Mr. Glidden, Music Teacher

Wednesday, eight days before the beginning of school. I hand in two unsolicited resumes to the office at Manhattan Christian Academy (MCA) and tell them that both Bethany and I would like to be added to the substitute list. They are thrilled, especially when I tell them we could do middle school. Apparently it's harder to find subs for middle school.

Friday evening, 6 days before the first day of school. The assistant principal calls to tell me that the music teacher had to resign unexpectedly because her apartment building was sold and she had to vacate within the week and had decided to move back to Florida. Would I consider either being a long-term sub for the position, or even to take the full-time job?

Wait, what now?

I have a teaching degree and experience, though the experience came over a decade ago. I have general knowledge of music theory and have led worship countless times informally and for a year and a half on staff at my church. But a music teacher I am not.

My classroom, arranged for a review game

Until I was. Bethany and I prayed about it and sought counsel from a few people close to us, and I told the assistant principal Saturday night that I would long-term sub until they hired a full-time teacher. We believe that, as Andy Stanley would say, this was "the wise thing to do." More on that in a moment.

The first day I can get into the school to begin to prepare formally is Tuesday (Monday was Labor Day). I feel wholly unprepared, overwhelmed, and nauseated. Everyone we tell about it responds with encouraging, optimistic messages and prayers, for which I am extremely grateful, though they do little to help me get a full night's sleep.

I set a goal simply to get through the first two days of classes, and then to worry about the following week. The music teacher at MCA instructs every student in the school, from pre-school (3 year-olds) to 8th grade, so there are 10 different levels. There are far too many students for me to learn more than a few the first couple of days. I cover basic rules and expectations and try to implement some standard procedures. Friday afternoon arrives. I come home and collapse on the couch, exhausted.

No one knew how long this position would last. I figured it would be at a minimum two weeks, and at most it could take half the year or more. My biggest hang-up for going all-in was the two large concerts that the music teacher coordinates, one before Christmas and one in the Spring. In addition, pre-K and Kindergarten have their own concerts, also orchestrated by the music teacher. The concerts are big deals, and parents and family pack out the building each time. I really had no interest in being in charge of such large events, and the assistant principal knew of my concerns. I told her after each of the first two days to continue interviewing applicants. Many of the faculty and staff at the school expressed to me, some subtly and some less so, that they thought I should come on staff full-time. I was flattered but steadfast in my conviction.

Classes varied. Some were trickier than others (middle school is an interesting time in one's life whether you live in New York City or rural Pennsylvania), and my lessons succeeded to various degrees (that's a euphemism for "sometimes I wanted to bash my head against the wall"). Some of the kids were enthusiastic participants, some were overly talkative, a few were occasionally defiant, and many waved and yelled my name when they passed me outside of class.

The school hired a permanent music teacher before the start of the third full week of school. I was relieved.

I found this in a filing cabinet in the classroom
and put it on the bulletin board. I had to add the
glasses, but otherwise it might as well be a
photo of me.

I knew I would miss getting to know the kids at the school, though I confess to still not knowing many of their names. I enjoyed not having to worry about where our van was parked each day, because the school worked out an agreement with a nearby grocery store so we could use their lot. And I certainly enjoyed the extra paycheck. It was an enormous help. I also enjoyed being much more of a part of the works of the school, being an insider, if only for a month.

However, the challenge of managing a classroom is one I did not miss -- not even a tiny bit --  from my first days as a high school teacher. Also, lesson planning is tough for me. It always was. That's one reason it was wise for me to hand off the job to someone with a direct calling and passion for the position.

Another reason has to do with my own calling. Holding a full-time job would certainly make working for Priority 1 more difficult. Perhaps not impossible, but certainly more complex. If God leads me to a full-time job (outside of Priority 1, that is) in the future, then so be it. But it simply was not right, not wise, for me to jump into this position at this time.

I learned a lot, and it was a wonderful experience. At the very least, I know the staff at the school much better than I ever would have otherwise, and many of the kids run over to me and give me a hug when they see me. I also earned enough to cover more than a month and a half of the girls' tuition.

We continue to watch for opportunities, for open doors. We prayed for God to provide when our bank account was running lean, and He did. To Him be the glory forever, and may we never forget that He is worth trusting.

Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!

In our last post, we spoke about the possibility of delaying our departure to the Bronx. Well, let’s have it out:

We are postponing our departure to the Bronx.

You may have guessed this already, what with the ominous hints in our "Crunch Time!" post. Yep, it’s disappointing – we’ll be honest about that. We’ve known for a month or so that delaying was not just possible, it was probable, but since we saw it coming it didn’t devastate us. As of this writing, we have raised 50% of our required monthly support, and that’s simply not enough to be able to make the move. Priority 1 Ministries is a small organization and does not have large reserves we can draw from. Thus, if we’ll need it, we have to raise it.

Looking back, it was rather an ambitious goal to raise what we needed to raise in the time we had. Now, because we’re postponing, we can spread the word even more, get more people involved and on our team, and do a better job preparing for the task we believe God is holding for us.

In fact, there are a number of significant advantages to postponing:

• Ginny can attend 1^st grade at her current school, and has a whole year to prepare mentally and emotionally for switching schools
• We can gradually get rid of our excess stuff (Amazing how it accumulates, isn’t it?)
• We can gradually replace what needs to be replaced or purchase what needs to be purchased
• We don’t have to clean our house just yet :)
• Juliet will be a year older and we won't need to keep all the baby clothes we have
• We can visit more churches, Sunday School classes, small groups, etc.
• We can prepare spiritually for the job and life awaiting us in the Bronx – when there’s a specific goal, preparations and practices that often become rote take on new meaning and urgency
• We can give more to the people in our lives right here, right now

So now the plan is to move in the summer of 2014, probably in June. Since we have more time to prepare, we can plan to move at the beginning of the summer instead of the end, and we’ll be able to work with the youth groups who come up to run Bible Clubs. The school we found for Ginny said that they would hold our deposit for next year – which is a real blessing, because we didn’t know how that would work out.

To those of you who have pledged regular support: If you would like to wait to continue your giving until we get closer to our departure date, that’s completely fine with us – we understand entirely. If you would like to continue to give, while we plan and prepare here in Pennsylvania, you are absolutely welcome to do that as well. We only ask that if you choose to hold off on your giving, please send us a quick note, so that we can keep track of our pledges more accurately. Either way, THANK YOU for your generous support! We are truly grateful!

Crunch Time!

Our family of five

Crunch time! OK, here’s how things stand with us: We have raised almost half of our monthly support, which leaves –naturally – the other half of our support to raise. A nice round number to use is $2000 per month in regular, pledged support – that’s what we still need. We have gotten a number of one-time gifts and multiple donations from monthly givers, but the most important number we’re tracking is monthly pledges.

We have had the opportunity to speak to a couple of our home-church Sunday School classes in the past couple of weeks and have another engagement lined up for this Sunday. We’d love to say that we gained several more monthly supporters from each, but if we did, we don’t know about them. We have another one lined up, then less than a month and a half to raise the rest of our support. If that doesn’t happen…

Before we talk about Plan B, let’s talk about August 10^th. On that day, the first tuition payment to Ginny’s school is due, so we’re using August 10^th as a decision deadline for ourselves. The question isn’t if we will have enough money to make the payment (we do), the question is if we will have enough support raised to make the physical move to the Bronx in time for school to start. If we don’t, then we won’t make the payment because we won’t be moving this Fall.

Plan B is pretty simple: Don’t move to the Bronx yet. Hold off for at least a semester, perhaps a year, until we can raise our full support. We would remain at our church and job and keep Ginny in her current elementary school for 1^st grade. We don’t know how delaying a year would affect Ginny’s spot in the school in New York – that’s something we still need to find out, though we imagine she’d simply have to apply again in the same way she did this year. Let us say this, though: Even if we do resort to Plan B and don’t move this Fall, we will still move to the Bronx, just at a later date. We believe strongly that God has called us there, so we’re going. We just don’t know when.

We’re torn about which is more daunting to us at this point: staying or going. It’s kind of a toss-up right now. Raising another $2000 a month and then moving in a whirlwind to the Bronx would be absolutely insane. But then, the thought of staying for another semester or year after all the buildup of the last several months seems just as formidable.

