Track Doug & Mandy

Sophia Update 11/13/11

2011-11-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

We just wanted to give a little update on Sophia. This past Thursday we spent the afternoon in Boston, first meeting Mandy's OB at Brigham and Women's hospital (where she'll have a planned C-section if all goes according to schedule). Dr. Oxford was wonderful and “very protective of her patients.” She wowed us with her compassion and strong desire to connect with us. We will see her again Dec. 15.

Then we had a fetal echo and met with Dr. Tworetsky, another pediatric cardiologist at Boston Children's Hospital. He provided encouragement to us when he told us he saw “quite a bit of blood flow” through the left ventricle and out the left aorta. Not only that but the left ventricle appears bigger than originally thought! We have been praying for that exact thing: that God would grow the left ventricle! Dr. Tworetsky went on to say that the right ventricle will shrink a bit after birth and the left ventricle will GROW after birth. More good news!

The news about the ventricle doesn't alter the surgical procedures that Sophia will need to have done at birth and a few months following as of now, but with the doctors telling us that only time will tell at delivery what Sophia's heart will be like combined with the changes in her left ventricle already, we are hopeful for more miracles!

There is a small leakage in Sophia's tricuspid valve on her right ventricle. Due to overworking for the left side this is often the case. The cardiologists will keep a close eye on that in the weeks to come. Please pray that the leakage does not become worse.

Mandy's next appointments are in a couple of weeks for a non-stress test at her OB's office in Westboro. This is a check-up on Sophia to make sure she's not under too much stress in the womb, and is developing appropriately. Mandy will also go in for a routine fetal echo with the cardiologist at Umass Memorial Hospital in Worcester that same week to make sure Sophia's heart is doing okay. Please pray that Sophia doesn't come too early. We want her to stay protected and nurtured in utero for as long as possible!

We will be writing you again in a few weeks come beginning of December to pray for the next round of appointments in Boston. There is a lot on the docket at our 35-week appointment so we'll need LOTS of prayers! Thanks for all your prayers and words of support and encouragement. We couldn't do this alone. We are always grateful for our family and friends.

Much Love,
Doug and Mandy

News about Sophia

2011-09-30T10:57:00.002-04:00

So it's been a while since we've blogged and much has happened. With the recent news about our 2nd daughter, Sophia Joy, who will be born in January we realized that it's probably time that we revived the blog so people could keep up with us. So I'll start by posting the emails we've sent out over the past week. They're a bit dated but they are a good summary of Sophia's story so far. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.
____________________________________________________________________________________

EMAIL #1

Dear family and friends,
First of all allow us to apologize for the mass nature of this email. As you will soon realize, though, we are delivering heavy news, the nature of which makes it difficult to deliver over and over again via phone. Yet we desperately want you all to be in the loop.
As many of you already know, we are expecting the birth of our second daughter, Sophia Joy Priore in mid-January. This past Friday we went to Umass Memorial Hospital in Worcester for a Fetal Echo-Cardiogram. This was necessary because in the regularly scheduled 18-week ultrasound it was discovered that, while the rest of her growth and development is on target, part of Sophia's heart appeared smaller than normal. The echo-cardiogram confirmed this suspicion leaving the doctor to diagnose her with what is called Hypo Plastic Left Heart Syndrome.
Without going into great detail, allow us to explain as much as we understand. A normal heart has four chambers that are divided into two ventricles or sides. One side serves as an intake valve bringing in oxygen enriched blood from the lungs. This blood mixes in the heart with the oxygen depleted blood from the outer extremities of the body and the other ventricle or side of the heart serves to pump the now oxygenated blood back out the brain etc.
It appears that the left side of Sophia's heart is not adequately developed enough to function properly once she is born. She is ok in utero because she gets what she needs from Mandy but once she is born the doctor said she will most likely face three surgeries within the first two years of her life. The doctor told us that termination of the pregnancy was option for us to which we told him that her name is Sophia and no, termination was certainly not an option. So Mandy will be delivering the baby at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Sophia will be taken immediately to Boston Children's Center next door. They will immediately begin monitoring Sophia's heart and the first surgery would take place within the first week of her life.
The surgeries that Sophia faces are common but by no means routine. There are significant risks involved. What they would basically be doing is re-plumbing her heart so that the right ventricle functions on behalf of both sides of her heart. The doctor told us that upon successful completion of the third surgery around the time she is two years old that she can live a relatively normal life. She won't be running any marathons but she hopefully won't be severely limited in her activity either. A lot of this depends of course on the observation and tests they run in the first few hours after she is born.
As you can imagine this news has come as a shock to us. We are aware that we have begun a journey down a long road. We have cried and asked God “why us” and “why Sophia” and all the usual questions that people ask in times of great grief. However, in all of this we have clung to the words of David in Psalm 139 when he assures us that Sophia was “fearfully and wonderfully made” when she was “knit together” in her mother's womb. We hope that you will join your hearts with ours in prayers for strength, healthy development for Sophia, and miracles. We hope that you will all continue to love and support us with your presence in our lives as you always have in the past. Above all we hope that you hear us say loud and clear in the midst of our grief that our God is a great and mighty God, worthy of praise, and able to do the impossible. He can move mountains; He can part rivers; He can walk on water; He can certainly heal Sophia's heart. We love you all and we will do our best to keep in touch during the coming months.
In Faith,
Doug, Mandy, Jordan (and coming soon...Sophia)

EMAIL #2

Dear Family and Friends,
After a long (two plus hour) echo cardiogram at Boston Children's Hospital last Thursday, doctors confirmed that Sophia has Hypo Plastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS). We met the cardiologist who will be taking care of Sophia once she is born. We also met the nurse practitioner who will be part of Sophia's care team. They did a wonderful job of reassuring us that “while this is no news any parent wants to hear, we can tell you that this (HLHS) is not new to us.” They stressed over and over how great a place Children's Hospital is and how we couldn't ask for a better hospital. After our conversations with the doctor and the nurse we felt a bit more at ease. We feel peace knowing Sophia's receiving expert care, and have packets and packets of information to prove it:) Now just to wade through it all.....
As of now, Mandy will be dealing with four different doctor's offices. We pray for traveling mercies and stamina to withstand all the appointments. We also pray Sophia's physical development stays on target. By about week 30 of Mandy's pregnancy (middle of November) she will transfer all of her care to Brigham and Women's Hospital where she will be monitored until Sophia's birth. Sophia will receive care at Boston Children's Hospital which is right next door to Brigham and Women's. Please join us in praying for smooth transitions.
We thank you all so much for your prayers, calls, cards, emails, and warm thoughts. We want you to know that we sensed your prayers for us as we sat through this last appointment. We are still praying for a miraculous healing in Sophia's heart. While our life seems overwhelming most days, we continue to put our trust in the One who's in control.

In Him,
Doug, Mandy, Jordan and Sophia

Light

2010-10-01T20:35:00.000-04:00

Jordan's favorite word is "dight"or light. She will point out all lights wherever we are, home or away. First thing when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap she wants to turn on all the lights in our house. Her face lights up when she sees light. She will even point out lights in books that I would never have noticed. To say she is obsessed with light is an understatement:-)

We are wired to be in the light. Jordan reminds me everyday to "walk in the light as He is in the light." I can't help but think of Jesus, the Light of the World, when she turns my attention to light. It's such a gift to be geared towards a spiritual truth by my one-year-old. I pray she is forever attracted to the Light.

My birth mother

2010-10-01T19:59:00.003-04:00

I have much on my heart tonight. I have lots of mixed emotions. I keep thinking about my birth mother. Jordan is the age at which I would have been joining my new family in Michigan 32 years ago. 15 months. Such a significant time in my life. I look at my daughter nearly every minute of the day and wonder how in the world could I ever separate from her. I couldn't. I don't know how old I was at my time of relinquishment but I do know I had a connection with my birth mother b/c I have had a connection with Jordan since day one. I understand love and God's unconditional love for us with Jordan. I would do anything to protect her, and yes I would give my own life for her. When I hold her I never want to let her go.

The depth of love my birth mother had for me is incomprehensible. I can't even imagine how difficult it must have been to relinquish me to another family. Everyday I can't wait to see what new things Jordan will do and say. Everyday I love her more and more. My hugs are tighter and the bond is much stronger. I can't help but wonder how in the world she could've given me up. I just don't understand and I hopefully never will. I just know it must have been incredibly difficult and painful, something no mother should have to endure. I rest assured she wanted a better life for me-she must have. Her life's circumstances must have been rotten and adoption was the best option, the safest option.

I wonder where she is today. I wish she could meet me and Jordan and my mom. Does she even want to? I wish I could remember more about her. I wish I could see her in my dreams, what we used to do together before the adoption. Did we chase each other around the house like Jordan and I do? Did we sing and dance all day long?

It's taken me almost 33 years to get to this point. I had to have my own daughter to get here, to yearn for my birth mother. Well I do.

Fall Kick-Off (Doug)

2009-09-10T15:43:00.002-04:00

So when I took over at my new job I had a very daunting task. I’ve been given the reigns of a very successful ministry on the heels of a person who did the job with excellence. I’ve been training and coming up to speed all summer and the moment of truth is finally here. This weekend Student Ministries at FCCH finally kicks off. Back when I first came on board I got to spend some (far too little) time learning from my predecessor, Suzan, about the ins, outs, and what-have-you’s about ministry here at FCCH. But I still had a good couple of months to go till the time where I would actually be responsible for the teens on a week to week basis.
At the time those months seemed like an eternity. Until this when my sister reminded me of the words of Jed Bartlett who said “Break’s over.” Those words hit me like a ton of bricks. Panic set in and I began to wish for more time to learn, more time to get things ready, more time to plan. But yesterday my friend, Baird, was praying and he said something to the effect of “Thank you God, because you give us exactly the amount of time we need to accomplish what you want us to accomplish.” The reminder of this simple truth blew me away. I love how God speaks to me through other people at exactly the time we need to hear from Him. Kim & Jed are both right, Break’s over.
The day Suzan left I said I felt, in some small way, how Joshua must have felt the day he watched Moses begin his hike up Mt. Nebo. In Deuteronomy 34 we read that when Moses was finished speaking all of what is recording in the previous 33 chapters he climbed up Mt. Nebo to meet his old friend, God. He never came back down. It doesn’t mention in the text what Joshua did or said but I imagine there were tears and waves of self doubt and moments of disbelief over whether he was actually ready to assume the mantle that God had placed on him. He probably wished for more time with Moses to just ask him a few more questions like “What do I do if they try that Golden Calf trick again?”, “Where did you find that cool staff and how can I get one?”, and “Is my beard long enough or should I let it grow some more?” But no, he was all by his lonesome. And then in verse 9 God’s Spirit fills Joshua. And the rest is history. I kind of have a hunch that along with that filling of God’s Spirit came the realization that God had given Joshua exactly the right amount of time to prepare for his new role. Nothing more; nothing less. I don’t know how I know that. Let’s just call it a hunch.

A New Leaf - Doug

2009-08-10T16:11:00.002-04:00

So Mandy & I just got back from the LEAD conference put on by Willow Creek this past Thursday & Friday. No, we didn’t go to Chicago to attend the conference. For those of you who don’t know Willow Creek and the Senior Pastor, Billy Hybels, run a multi-site conference every summer called the Leadership Summit. The site we went to was in Lexington, MA and it was one of 50 some sites worldwide!

As with everything Willow does, it’s done with excellence. They line up world class speakers. This was the second time Mandy & I have had the privilege to attend. The first time we went was the summer between our two years in Bethlehem. Honestly, that summer the conference was probably the single greatest conduit of God’s strength for us to return and persevere through our 2^nd year of teaching in that context.

This year, besides Bill Hybels himself, (who is always fantastic) we heard folks like David Gergen, Tim Keller, Bono, and Tony Blair. Personally I was most inspired by Wess Stafford, President of Compassion international. He spoke of growing up as a missionary kid in Africa. He spoke of how the atrocious abuse (is there any other kind?) motivated him to dedicate his life to abolishing extreme child poverty. I sat there with tears streaming down my cheeks, amazed at how God can use even the most awful circumstances to bring about His wonderful purposes.

Beyond that the Leadership Summit is cool because it helps you to see what the Church is doing on a global scale. I get bogged down in day to day ministry and forget that the church has an amazing capacity to do good when it’s working correctly. Hybels is right on when he says “the local church is the hope of the world.” It’s so encouraging to see Christians making a difference in a hurting world. For example check out this site: http://www.kiva.org/. Now maybe you’ve heard of this before, but I hadn’t. It’s a site where folks like you & I can go and give a small loan to some entrepreneur on the other side of the world and help them stand on their own two feet in a small business! I also encourage you to check out http://www.goodafrican.com where you can learn about a really cool coffee company from Uganda.

Among the other things that I was inspired/convicted of this past week was about this blog. I’ve decided that I need to budget in time to my work schedule to blog. I’m going to give the blog address out to my teens this fall. I want this to be another way for them to connect with Mandy & I. Where we’re working in a bigger church now I know it’s going to be hard for me to build relationships with every student personally. I want this to be just one small way they can feel like they learn about Mandy & I and keep up with us.

I’ll leave off this time with a picture. It’s been a while since I posted an image to the site. Our family has grown. For most of the folks who read this blog you’ve probably seen our pictures on Facebook, but nonetheless this picture is too good not share every chance I get. This was taken on a recent trip to Grand Rapids, MI. I suppose we ought to change the name of the blog to TrackDougMandyandJordan!

Parenthood (Doug)

2009-06-20T14:01:00.002-04:00

Sometimes we lay our plans out perfectly. We think we’ve got it all worked out. Then we forget that God’s timing is perfect and that He is the ultimate plan maker.

This past Tuesday, Mandy & I went to Leominster hospital for her regularly scheduled ultrasound. The doctor told us the Amniotic Fluid surrounding our daughter in the womb was too low. She said she thought it would be best if they took Mandy in that day for a c-section. We thought Jordan Grace Priore would be born on July 2nd. That was the day we had planned on having the c-section. That would be after I started my new job as the Interim Director of Youth Ministries at the First Congregational Church of Hopkinton, after we got switched over to the new insurance, after we had found a place to live etc. etc. My father-in-law has a little plaque on his desk that reads “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.” Ain’t that the truth?

Jordan Grace was born on 6/16/09 at 6:16 PM. She was 7lbs 2 oz and 19.5” long. While we were busy making plans God gave us 7lbs 2 oz of life, love and joy. Both Mommy and Baby are doing fine. We all came home from the hospital today and as I type this both of my ladies are napping. Even though this won’t be our home for much longer it feels good to be home. We have lived for almost a year now in Fitchburg, MA. Since my new job is in Hopkinton we will be moving. We don’t know where to yet since there have a few snags in our housing plans. But I’m not getting to hung up on plans right now because as Jordan taught us sometimes God has other plans for us; plans that are much better (and even cuter) than ours. Thanks for all your prayers, love, and support!

Expecting!!

2009-01-12T16:35:00.003-05:00

Mandy is close to 15 weeks along in her pregnancy! The due date is July 9, 2009. She's been feeling great with little to no sickness. She knows she has it good! We pray that the remainder of the pregnancy will go as smoothly. This past week we heard the heartbeat for the first time. It was one of the coolest moments of our lives. It sometimes doesn't seem real that we are going to be parents, but hearing the heartbeat definitely solidified our call!

We are reminded of Psalm 139: 13-14 which we read to our little one even now, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." We rejoice in this miracle!

Christmas in Fitchburg

2008-12-04T11:36:00.000-05:00

I think one of the hardest transitions to returning home this year will be Christmas. Isn’t that strange? We talked about how difficult it was to be away from home & family while we were in Bethlehem. And now that we’re home, Mandy & I are enjoying those things immensely. But I have to admit there’s something missing this year. We’re back to singing songs about Bethlehem. We used to sing songs in Bethlehem and that had special meaning all its own. I’m sure part of me is just looking back with rose colored glasses but there is something truly amazing about standing in the Shepherd’s fields on Christmas Eve. Thankfully as was already made abundantly clear on Thanksgiving there is absolutely nothing that can take the place of family, not even Bethlehem itself. And hey, there’s a “Living Nativity this weekend in the next town over. At least we can take a ride over and critique how accurate it is!

Walk On (Doug)

2008-10-02T14:41:00.001-04:00

School is now fully under way in Bethlehem. Classes have begun, changes have been made, and kids are already getting in trouble. Things march on seemingly as normal with one huge difference. We’re not there. We’re here now. We’ve moved to Fitchburg, MA and I am an associate pastor at a small inner-city church. The extent to which our world is different now than it was even 4 months ago is dizzying. I wish I had a dollar for every person who has asked us “Are you glad to be back?” or “Is it weird to be back?” or “Do you miss Bethlehem?” For the record, the answer to all 3 is yes.
The fact that we can call family on a normal phone whenever we want, or get Dunkin Donuts coffee whenever we want, or watch the Red Sox in the playoffs at the same time as the rest of Red Sox Nation never gets old. We are continually marveling at the beauty of Fall in New England. Every red, orange, or yellow tree fills us with the absolute joy of being HOME. At the same time it is “weird” to be back as well. I have to admit there has been more than one night that I’ve woken up wondering where I am. My body seems very puzzled by the fact that the weather is turning colder rather quickly. A process that took a matter of several months in Bethlehem takes place in a matter of weeks here. I found myself outside without a coat on this morning wondering why I was chilly.
Of course, we miss Palestine. We miss the food. There is this amazing bread that sell with Falafel on the street corner there and you can get it for less than the equivalent of $2. We miss the fact that we could take off and be at any Biblical site we wanted within a couple of hours at the most. But most of all we miss the people. Our students, the people we taught with, Miss Grace, Miss Lilly, the other American Teachers are all people we will never forget. Our prayers are forever with them and with the school there in Bethlehem.
We found a new walking route here in Fitchburg. My last post was about walking in Bethlehem and how it affected us. We are walking a different road now. That’s true on so many levels. But we are where God has called us to be. We are a part of what God is doing in this city and especially right here in this neighborhood. Please remember the school in Bethlehem in your prayers and please remember to pray for us right here in Fitchburg.

Last Steps (Doug)

2008-06-14T15:46:00.002-04:00

At the beginning of this year Mandy and I finally found a walking route through our neighborhood that allowed us a decent 30 minute walk. That might not seem like a terribly difficult task that would take two college educated young adults the better part of a year and a half to accomplish. Yet it is more challenging than one might assume. Lest you forget, we have been living in what is biblically referred to as the “hill country of Judah.” They don’t call it that for nothing. Unless you want your walk to contain sharp ascents and descents you’d better be prepared to be creative. So as we got to know our Little Town of Bethlehem we finally discovered a route that was relatively flat. Tonight after the blazing middle-eastern sun had finally dipped safely behind the hills of Beit Jala we embarked upon what will probably be our last daily walk through Bethlehem.

These last steps are sort of symbolic of the many ‘steps’ we’ve been taking of late. We cleaned our classrooms, handed in our books, cleaned our apartment, and threw away a ton of junk. (It is amazing how much junk two human beings can acquire in only two years. We’ve pretty much filled the big green dumpster down in the playground.) And of course there are the goodbyes. There has barely been a day this week where we haven’t been invited over to someone’s house for a huge Arabic meal and a goodbye. Today we had two! (Hence the importance of the aforementioned 30 minute walk.) It will be so hard to say goodbye to this land. It has a piece of our hearts and always will. More importantly these people have a piece of hearts. Our students, our colleagues and our friends will be sorely missed. We place them in God’s hands knowing that He who watches over Israel & Palestine “will neither slumber nor sleep”.

I’ll miss our walks here. Most days I wouldn’t have said that. Looking back though, our walks were beauty mixed with ugliness. We would walk past a beautiful rose garden, then a trash dumpster that had been set on fire. We would see palm trees and cedars of Lebanon and then someone would drive by and throw trash out the window. We would stare in amazement as a flock of sheep would waddle up the road behind a shepherd who looked like he walked straight out of a Bible story. Then we would have to cross over to the other side of the road because man, do sheep leave a mess! We would watch children playing in the dirt, flying kites, or kicking a worn out soccer ball and then we’d be stared at by a group of young men who would make your skin crawl. We saw amazing sunsets, bright blue skies, full moons, crescent moons, starry skies, we laughed and talked.

Walking is good.

