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Hello everybody :)

We found out last week that Jon's tuition is $1000 more than we expected it to be, based on previous tuition costs. Our original plan was to pay off as much as we could with our remaining loan funds, and then save all the money from Kasey's two extra jobs to pay off the rest by December. Unfortunately, that still wasn't going to give us enough to cover this semester's tuition. We are praying and working on a solution, but since increasing our loan amount or taking out another loan is impossible, we're kind of stuck. Please pray.

And on that note, we've added a PayPal button to our blog. It's the button to the left that says "Donate." If you feel led, PayPal is an easy, fast, and secure way to send us money. All your information is safe. It's just a quicker method than sending checks.


Nothing other than getting the JUC fall semester bill has happened lately for us. Our neighbors had their first baby on the 27th in Bethlehem: Moira Jo Conner. We have not seen her yet, but they live right next to us so we assume we will see her often.

Jon is busy working on 4-6 midterms for the next 2-3 weeks. They are papers with one in class exam. And Kasey is very busy with her 3 jobs to help support us. She teaches full time, tutors whenever she can, and is editing papers for a lady in the U.N. All are very minimum pay and just get us by if that. Jon is really trying to find a Data-Entry job that he can do from here that pays something, so if anyone who reads this knows of a legit place that he can get set up/get job then please share :)

Tonight we are going to the Old City to experience an annual Jewish holiday called Simchat Torah. It’s a HUGE festival and hopefully we will be able to see Jews dancing near the Western Wall holding the Torah and doing crazy things :D We are looking forward to it. It’s going to be massively crowded though, which makes the experience even more exciting :P

September has gone by ridiculously fast. It will probably feel only like a few months by the time we leave here. Also, Jon and Kasey want to work as teachers—Jon wants to teach at a Bible college or High school and Kasey wants to teach at a middle school or high school. IF you know of any Bible colleges or any schools that are looking for teachers or have heard something, please feel free to drop our names and mention it to us so that we can apply.

Remember, we put in a donate button… open 24/7.



Thank you,

Jon & Kasey

Succoth

People on the other side of the world! HEEEEAAAARRRRR MEEEEEEEEEE!!!! You listening? Ok.

Well IF you see on the news anything relating to fire, rioting, or even explosions it is because Sukkoth has begun (tonight) and with celebrations comes disaster in this country. IF we are personally affected by anything other than massive traffic jams, we will let you know.

You have been warned/notified.

Hello all J

Just a quick reminder for all you living on the other side of the world. If you really want to know the seriousness of our lives, don’t take it from our statuses on facebook. We are jokers… hence the initials: J.K. (Just kidding) :P Alright lame joke. BUT Kasey and I usually just use facebook as a kidding around place—stuff we have laughed about by ourselves and felt like sharing with our friends and family, or things that happened during the day that we found amusing or annoying so that you can all enjoy in our randomness or share in our frustration, haha.

If you REALLY want to know what’s going on in our lives on a more personal, real level then read our blog updates. That is why we are trying to update it once a week so all of you know what’s going on over here. If you want a laugh with us or if you want to see pictures or video’s of us then look on facebook, but keep the seriousness of our lives to the Blog.

Thanks!!

P.S. A new update will take place soon :)

From Kasey

Hello all! :)

It’s been a pretty nice couple of weeks. Jon and I are used to the swing of things this time around, I think, so it doesn’t feel as hectic this year.

Until Ramadan ends, my school day only goes until 1 o’clock. I’ve been consistently staying at least 2 hours after school to grade and prep for the next day. I even got locked inside the school one day because I stayed so late! Lol. It’s hard work being a teacher. Most of the students assume that teachers hang out during our free periods and do the same at the end of school when they leave. Little do they know that teachers arrive at the school long before they do, work hurriedly during “free periods” to prep, get copies, and grade (oh, and sometimes eat, unless we’ve run out of money/food), we leave long after the students go home, and we bring work home with us. I think this year, I’ll designate Sunday as a full day off, with no school work/work allowed.