PLEASE PRAY. We need more supporters! We need more faith and trust and belief and boldness and…. The list goes on and on.

PLEASE GIVE. We need YOU! We ask you to pray about coming on our support team. We need all the prayer support and financial support we can get! Simply email us and we can get you all the information you need.

Thank you for the support, love, and encouragement you have already given! It means the world to us.

We Sent the Check

We had a dilemma. Kind of. Well, at first it seemed like a dilemma, but the more we talked about it and prayed about it, the less it seemed like one. We had to choose whether or not to do something, but dilemmas typically involve two relatively equal options, either equally positive or equally negative, and our current situation ultimately didn’t meet the criteria.

We could either send in the registration check to Manhattan Christian Academy, the school we fell in love with and would like our daughter to attend in the fall, OR we could wait to send the check until we raised more financial support and we were more confident that we will, indeed, be relocating to the Bronx later this year. There were several things to consider:

1: We can’t wait too long, because it’s not a big school and someone else may just jump in and take Ginny’s spot. OK, so send the check!

2: The fee is nonrefundable. If somehow we’re unable to make the move by August, we’d be out $325. OK, so wait for a bit!

3: If we lose the spot, we’d be starting from scratch with where to send Ginny for school. So, send the check!

4:  It’s big and scary and daunting to make this commitment before we have, well, any support at all to stand on. Um, yeah, that is a little scary. Good luck with that one.

We sent the check.

Whenever we described the “dilemma” to someone, it went something like this: “We have to decide whether we should commit to reserving a spot for Ginny, and step out on faith that we’ll get the support we need, or if we should wait until we have more of that support in before we make any definite plans.”

The more we stated the problem, the more it sounded to our own ears like this: “We need to decide if we should trust in God or trust in the money we’re trying to raise.”

Yeah, doesn’t sound so much like a dilemma anymore. We'd much rather put our faith in God than in money. Those two options are definitely not equal.

Does it make sense to reserve a spot for Ginny before we're 100% sure that we'll be able to move to New York this summer? We think so, because we want to live by faith and not by sight. It’s definitely still scary, but playing it safe is totally overrated.

Escape from Nemo

It was the quickest trip we ever made to New York City.

Ginny, our 6 year-old, had a placement test scheduled at a Christian school we’re looking into. When we took a tour of the place we really liked it and could easily envision Ginny scampering around with the kids we encountered, and so we decided to go ahead and put in an application. All new students must take a placement test to determine their academic levels and knowledge, and it needed to be done soon. Hey, let’s make a family fun time out of it! we thought. That may take some of the sting out of it for Ginny. (We hoped to make it as fun as possible for our daughters, especially Ginny, who thoroughly enjoys New York City itself, but who wells up with tears when she thinks about the possibility of leaving her current elementary school.)

Ever heard the expression, “We plan, and God laughs”? Well, plans changed.

A major snowstorm was forecast for the entire northeast, and New York City was going to get about a foot of snow (or more – every time we checked the weather updates, the totals went up two more inches). We almost canceled the trip, because though it might be possible to make the appointment, we would have to turn right around and come home to avoid getting snowed in.

Ultimately, after praying about it and asking several others to pray, we decided to keep our appointment. We left our house just before 4:30pm on Thursday and arrived a bit after 10pm at Priority 1’s apartment in the Bronx (the drive is that long only because of dinner, gasoline, and potty stops – one could make it in less than four hours if one were less, um, encumbered). We got the girls to bed as quickly as we could, though now they were wired and hyper.

At 7am Friday morning Ginny awoke, much earlier than her parents desired, but hey, it’s better than having to drag her out of bed. Upon looking out the window, we found, to our dismay and alarm, that snow was already falling, and had covered the sidewalks and cars. The streets looked OK, though – one nice thing about winter weather in big cities is the fact that constant traffic flow keeps the roads passable for longer. We called the school and politely asked if there was any way we could come early – the appointment was at 11am – because we were somewhat anxious about getting out of town. They said that we could come in whenever we could get there, and that they would work around our schedule.

Needless to say, we quickened our steps.