A few weeks ago in church we sang a song that I first learned in Mrs. Bloem’s second grade class. It was called “This is My Father’s World.” The third verse struck me so that it bought me to tears. I guess when some look at all that is wrong and ugly here they might lose heart and say there’s no hope. I look at all that God is doing here in the lives of students, colleagues, and friends not to mention the beauty of sunsets, sheep, and cedars and I brought back to verse three of that beautiful song. So as this will most likely be our last post from the Holy Land, I leave you with these words…

This is my Father's world.
O let me ne'er forget
that though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father's world:
why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King; let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let the earth be glad!

Graduation (Doug)

2008-06-01T12:34:00.005-04:00

I dont think it will make sense to my brain when my fingers type this sentence. It's June. As short as that sentence was it's still mindblowing to us. But we are praising God because we've made it this far.

Today was a significant day. Many of you know that we have been praying about a position at a church in Fitchburg, MA. Just moments ago we got off a video call with the pastor of that church and it's now official. By a unanimous vote I am now an associate pastor. That sentence was also very weird for my brain to comprehend as my fingers were typing.

Yesterday was also a significant day. It was graduation day here at our school in Bethlehem. I was asked to address the graduates at last nights proceedings and so I thought I'd share with you all the text of the speech I gave to the 7 graduates last night. Enjoy...

Dear Parents, fellow colleagues, esteemed guests from the Ministry and Municipality, Representatives of Miss Martha’s group, and beloved students,
Though I am honored to be speaking to you tonight I am in actuality addressing the 7 young men sitting behind me. So, shebab, please listen as though you had your name and 2 checks on the board. We’ll make one last deal. You sit quietly and I’ll never write your name on another board for the rest of your life. Ok?
When I was asked to speak at the graduation of these 7 distinguished gentlemen I was reminded of a story I once heard. There were two brothers in a certain town. They were despicable characters. They lied, cheated people, robbed people. One day, one of the brothers died and the other brother went to the town priest and said Father I will pay you a large sum of money to do my brother’s funeral on one condition. I know that you know what kind of life my brother led but if you want the money, at some point in the eulogy you need to say that my brother was a “saint.” Say whatever else you want about the man but you need to refer to him as a saint. So the priest agreed with some reservation. How could he call this character a saint. But he took to the pulpit, wiped his brow and began. “Dearly beloved the man who lies before you was a thief, a liar, and a cheat” he said “but compared to his brother, he was a SAINT!”
Enough jokes, let me address the 7 saints seated behind me. No I’m only I kidding. I love you guys. It was Ten years ago this very month that I myself graduated from high school. To some of you that makes me hardly old enough to know anything of value to share with tonight’s graduates. To others, you may feel that I’m so old I can’t remember what it’s like to sit in that chair awaiting a diploma. Actually I feel that I have quite a unique perspective. In truth I have lived a bit since graduation and I have a few life lessons I’d like to share with you. That having been said I DO REMEMBER what it it’s like to sit there and listen to 15 different people make speeches while all you really want to do is get this over with and go celebrate. So I will try to keep my remarks brief.
I have 3 lessons I want you to remember as you embark upon this next chapter in your life. The first is “Never forget where you came from.” I want you gentlemen to look out at your families sitting in the audience tonight. They love you so much! They love you so much that they work and sacrifice to put you in the American School and they will stop at nothing to give you every possible chance to succeed. Don’t waste that. You each owe them so much. Never forget that.
May your parents love also remind you of God’s love. God who would also stop at nothing because He loved you so much. He sent Jesus into the world to die for each one of you. May God’s love inspire you even more so than your parents love for you.
You will very shortly be graduates of the Jerusalem School – Bethlehem and I don’t ever want you to forget that. Though you may be very anxious to forget about school and move on with life right now. Very soon you will look back and appreciate the foundation of learning that you received here. When I graduated I wanted nothing more than to get out and celebrate with my friends, have a vacation and then get off to college. I was a big fish in a little pond. I found out all too soon that in the world I was a small fish in a very big ocean. So though you may be excited to move on, never forget what we’ve taught you and always realize that you have another family at the Jerusalem School – Bethlehem. Never forget where you came from.
Second: “Life is what you put in, not what you take out.” The world tells us all today to grab what you can get. Hoard it all for ourselves. Make as much money as you can get not matter who you may hurt in the process. Let me remind you that there is no such thing as “ENOUGH”. If getting STUFF is your goal you will never reach your goal. I read a bumper sticker once that read “The one who dies with the most toys wins.” Don’t let this be your philosophy. Not long after that I read another bumper sticker mocking that first one which read “The one who dies with the most toys…still dies.” Jesus says, “Do not store up for yourself treasures on Earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, rather store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Do not fall victim to the lie of this world that makes us obsessed with getting more stuff. This will leave you with and empty whole inside that will never be filled. Only God’s love can fill that hole inside you. And you’ll find that if you let him fill that whole inside of you not only will you have “Enough” but you will have so much that you can actually give of yourself to others.
Which brings me to my last lesson for you this evening: Be servants. This sounds like a strange thing to say to a group of bright, promising young students who have the world in front of them tonight. But you can choose right here and now whom you will serve from this day forward. Jesus’ Disciples ask him who is the greatest. Do you remember what His response to them is? The one whom I consider to be the greatest, Jesus says, is the one who serves others the most. That attitude of Humility before God and your fellow human beings is a rare and beautiful thing. Dedicate your life to serving others. Use your many wonderful talents to serve others and you will find that your life has meaning, purpose, and value beyond what you could ever hope for.
So as I stand before all 7 of you for what will probably be the last time I pray you will remember a lot of what I have taught you over the last two years. However I am a realistic kind of guy. So if you will just remember these 3 lessons I think I’ll be happy. Never forget where you came from. Life is what you put in, not what you take out and Be a servant.
Gentleman it has been my privilege to be your teacher it is now my honor to be your friend. Thank you for all that you have taught me. Congratulations and may God richly bless you all the days of your life. Thank you.

Visit Palestine - (Doug)

2008-04-26T15:39:00.007-04:00

Last year I bought a really cool poster from our friend, Suliman, in the Old City of Jerusalem. It’s reproduction of an old advertisement from the British Mandate period (end of WWI until 1948). It’s a painting of Jerusalem and on the bottom it says simply “Visit Palestine.” At the time I bought it because I thought it was sort of quaint. Lately, Mandy and I have been visiting Palestine and that poster has become all the more special to me.
With our time here in Bethlehem winding down, it is becoming more and more apparent to us that we have seen a whole lot of Israel but not much of Palestine. Therefore over the past month we have been doing our best to get around the West Bank a bit more and see some of the places that are uniquely Palestinian. Of course we know Bethlehem. I’m driving more and more like a Bethlehem native these days, a habit I will need to break quickly upon our return to the states or I am going to face some serious traffic tickets. But we want to know Palestine beyond our own “little town of Bethlehem.” We took the students in grades 3-12 on a field trip to Jericho the other day. Jericho, the oldest city in the world and the lowest city on earth, is under the control of the Palestinian Authority. It boasts fantastic produce such as dates, figs, and a cornucopia of various other delights. You can visit the ancient Tel of Jericho and a monastery said to be where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness for 40 days.
Last weekend one of my seniors, Osama, reached a significant milestone. His SAT grades were verified by the Palestinian Ministry of Education (a group whom I affectionately refer to as the Palestinian Ministry of Misinformation) to be eligible for graduation. They have a long and confusing list of points which must be satisfied if a student from a private school wishes to graduate and Osama is the first in his class to reach this goal. He needed to travel to an office in Ramallah to do so and Mandy and I offered to tag along. In part, I wanted to be there to shake Osama’s hand after it became official, but also we just really wanted to see Ramallah.
Ramallah is sort of the unofficial capital of Palestine. Officially of course when you ask Palestinians what their capital is they will say Jerusalem. Practically speaking though, Ramallah is the capital. Most of the big businesses are centered there. The government offices are there. Yasser Arafat is buried there. So we took off for Ramallah with Osama and we had a lovely day. I got to shake Osama’s hand and congratulate him on making it through high school alive. We got to go to the famous Stars and Bucks. Yes you read that correctly and yes it is a shameless knock off of Starbucks but let me tell you when it’s been 8 months since you last saw a Starbucks, Stars and Bucks ain’t half bad. And we visited the grave of Yasser Arafat as well. Though Ramallah is quite busy and I wouldn’t want to live there I have to admit that is fairly modern and impressive city. I jokingly said to Osama that they really ought to just give up and call Ramallah the capital and move on. He’s mulling the idea over. I’m sure he’ll get back to me soon.
Just today we made our next stop on our tour of Palestine. We have a five day weekend in honor of Orthodox Easter so we went with our friends, (and fellow teachers) Paris and Lily, to Hebron. Hebron is famous for their glass industry. We got to watch a man take molten glass from a giant furnace and blow life into it before our eyes. I also watched in amazement as the same man took out a chunk of hot glass with the tongs to light a cigarette; not exactly as beautiful but fascinating nonetheless.
Hebron is probably most famous as being the final resting place of the Patriarchs. Genesis 23:19 says “Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan.” Today we stood overtop of the graves of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph (not to mention Sarah and Rebecca, and Leah.) This site is holy to both Muslims and Jews. It’s sort of a symbol of Hebron as a whole. One half of this building is a mosque and the other half is a synagogue and the gate between them is guarded by Israeli soldiers. Hebron is one of the most fought over spots in the West Bank. There are settlers in Hebron who are violent and spiteful towards the Palestinians who live there. We walked through one part of the city where the shopkeepers had put fencing up over the road to catch the trash that the Jewish settlers throw down upon them. They also warned us that often times when the settlers are done washing their floor they will dump the dirty, bleach filled water down onto the street and passersby below. Part of me wanted to cry at the thought of standing over the bones of Abraham. The rest of me wondered if Abraham cries watching his children fight over his grave.
This chapter of the Priore Palestine Parade will soon draw to a close. But when I get home and hang that “Visit Palestine” poster up on my wall it will mean something different to me than it did when I first bought it. It will represent friends. It will represent memories. It will represent hope. I hope you all will take the time to visit Israel. I hope you will all get the privilege to Visit Palestine.

Fourth Quarter (Mandy)

2008-04-07T14:54:00.004-04:00

It’s hard to believe, but we are into the last nine weeks of school. I was giving my students a pep talk about “finishing strong” today. As Doug and I were taking a walk around our normal loop here in Beit Jala this afternoon, we expressed gratitude for mild, springy temperatures as of late. Once it hits May summer settles in nicely, creating a sticky classroom filled with stinky students. My students and I have a lovely view of the soccer field from our classroom. It’s fun to hear kids express excitement about playing out there and watching them race to the field at break time. Today one of my students told me he couldn’t wait to play American football on the field! I’m glad they’re discovering new ways to use it. The playground seems calmer these days as many kids filter out to the soccer field. That is a huge answer to prayer! Space is always an issue here, so it’s nice to be able to create a safer environment for them at least during recess. During our weekly P.E. class the children now have a choice between playing on the soccer field or playing basketball in the courtyard. A choice! Wow! I say all this because of the great appreciation I have for the soccer field. It’s managed to change the atmosphere of the school, even just a little bit. Every little bit helps that’s for sure. I wish more walls could be knocked down to create more spacious rooms-another project for another time perhaps……

Doug is busy working on creating the yearbook with a local printing company in Bethlehem. The seniors are using the computer lab (9 new computers donated by a church in Georgia) to help with this. Today they were able to type up notes to each elementary grade level from the respective teacher. Eventually they will help Doug with the layout and design of the final product. All grade levels are able to take computer classes two times a week. They learn how to type on the keyboard and how to navigate the internet. I imagine the high schoolers will learn how to use different search engines to find information for research projects/papers. Again, another “change of pace” is wonderful for our students!

I coordinated an elementary school talent show a couple of weeks ago. Enjoy some sights from that fun evening!

My Bible study is still going well. We are in between focuses right now, but I look forward to studying the book of Esther with them. The girls say they know about many stories but haven’t taken time to read them. I’m going to take the liberty of introducing them to one of the amazing women of the Bible! They were not aware that heroes of the faith included women up until about a week ago! That’s sad, and that’s going to change.
Pray that God would speak to them during this particular study coming up. Also pray that God gives me the wisdom and clarity of words in which to proclaim Truth to them.

We are both gearing up for the senior trip in May! Details are still being worked out, but we could use prayers for finances and traveling mercies. Thanks for your encouragement and support! We appreciate each and every one of you. God bless!

Test Blog

2008-03-23T11:05:00.002-04:00

Now we have learned how to do pictures on the Blog!

The First Goodbye (Doug)

2008-02-28T14:30:00.002-05:00

As many of our millions (HA!) of faithful readers already know, Mandy & I are planning on returning State-side at the completion of this school year. We will have fulfilled our two year commitment to our school and we feel it’s time to come home. Where exactly we will end up and what exactly we will be doing is still yet to be determined. We would appreciate all your prayers in this as we are still in the decision making process.
While we are doing our best to be completely committed to the task at hand and to enjoy every moment that remains for us here in the Holy Land we are becoming increasingly aware of the hole we will leave in the school. Many of the teachers and of course Miss Grace beg us to stay on almost a daily basis. Part of our prayer process has been to pray for more teachers to come and take our place here. We have also had to begin preparing ourselves for the long string of difficult goodbyes that we will face. But I never expected to face one so soon.
Yesterday after school I was told that Andreas, the student whom I’ve been tutoring twice a week since the beginning of last school year, will be moving to the States. He’s leaving Saturday. My relationship with Andreas has had its ups and downs, to be sure. Andreas’ father has been a come-and-go sort father for the year and a half I have known him. This has caused lots of problems for Andreas socially as you can probably guess. For most of the past two school years I have been a large part of Andreas’ life and without even really realizing it, he’s become a big part of mine.
If you’ve been a faithful reader since the start you might remember that I got to pray with Andreas to accept Jesus into his heart just before Christmas last year. Andreas has also faced his parents fighting to the point of almost divorcing, and being on the brink of being expelled from the school for discipline problems. But throughout this rollercoaster time for Andreas we have continued to meet twice a week for tutoring sessions in which we occasionally work, usually play, and always talk.
He’s a rolly polly butterball that kind of reminds me of myself when I was kid. My relationship began with him last year when he began giving Mandy trouble in her class. Out of desperation, Mandy asked me to tutor him. Many, many times over the past year and a half I’ve asked myself why I said yes. But as I said goodbye to him today I could barely hold back the tears. I gave him a Red Sox hat and an Olive Wood cross to remember me by. I hope he does. Goodbye Andreas. May Christ guide you and protect you. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord,” plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Journal entry (Mandy)

2008-02-20T10:38:00.003-05:00

One of the reasons I love teaching in the elementary level is because kids usually tell you exactly how they feel, whether you are ready to hear it or not. I've found journaling to be an excellent outlet for children to do just that. Journaling has always been an important aspect in my classroom because I've connected with ALL of my students in this way. Today I read a journal entry that pulled on my heartstrings. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I thought you might enjoy seeing what's happening with one of my students. God is really moving in this young girl's life. Here it is:

"When I grow up I want to be able to tell about God and when he died on the cross for our sins.
My favorite part of school is p.e. and language. And reading. I like to read the Bible night and morning and I like to pray for my family and my aunt in Poland and my other aunt in Ramalla.
During recess I like to play with my friends catching. WE LOVE MISS MANDY."

Then in a heart on the next page she wrote: forever Miss Mandy

Keep praying that my other students, and all the students in our school for that matter, are able to grow roots like this young child.

Snow-God's Gift!

2008-01-30T03:19:00.000-05:00

I'll bet most of you are beginning to think the opposite of my thoughts on snow! We are currently enjoying the Palestinian "blizzard" of '08. It's the first time we've seen snow this winter! We've all be anticipating it for a while now. We are experiencing such high winds that yesterday my students thought there was a band of pipers outside our window,(who knew wind could create piping noises in harmony) and it sounds like there are multiple cat fights going on in our school building (creepy, I know)! However, we love the wind and the snow along with it. We were able to crawl back into bed this morning and enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast (Doug makes the BEST omelettes). We also know that with snow days comes some strange behavior, such as our neighbor on top of his roof, shoveling a small patch of snow with a huge shovel. To which we were surprised that he dragged his entire family out to watch him do that in 10 seconds. Ahhhhh, the joy of having the time to watch things like this! With a snow day comes a blog post. It's long overdue, I apologize.
Doug is in exam week now. He's busy making up tests that cover this past semester and grading them. I am extremely jealous that he's done at 11:00 each day, but what can I do? The perks of teaching high school! We are both going to start grading for report cards today or tomorrow (most likely) that go out next Monday. He's busy, as always, being the janitor, assistant high school principal, Miss Grace's errand runner, etc. The things he does on a daily basis still amazes me. He was fixing the heat in an apartment down the hall yesterday then going to get permissions for some students participating in Model United Nations later next month. He's a very handy guy to have around, and I never know what he's up to. Miss Grace is already freaking out about next year, without him around to help with everything. What did they do before Doug came? Sometimes I wonder....
My class is still proving incredibly challenging. Usually while I'm teaching I feel like an eruption is going to take place between the students. For some reason, the Christian students in the class ostracize the Muslim students. Mainly it's the boys. They do little things to leave them out, or blatantly push them out of the way. I find they're often snickering when the Muslim students speak. I think it's many bad habits that have solidified over their years of schooling, but pray I can talk to parents about encouraging their children to stop doing this, and I can create a community where people are truly loved for who they are. Sadly, the parents are teaching their children to do this, as they often deal with each other in the same manner. My heart breaks for my student Watheq in particular. He tries to fit in with the other boys, but finds that the mold he fits into is being the butt of their jokes. He allows them to tease him to fit in. It's really sad! Pray I can find a way to stop that, and make Watheq want to stop it!
On a much brighter note my Bible study is going extremely well. I have three girls who are devoted to our group. One of them asked me if we could meet weekly! We now meet every Saturday afternoon in our apartment and continue studying God's call on our lives (through a book by Bill Hybels). This past week we were discussing one area in our life we'd like to change, and the discussion got steered in a way that one of the girls suggested we "check up on each other." Accountability was the next step, and they knew they needed it before I even suggested it! Praise God! I'm not sure whether one of the girls still attends a Muslim religion class or not (last thing I knew she was) but I'm praying for an opportunity to ask her about where she's truly at. I can tell the Lord is really working in her life, though, which is awesome. I'm also working on getting the girls to read their Bibles on a daily basis. They are going to try reading verses geared for particular circumstances such as when they're: sad, stressed, lonely, happy, etc. It's a start.
I'm coordinating a talent show for the elementary school to take place in March. The kids are very excited about it, and are even working out group performances! I hope they will stay committed to doing it! I'll keep you posted on that.
Okay, now it's off to read and download some pictures. We pray God is blessing your lives and you are a blessing to others!

Why I'm NOT voting for Mike Huckabee (Doug)

2008-01-04T16:00:00.000-05:00

I know we don't really go into politics this directly on this blog that much but when this came to our attention I couldn't stay silent. I was kind of interested in this Mike Huckabee guy who's put his hat in the ring for the presidential race. He seems like an interesting candidate so I've been doing my homework. But my interest immediately ceased when I read this about him...

When asked about a Palestinian state, Gov. Huckabee stated that he supports creating a Palestinian state, but believes that it should be formed outside of Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it would only be fair for other Arab nations to give the Palestinians land for a state, rather than carving it out of the tiny Israeli state.

I guess this leaves me with a question for Mike Huckabee. My question would be this "Mr. Huckabee, would you not agree that by your train of thought that since there are plenty of other European countries in the world, the people of the state of Arkansas should give the land back to the Choctaw and Illinois indians who lived there first since there are "far more" lands that people of Anglo-Saxon descent could use to live in?" To simply banish the Palestinians from the lands and homes they've owned for centuries out to the desert somewhere is the most degrading inhumane suggestion I can think of short of an all out ethnic cleansing. In fact, what should scare us is that historically speaking, mass relocations of people are typically a precursor to genocide. The thought process usually goes like this...'Hmmm these people are a real problem for us. It would be better if they weren't here. Let's move them. Hmmm they're still a problem. Let's just kill them since nobody really cared when we moved them all. Obviously nobody will really miss them all that much." Well let me just say, I'd miss them.

I'm sorry if my statements here make some of our readers angry but frankly this needs to be said. The discussion over "who was here first" is not relevant. There are two groups of people who live here NOW. The issue is what to do now, not how do we figure out who came first. Secondly, the issue of the Biblical "right" to this land is also severely abused by Christian dispensationalists who have no idea what the modern state of Israel is really like. Do the Jewish people have a right to a homeland here...YES. Is the modern state of Israel the same as Biblical Israel...NO. I feel like the confusion between these two points shapes many American viewpoints including many of those in power. Fact: Biblical Israel was a theocracy. Fact: Modern Israel is a democracy (a VERY secularized one at that). It is irresponsible of us obliterate the livelihoods of millions of Palestinian people and displace them from their homes because we think the state of Israel is the equivalent of Moses and the 12 tribes running around knocking down all the evil Canaanite high places.

