I admit I have Eor tendencies. Eor, Pooh's friend and pessimistic stuffed donkey, doesn't ever expect anything fantastic to happen in his life. He accepts the mundane and steadily works through the difficult times. I can be hopeful and optimistic, but I lean towards Eor and find him to be a kindred spirit.
Last summer in a Jordan School Board meeting, I happened to voice a possible scenario that ended up scaring me and some of the board members. I asked out loud, "With economic uncertainty as it is in Jordan and prices for basic amenities increasing...would this be the year that parents would stop sending their children to our schools and opt to utilize the free public schools?" These are the facts:our enrollment two years ago was 235, enrollment last year was 189, and in order for our 2010-11 budget to break even we would need 196 students.
It does not make much business sense to operate private schools in poor neighborhoods. It makes perfect kingdom sense, but terrible business sense.
I left Jordan 5 days before the start of the 2010-11 school year for a four-month sabbatical. Knowing I did all I could, my inner Eor placed this particular worry and the Nazarene schools in God's hands and asked my close friends to pray. Two weeks after the school started, an email arrived saying our enrollment was 214 students...18 students more than we need.
That's a blessing from 2010 along with a new science lab at the Amman Nazarene School(see the "before" pic on the left and the "after" pic on the right). Nazarene Churches in Owosso, MI and Anderson, IN helped us accomplish this beautiful facility to teach science at a higher level than we have ever before been able to teach.
Now we have a challenge to build a third floor onto the Zarqa Nazarene School (in Jordan)...a place for a library, science lab, computer lab, and additional classrooms (including one for Christian Education). Challenges and Eor do not mix well, and I mimicked him as I said quietly to a close friend, "We'll never get enough work and witness teams to come and help us do this." But once again, Eor was wrong. In the final three months of 2010... four teams signed up. They include:
* Central Church of the Nazarene, Lenexa Kansas (June 2011)
* Richland Center Church of the Nazarene, Wisconsin (July 2011)
* Kansas City First Church of the Nazarene (Summer 2012)
* Northwest Ohio District (Summer 2012)
There are other churches that are considering. We probably need about 3 more. If you are interested and curious about the project, try going here.
At this point, the Eor inside me is baffled. He is quite amazed and thankful, in his own cautious, laid-back fashion.