Of course, I tried that last weekend and it really didn’t go as planned. I edit documents/emails/letters/etc. for a woman at the UN, and usually she emails them to me during the week. She went on vacation through the month of August, however, and arrived back on the 30th to find that someone had requested she send an official report to the Secretary General (of whatever) on September 1st. She received the necessary extension, but that caused a quick scuffle to compile all the necessary information. I got sent the report early on Sunday afternoon with a note to edit it immediately because the new deadline was Monday.

The thing was 27 single-spaced pages of straight reporting! It took me almost 4 hours to complete. By Sunday evening I was worn out and had a headache, and I woke up on Monday with a migraine, which is just fantastic in a school building with artificial light and screaming children, let me tell you. Still, SHEKELS!!

My migraines usually dissipate in about 2-3 hours, which helped on Monday because I’m also tutoring a student once a week in math (Good deeds! Shekels!), and I don’t think I would have been much help slumped over my desk. :) (BTW Laurel, I’m saving the pills for days when my migraines are too much to deal with, because pretty much every morning I have some level of migraine.)

Jon’s excited to go back to school. He just got one of his final papers back last week and found out that he got a 100%. He’s got it in his mind that he’s just an average student, but he’s really not. He just didn’t apply himself to school before. I hope he realizes soon how smart he is – he’s worked so hard over the past few years and as much as I tease him, he’s actually pretty brilliant :) Makes me proud that I’m his wife. (Don’t tell him I told you.)

We found out today that I get 5 days off for the Eid (the end-of-Ramadan holiday), which is AWESOME!! I’m going to JUC with Jon one day so that I can get some writing done, and then on one day, I plan on working ahead on schoolwork. I want to be ahead on my lesson plans and worksheets so that I won’t have to come up with everything last minute. It helps that I’m already familiar with the material this year. This looks promising.

<3 Kasey


Prayer Request
o We made the pretty daunting decision to survive on my school income this year. After paying our rent, it leaves us with $400. We budgeted it carefully, and most of our food will wind up being pita, hummus, and veggies. All the money I’m earning from editing and tutoring is being saved for tuition, but it really won’t amount to that much by the time our last tuition payment is due. The point is: we need money. Desperately. Soon. Please pray. (And donate, if you feel led to! ;) )

Praise Report
o God is generous!! People keep feeding us for random reasons. Even our landlady keeps accosting us with food. It’s good to know that God’s aware of how empty our cupboards are.
o Polly has been living comfortably (and energetically) in San Diego with my family for over 2 months now. Even though we miss our cute little kitty terribly (and I have nothing to practice my “mommy instincts” on), we’re so grateful that she adjusted well and that she doesn’t seem to have lost her craziness. She still goes “mum” before she attacks people J We love hearing the stories of her antics :D

Hello All :)

It has been LESS than a week since our last update. Nothing much has happened during our first week of work and school. All we can say is that it's going to be a busy semester for Jon and HOPEFULLY a less stressful time for Kasey in her work.

Jon learned from a friend how to make some really good pasta sauce with only tomato's, oil, onions, garlic and random spices. It is glorious and cheap :)

Kasey shaved Jon's head again this week. Next week Jon will shave Kasey's head to make it even....

Oh and also, if you didn't know yet, Jon is starting his PB&J&N diet for the year - Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Nutella :) JUC offers free bread with these condiments for their students. Jon takes advantage of their generosity by having 2-3 square (shape of the bread... Bahahahaaaaaaoooooo ok bad joke) meals a day... AND he never gets sick of them.

We have both been starting to watch the Doctor Who series once again. Aaaaaaand Ramadan is about to end in a week, BUT the Jewish New Year, Rasha-shan or something like that, is starting up this Wednesday unless it already started... if you REALLY want to know the look it up :P

Hope all is well on the other side of the world!

This is Jon & Kasey signing off! See you all in a week!

Hello Everyone!