So thanks for letting me vent. I'm sorry if I've made you angry but I'm not sorry if I got you to think about this a little more and to question what the various candidates say about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This one single issue is probably one of the biggest problems that most Arab nations have with the U.S. today. God help us if someone like Mike Huckabee becomes president and continues to create policies towards the Palestinians that only make matters worse.

O Holy Night (Doug)

2007-12-24T17:01:00.000-05:00

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Savior's birth.

It’s Christmas Eve in Bethlehem and the stars are indeed bright. The moon rose full over the town where Jesus was born and we took to the town. Mom and Dad Priore are here and it has added a whole new level of enjoyment to our Holiday. The wonder and joy of our first Christmas in Bethlehem were tempered last year by the thought that we were so far from our family and friends. This year that sting has been taken away by the excitement of having some family here in the Holy Land.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

As we brought Mom and Dad through Manger Square today, they drew the attention of the news media. Is anyone surprised? CNN interviewed these two conspicuous gringos asking them how they were finding Bethlehem. They got the chance to tell the world that they feel very safe, that everyone has been warm and friendly etc. The last question they asked was what they thought the answer was to The Situation here. Mom got to say that she thought Jesus was the hope for the world. Dad told the cameras that he thought people should treat each other the way they would want to be treated. So far this evening we’ve been watching CNN’s coverage of Christmas in Bethlehem and there’s no sign of their interviews. Actually, beyond the fact they’ve chosen not to air these two very well educated tourists we were very disappointed with CNN’s slant on their coverage. With more than a hint of pessimism they reported that this is the most tourism Bethlehem has seen since the second Intifada back in 2000. They talked about how tourists stop by but don’t typically stay in Bethlehem.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

In all of this, they seem to be glancing right over the wonderful fact that this is the best Bethlehem has seen in years. There has been peace here and the world is taking notice. Maybe CNN can’t see it from the roof tops around Manger Square but we can see it on the ground. You can see it to if you’d like to come and experience it. That’s what my parents have been doing.

Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was bornO night, O holy night, O night divine!

We’re having turkey for dinner tomorrow. As is my custom at major holidays I brought the turkey over to a bakery in Bethlehem. Nothing gets me in the holiday spirit like running across Manger Square with a couple of turkeys. That’s why I brought my parents there! (Sorry, I had to get to that one before someone else did.) As I crossed the square there was an orchestra performing Handel’s Messiah. This is hands down my favorite piece of music of all time. So the story goes, Handel wasn’t really a believer when he started out writing this masterpiece. After ingesting so much Scripture during the process though, he found himself believing by the time he was done. Every time I here this piece performed I hope it has the same effect on whomever is in earshot. I was really praying for that tonight. Like the angels who appeared here some 2000 years ago I hope these melodic voices brought news of Christ to some new hearts here in Bethlehem tonight.

Truly He taught us to love one another, His law is love and His gospel is peace.

We met a Palestinian Christian man named Jaber last night who really gave me hope. He told us of how the Israelis had shot and almost killed his son who had happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Later in the conversation he went on to say that he really felt that his people could coexist with the Israelis. He said he had forgiven them for what they had inflicted upon his son. He said he believed that was what Jesus calls us to do. I was amazed. For me, this was a testimony to the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: extreme forgiveness. I heard the heart of Jesus in this man. I saw the “thrill of hope” that comes from knowing God’s love.

Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease.

There’s a big steel gate up the hill in Bethlehem. It’s some sort of secondary entrance to the segregation wall that surrounds Bethlehem. I’ve never seen it open before tonight. We were on our way over to the Shepherd’s Fields for our second annual “Eat Like Shepherds on Christmas Eve” dinner. Traffic came to an absolute standstill and this gate cracked open. It scared me at first. I thought “what on earth could warrant THAT gate being opened?” But it was just the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas making his way to Manger Square. As I sat there watching the wall crack open I had a vision, a vision of a day when it will open for good, a vision of day when the Bethlehem Wall will tumble like the Berlin Wall, like Apartheid, like slavery. To me, Jaber’s words were like that gate creaking open. It was just a glimpse of what could be.

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, With all our hearts we praise His holy name.

There is much to praise God for this year. Not the least of which for me is that our dear friends, Josh and Lauren (who were here in the Holy Land with us last Christmas) have finally found a home. Josh was called to be a pastor of Church in Maine. I’ve known Josh for almost ten years now. In all that time his focus has never changed. He’s wanted to pastor a local church in Maine. It brings great joy to my heart that God has honored his desire and they’ll be in their own home for Christmas.

Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we, His power and glory ever more proclaim! His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Merry Christmas everybody! We love you, and miss you all.

Mom and Dad Priore are here! (Mandy)

2007-12-18T15:09:00.001-05:00

With the joy and excitement that comes with Christmas, it is magnified ten-fold this year with the presence of my in-laws! They arrived early Sunday morning on time and with all their luggage in tow. They've graced our classrooms with gifts for the students and brought many many smiles to our hallways! The American candy and chex mix has been a big hit especially.
We've been invited to numerous homes already-the Arabic hospitality has been just outstanding. Mom and Dad Priore are big stars around here!

For me, it's been a huge gift to have them here because they bring home to this foreign land, and they have brought perspective. Seeing our life through their eyes has been affirming. Tasting the numerous Arabic rice dishes, getting to know our students, crossing checkpoints, experiencing the crazy driving here, seeing the monstrosity that is the wall almost everywhere we go, and partaking in Arabic hospitality are just a few of the things that we've grown accustomed to, and I've been able to get a sense of that all over again for the first time in the past few days. The gratitude expressed often and the excitement by Mom and Dad Priore to jump into our life make me proud of where God has brought us this past year and a half. He's folded us into this amazing community, and brought family from around the world to shed light on how special our calling truly is. I am thrilled about celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem with them, and am so grateful they are here.

Just Doing My Job - Doug

2007-12-09T15:40:00.000-05:00

So some days it’s hard to see if what I’m doing makes a difference. Some days my kids are hard to handle, I get frustrated, and I wonder how I’ll make it through. Some days I’m exhausted and I feel like I a hamster running around on a wheel with little to show for my efforts. Today was not one of those days.
I took one of my students to participate in a training weekend for the Model United Nation to be held at the American International School near Tel Aviv. This student was selected to be a member of the 8th Committee which is a group of students who get together to talk about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It was a long day. We left Bethlehem at 7:00 in the morning and didn’t get back until 9:00 tonight. I spent a whole Sunday out there but it was worth it to hear the dialogue in which my student took part. These kids talk more passionately, are better versed in the issues at hand, and discuss problems with more respect than many of their older counterparts in the real UN.
I came back exhausted. But it’s a different kind of exhausted. When my head hits the pillow tonight (a moment which is rapidly approaching) I’ll know that I was a part of something good today. All I did was drive a kid to meeting today but I feel like I did my job today. More than I’ve ever felt in any other job I’ve ever had in my life, I feel like I did my job today. That’s a good feeling.

'Happy' Independence Day

2007-11-14T16:41:00.000-05:00

So today, November 15th, is Palestinian Independence Day. We have the day off. If we were in the States we’d do it up big. There would be cookouts. There would be fireworks. We’d get the Model A out and polish it up for cruise down main street with flags blazing on the bumpers. But here there are no such festivities. As an outsider, as an American, it’s an odd feeling. To be polite I wish my friends here “Happy Independence Day.” This just doesn’t seem to work though. It’s not a very happy day. It’s not a very independent country. So in the end it’s probably more fitting to say “Have a nice day off.” At least that has a sort of positive sound to it since the most common response I get to “Happy Independence Day” is “What Independence?”

I was at my friend Trey’s house last night and he actually had a copy of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence. It was the first time I’d ever laid eyes on it. It was the first time I realized such a document even existed. As I thumbed through it I was struck by the beautiful language. I was most struck by how similar the wording was to our own Declaration of Independence. I’d post the text here for you all but it’s rather lengthy. So unless you’re a high school history teacher like me and you get your jollies off reading the declarations of other nations don’t bother to Google it, just take my word for it. It really reads much like the words penned by the Founding Fathers of the U.S.

I know there’s a lot more to gaining independence than writing fancy words. Some might say this document isn’t worth the paper it’s written on without concrete actions to back up. But my thoughts as I drove away from Trey’s house, past the Nativity church and through manger square tonight were simple. Mandy has kids in her class who have never seen the ocean. Shouldn’t every 10 year old kid have the right to see the ocean? There are certain human rights that I believe are unalienable. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness weren’t notions concocted merely to apply to Americans. We all have those rights. When I say “we” I mean we as humans. If a people declares themselves to be free shouldn’t we support that, at least on paper? Isn’t that what our forefathers fought and died for? Isn’t that what our fathers and grandfathers risked and gave their lives to protect? Can this notion of self rule, and respect for freedom be applied to all peoples, not just our own?

So I’m going to go on wishing my Palestinian brothers and sisters “Happy Independence Day” not because it sounds good, or even makes them feel good. I’m going to do it because I want to be someone who recognizes the fact that the rights to which I pledge my allegiance are applicable not only to myself but to all peoples who so nobly desire. And in so doing I pray that one day November 15th will truly be a happy day.

God's Passionate Love (Mandy)

2007-10-30T15:29:00.000-04:00

Near the end of last school year I had been feeling called to start a high school Bible study for girls. I felt convicted to disciple a small group of girls who would be committed to digging deep in God’s word, and passionate about growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ. This past weekend the first session of high school girls’ Bible study took place in our apartment! Well, actually it was our second meeting since we had gotten together a couple of weeks ago to get acquainted. We began studying a book by Bill Hybels which focuses on God’s significance in and purpose for our lives. (I had heard Hybels speak this past summer and was impressed by his inspiring words and genuine love for the Lord and God’s people). The first chapter discusses “God’s Passionate Love” for us. 7 girls came to the study. Two could not make it, so I am hoping the group ends up at a consistent 9 in the weeks to come.
I was pleasantly surprised when Angie and Dima showed up this past weekend. They had not come the first time. Angie showed up without telling me and I had had no interaction with her before so it caught me off guard. I do remember asking Doug about a “lippy” girl who showed up to Bible club last year (who turns out to be Angie). Dima came right from her Islamic Religion class to our study. I could tell it was going to get interesting!
The ease with which we discussed God’s love for us was remarkable. It was a good topic to start with, seeing as how I needed to get a better grapple on these young ladies. The first question asked us to tell about a time when we felt God’s love. Angie couldn’t think of a time. She made it clear to us that she felt uncomfortable as she nervously giggled and slouched down into the couch. I suggested to Angie that maybe she didn't know how to recognize God's love. She agreed. So the other girls tried to explain their encounters with God and how that translated into his love. At the end of our time together, Angie still couldn't recall a time she had felt God's love.
Dima contributed often to our discussion. I was impressed by her knowledge of the Bible, and she seems to have a real relationship with God. She told us she relies on God’s love to help her family through a very difficult situation. As our study ended she broke down into tears and shared with us everything that’s going on in her life. She is a hurting young lady! It was awesome to gather around her and pray for her. I couldn’t believe it was happening so soon. I was praying that we would get comfortable with each other, and he answered that prayer ten-fold!
Please pray for our Bible study. We meet twice a month, but the girls have suggested meeting more often. (Wow) Pray that we can be powerful witnesses to the gospel of Jesus Christ and his transforming love to Dima and Angie. Pray that I am able to connect with all the girls, and able to encourage them and help them grow in their relationship with Jesus. Pray that Jesus makes himself real to all of them. They really encouraged me this past week as I heard many stories of God's faithfulness in their lives. I am thrilled with what the Lord is doing already!

Can You See? - Doug

2007-09-16T12:19:00.000-04:00

My one regret from this summer really isn’t that bad in the grand scheme of things. We got to see our family and friends. We got to eat at our favorite restaurants…sometimes twice, as was the case with Steak and Shake and the Olive Garden. We got to sit around in my mom’s kitchen while the dip-it and beer flowed just as abundantly as the laughs. We sat on Mandy’s parents back deck and watched the deer play in the woods while we laughed and ate pork chops off the grill. I even got in a round of golf with my father in law and my brothers-in-law. I’m sure they really appreciated this because when I play golf the people I play with end up feeling really good about themselves. In all these wonderful experiences my only regret was that we did not make it to Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox play. Like I said, life will go on, but I’d have to go back several years to try to find a summer when I didn’t go to at least one Red Sox game.

The one consolation in all of this was that we did make it to a Detroit Tigers game while we were in MI. I enjoyed this not because they were my team but because, while I am a Red Sox fan first and foremost, I consider myself a fan of the sport of baseball as well. I like visiting other parks around the country even if the Sox aren’t playing. In fact I find it to be much safer for me if they aren’t.

There’s nothing like hearing the National Anthem played in a major league ballpark for the first time after being away for so long. I stood there in Detroit with my (Red Sox) hat over my heart and I cried. Luckily I had sunglasses on so I didn’t look like I’d completely lost it and was somehow mistaking the game for a Lee Greenwood concert. But in all seriousness I cried. Until you’ve lived away from almost everyone and almost everything you hold dear for quite a long period of time it may be difficult to really grasp the question that Francis Scott Key was asking. Imprisoned on a British ship during the War of 1812, Key awoke one morning to find himself staring in at the fort where the U.S. flag was flying the night before and asking if it was still there. “O Say, can you see…?” The whole song is a beautiful question. Last year I found myself asking this very same question. Are the things that we hold so dear still there? Are the people we love ok? So to stand in ballpark and get the answer to that question really was quite moving. The bat still cracks, the crowd still roars, and I still have ketchup on my shirt from where I dropped my hot dog. Some things don’t change.

So what are you taking for granted? Can you see? I’m asking myself right now if the leaves have begun to change color in New England. Mandy has been reading a book by Bill Bryson in which he contends that New England in the fall is quite possibly one of the most beautiful sights to behold. Can you see? I’m quite sure I agree. There are certain places in this world that I think sometimes God himself must pull up a chair and park himself there to admire what he’s done. I can think of a deck in Michigan where God must sit some evenings just to watch the sun set through the trees and the animals play in the glade. Can you see? Take the time to look around you. With all of the rockets red glare and bombs bursting in the air around us don’t get distracted from what really matters, the gifts that God has given us.

Back in the Saddle Again (Mandy)

2007-08-28T13:57:00.000-04:00

Another school year is underway at the Jerusalem School! Despite its many foibles, idiosyncrasies, and craziness that comes with starting a new school year, things have gone relatively smooth- considering. Considering that Miss Linda, the former high school principal, was deported from the airport in Tel Aviv on the day of her arrival a couple of weeks ago. (She’s now back in Maryland teaching at a school) Considering that “Dr. Thompson” (our good friend Arnie who was a science and history teacher at the other branch of our school last year) has taken the reigns of high school principal on such short notice. He’s only had to work out the schedule for about a week now-what a nightmare! Considering the fact that our friends Josh and Lauren have departed from the Holy Land. Considering there is no more Miss Berta's laugh bellowing down the hallways. We’ve had to make many adjustments to our life here, as have many others, but we are very excited to be back. All the transitions have gone well-Praise God!

Doug is teaching high school Bible, history, and geography. He also has to “teach” an SAT prep course (which is the highlight of his day-ha) He is enjoying getting to know many new students as well as connecting with students from last year. His nights consist of happily putting his notes into Power Point presentations. The new LCD projector is serving him well! I’m so proud of him when he gets up in front of all the students in the morning and prays. I love the start to our day. He’s also assistant high school principal, by default. But as many of you know, he was in danger of taking the principal job over by storm, and so for the role as assistant principal we are grateful. He only has to take part of the pressure, not all of the pressure. He’s doing a great job as Dr. Thompson’s right hand man.

I’m off to a good start in 4th grade. I came to school and found out my classroom had been changed to the first floor (I had been on the 2nd floor) WAY in the corner of the school. It’s my little cave. I feel a bit isolated, but it’s worth it because it’s nice and quiet. I also feel a bit more in touch with the other teachers, as 1st-3rd grade is down the hall from me. We have a wonderful view of the school’s olive grove out the window, so I’m not complaining! I have 14 students this year, although two have neglected to show up yet and today a student told me she had talked to Meroon (a missing student) who said she’s not sure whether she’s coming back or not. OKAY! When is she deciding? Or, when is Dad going to decide? I only had one mishap so far. Today I dismissed my kids an hour early! Oops! Two other teachers came down the hall, looking at me quizzically, and asked, “Where are your kids going?” I’m like, “They’re going home! It’s 12:30 right?” “Uh, no, it’s 11:30!!” Good thing Miss Grace wasn’t in the building. Also, it’s a good thing Mr. George is a fast runner because he had to catch up to my kids who had disappeared rather quickly. At least all of them were corralled back into the classroom safely, in good time I must say, for the last hour of the day! I’m enjoying my students so far. I have lots of boys which makes for a more dynamic group, but we’ve gotten off to a wonderful start.

There are four other American teachers living down the hall from us. Josh and Kara are a couple serving here through Athletes in Action (which means a new basketball coach or two-yes!) They are teaching middle school/high school subjects. Paris was here last year, and her roommate is Jennifer. Jennifer’s teaching 3rd grade. Paris is teaching 5th grade. They are enjoying teaching and the students so far. Praise God!
We all get along well so far and look forward to creating new friendships this year.

We've told the students to stay tuned for the grand opening of our library, computer lab, and soccer field. Details are still being worked out for those. They can't wait! We'll let you know what happens.....stay tuned.....

Say prayers that school continues to go well. Thanks!

Leavin' on a jet plane - (Doug)

2007-07-06T10:49:00.000-04:00

Sorry it’s been a while since we’ve written anything on the blog. We are happy to report that we’re leaving for the States at 4 a.m. We are so excited to see everyone. We have lots to report about. Since we last wrote we went to Rome, met up with Mandy’s parents, toured the Holy Land with them, watched Season two of "24," and feverishly prepared for CBC.
Please pray for the family of our dear friend Miss Berta. She was one of the Arabic teachers here at our school and she died suddenly of Cancer last weekend. We loved her very much and she will be dearly missed.
There’s plenty we’d like to say to all of you but hopefully over the next month or so we can say it to you in person! God bless you all and hopefully we’ll SEE you soon.

Sanity Aside - (Doug)

2007-06-06T10:13:00.000-04:00

As Mandy and I were ‘debriefing’ the year the other night we came to the conclusion that “Sanity aside, this year went really well.” I thought that summed it up it pretty well. Some things about living here drive us crazy. Some things about the way our school is run drive us crazy. Some days we feel like we’re the only ones thinking logically but hey, we’re not from here so we’ve got to “go with the flow,” as Del Griffith once said. So we vented about those things to each other for a while but at the end of it all we had to confess that God is good and He’s been faithful to us and to our school this year.

In a little under two weeks, long about the time that Mandy’s parents set foot in the Holy Land for the first time we we’ll be marking our tenth month away from home. In that time I’ve watched my wife do amazing things with a group of kids that everyone had pretty much written off as the worst class in the school. I got to go into her classroom the other day and say goodbye to them and take some last minute pictures. They were all in there having fun and doing the end of the year party thing. I just had to smile at what God has done through Mandy in that classroom. She had a parent teacher meeting the other day and one of her student’s fathers put it perfectly. He said to Mandy, “You made them love Jesus more and that’s the most important thing.”

In a way I feel bad, like I am bragging about my wife but in another way I don’t. It’s more like celebrating the way in which God has worked through her and used her gifts here.

One of the things we talked about a lot before we left to come over here was that we knew that we would be able to help each other out this year. I’d never taught my own classes before but Mandy had plenty of experience there. Mandy had never been to the Middle East before but I had, so I could help prepare her for that. This really held true this year. I know I couldn’t have done this without her and I don’t think she could have made it through without me. God knew what he was doing when he put us together. Imagine that.

Halas! (Mandy)

2007-06-04T10:13:00.003-04:00

Halas in Arabic means “enough” or “finished” or “it’s over" (or in most cases for us "be quiet"). You get the idea. The point is Halas-we made it! Doug and I survived our first year of teaching in Bethlehem! To God be the glory, great things he has done! It was a bittersweet day for me today (as for Doug when he finished this past Thursday with students). I'm really going to miss my kids, but am ready for summer break. Now we look forward to a time of rest and renewal. We are eagerly awaiting our visits to MA and MI in a few weeks where we will hopefully be able to connect with all of you loved ones. We can already taste the iced coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts….

