The Persistent Widow and Phone Calls with American Airlines

Let me catch you up to date...

Yes, I am going to be in Cincinnati for Christmas because I have a wonderfully supportive home church.

Yes, I do have to fly home.

Yes, it is possible to purchase tickets on this side of the ocean.

No, my travel agent did not book the right tickets.

Yes, this is a problem.

About a week ago, I finally got the confirmation email from my travel agent regarding my flights home. Problems:

1. The tickets were only booked through to Chicago but my final destination is Cincinnati.

2. The "special discount" tickets were $400.00 more than I could purchase online.

So, I have had to scramble to find some appropriate tickets. Cutting a long story short, American Airlines had some great tickets but I needed the reservation to be held.

Enter Customer Service... I call the States and speak to AA asking if my 24 hour hold can be extended.

"No."

Okay... you do understand that I live in Africa and am unable to bring you the cash for the tickets, right?

"Well ma'am you can call back everyday and renew your hold. "

Okay, I'll do that. I call again... I'd like to renew my hold.

"Oh, you can't do that."

What? The other lady told me I could.

"Well, you know these agents..."

No, but apparently I'm speaking to one...

"You see ma'am it's like when you go to a store and there are 5 dresses for $50.o0 and you need to put one on hold. If 4 other people come in and buy the other dresses, then all your left with is the one on hold."

Yes, thank you for the thrilling lesson in economics, now can you renew the hold on the "dress" that is left? After listening to her mumble and plink away at her keyboard for 2 minutes, my phone credit ticking away, I told her I'd call back. Two more times I called back to renew the "impossible to renew" 24-hour reservation.

Two days ago I called, once again to renew the hold, and was told my ticket price had gone up! But the lovely customer service agent (one of the few worthy of the title) found me a cheaper flight that left London later (nullifying the 4am drop-off one of my gorgeous Londoner friends would have to make) and arrived in Cincinnati earlier! Then yesterday, when I checked the reservation status online, it said held until next week!! (Which I was told by 4 different people was an impossibility in their computer system!) Yahooo!!!!!!!

I am thinking there are only two possible explanations for all this:

1. The Customer Service Agent was actually an angel in disguise. (a possibility I'm not ruling out.)

2. Because of my persistence in calling, American finally got fed up and did what I originally asked...which made me think about the parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8).

This parable has always bothered me. As a teacher, I HATE being asked over and over and over again the same thing. In fact, if I give you an answer you don't like and you ask me again, I will only become more firm in my original "un-liked" answer! So I could never imagine how God could want us to ask Him for the same thing over and over and over again. God wants us to nag Him? Shouldn't I ask Him and then trust that He hears and answers? Even when people have explained it to me, I still haven't been able to wrap my mind around it. It still just seemed like distrust and anxiousness. This experience with the tickets has changed my mind... all because of need.

I need to go home for Christmas. I need to be around my permanent people and meet my new niece. Because of my wrongly booked tickets, American Airlines was my only option for meeting the need. If that meant I had to jump through all of their hoops to get what I needed, then that's what I was going to do. Not because I was hoping they would change their minds, but because that's what they told me to do. So I was going to endure until the problem was solved. I think that's what this widow was doing... she had a need and knew the only way to get it met was through the king. So, she continued to jump through his hoops and endured until the problem was solved.

So it is with God and prayer. I'll keep praying, enduring until a "problem" is solved, because God is the only one who can meet the need. He is the only option. So if He says pray, then I will pray. Not because I want Him to change His mind but because He told me to.

A Bored Worship Leader

I sing the song "Blessed be your name" a lot... on Saturday at Worship Practice, for 2 Sunday morning services, and for Monday morning assembly. It's one of those typical worship songs with 2 verses and a pre-chorus and chorus that can be repeated a hundred, billion, trillion times! I love the song... I really do. My housemate even re-wrote the song to fit our lives here in Dar last year! But let's face it, after singing it at least 6 times in one weekend, it becomes a boring song!

This last Sunday at church, we did a great song... before and after the teaching... in both services. It's a simple "1 verse, 1 chorus, 1 bridge" song. Yet, we sang it for 8 MINUTES during the first service! (Yes, one of my housemates timed it.) You try repeating the same words in succession for 8 minutes and see how you feel! I can't even count the number of times we repeated the chorus. Yes, the song specifically related to the teaching, but seriously! Didn't people get the point after the first time we sang the chorus? By the second service, it was new to the people, but repetitive to the worship team.

As much as I hate to admit it, I am bored of most of the worship songs we sing at church. (It almost seems like a sacrilege for a Worship Leader to admit to being bored of worship music... shouldn't I feel the Spirit of God infusing every word and phrase with passion and presence?)

