MARCH 2, 2009
No news from me since Friday evening…but I’ve had no news! I stayed in the apartment once I blew in Friday evening-soaking and cold to the core…until this morning when I left for school. It was really nice. We watched some movies and read and enjoyed our time inside.

Today was just a normal school day—but the building was absolutely freezing. There had been no heat since Thursday, so all the rooms were so cold. Everyone sits with hats and coats on…my 12th graders and I circled in the back of the room by the heater…there are only 10 of them, so we just huddled close to the only warm thing in the room. I wore my new coat—and I was cute (relative term for those who don’t know me very well), but I was cold! So tomorrow I’m going to be so layered that I’ll look like a stuffed toy.

Our principal—Shane Scott—that I’ve talked about before is just such a neat guy. He has been trying to institute something called Days of Peace…and he put on the bulletin board a big #1 for the first day that the 7th-12th graders went without any fights. After a few weeks, he separated the 7th and 8th…and the 9-12 finally made it 10 days today…the other group is still on 0! So tomorrow we are going to have an ice cream social during their break time for the 9-12 kids. The funny thing is that the 9th graders have their break (which is like a lunch time) with the 7th/8th graders…so the 9th graders will be eating their ice cream in front of the other kids…Shane is trying so hard to get them to behave…looks a little difficult to me! AND who wants ice cream??? It’s freezing here! We suggested hot chocolate, so he’s going to have that too. I just really like his desire to do things for the kids and the school. He is very energetic and very intelligent. And his wife Sarah is too—just so sweet and very intelligent also. And they have such a heart for these kids.

Remember that Monday is our night for the truck…so Mary, Joy and I were joined by Adam and Bethany as we headed out for the grocery store. Then we stopped at the chicken place and got us all a piece of chicken…came home and Elaine had made potato salad for us…so we had a meal all together tonight. It was nice. Then Mary and Joy went to a meeting at Christ Church in the Old City (where Mary attends all the time). The group that led the conference at the church on the Mount of Olives is going to be leading the meeting.

Thanks again for your emails and prayers…AND I got another piece of mail. My friends Lois and Betty mailed me a Valentine with a bookmark in it! Thanks friends…I loved getting it…I actually got it Friday night.

I appreciate your prayers for my family and for Jerusalem School. I also ask that you pray that my departure Sunday will be easy—I have to get a ride to the Hyatt Hotel; get on something called the Sharoot (?) to ride to the airport in Tel Aviv. I’ve never done any of that before…so please pray that things go well…and that things go well leaving. Trish (who had to leave suddenly because of a death in her family) had a really hard time getting through security to leave. I also have a 12 hour layover in Paris—from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m., so I’d appreciate your prayers for me during that long layover.
I’m so grateful to be able to come home—I have business and doctors to see—and I get to see my girls and my family and my friends and my dog and life as I remember it!…I am really looking forward to being there…even though it is just a short time.
Love,
Beth