The Dry Homestretch - Doug

2007-05-14T00:02:00.000-04:00

When I was a student (I can say that now because I’m officially not anymore, I graduated this spring, in absentia of course) my dad always used this phrase around this time of year. He’d look at me and say “you’re in the homestretch now Buddy, you can do it.” That’s how I’m feeling right now. And even though my dad (and whole bunch of other people I love) are thousands of miles away right now I can hear him saying that to me. Welcome to May. I’ve almost made it through my first year as a teacher. We’ve almost made it through our first year on the mission field. I can tell you; this homestretch thing is really hard.
I praise God because I haven’t been homesick yet. I have a definition of Homesickness that I’ve probably shared with some of you at one point or another. It goes like this: “Homesickness is when you want to be home MORE than you want to be where you are.” It’s simple, I know, but it helps me gain perspective. I miss my family, my friends, Dunkin Donuts and the Olive Garden. I miss the feeling of getting the motorcycle out on the road for the first time on a warm day. But I still don’t want to be home more than I want to be here. Why? Because I know that this is where God has called us. He hasn’t said it’s time to go home yet.
I made a bet with a student the other day. I told him I’d buy him pizza if he could stay seated through an entire class period. Up until this point I hadn’t seem him do it yet this year. The bet was he had to stay in his desk until I said “you’re dismissed.” Class ended and he was still seated. I told him “you may go,” but he didn’t fall for it. His class members came by and dumped water on the poor guy and he burned with anger to the point where he wanted to run after them but still he remained seated. I joked with him that I was going to leave him sitting there until the next day to avoid having to buy him pizza. But finally I made good on my bet and I told him the words he was dying to hear. “You’re dismissed.” We haven’t been dismissed yet. Though our students may give us a hard time; though we may have been forced to work a six day week this week; though it may be blazing hot here; though we may be having some serious cravings for an Iced Coffee from the drive through at Dunkin Donuts; though we could really go for a Fenway Frank in the cheap seats; though our building’s water may have been shut down for the last 30 hours leaving us brushing our teeth with bottled water and a little greasy because we can’t shower; we haven’t been dismissed yet. I don’t want to be home more than I want to be right here because this is where God has asked us to stay and this is where we will stay until He says we’re dismissed.
I know that this school year isn’t over yet. As much as I wish it were some days, I am still having some great discussions with my students. On Friday, the day we usually have off but had to work this week, I got into a really cool discussion with my 11th graders. One of them said he had seen a verse quoted on TV the night before from the book of Isaiah. “Why would God punish people for the sins of their fathers?” he asked. So I got to explain to 8 young men how sin has consequences that reach beyond our own lives, even into our children’s lives. Most of them had never thought of it that way.
I’m really glad that back when I was in high school my dad didn’t take any of the difficulty away for me each year in the ‘homestretch.’ He never said, “Give me some of that homework. Let me do it for you. I know you’re really tired and so just let me do it for you.” He never said that because he hates homework too, but ALSO more importantly because it was discipline. He was encouraging, he was supportive but I had to learn the lesson of discipline on my own.
Hebrews 12:7-11 says
“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
My dad has taught me what discipline really is: Love. So as we sit here a little thirsty and probably a little smelly too, we know that we’ll make it through. We’ll buy a couple more bottles of water, we’ll put on a little more deodorant and cologne because we’re in the ‘homestretch’ and God is disciplining us because He loves us and is still working on us.
P.S. I think the water just came back on!

Bothered in Bethlehem - (Mandy)

2007-04-22T12:52:00.000-04:00

Miss Grace and I were discussing field trip options the other day. We had decided earlier
to take the children to a park to play for the day. Our “playground” space at the school is very small-it’s a basketball court-so we thought letting the kids run free for a day in a big field would be a nice change of pace for them. Miss Grace called a park in Jericho with a good reputation. She called and discovered that it’s under Israeli control. (Most of Jericho is West Bank territory) It’s discouraging that the one nice park is under Israeli control, but Miss Grace proceeded to sign our students up for admission anyway. The lady from the park called Miss Grace back after a few minutes of agreeing on the day, and said, “We have decided against letting your children in since they are from the West Bank.” She gave no other reason. I guess she doesn’t have to. End of discussion. They’re just children! And fun children, too! They’re going to be under adult supervision (American no less!) and just want to play in a nice park. I keep thinking to myself that peace has to start somewhere, so why not let it start with permitting West Bank children into a park?? The ironic thing is that we are now going to a park in Tel Aviv in a week. The children are permitted to go into Israeli territory until the age of 16. That made the words of the lady from the park in Jericho all that more insulting.

I asked Lily, a friend and colleague here at the school, to join us for church last night in Jerusalem. She said, “I can’t come. I don’t have permission.” I was so frustrated. I was eager to catch up with her and I know she enjoys worshiping with us. She isn’t a two-year-old who needs permission. And she’s not allowed to fellowship with other believers of all things?! So irritating. This combined with the park incident just made me so angry.

Most things I have to suffer through complacently and it bothers me. I spend much time here feeling helpless, more often than not with people and their situations. I bite my tongue and go with it, but I won’t let it stop bothering me. If I do, my job here is done.

On a much brighter note, Doug and I went to what must be the best-smelling place in all of Jerusalem today! It’s a promenade that looks north to the old city, a few miles away. The view is absolutely gorgeous, I’m pretty excited I can identify more places immediately, and we walked among many fragrant flowers in bloom! We were able to walk for miles, too. After eating at a café that looked towards the old city, we read books in the grass. Honestly, this is our new favorite spot! We can see it being therapeutic during the week.

Easter Break 2007

2007-04-09T17:11:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter from the Holy Land everybody! I hope this Easter season has inspired you to meet the Risen Christ in humility and awe. We have had an amazing Holy week. There are few things to compare this past week to when it comes right down to it. The week started off with a walk around the Old City walls of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We started at Jaffa Gate and ended up on the opposite side of the city at a gate called St. Stephen's Gate because tradition holds that the gate that they took Stephen out to be stoned. The annual Palm Sunday procession comes in off the Mount of Olives and marches in through this gate so we sat on top and waved palm branches and shouted as thousands of believers streamed in singing praises in all different languages. It's beautiful to see and hear the way in which the voices all blend together in a mosaic of praise as they proceed into the city of Jerusalem.
We celebrated the coming of Spring Break by going to Jerusalem on Wednesday night to hear the first ever performance of Handel's Messiah in Hebrew in Israel. It was an historic event that was much enjoyed. For those of you scratching your head thinking The Messiah is a Christmas piece it might be helpful to know that it was originally an Easter piece that later became a Christmas tradition. We usually attend The Messiah at Christmas but we missed this year. On Wednesday we had our chance.
We continued our observance of Holy Week on Maundy Thursday. St. Georges Cathedral north of the Old City does a beautiful service that includes a foot washing and walk out to the Mount of Olives afterwards. We stood in amongst the olive trees and pictured what it would have looked like on the night in which Jesus was arrested. As the priest spoke we could hardly see him standing in front of us. It was cold and we had walk quite a ways to get back to the van but it was well worth it.
Easter Sunday we went to The Church of the Ascension on the Mount of Olives for a sunrise service. Easter morning was cold and windy. When the service began it was pitch black. As the pastor began to speak the first signs of dawn began coloring the sky as we sat facing East. By the time we took communion the sun broke through the low clouds that hung over Jordan and we closed the service marveling at the handiwork of God.
We have done a bit of traveling as well in our time off. We took off on Saturday and went Northwest to Mt. Carmel where Elijah fought the prophets of Baal and God sent down fire from Heaven. We went horseback riding for about an hour. As far as horseback riding goes, it was pretty uneventful which is good. My saddle didn't slip, I wasn't thrown from the horse. It was a good day.
Then we went to Tel Meggido, a site that was highly coveted for it's control over the fertile Jezreel Valley and the North-South trade route. Meggido was conquered and resettled over 25 times! It became so associated with conflict and warfare that the Book of Revelations says the final Battle will take place on the plain below Har (Hebrew word for Mountain) Megiddo or some of you may know it as Armageddon.
From there we continued on to visit Nazareth, the home town of Jesus. We visited the Basilica of the Annunciation. Here an early Christian tradition existed that the home of Mary stood. Today a beautiful church stands over top of it and you can visit the remains of Mary's house in the grotto beneath the church. It is hear that the angel would have appeared to Mary to tell her she was with Child.
After Nazareth we continued on to the traditional site of Cana of Galilee. This site is debated. Some scholars believe the site to be elsewhere but the this was the site Johnny Cash visited on his tour of the Holy Land so we figured if it was good enough for the Man in Black it's good enough for us. After a brief cruise through the Northern port city of Haifa, we returned home.
Today we took off and did some of the southern sites including Bet Guvrin, Lachish, and Beer Sheva. Beer Sheva is connected with the Patriarchs. It was also refortified during King Hezekiah's time. I must say I was impressed by the ruins but disappointed at the False advertising. There is no beer at Beer Sheva. But at least we can say that we've been from Dan to Beer Sheva. This is a biblical phrase used to describe Israel's historical boundaries.

Red, Brown, Yellow, Black and White…

2007-03-23T13:55:00.001-04:00

Singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children” as a child made me self-conscious. The line “red and yellow, black and white they are precious in his sight” always drew quick stares from my classmates. I couldn’t blame them because I was trying to picture people I knew who matched those colors as we sang, too. I thought choosing those four colors was limiting, and could never picture someone I knew who was yellow. Besides, I had thought, what’s the difference between someone with yellow skin and a person with white skin? Weren’t they one in the same? I knew I was the one who brought the child with black skin to light for everyone, even though I knew I was brown. Black is the closest to brown, right? At least they were partially right because my hair is/was black. I always wondered why brown was left out. A few years ago, I was delighted to hear that the colors of the children’s skin changed in the song! The latest version includes brown now (If any new colors have been added recently, please let me know). It’s very exciting, I know! Yesterday we were singing the song with Miss Martha’s group, a wonderful group of Christian people who come from Georgia every year to love, sing, and do crafts with our students. (Miss Martha, a woman close to her 80’s, has been coming to Bethlehem for about 10 years now, bringing different people with her each time. The children adore her!) As we sang about the “red, brown, yellow, black, and white” children of the world, I became hot with embarrassment like I had as a child. I quickly glanced around to see if anybody was looking at me to identify a brown person, and then realized we were ALL brown people in the audience! Nobody was staring at me! It was the most liberating experience I’ve had in a long time, being a part of the majority, here in Palestine of all places! Oh, and if you can give me an example of a yellow person, please let me know.

Maria Update

2007-03-11T12:23:00.000-04:00

For those of you who have been faithful followers of the blog you’ll recall our first encounter with Maria (see “A Problem Like Maria”). Maria is doing well. Mandy and I went back to visit her again with two of my tenth grade girls. She’s still in the hospital in Jerusalem. For Maria though, still being in the hospital is a good thing. Being paralyzed from the neck down, this is the only place where Maria can receive the kind of care she needs.
We brought her some fun little things to put in her hair and the girls painted her nails, did her hair and put some of the clips in. We laughed and smiled. It’s hard for Mandy and I because we don’t speak much Arabic so we tend to just sit there and smile and wonder if we look like idiots. But as we got up to leave Maria’s father came with us. He told us about how much it means that we came back again and that it really makes Maria happy when people come to visit. You have to figure different faces must really break up the monotony of living in a hospital all the time. So he asked us to come back again if we could and thanked us.
It turns out that the father is trying to petition the Israeli government for permission to live near the hospital, in which case I felt like telling him not to mention that I had been there but if he had to not to say anything about any 2000 year old tree stumps. (I’m pretty sure I’m on a list somewhere now.) He said they’ve agreed to some things but not to others. I don’t know what he’s asking for but I’m pretty sure whoever he’s asking has never spent anytime at the hospital listening to Maria practice her Hebrew (which has improved dramatically even since we were there last.) If they did their heart would melt and they would see how innocent and sweet this girl is and how lovingly her father waits on her hand and foot and cares for her in every way he possibly can. I’m sure if they saw that they would realize that there is no valid reason for saying no to these people.
We went; we smiled; we loved; we did our best to be Jesus to these people. This land could use more Christians. They’re such a minority. Today we went to the First Communion of a boy in Mandy’s class. It was a really cool experience. It was all in Arabic and I have no idea what they said but I’ve been to enough catholic services to know what was going on. I sat there thinking about how the little gray haired lady a few rows in front of us looked like an Arabic version of my Nana Mella. And I thought about how really after something like this we ought to be heading over to Aunty Betty’s house for gnocchis. We have had some discouraging conversations lately with people both Arabic and American who look down their noses at the Catholic and the Orthodox people around here as if they’re not really believers. This just bugs the heck out of me. Of course I realize there are nominal Catholics and nominal Orthodox Christians just like there are nominal Protestant Christians. What does it help to go around pointing fingers saying this way or that way is the perfect way to follow Jesus and all others are wrong? There are just too few of us here to be that petty. Can we please work together so that we can have a more effective witness? I seem to remember Jesus pleading for this somewhere around John 17. As this little boy stood up there today and took his first communion I rejoiced. I think God can meet him in that and is not hindered by the denominations and divisions we create. Praise God, one more little Arabic kid is being welcomed into Christian community in the Land where Jesus was born.

Stumped Pt. 2

2007-03-04T11:04:00.000-05:00

So for those of you keeping tabs on the on going whodunit which I have entitled the Herodian Caper, I’ll give you an update. Miss Grace, the elementary school principle and school headmaster decided it would be best to go over to the Herodian and talk directly to the caretaker there and explain what we’d found out from our students. I had my doubts about how effective this was going to be. After all this guy seemed to be holding a pretty decent grudge against us since he did call the fuzz and all. Furthermore, what could we tell the guy… “Well sir we questioned our students and we got squat. Hope that helps with your investigation.”
With all these thoughts running around in my head, I pile into the van with Miss Grace and we trek over to the Herodian. I just had to trust that Miss Grace understands the culture more than I do, God will work things out, it will all be ok.
We got to the Herodian and the caretaker has a huge dog, which is great start because Miss Grace just got done telling me on the van ride over how she is terrified of dogs. Luckily, this dog was more interested in shade than in us so we walked right past him with scarcely more than a sniff (from the dog, not us.) We sat down in the caretaker’s office. His name is Natan (Nathan in Hebrew). He showed us pictures of the lights that had been broken and the tree stump that was missing and he told us how they have school groups there all the time but they’d never had anything like this happen. He said he hated to think that our kids might have done this because it was Jewish site but he was kind of feeling like that was the case. We assured him that if it was our kids, which it kind of seems like it may have been, that they were not thinking on that level. It seems more like the stupid stuff kids just do when there’s not enough people watching. We told him that felt responsible because we should have brought a smaller group or watched them more closely and he seemed to appreciate that. He told us he would like to see a formal letter of apology from our school and then he would drop his complaint with the police.
So that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll write him a letter and hopefully smooth things over with Natan and the Police. Pray that this letter works and that they do let the matter go without pressing any charges. That could cause big problems for our school and any future field trips we might like to attempt.
I guess what I got out of this whole experience is this: well first of all, I’m never taking the whole high school on a field trip again. But also, it was cool to see Natan and Miss Grace interact. Palestinian and Israeli, they sat down and talked about their differences. It’s possible. Who knew?

Stumped

2007-02-26T04:17:00.000-05:00

So I get called into the office the other day because apparently I have to go visit and Israeli Police detective. Yeah I know, sounds like a good time right. When we took our students on a field trip to the Herodian, some kids broke a couple lights. Now please realize, this country has just been through a war, faces constant security problems from within and without, not too mention the recent hullabaloo over the ramp that leads up to the Temple Mount and they send a detective to investigate the breaking of a couple light bulbs. I’m ticked at the kids too but come on does this sound a little over the top to anyone else?
So I went to the detective’s office with three of the other teachers from the field trip that day and Miss Grace. Mind you, for all of the stupid things I’ve done in my life this was the first time I’ve ever been called in for questioning by a police detective. I sit there and the detective says to me, “I’ve called you in here today because after your students left the Herodian the caretaker called to inform me that several lights had been broken.” Yes I understand that. “Did you see any of this happen” No, I’m sorry I didn’t. “Did you go down into the tunnels with your students” Yes I did. “And you didn’t see them break any lights?” No sir. “It happened in the tunnels…perhaps now you remember something?”… *Awkward Pause*… Nope, I still didn’t see anything. “Ok there’s something I haven’t told you yet.” Great, lay it on me big guy. (Ok I didn’t really say that.) “Something was also stolen that day: A 2000 year old tree stump.” Wow, ok, I’m pretty sure none of my students took that sir. I think I would have noticed that on the seat in the bus or protruding from some kids backpack. “So you didn’t see any of the students take the tree stump. The lights we can forgive, they are just light bulbs but this is antiquities we are talking about here.” I understand, No, I didn’t see anybody taking a tree stump. (Meanwhile I’m having two thoughts 1. what the heck would my kids want with a tree stump, even a 2000 year old one. 2. If this stump is such a national treasure why is sitting out in the open? Ok and I guess you could say there was a third thought too. 3. If these were Jewish kids would called their teacher in to the police station to talk about this? I doubt it.)
So I was feeling a little harassed. It was a tough day. There are some experiences that help you understand what it’s like to be Palestinian and this is one of them for me. Ultimately I knew I was walking out of there because I’m American and I knew I was relatively safe because Israel and the U.S. are on great terms. The Arab teachers who came with me though had no such guarantees. They were pretty nervous and rightly so. I got to see this incident through their eyes. They could be detained, questioned, beaten and who would say two words about it? Well, I would, but who would listen?

Nylon Stringed Magic

2007-02-06T14:27:00.000-05:00

When I was in college, my roomate, Dan, played the guitar non-stop. As many of you know, not much has changed. I got a new roomate (who is much prettier if you ask me). But Dan still plays the guitar non-stop. I used to sit and listen and listen and listen to Dan's songs. Sometimes I felt like I knew the words better than he did. Sometimes I would sing along. Sometimes I would get so sick of hearing him play that stinking guitar. I mean seriously, how much can one person play the guitar? Dan and I were roomates for all 4 years of college. We were even roomates in Jerusalem for a semester. Some people never make it out of college still on speaking terms with their roomates. We did. Dan's was one of the hardest goodbye's I had to say when we came over here.
Dan's here now. He's staying up in Jerusalem. Tonight Mandy and I went out to dinner with Dan, our other friend, Hiromu, and Josh & Lauren. After dinner we went back to Josh & Lauren's apartment and Dan picked up a guitar. It wasn't quite as nice as his 1977 Guild that he's had since high school. It was just a little nylon stringed number that he borrowed from Josh & Lauren's neighbor. But man can Dan make those nylon strings sing. It made me laugh when I thought about those nights in college when I would get so sick of hearing him play that I would put my pillow over my head and go to sleep. Here we are some 4 years removed and I've been dying to hear him play his guitar. It was just one song but it made my night. Sometimes you don't realize what you've got until it's gone. Hearing Dan play tonight I was reminded of what a special gift his music is and how much it means to me.

Happy Birthday, Angelina

2007-02-05T12:59:00.000-05:00

There are times when it’s hard not to take a step back and think, “Wow! This is really what my life has become!” This past weekend on Saturday afternoon was one of those times. Doug and I joined one of my students for her 10th birthday celebration at a Chuck-E-Cheese’s sort of place. As soon as we got there, we found ourselves wedged in between about 20 Arab children behind the cake table. They were all under the age of 10. While we sang “Happy Birthday” in Arabic to blaring music, there were many video cameras and other cameras in our faces, capturing the moment. I felt like a star, a bit embarrassed to be the only adults with all the kids. However, we just sang our lungs out with the rest of the children like we’d done it for years. (That’s much of what we do around here, pretend we know what we’re doing.) We even helped Angelina blow out her candles. I just kept thinking to myself, “Angelina is going to have this moment on tape for the rest of her life!” Yikes. Yet very cool because in a short amount of time we’ve become like family to them. I’ve got to tell ya: the rest of the afternoon was a blast, jumping in a moonwalk-type thing with a bunch of my students. It honestly doesn’t get much better than that.