Sooooo we have not kept up with the weekly thing. We are sorry. We really want to say that a weekly update will be what’s happening this year, buuuuut who knows. We will try our best.

Jon just started his second year at JUC and had his first class today. The classes that Jon is taking this semester are:

-Rabbinical Thought and Literature

-An introduction to the literature and central themes addressed by the Jewish sages. Particular attention is given to the early periods of rabbinical Judaism (Tannaitic and Amoraic) and to possible parallels to the thoughts and teachings of Jesus and early Christianity.

-Prophetic Landscape

-Learning all about prophetic literature and how the prophets surroundings was integrated into their message

-Inter-Testamental Literature

-A focus on Old Testament Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha and their contribution to our knowledge of the varieties of religious thought in the Second Temple Period.

-Introduction to Aramaic

-History of the Jews from the medieval times to Modern times (he is auditing

this course so he just has to show up for the classes, no homework or exams)

-An examination of Jewish history from the rise of Christian Europe in the fifth century to the present by addressing such topics as medieval Jewish

communities in Babylonia, Spain, Germany and Poland; Jewish relations with the church and crown; Jewish communal structure; modern changes such as enlightenment, emancipation; new Jewish movements and ideologies; modern anti-Semitism and the Holocaust; Zionism and the rise of Israel.

He is very happy to be back in school and having some organization to his life again. It’s weird to think that Jon is “top dog” so to speak because this school only offers a 2 year program.

Today Jon tried to get out of his Aramaic class by talking to Dr. Wright this morning… it did not work; however, he did have a nice chat with the president of the school (Wright). On a more positive note, Jon got his final history paper back from last semester and got 100% on it! The topic was: Hellenization with a focus on how it influenced Judaism.

On his way home today, Jon ran into a girl that had just arrived in Jerusalem a couple days ago. He helped her buy some veggies and found out she was from Vancouver, B.C. Canada. They had a nice little chat once why they were there. She knew about Trinity Western University—the university that Kasey and Jon graduated from. Just goes to show how small a world we really live in.

Kasey started teaching on Monday (August 30). She had been in ‘teacher orientation’ for about two weeks prior, which is essentially all the teachers getting together to discuss policies and teaching methods, and to get the school ready for the students. Orientation is pretty tiring, since the teachers aren’t just responsible for what they’re teaching, but for preparing their actual school, from moving lockers to hanging posters.

This year, the structure of the school has changed. Each grade is always split into two classes. Last year, each grade would have their classes at the same time. For instance, when one class had biology first period, the other class also had biology. This meant that two teachers taught the same class and each teacher averaged around 5-6 classes. If you’ve never taught before, know this: that’s a LOT of prep work, and extremely exhausting.

This year, the classes are split and occur at different times, meaning that one teacher can teach both classes. Kasey is teaching Life Science and Earth Science (all of the 7^th and 8^th graders), as well as a Study Prep Elective. This narrows her prep work down to only 3 classes instead of 6. The students are also rotating from classroom to classroom this year (whereas last year the teachers had that job), which takes off an enormous amount of stress over moving in-between classes.

Having a less stressful schedule (although she DOES wind up teaching or supervising breaks for 5 hours straight), combined with actually knowing how school goes now, makes this year look promising. (If you’ve missed out, Kasey was homeschooled grades 4-12, so she doesn’t even have her own high school experience to draw from.)

Prayer Requests:

-That we get enough money to pay for Jon’s last semester tuition and plane tickets back to North America – about $5000-6000 depending if Jon gets a scholarship

-For Kasey to have a very fulfilling teaching experience this year

-That Jon study’s hard and well, remembering everything he study’s, etc…

-That God would open doors for job opportunities:

-Jon wants to be a Bible Teacher at a college or university, and/or he would like to teach as a high school teacher

-Kasey wants to teach as a junior high/high school teacher

picture!

We spent the day at the beach in Tel Aviv with our visitor, Joel. This was taken in Old Jaffa (Joppa), facing Tel Aviv.