We got to the school about 10:30, half an hour before her actual appointment, and they took Ginny back after just a couple of minutes. I (Greg) had just enough time to repark the van – apparently I was in danger of being towed away where I’d parked – and come back inside the school to dry my snow-soaked head, when Ginny hops out of the room where she’d had her test, about 20 minutes after she went in. She looked happy, and the woman who gave her the test said she’d done just fine.

Well then. After a couple of questions for the admin director, we skedaddled. It was just after 11am, when Ginny’s test was originally supposed to begin. Whew!

Roads were fine, just wet really, though there was a slippery spot or two in New Jersey. To make up for not doing anything fun in the city, we let the girls get a donut on the way home, and we even stopped at Cabela’s to look at the dead animals. Ginny liked the moose the best. We got home at about 5pm, just over 24 hours after we left.

On Monday, Bethany got a call from the school. They would love to have Ginny attend there and when we pay the registration fee, her spot will be reserved for her.

We hadn’t expected such a quick response. We suddenly find ourselves having to commit to an actual date on the calendar, which doesn’t seem that difficult, except we hardly have any financial support raised yet. Do we step out in faith that God will provide what we need in time, or is it more prudent to wait until we’re on more secure financial footing? If we wait, the spot at the school may disappear; we have to decide soon.

Pray for us! We need more wisdom and discernment and faith and trust and love every day.

Scouting Trip

I was stingy with my vacation days in 2012, so I had a full week left that I had to use by the end of January, so Bethany and I took a long weekend (with the support of Bethany’s mom who watched our girls while we were gone – thanks Gayle!) and came up to the Bronx for what we’re calling a scouting trip. We have several basic questions to answer about moving to the Bronx this summer:

• Where will we live?
• Where will our girls go to school?
• Should one (or both) of us get a job of some kind, even if only part-time?

Each one of these questions will take considerable time and energy to answer. We understand that. They will likely not be answered quickly, or with one visit, or with one meeting. We understand all that as well.

Doesn’t mean we like it, just that we understand it.

Foggy fire escape at night

Regardless, you gotta start somewhere. So we made several appointments with several people with the goal of making progress toward answering one or more of our basic questions.

We talked to a friend of ours, Dorine, who works closely with Fellowship Chapel and the breakfast ministry they run, and who works for the public school system. We had lunch with her and she told us some good stuff about how it all works in the city, because it’s rather different from school systems in PA that we’re used to. For example, elementary schools are based on where you live (that’s the same), but for high school, kids can essentially go anywhere they want in the city (that’s not the same). There are private schools and charter schools and Catholic schools and good public schools and less good public schools.

OK, good. Lots of stuff to think about.

From Dorine's balcony

Then she showed us her apartment on the 25^th floor. Quite the view from 25 floors up.

The next morning we had an appointment at Manhattan Christian Academy, a K-8 school that's been around since the 1970's. We knew of the school because Priority 1 has helped out with an after-school program called Operation Exodus that operates there. We got the tour, poked our heads in a couple of classrooms, and got to have a decent talk with the principal, as well as to share with them who we are and what our story is. I told the husband/principal and wife/admin counselor that I really liked the "spirit of the place," that there was a good, peaceful feeling there, and they responded that they've heard people say similar things before. We really liked the school. One possible concern: They said that for next year's 1st grade class, we would essentially have to apply now. Eek.

Then we went straight to the World Vision Storehouse and met with the director, Tim, to talk very generally about what we were doing and if there were any options for partnering with them there. Priority 1 has been bringing groups there for a long time, because they always need help (anybody relate to that?). What with my several years of warehouse experience, we thought there would be potential there. And there still may be, but not right at this moment.

Thanks, Diana and Daryl!

And that’s where a lot of this stands: Possibility exists, but it won’t work out right now, in this moment.

Our questions remain unanswered, but we met some great people, got to walk around this town some more, and got to worship with some great people on Sunday morning (I even got conscripted into playing my guitar and singing backup, which was fun).

We had a couple of smaller tasks before we headed home Tuesday morning, but they mostly involved food we intended to purchase and take back with us. Chambersburg, we love ya, but you can’t match the bagels and Parmigiano-Reggiano we can get here.