Shalom Y'all

2007-01-29T05:40:00.000-05:00

Well, it was East meets West and North meets South as Kim and Shannon descended upon the Holy Land for their recent visit. Our silence on the blog lately has not been for lack of stories to share. Rather we haven’t had a moment to spare as we’ve been running a Holy Land tour out of our apartment.
My sister, Kim, and our friend, Shannon, came over to visit us for 10 days. For those of you who don’t know them, Kim is currently attending Harvard Divinity school in Boston and Shannon works in the inner city in Houston, TX. Kim and Shannon met in college. They were the first familiar faces besides Josh & Lauren that we’ve seen in almost 6 months! So you can only imagine what it was like to see them come walking through airport security. We talked and laughed in a way we hadn’t for months. When Kim and Shannon are around hilarity usual follows and this visit was no disappointment.
Doing the Holy Land in 10 days is tough when your tour guides have school most days until 2:40 but nonetheless we put some miles on the old school van and were able to see the sites. The first weekend Mandy and I didn’t have school on Saturday. I think it was Muslim New Year. So we decided to let them sleep in a bit since they’d flown all day the day before and we took off for the Galilee about 10:00 Saturday morning. We stayed at Ein Gev which is a Kibbutz that runs a hotel right alongside the Sea of Galilee. It was excellent. We were able to go from there and see all the major sites. We went to Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Chorazin. We went to all the beautiful churches that commemorate events from the life of Jesus. One of our favorites is the Church of the Beatitudes which commemorate the giving of the Sermon on the Mount. Sunday we went up into the Golan Heights and went to the ancient Israelite city of Dan and Caesarea Philippi. Dan was, biblically speaking, the northernmost city in Israel. Remains of the Israelite fortifications are visible at the site. Caesarea Philippi was an ancient Canaanite and later roman city dedicated to the god of bread, Pan. The city was named Panias until Herod the Great (same Herod that built Masada and the Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus’ time) built it up and named it after the Caesar.
Then we drove home by way of Mt. Hermon and the Golan Heights. Mt. Hermon is Israel’s only large mountain. It’s peak was capped in snow which is a good sign. Israel’s major water sources, the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River depend on the runoff from these snows. The Golan is an interesting place. There are a lot of vineyards in the shadow of Mt. Hermon, and there is a large military presence here due to Israel’s less than friendly relationship with Syria.
Monday through Thursday took some logistical creativity since Mandy and I were in school, as I’ve said. But what we managed to do worked out pretty well. Kim and Shannon visit our classrooms and go on organized tours while we were in school and then we’d try to take them places after school. So they hit the major places in Bethlehem on a tour we organized through one of my students. Then we took them to some of the off-the-beaten-track sites after school. They even found a tour guide to take them through the refugee camp in Bethlehem to see one of the communities of people who have been displaced by Israeli settlements. We recently made friends with a priest who is a professor at Bethlehem University. He’s really knowledgeable about the history of the University and Bethlehem in general so we had them take a tour with him as well.
Friday we went to the Dead Sea. We went to Qumran, where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found. Then we stopped off for Kim and Shannon to have a small shopping spree at the Ahava factory store. So if you’ve heard recently that the level of the Dead Sea has been dropping recently, now you’ll know why. From there we went for a picnic lunch beside the shores of the Dead Sea. Kim even went for a float in the salty waters. (Don’t worry she waited a half hour before swimming.) Then we tried to get into Masada but just so you know they close early on Friday. We thought of trying to sneak in but historically it has not been very easy to get into Masada if people don’t want you in there. (See Josephus for examples.)
Saturday was a field trip day for the High School. We took them to the Herodian and Kim and Shannon came along. It was a good time, but Kim and Shannon are still a little shell-shocked from a ride in a bus with 50 Arab high schoolers. Then after school we took off for the Mediterranean coast at Ashdod. Ashdod was once the capital of the Philistines territory. We didn’t do much exploring, rather we just flopped down on the beach and watched the sun set over the Mediterranean. Then we made our way back to Bethlehem and went to a barbecue with my 11th graders.
Sunday we spent the day in Jerusalem. There was a lot to see but we did pretty good. The Holy Sepulcher and the Mount of Olives were beautiful. The weather seems to be slowly warming up here. Yesterday was warm and sunny for most of the day until the sun began going down.
For me, it was harder to watch Kim go at the airport last night than it was to say goodbye to our families at the airport in August. Isn’t that funny? In August we were excited and nervous and we had a clear task in front of us. In a sense, we didn’t have time to be sad. Last night watching her go, it felt like there was just a long drive back to Bethlehem and 5 months until we see any more family.
Luckily, this weekend we have our friends Dan and Hiromu coming in. That is bound to be a good time. For the first time in 6 years, Dan, Josh and I will be together in Jerusalem again. Last week Friday was the 6th anniversary of the day we left for Jerusalem the first time. Mandy and I will be hosting these two pilgrims for three days next weekend. So that excitement takes some of the sting away from watching Kim and Shannon leave.

Ringing in the New Year at the Dead Sea

2007-01-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

Last night I was reading about Abram and Lot. A verse mentioned the "Salt Sea" and in a footnote it said Dead Sea. I was reading a story from the beginning of time and could now picture the vibrant, lovely light blue of the Dead sea and the huge salt crystals it leaves after time. In fact I could picture myself back floating in its therapeutic mineral-laden waters where I had been a few days ago, and could even still feel the sting of it in my eye (when I absentmindedly itched my eye-ouch)! The only thing that has changed in thousands of years is the water level; it's gone down 40 ft. since the beginning of the 20th century because its main water source, the Jordan River, has been over-exploited for irrigation purposes. It's endangered. There are still many many minerals in it, and it's still the lowest point on Earth. I was just thrilled that I could read and think, "Yeah, I've been there too Abraham!"

Nothing beats celebrating New Years' at the Dead Sea (except having our families there with us). Warm temperatures (60s), mini road trips, and reflecting on God's faithfulness over the past year sum up our weekend. We drove through rain the first night to our hotel. Rain in the desert-how refreshing and very rare! The Dead Sea Gardens, our hotel, left much to be desired, but we still enjoyed the 2 indoor Dead Sea pools, jacuzzis, and good meals. We stayed in a town called Ein Bokek.

We took off for Eilat (pronounced "a lot"), the southernmost city in Israel, for an afternoon. It took about two hours to drive through the Negev Desert to get there. It was surreal to see where the Israelites had wandered for 4o years. It's called the "Desert of Zin." Acacia trees are quickly becoming my favorite, and their heartiness allows them to withstand the harshest of desert conditions. I loved seeing many of those. Eilat is quite touristy, but we quickly scooted through the main part of town to the beaches. Eilat is on the Northern tip of the Red Sea. At one point we were looking at Jordan to our East, Saudi Arabia to our Southeast, and Egypt to our West. It was unbelievable! Technically we stood on part of the Sinai Peninsula too. We hope to visit Aqaba and Petra in Jordan one day (Aqaba is the famous city T.E. Lawrence conquered for the Arabs from the Turks- for all you "Lawrence of Arabia" fans-like my husband) We were SO CLOSE to Egypt too. We're anxious to get there, too.....
We stopped by a coral reef on our way back to the hotel. It was too cold to go snorkeling unfortunately. Doug had snorkeled there before, though, so he told me about the sea life down there. It looked very cool.

The drive back to the hotel through the Negev was my favorite. I watched the mountains of Jordan turn from a dark brown to a light brown to a light purple to a purplish-pinkish hue all in the span of 5 mins. The fiery orange sunset to our left just capped it off. We'll send pictures, but they won't do the scenery justice. It was breathtaking. We ended our day relaxing in the jacuzzi, as always:-)

The next trip was to the Western coastal city of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean Sea. 3 bodies of water in 2 days-not bad! For all you Michiganders, it reminded me of Lake Michigan, a bit lighter blue:-) We visited there on our way home. Much history to be seen. We toured the National Park where a 3rd century Roman basilica was partially excavated. Also, an antilia (town meeting place) was discovered. Lots of big columns and even goddesses were found. (see pictures) We get all excited when they're still in the excavation process! We wish we had a day or two to poke around in there. (Doug's still on the hunt for his coin)

Our next stop was at the Elah Valley, where David fought Goliath. The brook was all dried up, but we gathered five really smooth stones, the smoothest of which Doug is certain killed Goliath.
Supposedly, the valley stretches East all the way to Bethlehem! We read the story before leaving so we could put it in context. All the battles fought covered much ground, but this particular valley is so big that you could picture the soldiers camped there 40 days. We had driven through Gath, Goliath's town, on the way to the valley, so we were able to get a sense of how far the Philistines had traveled to get to this point. It is amazing the amount of legwork, or camel work, these people did! I pictured in my mind this small area where all the action took place, when in reality they covered a lot of ground. It's impressive.

When we reached Jerusalem to return the rental car we stopped at a traffic light. Now mind you, it's like rush hour out there. Doug says, "Look." I glance over to the left and who comes across the street but a man on a donkey! Doug says, "There are things that people wouldn't believe if you told them." Now, I've gotten used to seeing some pretty unusual things that not much surprises me anymore,(like donkeys walking on sidewalks) but this struck me as funny. He's not obeying the traffic laws because he just barges in front of traffic (well, I suppose the donkey took charge) and people just sort of shrug, like no big deal. I don't even think I heard horns beeping. I mean, what can you do? I watch them get across the street and proceed to walk down the sidewalk. Not so much as a doubletake from the passersby!

We had an awesome weekend. Yea for vacation! The beauty of this land never ceases to amaze me. I think I've seen the most beautiful site, and then there's always more. We will send pictures of Ein Gedi and Qumran soon. That's for another blog.........

O Little Town of Bethlehem...

2007-01-02T16:30:00.000-05:00

Mandy and I have been talking a lot lately about how unable our minds are to comprehend what it’s been like to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem. Christmas in Bethlehem was filled with wonder. One can’t help but walk through the streets of the old city of Bethlehem and not think, ‘Did they pass here?’ ‘Were these stones here?’ Abraham Joshua Heschel says at the beginning of his book, Israel, that if only these stones could talk, oh the story they would tell us. Sometimes I catch myself staring at old walls or houses and wishing they could speak. Around every corner or hilltop in Bethlehem my mind wanders to what it would have looked like on that night so long ago.

How still we see the lie…

Christmas Eve began for us by watching the annual parade through the old city. Bethlehem’s churches all have scout troops that play drums and horns and bagpipes. They all get gussied up (as my Nana Phyllis would say) and march through the streets in preparation for the coming of the Patriarch from Jerusalem who gives the Midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity. Manger square is anything but still. It’s jammed with people from all over the world. We stood in line to get into the Church of the Nativity next to a group from Poland. They were actually singing in the Mass that night. I’m still not sure if they all made it through the barricade or not. It was a zoo. I’m pretty sure a merry band of drunken monkeys could organize security better but that’s another story.

Above thy dark and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by…

Our friends, Josh and Lauren came down to spend the night with us. We got the most, I think, out of our visit to the Shepherds’ field. This spot was not high on our list but it will definitely be from now on. We have been here 4 months and we haven’t even gone yet. In a sense because this is one of those, what I call, “Yeah Right” spots. As in Yeah Right you’re going to tell me you know exactly where the shepherds were sitting when the Angels appeared to them. C’mon. But once we got there we realized that this spot, however outlandish their claim may be, was really beautiful. A small chapel surrounded by a grove of trees in valley that is still inhabited by shepherd families today, how much more do you want? As with a lot of spots I found myself saying, ok you know what, we can’t say for SURE that THIS is the exact spot but in all honesty we can’t be that far away so this is as good a spot as any to remember the event. The important thing is the exact spot in which it happened but THAT it happened in an exact spot. Sometimes being here helps one remember that. These aren’t stories about hobbits in Middle Earth or Lions in Narnia. This is a story about shepherds from a place known as Beit Sahour. It’s an actual town. There are actual shepherds still living there. When that sinks in you begin to experience a little of the wonder of being here.

Yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light…

In the Shepherds’ Field you’ll find some caves. Those caves served as dwellings and storage places for the Byzantine monks who first recognized this spot as holy back in the 4th and 5th centuries. One of my fondest Christmas memories will forever be walking into one of the caves that had obviously been used to house animals. At the back of the cave was a feeding trough. I looked at it and I said out loud to Josh, Lauren and Mandy, “Hey check it out, this is a manger, this is what it would have looked like.” Then we all looked around the cave and realized this is what it would have looked. It was just a chalky, limestone cave with a stone manger at the back. So we sat down, took a couple pictures, and we just soaked it in.

The hopes and fears of all the years…

We left the Shepherds’ field and decided it would be appropriate to dine like shepherds after such an adventure. So we to Josh & Lauren to a restaurant called simply “The Tent”. Here you dine on couches beneath a giant canvass tent. Guys smoke the houka and drink the terrible coffee that tastes like mud. We had chicken, beef, and lamb, and an array of Middle Eastern salads. After dinner I brought our turkey over to the baker on the other side of Manger Square because really it wouldn’t be a holiday around here if I didn’t get to run across manger square with a hot turkey. Some traditions are worth keeping. We ended the night back at our apartment just hanging out with Josh and Lauren. Their presence here has been such a blessing. Definitely, without a doubt, THE hardest thing about Christmas this year was being away from our family. The wonder and the amazement of this place simply cannot take the place of our families. I think Josh and Lauren would say the same. But at least if you have to be lonely it’s nice to have people to be lonely with. They really have become like our family here and it was nice to have them around.

Are met in thee tonight.

Christmas day was crazy. We had met some people from Bermuda couple weeks ago when we joined Josh & Lauren on field trip that their class was taking. Joanne & Quincy are both studying here and they have a little baby boy named Yeshia who is just adorable. He has cheeks that we’re pretty sure he’s using to store nut in for the winter. But anyways we got the impression that they had nowhere to go for Christmas. My mom has taught me a lot of things but one of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that meals are like the Gospel: Best when SHARED. Especially around the Holidays it’s important to find people who have nowhere to go and invite them to the table. So we did and Quincy, Joanne and Yeshia spent Christmas day in Bethlehem with us. They even invited another friend too, so by the time was all said and done we had 7 people around our humble little table. Not bad.
After dinner when everyone had gone their separate ways Mandy & I sat down opened our gifts. Our families have spent the last month or more packing up boxes with Christmas presents and shipping them over to us. So as Christmas came to a close and we were really missing our families, one by one we got to open up little reminders of how much they love us. One by one we marveled at the way our family models the love of Christ to us.
So there we were, sitting beneath our Charlie Brown Christmas tree with our presents. We had to laugh because in some way you think that spending Christmas in Bethlehem will make you more Holy. But in the end you realize that while it may make the wonder more vivid, and it may make the story come alive in a better way for you, it doesn’t make you any more Holy. That’s the job of the little Baby in the back of the cave. He makes us Holy. Whether you’re in Bethlehem, Grand Rapids, or Natick the decision you make about that child is the most important thing you can take away from Christmas.

Sermon on the Mount

2006-12-05T14:03:00.000-05:00

So I know this is kind of long, but I got a couple requests. I got the opportunity to preach in the small church we've been attending on the Mount of Olives. The pastors wife had a baby and I guess I was the most qualified substitute. (Because, you know, I was breathing and all.) So the following is the text of the sermon. It's a bit weird to just post it like this since I write sermons out the way I talk. So it's not very polished. Anyway I'll stop putting long disclaimers on an already long post. Enjoy.

Advent – Anticipating God’s Presence

Sermon on the Mount of Olives

Today is officially the first Sunday of Advent. When Jamison called me I’ll have to admit it was a little short notice and I thought about just pulling an old sermon up on the computer, making some changes and printing it off. In fact I sat down at the computer yesterday to do just that. I had the computer open and was looking at an old sermon and Mandy walked by and said “Oh you’re doing the ‘Do Not Murder’ Sermon.” I said yeah, I thought it was pretty good. It’s a good old fashioned Ten Commandments Sermon with some Jesus stuff at the end. C’mon how can you go wrong? And she said “Well yeah it was but it’s the first Sunday of Advent.” I was just about to say “Yeah But” and I remembered how ticked I was last year when I realized my Church hadn’t gotten the Advent wreath out. So I couldn’t let Advent get put on the shelf on my watch. I don’t know how many of you come from churches where they make a big deal about celebrating Advent. I don’t come from an Assemblies of God background is it something that most of your churches do? Mine used to and all of the sudden last year I realized they weren’t doing an advent wreath any more. I asked the worship director and he told me it’s a part of an older style of church liturgy that most people in our congregation don’t follow anymore. They still hand out the Advent Devotionals for families to take home. So I guess in a sense I understood. I want the Church to worship in a way that’s meaningful to them not just out of ritual because that’s the way we’ve always done it but to be honest this deeply saddened me. Partly, I’ll admit out of nostalgia. I remember fondly the way the whole church used to get together in November for a big “Advent Wreath Making” party. We’d hold it in the multi-purpose room at the church. This was the room that was used for everything from Basketball to Huge Church services that wouldn’t fit in the sanctuary. They’d drag out almost every table the church owned and the whole church would smell of evergreens. Somehow amidst the chaos of a hundred church kids on the loose with evergreen branches and Parents shouting out directions and kids not listening, in the end we always ended up with beautiful wreath to bring home (and pine needles in places I didn’t know I had places. But that’s another story.) And there was always a wreath for the front of the Church. Every Sunday before Christmas a particularly Holy family from church (Or so I thought) would be assigned to go forward before the service and light the candle. What an honor. I still remember the year the Priore’s were asked to light a candle on the Advent wreath one of the Sundays during Advent. Now I realize they probably go through the Church directory alphabetically. At the time though you’d thought we’d won an Emmy. My Mom got us all new Christmas outfits and we were coached on how to walk forward and stand there “angelically” while my Dad struck the match and my mom read from the little devotional book. And you’ve got to light the candle just right, I mean nobody wants to be remembered as the family that had the candle tip over on them. As far as I remember we did fine. Our turn passed without incident. I was a little disappointed we didn’t get a little statue to take home or at least a certificate or something. But in part this was Advent to me. Something for families to enjoy with one another. Why were we letting this tradtition go? In a day and age when church membership is no longer valued and churches struggle to find things to bind their congregations together in unity it seems like traditions like the Advent wreath at Christmas are valuable and worth keeping.
But the other reason I realized this ‘lack of recognition’ for Advent saddened me was quite theological, not purely nostalgic. There is something to that ‘experience of expectation’ that should be remembered each year. I guess in a way what I’m getting at is this: Look at the thousands of years and the whole host of biblical heroes of the faith that yearned desperately to know what we know, to live in light of the promised messiah. We are so quick to jump right to the celebration of Christmas, the victorious, triumphant song of the Angels, the wonder and the majesty of the Christ child, yet we don’t take much time anymore to pause and reflect on the anticipation.
I think that anticipation is one of my favorite parts of Christmas, really. I’ve been very taken lately with the profound words of an old Christmas favorite. “Oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” Partly I’ve been reflecting on it because I live there now. It’s fun to listen to Christmas Hymns on CD…Amy Grant or Johnny Cash singing “Oh come ye oh come ye to Bethlehem.” I always shout at the CD player “We’re here Amy, where are you!?” But also this hymn captures for me the mood of reverent anticipation. “Above thy dark and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by…yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” This is Advent. Hopes, Fears, Anticipation soon to be poured out at the back of cave in a little backwater town in the corner of the Roman Empire. *But pretend for a second that you don’t know that yet.* I think that’s the point of going through the motions of something like an Advent wreath. We need that reminder. We need a time to remember that period of “hope and fear” through “all the years.”
I wish we had within Christianity the attitude that Jewish folks take at Passover time. Everyone who celebrates Passover is to do so remembering that the Lord did this FOR THEM. Not for someone else 3500 years ago, but for ME, when the Lord took ME out of Egypt. Those of us who know Jesus as savior and Lord have all come out of Egypt in our own way. The Lord has saved us all. When we observe Advent we can identify with the heroes of the faith who lived before Christ because in a way we all have a “before Christ” period in our lives.
So this Advent, don’t just look forward to the celebration of Jesus’ birth but take the time to remember what the coming of Christ meant in your life. Paul spurs on the Colossians in Chapter 4 “Remember my chains.” Steven Curtis Chapman has a song called “Remember your Chains” and he says just that “Remember your chains, remember the prison that once held you before the Love of God broke through.” This advent season remember your chains. Remember WHY God set you free. Galatians 5:1 says “It was for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Let this Advent be a time to remember what life was in your “B.C.” days; your Before Christ period. So that as Paul says you won’t be like a freed slave who willingly turns around walks back into slavery. The analogy seems ludicrous but this is what we do when we walk back into sin everyday. You…are…*FREE.*
As I thought about Advent though it hit me, in a way there’s another reason why it’s important for us to observe advent. Like the saints who lived and died before Jesus’ birth, who faithfully lived and followed God with hopeful expectation of what was to come, we have a job to do until Christ returns. In a way we live by faith in much the same way they did. They never got to see Jesus’ with their eyes. Yet they lived lives of obedience trusting that God would bring about the day of the Messiah. Here we sit some 2000 years later and what is our job until the Messiah returns? It just so happens that Jesus tells us what’s expected of us.
Turn with me to Matthew 25:14 (Read till verse 30). This parable shows us what an attitude of Advent looks like. It’s really much different from what I think of when I remember Advent as a kid. Honestly my favorite part of Advent was the Calendar my mom Hung every year that had 24 Hershey’s kisses tied to it. Every day it was a battle between my sister and me. Each would try to convince the other that it was their turn to pull off the little chocolate remembrances of the Christ-Child’s coming. Now that’s my kind of Advent but it’s not how Jesus describes it. This parable is one about investments when you get right down to it. A man going on a long journey wants to put his money to work for him so he invests certain sums in some seemingly able young men. The first two did splendid. When you look at the numbers they each earned 100% interest. If anyone knows of such investment opportunities please see me after the service, I’d like to sign up. But the third buries his in the ground. Perhaps he’s had poor luck with the investment game. Perhaps he’s a bit gun shy. Maybe this is his first time and he’s nervous about losing his master’s money. Maybe he’s just a moron. Who knows? At any rate the master comes back and is just about as indignant as you or I would be if went to a stock broker with whom we’d invested $1000 dollars and he told us “look, I didn’t want to lose your money so I buried it in my backyard. Here you go.” “What! I could have buried it in my own backyard. I brought it to you as an INVESTMENT. I could have at least taken it to a bank and gotten some interest.” Jesus says this is what the kingdom of Heaven is like for those of us anticipating His return. He’s made an investment in us and we’ve got something to do until he gets back. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the bumper sticker that says “Jesus is Coming…Look Busy.” Ok it’s flip, and it’s not just about being busy, but in a way it’s right, we’d better be busy. Not for the sake of busy-ness but because we’ve been invested in with the Presence of God and we’re supposed to share it.
I watched my tenth grade class make good Advent investments last weekend. Mandy and Melody and I brought them to the Hospital here in Jerusalem. 2 weeks ago in my History class I had a girl bring in a current events report about a little girl named Maria. The car that Maria’s family was riding in near Gaza was hit by Israeli fire by mistake. Her mother, older brother, Grandmother and Uncle were all killed. Maria is now paralyzed from the neck down. She has received charity from some Jewish doctors who’ve paid for her to stay in the hospital in Jerusalem for the past 5 months since there are no facilities in Gaza able to handle a case like Maria’s. Her father stays with her in the hospital 24/7 because he’s not sure that if he returns home that he’ll ever be allowed back. My tenth graders heard this story and they were deeply moved. I told them that we should write to her and paint her a picture. And they said to me, “Mister Doug, can we go visit her.” It was a rare and beautiful moment of High School kids thinking outside of themselves. It doesn’t happen often so when it does you’ve just got to go with it, so I said ok. For 3 hours we watched 5 tenth grade girls make this little girl feel like a princess. As it was time to leave they asked me if we could pray for her. So we asked the girl’s family and they agreed and we made a circle around her and prayed the Lord’s blessing upon her. It hit me how cool this moment was. A bunch of Christian kids in Jewish hospital, praying for a little Muslim girl. That is Advent Investment. That is sharing the Presence of God that’s how we should be investing until He returns. That is why we should remember Advent.
So as you go forth this Advent season, if you’re lucky enough to find a place around here that sells Advent wreaths, grab one. But if not, remember that the wreath is not the most important part of Advent. My legalistic side wanted to wag my finger at the worship director of my church and say “but we MUST have an advent wreath or….or…or” Or what Jesus won’t come? No that’s what I’ve come to learn, weather you attend a church that doesn’t do the Advent wreath or you live in a country where you have better luck finding a three-legged ballerina than an advent wreath you can still celebrate Advent. By Anticipating the Presence of God. By sharing that Presence with others. By remembering your chains in your B.C. days and how far the Lord has brought you. Although the wreath is fun to make and the candles bring such joy don’t get stuck on the ritual. That’s what my Tenth graders demonstrated for me last weekend. Like Hosea who reminds in 6:6 that God says “I desire mercy, not sacrifice and acknowledgement of God rather burnt offerings.” Although if anyone finds a calendar and 24 Hershey’s Kisses please give me a call. Let’s Pray.

