Today was a VERY busy day, it started with breakfast in the guest house at the college like every morning has. After that we went to devotionals with the staff of the Bible College. The staff here has such an amazing singing voice. Listening to worship music in Arabic might be my new favorite thing to do. If anyone knows of any Arabic worship CD's I can buy please, please let me know. It touches my heart to hear it. Another very moving thing for me today was when this young women started praying in Arabic it was very moving. I felt the pain that she was praying for, I felt the love that she felt while she was praying. Such a beautiful language.
After our devotionals we spent some time with Pastor Nihab (spelling may be incorrect). This is the Pastor that so kindly invited us into his home on Sunday after service. This man has such a big and wonderful vision for his church and community. We discussed his vision at length today and Romy had some great ideas that hopefully can start helping him. Please pray for him, his family, his church and his vision.
After we finished with the Pastor we met with another business being the Bible Colleges gift shop. We went through some brainstorming sessions led by John. I ended up leaving to head back to brainstorm with Tommye about changes we were planning to make to the presentation format of the night. Tommye and I busted out my presentation changes in quick fashion then started on hers. We used this really cool "new" (new to us) technology instead of the typical powerpoint. Shortly after we finished this we had to leave to meet John and Romy for lunch at the College cafeteria. We quickly scarfed down some food, came back to the guest house and worked on taking John's presentation and putting it into the safe format.
We then went to Nadia's house to see her beautiful jewelry operations she has. She takes olive leaves and turns them into high quality gold and silver jewelry. She welcomed us into her beautiful home that was covered with Jerusalem stone, a very high quality and unique material to this area. After we all bought some jewelry for loved ones back home we went into her garden and ate Himalayan Mulberries which are locally known as "Toot Fruit". John tells me he knows why they are called this but I just don't get what he is saying. :-)
After leaving Nadias we were picked up by Faten and taken to her beautiful home to look at pottery. This women is a strong business women and artist. Her work is so beautiful and we picked some of this up as well. Her son joined us for most of our conversations and was so polite and intelligent. He wants to maybe be a Doctor some day or a video game designer.
After leaving that appointment we rushed back to the Bible College where Romy met with one of our students from the workshop while the rest of us quickly went back to the room to change into proper attire to present. We had a few brief moments to catch our breath before "going on stage".
This being our final night of the workshop we wanted to do this for God's glory, we wanted this to be the best night. We started with a great presentation by John on benchmarking and how it can apply to the local businesses here. His presentation led perfectly into my presentation on brainstorming where I spent some time setting the stage for what brainstorming is. We then moved into two different exercises one being individual exercise. Then we moved to a group exercise. After I was done we took a brief break and things were being received very well by the feedback we were getting. After the break Romy took the stage and presented on overcoming barriers. She spoke of the Elephant in the Room which seemed to be a new concept here. Romy also talked about before getting upset or discouraged that your business idea may not have been accepted by the community, investors or anyone else involved you should ask some questions of why. Then when you know why, you can provide the appropriate information. We wrapped up the night with our "fire cracker" presenter Tommye where she talked about what does success look like. It looks different for all of us. She spoke on success in business, personal and spiritual lives. She also spoke on how in todays market those things are all integrated into each other. If they aren't they need to be.
After wrapping up Dr. Jack Sara thanked everyone for coming, handed out certificates that we all signed and presented us with some gifts of their appreciation. After cleaning up the room we went to the cafeteria where we had a special dinner waiting for us. Jack talked about some of the things going on around this area, talked about some of the upcoming events and specifically a conference called "Christ at the checkpoint". This sounds like a VERY interesting conference that will be held. If you aren't familiar with the checkpoint it is in reference to the checkpoints that you must go through when going from Palestine into Israel, or Israel into Palestine. We went through this coming into Palestine from the airport on Saturday. There is so much to talk about here on this topic it will have to wait for another day.
After dinner with Jack and his son the four of us went to the Intercontinental hotel a couple of blocks down the street where we each had a beverage or two and congratulated each other on completing our mission this week. It seems that the workshop was a success. It seems that everyone is happy with the outcome of the workshop. It seems that the attendees of the workshop have already started to implement some of the tools we have shown them. On day two when we met students as they came in a local daycare owner told us how she had used the fishbone diagram from our lessons to solve a problem that day. She had never heard of that method before. On the last day of the sessions she told us that even though she is "just a daycare owner" she feels important and empowered to make some changes. Another gentlemen went home after the first session and told his wife about the workshop. He told her how God has finally brought some people to help them think through these things. He personally thanked me for what we are doing. He blessed the team and I and asked us to keep coming back. We WILL make a change. Things WILL change.
As we look back at the workshop it is clear how God had his hand in this workshop and the success of it. We are all so overwhelmed by the success of this trip and praise God for all he did to open the right doors at the right times.
As I wrap up tonight I will be praying for God's amazing people here on both sides of the separation barrier, the peaceful end to a lifetime of pain and suffering. I will pray for safety for Dr. Jack and his team who are trying to do amazing things here in Bethlehem, Jack's family, friends and all the people he is using to do God's work. I will pray for safe return of "TEAM ROMY" back to the states this weekend where we can all start to ramp up for our returning to normal work week.
Tommye, Romy and John, you know what I will be praying for you for. Thank you so much for an amazing trip, amazing experiences and how you have touched my life forever. Stay tuned, tomorrow will be another great day.
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