(and now I am wondering if God ever gets bored of hearing the same thing over and over again... Maybe not... Rev 4:8 "Each of these living beings had six wings, and their wings were covered with eyes, inside and out. Day after day and night after night they keep on saying, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty-- the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.' ")

and then comes the question, if the praise team is bored, should we fake it so that "worship" still has energy and passion? or just trust God to touch people with His presence and ignore how we feel? or skip the song and sing a new one?

Where am I going with this blog... not really quite sure, except to say that if anyone has any ideas for some new worship material, please let me know! It's hard to sing the same songs 6-8 times each weekend for 3-4 weeks in a row... especially when many of the songs are written in the same key (Jesus chords anyone?).

While cleaning off my "desktop"...

Now is the time of the year when I condense all of the random files that I have stored on lots of different computers over the course of teaching, rushing, printing, and grading of one school year. While in the process of waiting for files to move to the "Recycle Bin," I ran across a collection of poems from last year's English teacher. I thought this one was a good one...


He Passed the Test

Long before
most of the world's
recorded happenings happened,
Abraham
underwent
his Ordeal by Hope.

He believed God
to be faithful who promised
a seed (concept not viable)
a son (less
than knife-edge survival potential)
a land (one burial lot -
a life-time's total investment)
and descendants in such profusion
that
their number would rival
the stars!

Mixed up, yet
fiercely battling
circumstantial contradiction
awesomely, Abram/Abraham
became the friend of God.

His trusting, tortured endurance,
his strong argumentative prowess,
and finely-honed obedience
crashed through ancient harsh blood-ties
staking all on God keeping his word.

His never-swerving conviction:
THE ALMIGHTY IS, AND HE ANSWERS
prefigured to men's understanding
the God
who raises
the dead.

Abraham's faith has earned him
A posthumous decoration
'Reckoned by God as righteous.'

With inheritance rights for the children.

-Grace Westerduin

Miss Connell, are you staying at HOPAC?

...a question I have received a number of times the past few weeks. As Term 3 closes with Final Exams, Graduation Plans and House Sports Competitions, our students here are beginning to wonder which of their teachers they have to say, "Good-bye" to, and which they can simply say, "See you next year." After many discussions with AIM and the principals here at HOPAC, I have been able to say to my students, "See you next year."

Last "Fall" (aka: the Hot Season here in Dar), God very strongly impressed upon my heart that I needed to stay in East Africa... specifically, here in Dar es Salaam. But I knew that in order to stay on the field with AIM, I needed to take some Bible classes. (A problem faced by all of us AIMers who didn't go to Bible college.) So I started looking into online and distance learning courses. One of the other teachers here, who is also with AIM, directed my to Gordon-Conwell's Dimensions of Faith series. This looks like a great program, and I have already started Survey of the Old Testament 1! However, this takes time.... time... and more time... An issue I have struggled with here at HOPAC.

As a full-time Chemistry teacher, and part-time Swim Coach - Lifeskillz Teacher - Worship Leader, my free time has been limited and scarce. A problem when I need to listen to at least 3 Bible lectures a week next year. Also, HOPAC has been unable to find a Physics Teacher for next year. With a minor in Physics, and 5 years of experience teaching it stateside, it was a conversation I knew would be coming... "Kate, would you be able to teach Physics next year?" At first, I refused knowing there would be no way to teach Chemistry and Physics AND still carry all of my extra-curriculars. After a number of discussions, and prayer from many different people, it has been decided that I will teach both Chemistry and Physics, part-time, next year and drop all of my extra-curriculars until I have finished with my Bible Classes. An arrangement I balked at at first, thinking, "Then why am I here? I could do that in the States!" until God gently reminded me that He didn't call me to stay in the States... He called me to teach here.

So when this school year ends, in three more weeks, I will spend some time in the States with my family, then head back to Tanzania for a few more years of work here at HOPAC. God has been so faithful these last two years... let's see what He has planned next!!

Copy Room Conversations

It's true what they say.... you don't really learn something until you have to apply it. Even with language school last summer, conversing in Kiswahili is still a challenge for me. I live with English speakers, I teach English speaking students, and, even though my pastor speaks 5 languages and uses every accent known to man, I go to an English speaking church. I don't get a chance to USE Kiswahili. So, my language is still very limited. One day, one of our administrative secretaries scolded me because I have lived in Tanzania for two years and still can't hold a descent conversation. She then told me to come in every day for a 5 minute conversation. Now, I have two walimu (teachers) in the main office who refuse to speak to me in English for at least 5 minutes after I enter their space. If they say something I don't understand, (Samehani, sematena pole pole.) (Excuse me, say it again slowly.) They laugh. When I respond in my halting accent, they laugh. If they speak really quickly and then ask me a question and I respond "Sijoui" (I don't know), they laugh.