A Problem Like Maria

2006-11-29T11:04:00.000-05:00

Last Monday in World History with my tenth grade students, one of my kids brought in a story that really moved us all. A little girl name Maria was injured in an air strike in Gaza about a year ago and she was paralyzed from the neck down. It was a case of mistaken identity. Her mother and older brother along with her grandmother and her uncle were all killed. Maria, Her father, and her younger brother were spared. We all sat silently as my student read to us about how this little girl and her father and brother have received charity from two Israeli doctors to pay for her hospital care up until now. She was moved to a highly specialized hospital for paralyzed children in Jerusalem. Her father stays with her 24/7 because he’s not allowed to leave the hospital. He’s not sure if he goes home if he’ll be allowed back to see his daughter.
My students were all really touched by this little girl’s story and so I asked them if they’d like to write to her and maybe paint her a picture or something. To which they replied “Mister, why can’t we go visit her?” I thought for a minute and I couldn’t come up with any good reason why we shouldn’t. It’s a real beautiful thing when high schoolers think outside themselves. It’s not inherent in their nature, so when it happens you know God is working. So I told them if my visa would come through I would take them. Well, our visas came through the very next day. When God is moving, get on board or get out of the way.
So Mandy, another one of the teachers, and I all pile in the little school van with 5 tenth grade girls and we head off to Jerusalem to visit this little girl. Just the sight of her made some of my girls cry and they had to leave the room. Maria is about 5 years old and although she is paralyzed from the neck down she is full of life and full of joy. My students collected themselves and showered this little girl with love for almost 3 hours! It was amazing. We told one of the girls that she should become a nurse because she spent the entire time caring for this little girl’s needs; doing her hair, painting her nails, even rubbing her eyes for her when they itched.
There was laughter all around accompanied by smiles and pictures, but at times the sadness was almost immobilizing. As I stared into this little girls face the reality of it was crushing to the spirit. Palestinians bomb the Israelis, so the Israelis defend themselves, but the defense carries too far, so the Palestinians kill again, so the Israelis kill again and so on and so on. If it sounds like a maddening cycle come stare into Maria’s big brown eyes and see how much more infuriating it is then. Come spend an hour with this little girl and tell her it’s her fault simply because she’s from a certain town.
I’m sitting there mulling this all over in my mind when one of my students says the most remarkable thing. “Mister Doug, ask if we can pray for her.” All of the sudden I realized I was doing it again. I was thinking of how we can ‘solve the whole problem,’ when Jesus’ call to us is not to solve every problem. His call to us is to love one another. So we asked her family and they agreed. We circled around this little girl and I began to pray. And as we stood there, it hit me: A bunch of Christians circled around a little Muslim girl in a Jewish hospital. This is what it’s all about. This is the love of Christ crossing borders and boundaries. We didn’t “solve” anything but we made a difference in Maria’s life. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Hands

2006-11-23T05:51:00.000-05:00

So this year I’ve been thinking about what I’m thankful for and it’s been tough to pick one thing. All the blessings that we’ve experienced in just the passed three months (yes, we just passed the 3 month mark on the 16th) would be so hard to condense down into one short little statement of “I’m thankful for ________.” I just don’t think I could do it. But as I sat at our kitchen table last night making my mom’s stuffing recipe for our High School’s Thanksgiving party I began to cry because I realized what I was thankful for: Hands.
You see, for the past couple of years my Nana Phyllis wasn’t able to help much at Thanksgiving because her hands hurt her so much. But she could still tear up the bread for my mom’s stuffing. So I remember her sitting at the kitchen table in Natick tearing up the bread while the smell of butter & onions hung thick in the air. It was bittersweet to be sitting there tearing up the bread and to have the thought occur to me again, ‘her hands don’t hurt her anymore.’
It made me think of Nana Mella too and how her hands hurt her so much yet every year she would work through the pain to make apple pie because she loved us so much.
Of course I thought of my own mother’s hands as well. It was the day before Thanksgiving and from the time I got out of school until the time I went to bed I barely sat down. I wanted everything to be great for our students at the party today. I guess I get that from my mom, because I know her hands have been working non-stop since yesterday to make everything perfect for Thanksgiving. I miss all those hands right now but how can I be sad when I received such blessing from the Lord through all those hands and many more I haven’t even mentioned. Whose hands are you thankful for today?

On a lighter note, here’s a thought to make you all smile. I had quite a surreal moment this morning when we went to pick up the turkeys from the Bakery that cooked them over in Bethlehem. My student, Jamal, and I drove over at 8:00 to get them from the man who had been cooking them since midnight. So Jamal and I cross Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity to pick up these two turkeys with nothing more than dish towels to hold the pans with. And as we’re running across Manger Square each holding a 20 pound, flaming hot turkey I say to Jamal, “You know Jamal, most of my friends in the States will never get to visit Manger Square let alone run through it holding a 20 pound cooked turkey!” To which Jamal replied “Please Mister, just don’t drop it or the whole High School will be mad at us!” Needless to say the turkeys made it and the party was success. Happy Thanksgiving everybody, we love you and miss you all.

All these things-Part 2

2006-11-19T15:02:00.000-05:00

Maybe it's a liberal interpretation of the verse but I watched Matthew 6:33 happen to my husband yesterday. One of the tough parts about packing to leave for two years are the things that you'd really love to bring but you're not sure you'll ever get to use. And if you can't say, "yes I'm sure I'll use that all the time" then it probably won't make the cut. For Doug that meant bacon. Anyone who knows Doug knows that he loves bacon. He relished Saturday mornings with the family at “Franny’s” in Natick, where bacon accompanied every meal. He has been known to say, “What doesn’t go well with bacon??” But when we left we just weren't sure bacon would be available in supermarkets in Bethlehem so we left the bacon home. Sure it was tough and I knew Doug was pretty bummed but what can you do? What sort of missionary refuses to go to the mission field because he can't have bacon? Well don't you know there’s a lovely store that Doug frequents just about daily, called “Fufu.” He had checked out whether they had bacon right when we got here, but to no avail. We've been trying to find out if other stores have it, but nobody does. Then last night Doug paid a visit to our store “Fufu.” Doug barely had gotten in the door and an employee at Fufu says,"I have bacon (that looked scary) or I have THIS,” and she held up real bacon! Long story short, as I heard Doug cooking up breakfast this morning, I listened to the familiar sound of bacon frying in the pan, and I realized that he had given up bacon for God. God gave it back. "...seek first the Kindom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."

"...unless you become like little children..."

2006-11-19T14:57:00.000-05:00

The power is out in our apartment right now so I thought I would blog about a
memorable moment from my classroom this past week. Earlier in the week,
two students of mine had gotten into a tiff on the playground, which is the norm
around here most days. It got blown way out of proportion as the day went on.
The next day I got an earful from both mothers even before the school day began.
The sad thing is, I come to find out that the kids are cousins and the mothers are
in-laws. As one mother is complaining to me outside school, the other mother is
inside school listening to our conversation and shaking her head. I go into school
and hear her side of the story. The other mother goes into the “teacher’s room/closet”
with her son to avoid discussion with us. I want both parents to come together, but
it’s clear they will not. They were downright disgusted with the other child. One
mother even told me “not to let her child near the other one.” She says, “to avoid
problems,” which is a good problem-solving technique to model to your child, right?
It goes against every grain of my being. The children make it through the rest of the
day with little trouble. I even saw one assisting the other with putting on a band-aid.
I gave the children a Thanksgiving word search the next day. I don’t exactly know
how it came about, but the two children came skipping up to me and asked, “Miss, can we work together?” When I said yes, you would have thought I said I was taking them to Disney World or something; they were thrilled to work together. It didn’t strike me until after the day was done what a cool moment I had witnessed, but I thought how cool would it have been if I could have videotaped it for their parents? Well, honestly, it would have been lost on the mothers. (Families are very competitive around here) If only the parents would have gotten it, though, because their children sure did. All I could think was good work, Lord!.

It is events like this one that reminds me of why I went into
teaching in the first place.

Olive these things

2006-11-10T01:18:00.000-05:00

So I must give credit where credit is due, my sister, Kim, thought of the title. It fits though. Recently we were witnesses to one of the oldest cycles of life here in the Middle East: Olive Harvesting. I've spoken of it already in a few other posts because it really does consume a lot of people's time over here for quite a while. We've seen people picking Olives continually around here for the past 3-4 weeks. We were not exempt. We got a chance to try our hand at the Olive Harvest as well. We went up with Miss Grace's family to help pick their family's olives for a morning. It's tough work. There's no machine that harvests them for you. It's all done by hand. The men on the ladders with tarps under the trees and the women on the ground cleaning the olives. Even the kids have a job to do. They pick up whatever falls off the tarp and gets left behind. We've got a great round of pictures that is still waiting to be sent out. There's a picture of me up in an olive tree, a picture of Mandy on the ground cleaning and gathering olives. It was a lot fun for us to be a part of this. It's not that the work it a whole lot of fun, it's quite tedious actually, but what really is enjoyable is to watch the family all interact. For them it's like a picnic. A week long picnic. Sure they complain about the work and they say it's boring but meanwhile they're all laughing and joking around having a good time. They eat their meals right outside on the ground, they make their coffee over an olive wood fire with the branches they've pruned from the trees. It's like a family reunion in a way.

We even got to go to the Olive Press this past week. The whole community has an Olive Press Co-of. They all own it a way. They all bring their olives down to the press and they line up. Literally, they have a warehouse full of olives sacks. Then over the course of the next couple weeks the press (which is an Italian import, because as Miss Grace confirmed for us, the best stuff comes from Italy) runs continually day and night. In fact this part is quite competitive. The line forms on first-come-first-serve basis. If some family isn't there at say, 2 a.m. when they're press time is called, they lose their spot in line. Miss Grace says fights break out every year at the press when some family who misses their turn in line comes back and tries to jump in line. It's like a Soap Opera. I'd call it "Olive My Children." That one I just came up with myself, what do you think Kim? The cool thing was if you think back to our pictures that we sent out from the Galilee you probably passed quickly over a few pictures that were of ancient olive presses. We saw one at Capernaum and one at Corazin. This isn't a new process at all. Sure the Italians have maybe perfected it a bit as with most things like cars, soccer, and dinner but this part of the world has been doing this for thousands of years. We got to be a part of it and that was amazing.

It got thinking about other cycles that have been going on here for ever and ever. This week the Israelis were pounding Gaza. Of course they missed a few targets and as usual the civilian death toll is sickening. It hurts more now. We watch the news and it's no longer strange looking faces in weird place names. Beit Hanoun where this happened this past week doesn't sound too different from Beit Jala. Those faces don't look too different from our students. It makes us physically ill. It has to stop. Here's my theory, which I know will never happen, but I still think it will work. The Israelis always do this over respond thing like they've been doing in Gaza this week. They go in kill a bunch of civilians then the Palestinians spout the "we will avenge" rhetoric and there's a couple bombings etc. and the cycle repeats. What the Palestinians need to do is stand up next time and say "we will not respond to this atrocity, it's so grievous, so awful, that we want the world to see what an unequal response the Israelis have made and we will not respond in kind." The best case scenario is that the Israelis would be forced to stop the attacks because the violent response has ceased. Who are they going to attack if no one fights back? The worst case scenario is that the Israelis go on attacking a people who refuse to respond in kind. The world community wouldn't let this happen. The reason the world community lets the Israelis get a way with this now is because they see the Palestinians respond with terrorism. If you take that away, what are you left with? A big bully beating up on a little guy that won't defend himself.

The catch is, it's not in the Arab mind set to think like that. They consider it a great dishonor not to respond. It would be better to die as the last man fighting, revenging your family than to do nothing. That's why the cycle keeps repeating itself. Friends, please don't stop praying. We love you all.

All these things

2006-10-27T11:07:00.000-04:00

Maybe it's a liberal interpretation of the verse but I watched Matthew 6:33 happen to my wife today. One of the tough parts about packing to leave for two years are the things that you'd really love to bring but you're not sure you'll ever get to use. And if you can't say, "yes I'm sure I'll use that all the time" then it probably won't make the cut. For Mandy that meant her tennis raquet. Anyone who knows Mandy knows that she loves tennis. She's played and even coached for years now. But when we left we just weren't sure there were any tennis courts in Bethlehem so we left our raquets home. Sure it was tough and I knew Mandy was pretty bummed but what can you do? What sort of missionary refuses to go to the mission field because she can't play tennis? Well don't you know there's tennis courts just up the street at Bethlehem University. We've been trying to find out what the court fees are like but nobody seems to know. It just hasn't worked out. Then the other day I find out that one of my ninth grader's father is the head of the Palestinian Tennis organization! (He also owns an ice cream shop so he's our new favorite person). We paid a visit to his ice cream shop last night (it was good but it was no Sundaes in the Heights). We hadn't even gotten in the door and the guy says to us, "I hear someone here plays tennis." Long story short, even though we had to get up at 7 a.m. on our last day of vacation this morning Mandy got to play tennis, right here in Bethlehem. I couldn't help but think as I watched my wife get back in the groove listened to the familiar sound of the ball popping off her raquet that she gave up tennis for God. God gave it back. "...seek first the Kindom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well."

And for all those Red Sox fans out there, Happy Anniversary. Two years ago today the Red Sox won the World Series.
Good luck Tigers!

2 Days in the Galilee

2006-10-24T08:51:00.000-04:00

Well it’s Olive Harvest time here in Palestine. We are hopefully going tomorrow to help Miss Grace and her family in their week long olive harvesting effort. It is quite an event around here. It’s not a date on the calendar. Everybody just knows it’s about this time. The olives begin turning from green to black and families go out with ladders and tarps and prune the trees and pick the olives. Personally, I never used to like olives. Mandy still doesn’t. I just can’t help liking them now. I bought the first can of olives I’ve ever bought in my life the other day. Everybody serves them here so I’m kind of getting used to having to be polite and pop a few here and there and all of the sudden I realized I don’t mind so much anymore!

Sunday morning we set off on adventure with Gwen and Sarah, two of the other American teachers here at our school. We hopped in the little Hyundai van and made tracks for the Galilee. For those of you following along on maps at home we traveled north through Jerusalem and then turned west down towards Jericho. We travel right between Jericho and the Dead Sea into the Jordan River valley. Then we follow the Jordan River north until we hit the Sea of Galilee. We had reservations at the YMCA just north of Tiberias. I know it sounds strange to stay at a YMCA but it really was more like quaint little bed & breakfast than a community center. However it is sort of like a speakeasy, you could drive right by it and hardly realize it’s there. We did manage to find it and it was a fantastic spot. The rooms were a little rustic but in general you got your money’s worth from the view. (See our pictures on Snapfish)

We found the YMCA and then set off to do some exploring. We stopped at this museum that houses a boat that was pulled from the Mud in 1986. There was a drought that year and the water receded to a record level. Two men who live on the Sea of Galilee found remains of a boat in the Mud. Archeologists worked painstakingly to pull the boat from the mud and keep it intact. They managed to so and now people come from all over to visit this boat which they have dated to be about 2000 years old. This is a boat from the Sea of Galilee at the time of Jesus.
Preserved and sitting right in front of us. It’s such a cool spot. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn outback overlooking the Lake.

From the Jesus Boat we took off to hit a few more sites. We went to the church called the “Primacy of Peter.” This little out-of-the-way church is built on a little cove on the northwestern corner of the lake. There’s a set of ancient step carved into the bedrock here beside the lake. It’s thought that this was regular spot for fisherman to moor their boats here in the first century. Tradition holds that it is here that Jesus appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection and reinstated Peter.

Then we went to the site of Capernaum. This was Jesus home base for his three years of ministry. The ancient Christian community here identified Peter’s house and three successive churches were built over the site - one in the 4th century, one in the 5th century and the one that overlooks the site today. Another unbelievable part of Capernaum is the synagogue that they have uncovered there. The most impressive parts of the standing sections of the synagogue date to the 4th century but the foundations of that synagogue date back to Jesus time, making this the very spot where Jesus would have worshipped while he was at Capernaum. (See Luke 4:31 and following for example)

From there we went up to The Church of the Beatitudes. This church is set high up on the hill that overlooks the area of Capernaum. This is where tradition holds that Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. This church is absolutely beautiful and it overlooks the Galilee in a way that is beyond compare. We spent a lot of time here before we finally left just before sunset to go into Tiberias for dinner. (Just a helpful aside- be forewarned if you order “Saint Peter’s Fish” in Tiberias and it doesn’t say “fillet” that means your fish comes out whole with the head and all.)

