the actual travel hasn't even begun yet. I arrived at the airport yesterday and 30 minutes after we were supposed to depart, they informed us that there was a broken piece of equipment on the plane. The plane couldn't fly without it, so they were waiting for the replacement to come in around midnight. I was going to wait and fly then, but I found out that if I did, I would have a 13 hour layover in Frankfurt and then arrive in Tel Aviv at 3 A.M. It wouldn't have been easy or fun getting back to Palestine at 3 in the morning, so I took the hotel deal and now I'm back at the airport waiting to leave at 5:50 p.m. I've had a couple of interesting experiences within the last 24 hours, one that I'll call my "almost, but not quite, mithril experience." I was in the hotel elevator and there was a man showing chain mail clothing to a woman. Because I'm such an LOTR dork, I asked him what it was. He told me it would fit me. - ?? - I said that it reminded me of mithril in LOTR. "They say that mithril is the chain mail that feels like fabric," he said as he held a section of it out for me to feel. I couldn't see what type of garment it was, but it was really nice work. He asked me if I was "interested" & I told him I was just curious. I found out later that that probably wasn't the smartest thing to say. He came up to me later as I was about to leave and told me that he makes his chain mail clothing by hand, link by link. He then told me that he's the best in the world - everyone who sees his work says so, and then came the clincher - he was part of a bondage wear/adult convention! Yikes. He makes the "clothing" for women to be photographed in; women such as dominatrix queens and Playboy playmates (he then proceeded to name names), and informed me that the sizes ranged from an A to a GG. And he doesn't sell any of his pieces - they are too special to him. So now I was a little uncomfortable. He unexpectedly started showing me pictures of his clothing, of course with models wearing the pieces, and by my reaction he knew I didn't care to see them. He continued to brag on his skills as a craftsman, "best in the world" was mentioned several times, and then he asked me if I was interested, meaning interested in posing in one of his pieces. I held back my inner reaction of disgust and appall, and politely told him no, and out of my embarrassment and discomfort I told him that I'm a missionary, and I'm not interested in that type of thing. It probably sounded a little haughty, which was not my intention, but it just came out. I told him that I only admired the craftsmanship aspect of his work. He then began educating me on the cause of the housing bubble dating back to Jimmy Carter -??, and then moved on to his high intelligence, his physical fitness, his age (57), and his single status. He admitted that he's not married because he likes to argue too much. And I haven't even left Atlanta yet...