It’s Friday evening in Nicosia and your day in North America has barely gotten off the ground. The seven hour difference means that while our day is playing out, you are enjoying the restful bliss of sleep! Conversely, when we are enjoying our late evenings we know you are rushing with the detail of your day’s commitments.
Friday is something we all look forward to as we see the week unfolding - it means that there are couple of days, to relax, recuperate and perhaps get some of the things done which have been calling for some time. While you contemplate your coming weekend, ours has arrived!
Marian has had an interesting week so I will let her fill you in on those details.
I have spent a lot of time with Donna Worsham, who is doing a great job of taking me around to different places, events and activities. It has been very helpful to me so that I feel like I know a few things, and I’m getting familiar with people and places and customs. She has introduced me to many of her friends. I went last Friday and again today to a Ladies Bible Study, to an Anglican Prayer Breakfast and the Greek Ladies Bible Study took us to the Marks and Spencer Cafe for coffee. While I was out one day, one of the women “lost” her wallet, so that was a good reminder for me to keep my purse closed and close to me. What a nuisance when something like that happens. One day I went with Donna to the other side of the divided city. You have to go through the green line, and show your passport in order to go there. Once there you find a city that is not as well taken care of as the south part of Nicosia. There is still evidence of buildings that need to be re-built, and it just seems to be kind of tired looking. There are lots of small shops, a Turkish bazaar where you can buy things from spices, nuts, handcrafts, fruits and vegetables to clothes, pashminas, shoes and Turkish delight. Since it is the Turkish side, it is very much like I remember Istanbul.
It is still quite warm, but the people are saying that it is in fact cooling down, and by October it will be quite pleasant. I am just learning to walk slower, and keep to the shade or use an umbrella. Plus drink lots of water-that is very important. I’ll close and turn things back to David.
I am surprised at what constitutes my days and weeks here. As principal of the Academy, I am at the school usually by 6:30 so that I am able to get myself organized before students and staff arrive. Mr. Dino is the one who usually is there before me and he is such an interesting individual. retired from the police services, he knows the city of Nicosia like the back of his hand! He is the bus driver - really van driver - which goes into the north part of Nicosia twice each morning to get students for the school. It is quite a sight to see all of the students - both primary and secondary arriving dressed in their beige pants or skirts and white golf shirts with the school crest emblazoned in wine and white. During the day, while waiting for the return trips in the afternoon, he busies himself doing the many odd jobs - fetching supplies, repairing broken things, watering the straggly plants - which never seem to end.
As I stand at the front of the school to greet them, I see many parents who drop off their charges, making it a morning ritual to greet and hear of concerns even before the day really gets started. Three days a week the students of the secondary panel meet in the auditorium to hear announcements and then a short devotional followed by prayer. What a mission field! To think that in front of me as I go through each assembly there are staff and students who do not understand what it means to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Pray that they might hear not only the words but see living examples of His love working with them each day.
As I speak with students I like to ask them how school is going and they are uniform in their appreciation for the opportunity to attend the academy. Do you like it here? “It is the best school I have ever been in!” Such comments give me courage to face the myriad of challenges which seem to land on my desk each and every day.
We must persevere in spite of the discouragement of slow progress and overwhelming needs all rooted in the soil of financial restraint. Oh that God would bless us with the additional funds to do some of what I see as being so basic -
• A new NO PARKING sign which would replace the existing one held in place by a piece of wire on the railing above the primary wall. Someone has seen fit to damage the sign so that it rests, twisted and dangling uncharacteristically, too low so that it could be a source of injury for students.
• Paint to freshen the entry to the academy which would give visitors and students a sense of pride, and paint for classrooms which show their age of some 80 plus years.
• The list seems endless and at the staff meeting some of the staff used the term medieval concerning the lack of access to the internet. Yes, a few hundred pounds would make that a reality but we do not have it yet!
I am determined to count on God to take the little which I can scrounge from here and there and to multiply it beyond our imagination. Staff salaries are too low and I would love to see some encouragement in raising them a few more pounds per month so that they would see that their sacrifice and diligence is appreciated.
But there has been some progress this week. The photocopying room which staff use was the proverbial disaster and the young secretary suggested that staff never seemed concerned about keeping it clean. She would clean it in the morning and by afternoon it was a total mess with paper all over the place and trash in abundance. The fact that there are 18 four drawer file cabinets made the situation worse because it made the usable space so much less.
As I took stock of the situation, I decided we could re-arrange the whole thing and even though we could not replace anything we could make things more efficient. Now all the file cabinets are in two rows against the far wall taking up much less space and only separated enough to open a drawer. Now the photocopiers are easily accessed, there is a table where staff can work, chairs to sit in while waiting for the copiers to finish, paper cutters available within easy reach and in the middle - a large garbage can for waste!
This small step has received many positive comments from staff which suggest that the little effort expended has paid large dividends! Thank you Lord!
As the week comes to a close as far as the school is concerned, we will be saying a final farewell to Joe and Donna. In one sense it will be sad to see them go because it has been due to their efforts that the academy even exists today. Four years ago it was at death's door and now people are starting, once again, to see the academy as the place to have their children educated! Thank you Joe and Donna for the four years of diligence and thank you Lord for your vision and sustaining.
A verse which came to me as an encouragement this week was from Psalm 37. There I read these words:
“Trust in the Lord and do good,
settle in the land and feed on faithfulness.
Then you will delight yourself in the Lord
and he will give you your heart’s desire.” 37:3 (CJB)
As I contemplate that second line it seems that God has placed this for us. Settle in the land and feed on faithfulness. In other words it appears that we are to be content here for the time being and see the continuing faithfulness of God as we work here. It is that which we depend and count on because there is so little that we have to meet the many needs.
The beautiful setting sun out our west window reminds us that He is faithful and will meet the needs with which we are involved!
Thank you again for your time and your continuing friendship and faithfulness in remembering us in prayer. The exhaustion and tiredness seem less a burden because we know of your partnership with us in the Gospel!
David
posted by David & Marian Sloss @ 9:19 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home