Monday, we woke up and had a fantastic breakfast on the patio overlooking the Sea of Galilee and we got on the road about 10:00. First we stopped by Magdala where Mary Magdalene was from. It was just a tiny fishing village and there really isn’t much to speak of there but they have uncovered some remains there so we swung by to snap a picture. Then we went to the church that commemorates the giving of the loaves and the fish. This church’s claim to fame is the mosaic that dates back to 5th century depicting two fish and a basket of bread.

From there we made for the hills to catch a couple more spots. The city of Corazin is up in the hills in the northwest corner of the Lake. As we were driving up to this site I was thinking of how Jesus pronounces “woe” upon these cities. I couldn’t help but think if I had to WALK all the way up into these hills to preach to these people and they didn’t respond I’d probably curse them too! But Corazin is a really cool spot. The hills in the northern part of the Galilee are all Basalt. Basalt is this dark black volcanic rock. It gives this area scorched feeling and it was hot by the time we got there. Bethsaida was the same way. We went to Bethsaida next. At least that spot is on the upper end of the Lake where the Jordan River dumps into the Sea of Galilee before pouring out the southern end. So with the water near by there’s more vegetation and some shade. But Corazin has a completely different feel. We don’t read of Jesus in Corazin much at all. All we know is that he went there and presumably they were not convinced that anyone who lived just down the hill could possibly be the Messiah so they don’t respond to him. So Jesus pronounces woe upon them. He says Tyre and Sidon (to Phonecian cities in current day Lebenon) would respond better than Corazin and Bethsaida. And these two spots stand as desolate reminder to us that Jesus demands a response. These two sites remain uninhabited to this day having never been able to maintain a city since.

After a bit of a rest, dipping our feet in at the banks of the Jordan River we continued clockwise around the Lake and came to Ein Gev. Ein Gev is Kibbutz that has become quite successful. They have a wonderful Hotel where we stayed on our JUC field trip 5 years ago. We stopped and had a late lunch or an early supper at their restaurant. They had St. Peter’s Fish on the menu both ways but we opted for Fettuccine Alfredo instead. We took our time and had dessert and by the time we were ready to leave the sun was beginning to set. We left the Galilee down by the Jordan river and followed our same route home.

The more of these little sites you visit by the Sea of Galilee the more it gives you a picture of what Jesus’ everyday life was like. You can picture His disciples taking off in their boats from the shore. You taste the fish they caught and it reminds you of the security they left behind to follow Jesus. So here we are back in Beit Jala and the olives are ready. It makes me think of the Disciples again back on the shores standing there staring at Jesus and not quite sure of what he’s asking them to do. But they just know it’s time for a change. They can see the fruit is ripe and they have to jump into the harvest now with everything they’ve got.
Happy Olive Harvest everybody!

Arabic Hospitality and Succot

2006-10-08T13:30:00.000-04:00

We have been spending quite a bit of time with my students’ families. Last week Thursday night, we joined a family birthday party at Mariana’s. She lives across the street from us. It was a nice, three- bedroom apartment that opened out onto a balcony off the side (if you are familiar with our Uxbridge apartment, it was very similar to that, only a bit bigger-higher ceilings). They have a terrific view of Beit Jala! We enjoyed the night view and their olive trees below. Mariana’s Mom had prepared about 4 different cakes (for a two-year-old’s party)! Mariana is cousin to another student in my class, Johnny, so he and his family were there as well. It was nice to see the children interact outside of class, and enjoy some yummy cake and hot tea.
Last Sunday we went to Majd’s house. He lives with his family in Beit Sahour (where most of the shepherd’s fields are), a town in a valley below Bethlehem. His family lives in a basement apartment. It was very small for a family of 5, yet cozy. It’s polite to bring a toy or treat when you are invited to dinner, so our friend Lily (the first grade teacher at our school) had picked up the game Rummikub. The kids played it all afternoon! I was amazed with their ability to sit! We had rice with chicken and beef, both of which were cooked in an olive wood oven. All of the food was delicious! Majd’s Mom does not speak much English, so she and Lily conversed in Arabic for most of the meal while Doug and I talked with his father, who is also a teacher. (The kids were playing the game) We moved outside for fruit, which was followed by ice cream and tea. Surprisingly, they had many trees in their backyard. It was very nice. Majd’s mom kept asking me how he was doing, and how he could pull certain grades up. Lily and I were bombarded with questions about the children for most of the afternoon! I kept trying to steer her away from conferencing about her child, but she didn’t give up. Oh well, we had a nice time. I have to get used to thinking about school and grades all the time when spending time with families from school.
Yesterday we(the American teachers) went over to Nadine’s house, a student in my fifth grade class. Her Mom is also our school’s landlord (evidently we own a parcel of land next to the building, but not the building). Their house is a castle. It overlooks Beit Jala, Bethlehem, and with binoculars the wall outside the Old City of Jerusalem. We enjoyed a yummy chicken and rice meal, which was served by the family. I felt like Nadine was my servant. The Mom didn’t eat with us at all, but was busy serving us. She must have thrown 7 chickens at us, at least! Our favorite was a small chicken stuffed with rice. We thought that was a great idea. After tea, Hiba (Nadine’s older sister) took us to the roof to check out the spectacular view. I just love the stone building landscape here. However, there is a huge wall being built right outside Beit Jala. It is an eye sore. It is going up right next to their house. There are always reminders of where we live. I wonder if it will cut into their land. We had a great time, and enjoy looking at the castle every time we pass it going out the DCO (border crossing).
We celebrated Shabbat with Josh and Lauren last night. It was a harvest moon, so we took a drive out to the Mount of Olives to catch a phenomenal view. We were looking East towards Jordan and the Dead Sea. It was a perfectly clear night. Then we went back to their place for dinner. It is Succot now, the Feast of Tabernacles, so Jews were camping out in their Succas. It’s a celebration of the harvest (as explained further in Deuteronomy 4) They make a hut out of lumber and then cover it with palm fronds. Most succas we’ve seen have cloth draped all over it. They place the succa wherever they can find room outside the house. They put lights in it because they spend 7 evenings out in it. A table and chairs is put in the succa and the families enjoy time in there, praising God for His providence. Josh and Lauren’s landlords had made a succa which was fun to see. We took a picture of the inside so you all could enjoy too. It is a neat tradition! On our way home to Bethlehem we saw many succas outside apartments and houses. It was so cool to see them illuminated in the dark. The Bible commands the people to rejoice; it was neat to think that those succas inhabited joyful people!

A long post about Masada

2006-09-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

For those of you playing along at home it’s time to take out your map of Israel and follow along! Yesterday we went on a field trip. No it wasn’t for any class and we did not receive credit for it. We rented a car up in Jerusalem, a tiny little Hyundai hatchback. We greased ourselves up and squeezed into the little econo-car for day of fun. We started out from Bethlehem in the morning and traveled up to pick up Josh and Lauren in their neighborhood just north of the Old City of Jerusalem. From there we headed due west. That may seem a little counter intuitive seeing as our ultimate destination was Masada to the south and east of us, but we had our reasons. The pleasure is in the journey. We went out Highway 1 and stopped in a little town known as Kiryat Ye’arim. Kiryat Ye’arim was where the Ark of the Covenant was for a little while until it was moved up to Jerusalem. (See 1 Chronicles 13:5) It’s a beautiful spot where you can look out over the Hill Country. There’s also a small church there and we stopped to take a picture.
Shortly after that stop we turned south down Highway 38 made another stop at the Soreq Caves. This was not a Biblical spot. In fact it was discovered in 1968 when an Israeli company was doing some quarrying in the area. A blast uncovered a beautiful stalactite cave. So we stopped to take the tour. Unfortunately it was in Hebrew but the stalactites were still really cool even though we couldn’t catch much of what the guy said. Josh & Lauren could understand a bunch though and they translated when they could.
From there we continued down 38 through the Elah Valley where David fought Goliath and over the brook where David picked up his 5 stones to Highway 35 where we again made a westward turn, this time to avoid driving straight into Hebron. We traveled through the Shephelah, the Low Hill Country or Foothills. Then we turned south at Kiryat Gat onto Highway 40. Gath you might remember as one of the Philistine cities. We were out on the coastal plain for a while here. It’s much flatter than the Hill country and there’s a lot of agriculture on the coastal plain once the rains come.
A little bit north of Beer Sheva, we turned eastward. Beer Sheva you will perhaps remember from the Biblical expression “from Dan to Beer Sheva.” Dan was seen as the northernmost Israelite city while Beer Sheva was seen as the southernmost city. Today, of course, the border extends all the way from the Golan heights to the Red Sea. Beer Sheva was also a popular Patriarch hang out. We traveled east along Highway 31 to Arad. Through this part of the trip the country becomes significantly more desert like. We stopped for lunch in a little park under some trees, they would be some of the last trees we saw for the rest of the day except for the occasional Palm tree or Acacia tree. At Arad we turned slightly to the north and began the winding descent to Masada. Being now completely in the heart of the Judean wilderness and months from the last time this region saw rain it was very arid. Even though the hills are completely bare this desert landscape is beautiful. We passed Bedouins with camels and their flocks out on the hills.
Masada lies at the bottom of this descent. It is large plateau that Herod the Great fortified. Herod the Great was a terribly paranoid man. (Hence the fact that he slaughtered all the Jewish babies to prevent king from being born among the Jews.) As a result of this paranoia he was constantly building desert getaways to which he could escape if necessary. Masada is one of these. Of course Masada’s story doesn’t end there. It fell out of use until after the Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the Temple. A last remaining group of Jewish rebels hid out down at Masada. Here they were able to eek out an existence until they were found and besieged by the Romans. Now the Romans who had built Masada found themselves on the outside looking in. But as often seems the case the Romans were patient in their wrath and they built an enormous siege ramp to enter Masada. On the night before the Romans were to breach the wall and take the fortress the Jewish rebels all committed suicide rather than be taken by the Romans. The last few drew lots to see who would kill whom. This grim scene and the mountain of Masada have now become a symbol of Jewish nationalism and the determination of the Jewish people to survive under persecution and hardship.
Perhaps what could be called the last chapter of Masada before the present day would be the Byzantine presence. There was a group of Byzantine Monks who began a community atop the rugged mountain. Their church and it’s beautiful mosaic floors along with some of their humble dwelling caves can still be seen.
Today there are several ways to get up Masada: Difficult – the Snake path (so named because it snakes its way up the long way, Medium- the Siege Ramp path (taking the road the Romans made up to the top) and Easy (the Sky Tram). We took the Medium difficulty road up the Siege Ramp.
It was an absolutely beautiful day. We could see clear across the Dead Sea into the mountains of Jordan. After our time at Masada we went back up to Arad where we got on the road that goes down to the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest spot on the face of the earth. We took some pictures by the Dead Sea. We passed the front of Masada, Ein Gedi, and Qumran but we’ll have to do these on a different day. We enjoyed some wine by the Dead Sea at sunset and we on up Highway 90 back up into the Judean Hill Country. We dropped Josh and Lauren off in Jerusalem and made it back to Bethlehem by about 8:00. It was full day but a good day.

I promised I would tell...

2006-09-21T08:38:00.000-04:00

It's Thursday and we have a long weekend! Praise God. I think that technically it's because it's the start of Ramadan I'm not really sure all I heard was 3 day weekend and the rest sounded like "blah blah blah." We had grandiose plans of going up to the Galilee this weekend but it is also Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) this weekend. As Del Griffith once said "We'd have better luck finding a three legged ballerina than a hotel room" in the Galilee right now. All in all I'd say it was a good week for both Mandy and me. On any given day we either want to cry with these kids or cry because of these kids. It really is day to day.
I got into a great discussion with my 10th graders this week. I don't even remember how we got on the subject but they were talking about how fed up with their country they are. They were complaining because it's hard to be Christians in amongst so many Muslims. They said it's also really hard because when they travel to the States and elsewhere in the West and people find out that they are Palestinian they say things like why are you wearing a cross, is everyone there a terrorist, or where's Palestine? They feel like nobody even knows or cares that they exist. I almost cried standing there in front of my class. I tried my best to encourage them with the words of Christ that he sends out "like sheep among wolves." (this was in the passage we were studying this week, God's timing or what?) I said to them you live in an area that used to bee 99% sheep and 1% wolf and now it's like 80% wolves and 20% sheep. And it gets worse everyday. I told them that I can't promise them that I can change anything but I could promise that I would tell their story. I said as long as I have breath I won't stop telling people that I meet that there are Christians in Palestine who need our prayers. But you've got to do something for me, I told them. You can't give up on your country, because Palestine needs Christians now more than ever.
So here's step one of my promise. I'll tell all of you folks. THERE ARE CHRISTIANS IN PALESTINE WHO NEED OUR PRAYERS! Imagine what a group of committed young Christians who are committed to the Gospel and fear nothing but God himself could do in this context. The Gospel hangs by a thread here. These young Christians want nothing more than to give up and leave this place. I believe Christ is calling them to stay. I believe it is the only hope for this land.
Love to all.

Sunday in Jerusalem

2006-09-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

Today we went up to Jerusalem to go to Christ Church again. It really is quite a lovely church and they run a nice church service. It’s just hard to go to church on the other side of the wall. When we go up to Jerusalem we, in effect, cross a border. It is the “border” between Palestine and Israel. And Christians on the other side of this border tend to like to forget about what lies on the other side. They like to let the wall do its job and block out the “bad people.” We sat in church this morning and listened to an impassioned prayer for Israel, for Jews all around the world, even for Muslims. It was well spoken and I agreed with most of it. There was just, in my opinion, a glaring omission. As I sat there I couldn’t help but feel a little sick to my stomach. What about the Palestinian Christians?

It’s so easy to put them on the other side of the wall with all the “undesirables” and not have to face the fact that our support for Israel often comes at the cost of some very dear brothers and sisters in Christ. Take Miss Grace for example. This woman works tirelessly for this school, for the idea of Christian education in a Middle Eastern context. She has never married probably because she’s practically married to this school. Her sister has just undergone surgery for a brain tumor. In spite of what has been going on with her family as of late she has stopped at nothing to make us feel welcome and appreciated ever since the day we got here (now just over a month ago). She is a wonderful woman with a deep faith in Jesus. So as I sat there this morning listening to this prayer I thought of Miss Grace. Not of number or of a percentage but of a person who was a face and a name.
So please join us, as you pray for us, please pray for Palestinian Christians. People ask me my opinion all the time about the problems here in the Middle East and I can honestly give no better answer now that we’re here. Jesus is still the answer. If you press me I can clarify my answer a little better now. It’s up to believers. When Palestinian Christians and Jewish Christians can come together to pray we’ll really have something. What something? I don’t honestly know. An end to all this? Probably not. But maybe a beginning to something better.

Things are looking brighter here

2006-09-15T04:53:00.000-04:00

Thank you for the words of encouragement posted. It's been very tough, but like Doug and I say everyday, "It is only through the strength of Christ are we able to do this task..." He gives strength. Each and everyday. Even when my fifth grade language classes bomb and the kids lose it so that I can't hear myself think. Even when I have to walk out the door and leave them to climbing the walls (as I did yesterday). I do it knowing there will be better days ahead.

I then walked into my fourth grade classroom and discovered it quiet. At that particular moment I discovered progress. The days I received Christ's strength was paying off. All those days of questioning my abilities and calling, head banging against the whiteboard because the kids didn't even realize I was there. Days of thinking I should quit and walk out, telling my principal that I just was not cut out for the task. Those days ending somehow with me staying firm and strict to the end.

I honestly did not think it would ever get to quiet in my classroom. I wasn't expecting it to. That to me is a sign of respect. It had been loud and rowdy during supposed "work times." Not a good working environment. They were now respecting each other with quiet work time.

Then we had one more period of the day, and that went well. The children earned 10 minutes of free time outside! It was awesome to see smiling faces on our way out, including mine:-) We were successful! I just needed that one day to spur me on. I see students who want things to go well now. It's soooooo awesome.
Another verse I've been taking to heart is found in John, when Jesus talks about being the vine and we are the branches. He goes on to say, "...apart from me you can do nothing." I've discovered that in the past weeks.

Please pray my students become more independent learners and learn to appreciate each other's gifts. They are coming, but need more work in those areas. Pray that I can love one of my students who drives me absolutely bonkers. We clash all of the time.

Doug and I appreciate the prayers. We couldn't do this without all of you. Thanks.

Proverbs 31

2006-09-11T14:46:00.000-04:00

“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value…he praises her: ‘Many women do noble things but you surpass them all.’ Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
I’ve been reflecting on these words recently as I have been watching Mandy over the first few weeks of the school year. Other translations say “a woman of valor.” Valor, noble character, which ever you prefer is fine with me. They describe my wife. I have known her through three Second Grade classes, two in which I knew the kids and with which I actually spent a lot of time. Each year seems to present her with a new challenge, some student or group of students who need some extra…love, let’s say. But I have never seen her work harder, or be more challenged than I have in our first few weeks here in Beit Jala. To say these kids need extra ‘love’ would be the understatement of the year. These kids don’t know the meaning of the word discipline. They don’t understand respect. Last year this class went through three teachers. Read that again slower. Three teachers over a 9 month span! No wonder these kids need extra ‘love.’ It’s kind of a which-came-first scenario. Are they a tough bunch because they’ve had so many teachers come in and out the door or have they had so many teachers come in and out the door because they’re a tough bunch? Who knows? It doesn’t really matter. What matters is that Mandy has been given this task.
I would be lying if told you there haven’t been tears. I would be lying if I told you there haven’t been days where Mandy has wanted to quit. BUT she hasn’t. I have watched as she has poured herself out for these kids day after day. She is a masterful teacher. (And I know that she has a masterful mentor/mother.) I have been amazed with my wife. She is a model of perseverance, of skill, of beauty, of Biblical “Valor.”
The summer I worked for Cedar Lawn doing landscaping I woke up everyday knowing that I was physically unable to do the work that lay ahead of me that day without God’s strength. Without a doubt that was one of the most profound times of growth in my spiritual life. It sounds strange but I think it has something to do with the first Beatitude. “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” In other words, blessed are those who realize they are empty before God and can only accomplish the task in front of them by crying out to him. That’s how our day begins here in Bethlehem: spiritually bankrupt. It is not by our own strength that we are able to succeed but by the Lord’s. We’re working on the Kingdom of Heaven part.
Today has been odd. I came up at my lunch break and turned on the news for a bit. One of the few English channels we get on TV here is CNN. Today they were showing a lot of footage from September 11, 2001. So of course I remember where I was that day, how I first heard etc. as I’m sure most of you were doing today. Then I remembered how that day ended for me. My friend Oliver and I went to this absolute dive of a bar up by Gordon. It was just one of those nights where you wanted a beer. I remember sitting by this guy that was drunk and angry. He was saying things like why don’t we just nuke the entire Middle East, who needs them, bunch of you-know-whats, and yadda yadda yadda. And here I am trying to witness to this guy and explain how everyone over there is not like that. I remember wishing that day that there was something I could do to help. Help that guy with his perception, yes, but more importantly to help these people that I was trying to defend to my inebriated neighbor. Well friends, be careful what you wish for as they say.
But today as I watched the news and thought about fanatics and where they are born and bred I thought to myself, not here, not in this school. Not on my watch. Not in 4th grade. Not on Mandy’s watch.
We thank you all for your prayers. We deeply appreciate each and every one of them. It has been so comforting to know that we are covered by your prayer support; to know that as we cry out to God we are not crying out alone.

Prayer Request Update

2006-09-06T14:52:00.000-04:00

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for Miss Grace's sister. It almost 10:00 Wednesday night here in Beit Jala and we're both so exhausted. I don't think I'll write much tonight. I did however want to update you on this situation. Miss Grace's sister (whose name is Nuha) went up to Haddasah Hospital in Jerusalem on Monday for surgery to remove a brain tumor. The surgery was successful in removing the brain tumor and the doctor was very pleased with the results. As with all cancer I'm sure there will be future tests and doctor's appointments etc. but this is definately a big praise. Miss Grace was out on Monday to be with her sister and when she returned on Tuesday I wish you could have all seen the Joy on her face. She's such a dear, wonderful and I don't think we realized quite how much this had weighing on her until we saw her on Tuesday so full of laughter and sheer joy after the successful surgery.

