October 24, 2002

The students take an active role in leading morning assembly.

Most mornings at the school, students lead the assembly, with the Lord's Prayer, scripture, and reading a passage about a topic of general interest. And now once a week the upper grades lead the assembly in English. Today was Elizabeth's seventh graders' turn, and they did a great job. Afterwards, Fr. Aktham quizzed the 11th and 12 graders about the scripture passage, which was from Luke 17, Jesus healing the ten lepers, the site of which is revered in nearby Burqin. And he then reminded all the students that we are all too often like the ten lepers who were healed but never gave thanks. We should strive to be like the one who returned to Jesus to say thank you.

By the time assembly ended, the Jenin schoolbus had not arrived, meaning our Jenin kids probably would not make it today. That means students from Jenin (including a couple of Elizabeth's eighth graders) will miss some of their half-semester exams.

Our cellphone bill arrived today, unfortunately - this necessitates another trip back to Jenin at some point soon. Good news only lasts so long around here!