worth more than at least a few sparrows

its only been an eternity (if by eternity i mean 4 days), but we started full-time jobs here on sunday at a school in amman. a member of the royal family runs this school, and by our contacts with the american community school, we found out that there was a desperate need for a couple of teachers to teach elementary health science, science, and math. in a whirlwind of 2 days, we received a phone call from the princess (who founded and runs the school) who offered us jobs, and then we went to her palace (?) to meet with her last saturday. it was kind of funny, actually.

we were picked up by two military officers (royal guards) who drove us to the palace to meet with her. we got a crash course on the curriculum and signed contracts, both of us, to be teachers at the school. it was the weirdest thing ever, and we can see allah's hand in all of it. i was deemed the health science teach and science teacher (teaching 2nd grade science and health science, and 4th and 5th grade health science). jessey, being the former secretary of the math club at greenville college, was deemed the 2nd and 4th grade math teacher. and we started the next day...completely and utterly unprepared. the meeting was weird because of a few things:
1. neither of us have our degrees in teaching, although jessey does have 3 years of elementary ed
2. the princess was dressed in a sweatshirt and sweat pants, with a pony tail, and is completely down to earth
3. we were at the palace of a prince and princess
4. they wanted us to start the next day
the pay is beyond reasonable, and we are also getting residency in jordan, which means we can stay in the country without having to worry about crossing borders and we can visit sites like petra for 1JD, instead of 25JD for "foreigners"...its a huge answer to prayer.

our first day was spent just observing classrooms, no pressure. at then end of the day, we were given our teacher manuals and the teacher who was covering my classes basically said good riddance and i was on my own. yikes. so, the life of lesson planning, grading, wondering what the heck we are doing, and trying to get the 2nd grade class from hell to stay in their seats and listen has begun. the good parts about the school can also be difficult...it will take some getting used to, but its a good challenge and these are good jobs. very cool. the best part is, out of 50 lessons per week (each student has 10 periods each school day), we only teach 13 and 14 of those lessons respectively. so, once we get settled in, this could be the graviest teaching job ever...outside of the principal being a real-life cruella deville who speaks very little english.

here's what allah has done, writing a story with our lives.

he saw in us two people who were crazy enough to move overseas without a clue as to what they would do, just knowing that that is what he required of them. he placed us, by his infinite wisdom, in a spot where we could start tutoring two boys early on...in second and fourth grade! he then placed us in substitute teacher roles, giving us classroom time with various ages of students. then, again in his wisdom, he connected us with another family, a rich one, to tutor their children (one who goes to the school we now teach at!). then english teaching began, requiring us to do lesson plans and be prepared for two classes a week. during that time, he allowed us to be tempted with money (see most recent blog entry) with a job that would reverse our marriage roles, with jessey taking on the role of the provider. this, i believe, was a test to see if we would jump at money, or consider what the ramifications would be for our relationship. thankfully, again in his wisdom, i had a lunch with my new mentor who challenged me to have a serious conversation with jessey about this. turns out, neither of us had peace about the job and decided that we should explore other options. it was at this time, that this opportunity came to us...to use all that allah has been preparing us for in jobs that will provide more than double what we need in our monthly budget...with six weeks paid off in the summer! our faithfulness has led us into two teaching positions at an islamic (yet open to everyone) school where we can have influence on the kids who will influence this nation in the future, as they are all from influential/rich families in amman (including a prince and 2 princesses). wow. its humbling to know that we are even worth anything to him, yet he sees us as invaluable to what he is doing in amman.

pray with us that we don't squander this opportunity and make the most of it, however long we are supposed to live/love people here...and that we get a hang of this teaching thing as quickly as humanly possible.