Callie Mitchell, SAVED News International Correspondent, Jerusalem, Israel
Last month with the New Year, Rosh HaShanah, we welcomed a new season for the Mitchell Family! Our big boy, Aviel, started Kindergarten! In Israel, this important year is not the entry into primary school, rather it is considered the senior year of preschool; even held on preschool campuses, which we call “Gan,” literally meaning “garden.”
Gan is an institution of Israeli culture. The government subsidizes programs for children as young as two years old, and they attend for six days a week. Being an immigrant nation, Gan is where the little ones first begin to assimilate into this society, primarily through Hebrew learning.
As a committed “stay at home mom,” I had a variety of concerns about entering the public system so young, particularly that of our minority status as believers in Yeshua. My desire to homeschool was not a good fit either, since our children need to learn Hebrew with native fluency to live well in this new home, and for their safety when they serve in the army.
The Lord is good, however, to provide Jerusalem with the only Gan in the entire nation that provides a Messianic/Christian education, in a Hebrew learning environment, Little Hearts Preschool. Aviel has been attending Little Hearts part time since age three. For this year, obligatory by the state of Israel, he will be in five days a week. I am pleased also to share that I will be joining him on Wednesdays as the school’s new art teacher!
Though I have a Master of Architecture degree, this new position is quite stretching for me, but surely one the Lord ordained. I prayerfully formed a curriculum called “Babies of the Bible,” in which we will have art lessons through various bible stories. Our first two classes went extremely well, as we splattered paint to create stars, and developed a desert landscape with colored sand to tell of God’s covenant with Abraham, and Isaac’s promised birth. My heart is overjoyed to serve our small community of believers by teaching our children both art and God’s word!
This ministry that the Lord has granted is something that you all can be part of as well! Our little Messianic Gan is privately funded through our tuition and generous donations. In all honesty, in a nation where salaries do not keep up with the cost of living, most of us cannot afford tuition. Yet we believe so strongly in this program that we are making tremendous sacrifices to have our children learning in an environment where our belief in Yeshua is celebrated!
If you have a heart to effectively sow finically into Israel, where your giving will go to directly support the needs of the local body, please prayerfully consider our preschool ministry. You help will water our garden of Messianic Jewish and Arab Christian children, by contributing to their discipleship and Hebrew learning!
For more details about our Gan, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/LittleHeartsPreSchool. For more information about generous giving, email pr*****************@se************.com and place “donations” in the subject. Thank you for your love and support!
About The Author