Please keep Mandy and I in your prayers. The kids here are so different from American kids in so many ways. At heart, kids everywhere are still kids. But these ones sure do seem to require a person to have extra measure of God's strength to be able engage them in a classroom situation. We love you all and we deeply appreciate your prayers. God is listening! Keep it up! :-)

Sunday in Beit Jala

2006-09-03T08:41:00.000-04:00

Well, here we are. We survived the first week. Now we take a deep breath and prepare for another. I looked forward to a half day Saturday, but it felt like a full day. We cram everything into a shorter time period. I was exhausted Saturday afternoon and am still recovering today. Miss Grace's sister has her surgery tomorrow, so Miss Grace is using the van. Please pray that all goes well tomorrow. Since we don't have any transportation, it's nice to have an excuse to stay put. With much around to see and do, sometimes I feel guilty for sitting in the apartment. Anyway, the day of rest is much needed.

Yesterday Doug and I went to the Old City of Jerusalem (after school). We toured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, had a moment at the Western (Wailing) Wall, and enjoyed seeing the beautiful architecture in the Jewish Quarter.

Seeing old rocks preserved in the Holy Sepulchre was neat. I touched a stone like that of the one around Jesus' tomb. I saw a slab of rock that Jesus would have been laid on during his burial. I wasn't able to enter Christ's tomb because my shoulders were not covered. I was really excited to go in there. I will have to visit again.
The large rotunda was gorgeous. The sites we've visited so far have struck me as odd. I didn't picture them being so decorated (okay, gaudy) I pictured them to be much more earthy. I know many people lay claim to most of the sites, and that's why it's decorated fancily, but I just want it to be tombish. I guess that's why the Church of the Nativity was one of my favorite spots so far-because it looked how I thought it should look. (well at least by the Grotto, in the underground) I didn't feel removed. I could reach out, touch it, and it felt real to me. I could picture my Lord there. For me, rock does it, and that's why I was so fascinated by encased slabs of rock! And rock is excavated, and therefore not built over yet, so it's closer to where Jesus would have been.

The Wailing Wall was interesting. I experienced it by myself because the men and women are separated. I received a shawl to cover my arms this time. It was neat seeing the pieces of paper that people had left with notes on it and such. Women were reciting Psalms and prayers. There was even a class of children meeting up by the very far right of the wall. When you leave, you must not turn your back on the wall, so I walked backwards, and caught a glimpse of a child not yet 2 with the long curly sideburns walking behind me. So cool. Then we went back via the Jewish Quarter. I enjoyed seeing many synagogues by the Wall, and people going there for Shabbat. However, I began to realize we were "going against the flow" of synagogue worshippers, and was worried about being trampled on. It was quite the experience! Orthodox Jews intrigue me. I enjoyed being surrounded by them (after feeling like an intruder in their space)
We visited Josh and Lauren and they showed us the grounds of Hebrew U. We then viewed the Judean Wilderness, and I saw the Dead Sea! I can't wait to go there!!!!! The sight is breathtaking, and we tried to capture it by camera. Look for more pictures to arrive soon! (Doug is sending them now)

Highlights from my first week at school:

1. On the first day of school, I welcomed my students, and a young girl couldn't find her desk. She was beginning to panic after a short time. I prayed and she says, "I'm not in 4th grade, I'm in 3rd grade!" We helped her find the right class.

2. A Beta fish was visiting our classroom (along with songbirds, a hamster, a turtle, etc) on the second day of school. Things had gone smoothly for much of the day. No escaping animals, all animals stayed in tact, except for a zebra fish that died early in the day. The last 10 mins of class-a loud screech rings in the air. I found out that the Beta fish's bowl had gotten knocked over, and sure enough, there it was, flapping wildly on the floor. Nobody did anything but screech, so I had to tell the child to pick up the fish, put it back in the bowl, and then fill up the bowl (because there was very little water left) Kids are slipping and sliding all over the wet floor, not helping clean it up. The other child returns from filling up the bowl with the Beta fish, and can't see movement in the bowl. He's got tears in his eyes. The bell rings. I quickly dismissed them so the child could share the loss of his fish with his family.

3. My children sang, "Lord I lift your name on high" in Arabic. It was beautiful.

4. My class was doing wordsearches. I checked on a student who hadn't circled any words yet. They had been working for at least 15 mins already. He looks up at me and says, "Miss, I am halfway!" I look at him confusingly. He goes on to say, "Miss, I circle them in my head." I ask him how he can keep track. He says, "I just can." I tell him that that's interesting way to do it and say it will be much easier to circle them. As I walk away, I see him start circling the words. I have never had that experience before.

5. "Meeeees" is my name now. (Remember that Sara Nelson?)

Please pray that I can connect with my class. I talked with Miss Grace extensively yesterday, and she told me lots about the children's home life. It's shaky. They had a rough year last year with 3 different teachers, so they don't really remember how to do school. Pray that I can figure out how to reach them. They are tough to handle sometimes. Thanks.

Mad Props to the Teachers out there...

2006-08-31T08:56:00.000-04:00

For those of you who don't speak Jive "Mad Props" simply means "A whole lot of Respect." I have a whole new respect for teachers that you just can't get from being a sub. That's right folks we have survived our First week at school in Beit Jala. For me this also means I have survived my first week as a teacher. Well, it's not quite over yet. We have Friday's off (it's the Holy Day for some of our students) and then we teach a 1/2 day on Saturday. But we should be able to survive that too.
I use the word survive on purpose. It wasn't exactly a walk in the park. Respect is a huge issue around here. But that having been said I think both Mandy and I made progress with our students. It's only the first week of school and I have already given out two Bibles. Working with out a curriculum I have been able to start off well in both my History and Bible classes. I am finding the balance between making them take notes all day long while I talk and not having enough to keep them occupied for 55 minutes. It hasn't been easy. Yesterday I think I talked to much. I wrote 3 whole whiteboards full of notes on the Historical Backgound of Jesus. They were all asking me if this was Bible class or History. I have to remember that I find these facts fascinating, they find them overwhelming. So today I was a little easier on them. I let them teach me for a while. Last night I assigned Matthew 1&2. So today I asked them about Marriage in Bethlehem. They told me about how in Christian Community here marriages are no longer arranged but the Muslim still do it a lot. If you want to marry a girl you have your parents talk to her parents and they work it out. Then you can begin to see each other if the family is present. There's a ring...etc. I tied that into Joseph and Mary and asked them how they would feel in Joseph and Mary's shoes. I think I made them see how amazing their obedience was in the face of all that happened to them.
Then I asked to they were going to write someone's Biography. They want to grab the readers attention with the first sentence. So I had them take a few minutes and write out a "first sentence" they they would use to grab their readers attention, to make someone in the bookstore want to buy their book. So they did and we went around and shared their sentences. Again they asked me if this was Bible class or something else. Then I asked them this "If you were going to write a Biography that you wanted people to read, would you start the Matthew does, with a list of names? They all said no. So I told them in our context today this geneology doesn't grab our attention. (Most of them said they skipped over it.) But to the Jewish audience that Matthew was aiming at this would have been the most fascinating first line of a book they'd ever read. Matthew just linked Jesus to David...King David...the man from whose line the Messiah was supposed to come. This would have been the answer to their prayers for of the previous 400 years, ever since they had been dragged away to captivity.
I think I got to them. I got to myself. All day I've been thinking about how cool it was that Matthew was able to draw a road map of Jesus family line. A road map that proves Jesus is the promised Messiah. A road map that goes straight through Bethlehem. You see along with all those names I see places. You say 'David', I say he was from Bethlehem. You say 'Naomi', I say she was from Bethlehem...along with Ruth, Boaz, Obed, and Jesse. It never gets old. It happened right here. There was historical reason why Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Most of these kids never really think in those terms. Do we? Do we realize the tapestry that God weaves throughout History? Jesus family line included Gentiles like Ruth, forgiven sinners like Rehab and David not just kings. Jesus family 'road map' brought him right to Bethlehem. Makes me have faith that our road map isn't random. A road map that began with for one little girl in Korea and one little boy in Natick that also passes through Bethlehem is in the hand of God. It's not a random series of hisorical events either.
So week one is done. Thanks for your prayers. They are heard by the Almighty and He answers them daily.
Please remember to Pray for Miss Grace's Family. She is under constant attack it seems these days. Her sister is going in for surgery on a brain tumor on Sunday. On top of this most of her family's Olive Trees have been taken from them by the Israeli army for the construction of their wall. This is so wrong but not much can be done. There is no one to complain to. Please pray for her family. Thanks.

Prayer Request

2006-08-24T13:26:00.000-04:00

Our favorite time of night has just passed. Our window in the living faces northwest more or less. I like it because, as I remind Mandy, I know when we look out our window we're facing Fenway Park. (Yeah ok and all of our loved ones too :-) We get these amazing sunset scenes. The sky doesn't quite rival the ones we saw this past summer over lake Michigan but it is pretty unique. Beit Jala (like every other town here) is a series of hills. As the sun drops behind Beit Jala it sets our town aglow. We look up at the hill and as the town begins to dim and the stars begin to pop out we here the Muslim call to prayer. This ain't Uxbridge. (My Nana Phyllis would remind me at this point that ain't isn't a word, but I hope she'd forgive me for the sake of expression.)
Muslims pray 5 times a day. The call goes out from loudspeakers at the top of every Minuret and if you're not careful it quickly becomes background noise around here. I say "careful" because I don't like to let it become background noise. Mandy and I have started something new: whenever we hear the call to pray, we pray. Novel isn't it. But really, Islam is on the rise over the world (in case you've been living in a cave and haven't seen the news for the past 5 years.) But honestly I don't stop to pray about it that often. I want Muslims to know Jesus Christ. I really need to start praying that more Christians would answer the call to go and minister in Muslim lands. I just plain need to start praying more. So when we hear the call to prayer, we don't just let it fade into the background noise of beeping car horns, yelling street merchants, and the children playing in the court down below. We pray for Muslims.
As we sit and look out our window at sunset another odd part of the picture is Gilo. Gilo is the Jewish settlement up on the hill. There's a wall and checkpoint between here and there but you can't really see those. All you notice is the contrast in structure. Gilo is well organized and the building are all well layed out, gleaming new blocks of human ingenuity. We got some tough news earlier this week. Miss Grace, who is the Elementary Principle here, has a sister who just found out she has a brain tumor. She is Palestinian. She was able to get to Gilo to the good hospital to get help - exactly how I'm not sure- perhaps a doctor's note gets you across the checkpoint. I'm still unclear on that. As if the news that your sister is in the hospital with a brain tumor isn't enough, Miss Grace can't go see her. Miss Grace can't cross the checkpoint without permission either. She has applied for permission but who knows how long that will take. So we'd like to ask you all to pray. Pray for Miss Nuhan (Miss Grace's sister) that the Lord would heal her. That she would be able to get (and pay for) the treatment she needs. And pray for Miss Grace, because no matter what your politics are or you're opinion of the situation over here this really just stinks for her. She's a believer, she didn't cause this problem but she's certainly a victim of it. So consider this a 'call to prayer.' We need your help!

Nativity Thoughts

2006-08-20T12:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Mandy and I went to the Church of the Nativity for the first time. It really is amazing. You walk up this huge hill from where our school is located in Beit Jala. Along the way you cross an intersection which is more or less the line between Beit Jala and Bethlehem. You continue walking up the hill through a crowded market which ought to be blocked off to street traffic but it's not. So almost the entire hill is crowded with cars. But then the buildings get real close and the street becomes too narrow for cars. The shops are practically arms width apart on either side of the street. Now you are in the Old City of Bethlehem. It's not like the Old City in Jerusalem. It's not walled. If you don't know what to look for you can pass right through without ever knowing you were there. The construction methods haven't changed much here over the last 2000 years so our school is made out of the same stone that the walls of Jerusalem and pretty much every other building in this land are made of. So you have to look real close to catch the Old City of Bethlehem.

On the far side of the Old City you come to an opening and you walk out into Manger Sqare. There's some kids playing soccer on the flat stone pavement which has been smoothed by the feet of millions of pilgrims who have come here over the years. On the far side of Manger Square is block building that but for it's huge size you might not guess is the church of the Nativity. Somewhere, perhaps right under your feet in Manger Square once stood a small inn. And underneath that church with it's labrynth of chapels, annexes, and sanctuaries is a cave. It's more like a small room now. It has icons on the wall which are who-knows-how old and the smell of incense hangs heavy in the air. This is where Jesus was born.

You stand there looking at the star in the floor and the paintings on the wall and it's surreal. Bethlehem is a page in a book to most of us but here it is a place in stone. "A place in Stone." I like that. When you read the pages they paint pictures in your mind. Here the pictures are played out in the faces and on the landscape all around you. We went to church this morning and I couldn't help but let my wander back to the Nativity scene...the first one I mean, the original. We've all seen little Jewish boys but sitting in church the thought occurred to me most of the Jewish people we see in the U.S. or even in Israel trace much of their heritage through Europe. To see the face of the Child, Jesus, I looked around me at the faces on these Arab children. Their skin is darker, their hair is more corse. There is His face. And the teenage girl over there, that is the face of Mary. She lives in uncertain times, her life is precarious, her people are second class citizens to the rest of the world. That is the face of Mary.

Last night we stayed up talking about the Incarnation. We talked about what it's going to be like to be here at Christmas. In a way it already feels like Christmas here. When I was a kid I heard that at the North Pole it's Christmas all the time. I can't comment on that but it sure feels like Christmas in Bethlehem.

P.S. I thought I added a picture to this post but it doesn't seem to have worked. Sorry. You'll have to check Snapfish for the pics then.

Salam from Mandy

2006-08-19T06:23:00.000-04:00

Salam! (one of the few words I know in Arabic, though I'm learning) I am sitting here with Doug trying to load our pictures on to Snapfish, which is proving much more difficult than usual. I also struggled with emailing earlier this morning. Things just move a bit slower here. We don't experience the convenience of living in the states. However, it is making me appreciate the little things that I often take for granted, such as boiling water in less than 25 minutes. I am so incredibly grateful for a smooth transition overall here. The apartment is amazing, (see photos!) people are very hospitable and helpful, and we've learned which shops to go to for food, clothing, etc. We feel very appreciated and needed. I visited my classroom this morning and have been looking through curriculum guides for many subjects as I sit here waiting for email and Snapfish to load. I know there's a challenge ahead, but Hey!they have curriculum guides and teacher/student resources to use! (very very helpful) Miss Grace, the elementary principal, is at my side for whatever materials and resources I may need. God is GOOD!(all the time) Orientation starts Monday. School starts a week from Monday. Lots to do before then! I'm very excited to meet the children. I saw erased notes to Miss Linda, the former fourth grade teacher, on the whiteboard this morning. There were lots of hearts and the word "love." Great sign!

I am still in awe of the view from our windows. From one window, we face Beit Jala and from the other we view Bethlehem (and looking down the courtyard of the school where kids play basketball at night and call for "Mr. Doug!") That will take some getting used to. We'll be sure to send pictures of our window views soon.

Yesterday we visited Josh and Lauren Tilton. (Doug's college roommate at Gordon) They are studying at Hebrew University. It was awesome to see familiar faces! We enjoyed BBQing with them in their house in Eastern Jerusalem and then trekking to the Old City of Jerusalem. Josh and Doug were reminiscing and pointing out sites to me. I just enjoyed listening to them and taking in the views that I had only heard about or seen in books. Doug had told me earlier that he couldn't wait to walk through Jaffa Gate (Western side of city), and I have never seen him look as happy as he did walking through that gate! (except for our wedding, of course) It was a moment we had been looking forward to, and it was so special! Then we took off and visited Sulliman (Solomon), a friend Doug had made when he lived here in 2001.(In fact Doug's picture was up on a wall in Sulliman's shop taken in 2001) There are pictures of Sulliman's new apartment that he was very proud of showing us. After that, we went to Shaban's market shop and money changing shop. Doug and Josh were friendly with him, and Josh recommended we get our money changed over at Shaban's. Again, a very helpful tip.
We didn't have time to see other sites; that will be another day! It was neat to see Doug reunited with his friends.

The hardest part of today, and what will take the most getting used to (no, not the crazy drivers here) is going through the check point outside Beit Jala. We have to go through a maze of security with soldiers surrounding us with machine guns each time we want to go to Jerusalem. It's intense. Miss Grace, who's been so wonderful to us, is not allowed into Jerusalem. Also, the friends of Doug I mentioned before from Jerusalem, have family in Bethlehem and Beit Jala. They told us to visit them. It's sad to think that they can never visit their family. Another wall went up to prevent Palestinians from Bethlehem and Beit Jala from going in to Jerusalem. So sad. It's bittersweet going to Jerusalem.

I'm looking forward to exploring more of Bethlehem in the upcoming days. The Church of the Nativity is first on our list. Keep praying for us, and for peace between people groups here. Love to all. (Sorry for such a long post! I'll try to keep it shorter from now on!)

Salam from Bethlehem!

2006-08-17T03:41:00.000-04:00

Good Morning from Bethlehem. Actually, more specifically the neighborhood where we are is called Beit Jala. We arrived in Tel Aviv perfectly on schedule yesterday. We had no problems at the airport which is a huge answer to prayer. All they asked us were a few generic questions about where we going and if we had family here. We were able to be nice and vague and let the school fly under the radar which is good. They gave us a 3 month visa.
Mrs. Linda (everyone here goes by Mrs., Ms., or Mr. and their first name) was there to pick us up at the airport and take us back to the school along with another teacher Miss Gwen who flew in about the same time as us. The drive from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was beautiful. It allowed me to show Mandy 3 of the major geographical areas: the coastal plain, The Shephelah (or low hill country), and the Hill country, which is where both Jerusalem and Bethlehem are located. Then we stopped by Linda's house to pick up another car which Mandy and I used to follow Linda down to Bethlehem. Driving here is sort of like driving in Boston. The roads are tiny and people are dashing in and out of traffic and changing lanes without signaling etc. The hardest part of the drive for me yesterday was that we drove right by the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem and we couldn't stop. I just can't wait to take Mandy there. It is so amazing.
Then we arrived home and saw our new apartment. They have furnished it beautifully and better than we expected. The furniture is brand new and nicer than we had in our apartment in Uxbridge. We are on the 5th floor and the views from our windows are simply awesome.
We went back to Miss Grace's (the Elementary Principal) house last night and her sister welcomed us with traditional Arabic hospitality and feast of rice, chicken and fresh fruit. Then we came home and slept like logs because we hadn't done much of that over the last 48 hours.
We woke up refreshed this morning, still a little jet-lagged but not too bad. We were amazed again at what we were looking at out our windows and at God's faithfulness to us in bringing us to this point. Today we are going to hit the market, change some money and pick up a few things we still need for the apartment.
We love you all, we miss you all, and we have seen the answers to all your prayers for us over the last 2 days. Keep 'em coming! :-)
We will be taking pictures and posting them to our snapfish account soon!
-Love,
Doug & Mandy

"Let's do it...It's go time!"

2006-08-15T09:04:00.000-04:00

So I woke up this morning and I looked at Mandy and I said "I have an idea." She said "What?" very skeptically. I said "Let's go to Israel." She liked that idea. That's right folks the day has finally arrived. I can't believe it. But we leave tonight.
There are striking differences and similarities between my emotions today and my emotions of 5 years ago, when I woke up on a morning not too unlike this ready to set off for Israel. I think the most noticeable difference for me is that back then I had no mental pictures. I had no idea what the Land looked like. Now I do. I know where we're going and know why we're going. I thank God for His call on our lives and His constant leading and guiding. I thank all of you who are making this possible. I have been completely humbled by the outpouring of love and support we have recieved from all of you.
I hope you will join me in thinking of today as "D-Day." If it helps you can think of it as D-Day we leave for Israel. You can think of it as "Doug and Mandy Day." But I like the analogy of D-Day because it is the symbol of hope and perseverance, where the invasion on a single beach head spread throughout Europe to topple Evil. Like Dave Roberts stealing a single base in Game 4 against the Yankees in 2004. What we learned on D-Day and on that cold October day is never doubt any move, no matter how small, has the ability to change the course of history. Today is D-Day. Bethlehem is our Normandy. Game on.

Testing, Testing, 1...2...3

2006-08-07T23:04:00.000-04:00

So Kim says we should have a blog. Here goes. We have a blog. We'll see how well this works.
-Doug