I get laughed at a lot.

But I am now actually applying what I learned last summer. It's much easier for me to understand what I hear, but recalling the vocabulary is still an ongoing challenge. (At least, I'm not recalling all of my French first like last summer. "Habari yako?" "Comme ci comme ca... oh, je suis desolee... oh, man.")

Oh well... pole pole ndio mwendo. (the slow way is the best way)

The Way Things Work...

Today I have been bombarded with images of the way things work here in Dar. (or don't work here in Dar.) It all began this morning as I walked to the top of our school grounds to run and pray around our soccer field. (Our pitch is elevated at the top of our campus... not sure why... it usually only has the affect of allowing the soccer balls to roll a LONG way before we can retrieve them.) I stepped onto the pitch, and SQUISH!... mud everywhere. Did it rain last night? I'm sure I would have heard it... No, now I remember... there were firetrucks at school last night, emptying the water from our swimming pool!

Why did the swimming pool have to be emptied? Because the water was green.

Why was the water green? Because we had extra people in it.

Why do extra people make water go green? Because the Chlorine isn't working.

Why isn't the Chlorine working? We have no idea....

or had no idea...

After getting fed up with the pool, our coordinator took two bottles of water, put the on the desk of our building and grounds supervisor, and said, "Order water tests." His response? "We have already done this." He handed her a document two years old that said our water on campus was NOT SUITABLE FOR USE IN A SWIMMING POOL. In fact, it was "Not suitable for domestic use" at all. So why did we empty the pool? Because somebody filled it with the wrong water.

and where did the water go? Onto the soccer field... leading to a quickly scrawled email from our Secondary Principal... "The soccer field is closed until further notice."

My journey continued in the Teacher's Lounge this afternoon. Our Lounge is in our new Admin building here on campus... the one where the air conditioning has been broken for three weeks because the company installed a central a/c system and nobody in all of Tanzania knows how to service it. I noticed a hole in one of the walls in the bathroom this afternoon... a random hole in the middle of a tile with strange wires sticking out of it. What is the purpose of this hole? I don't know. Why is it there? I have no idea. What are the wires for? Who knows. And why doesn't this hole-wire setup go anywhere or do anything? Your guess is as good as mine.

Finally, on my way back to my office after homeroom this afternoon, I noticed some "maintenance work" going on outside one of the classrooms. (and by classroom I mean the old building that has severe termite damage... huge sections of it fall off daily. Not kidding. Pieces of the wall actually fall down daily.) What was the maintenance work you ask? Termite treatment? no.
Roof supports? Nope.
Replacement of broken glass in windows to make the room secure? Not even close.
It was patch work. Using a saw, one of our workers was widening a hole so he could repair it. Repair a hole in a building that is literally crumbling away because of the termites.

At least I can rest assured that our students here will be safe from "domestic use" water, overexerting themselves on a soccer field, wires that carry power and small holes in the walls of their classrooms.

The Return of the Teacher and Girl Gab aint all Bad!

One of my housemates from last year has returned to sub for the Bible Teachers who are on Home Assignment with their Children until Easter Break. It is so great to have Lisa back in town! The first day back at school, I was walking to the office and I heard a loud voice calling, "MISS CONNELL!!" I turned around and saw Lisa running towards me. So I responded, with equal enthusiasm, "MISS HENDERSON!" We hugged, jumped up and down, and squealed as only two extroverted, uninhibited women could do while surrounded by astounded students. (Just the ones who were new this year... everyone else understood what was going on.)

It's nice having Lisa around again... and since we have already been through the "You're driving me crazy, rinse your dishes!" and "Well, you ate all the peanut butter!" it is much easier to just hang out and talk. Like old friends... picking up right where we left off.

Last week, we went out for coffee to chat, hang out and talk about our vision for the Youth Group here at HOPAC. (Since the Bible Teachers were also my co-leaders, Lisa has stepped in to help with the Large Group Teaching on Friday nights.) It has been great to watch God at work... at first, Lisa and I had very different ideas about what God wanted us to do. But, after much girl gab about various feelings, emotions and desires for the future, God gave me a topic for the next theme: Heart Surgery. Lisa had also been wanting to do something to encourage our students to give away their WHOLE hearts to God... not just part of it, or to just connect intellectually with Him, but their WHOLE Hearts. And of course, our current theme will end the week of Valentine's Day... so starting a new theme with the word HEART in it is just cheesy enough to work for Youth Group!

maybe we should decorate in red and pink that first night...

...maybe not.