Graduation Trip

Last week Tuesday, I took seventeen eighth graders on their graduation trip.
Coming back from the trip that night I reflected on the days event.......Although it did not go as planned, I had an amazing time with the girls.
What I learned from this trip is that EVERYTHING is HP and from Hashem. EVEN if it doesn't have a smashing and happy ending, and we don't necessarily "see" the Yad Hashem clearly, it is still HASHGACHA PRATIS.

• Early Tuesday morning as we got into the vans..... it started raining.

• We were supposed to catch the 12:00 ferry to the Island.....but we got lost and had to wait an hour for the 1:00 ferry.
  

• We were bike riding and my skirt, as well as a few other girls skirts got stuck in our bikes. One girl's bike completely broke. We had to call the bike rental place and have them bring us another one.
  

• At 4:00 we went Kayaking. Since there were 17 girls and only one chaperon kayaking, I brought my phone along with me in a zip lock bag. While we were kayaking, I saw in the distance three kayaks going in the direction of a huge current and a waterfall with lots of rocks. I quickly kayaked over to them and started yelling directions. Paddling their oars, two boats were able to get out. All of a sudden a huge wave came right where the third boat was and their kayak went in the air and flipped into the water. I quickly kayaked over to them, Baruch Hashem both of the girls were OK.(HP, they didn't bang their heads on the rocks) . After helping them back into their kayak, I got back in to my own. But I was unable to go anywhere. Each time I started rowing, a huge wave would come over me and my kayak. I was drenched and my kayak was full of water. After fifteen minutes with the help of two eight graders I finally got out from the waves and the rocks. One HP about the Kayak trip- the girls made a HUGE Kiddush Hashem!
  

• On the way back to the dock I discovered that my phone was not a phone anymore. It was a rather wet broken phone. (I tried everything to revive it,...drying it in the sun.....put in rice......throwing it on the floor.....crying and asking Hashem to just make it turn on....Nothing worked!)

• We planned on catching the 7:00 ferry,have a barbecue and then head back home at 9:00. Riding our bikes back to the ferry, a girls skirt got stuck in her bike.......we missed the ferry by two minutes! We had to wait for the 8:00 ferry.

• On the ferry back, we heard that they were expecting a HUGE thunderstorm, By the time we got back to the vans it was late and the sky was getting dark. It was a two hour ride back and we didn't have time to have a barbecue. As soon as we got in to the vans and pulled out of the parking lot, it started pouring rain.

The next day instead of getting ready for camp...I spent the whole day in the Verizon store trying to get a new phone.
It was a day filled with hidden HASHGACHA PRATIS!

Regardless of what the ending was or might be.......
..............ITS ALL HP!

Car Trouble

Hadassah had an appointment last week on Erev Shabbos. Her appointment ended early and she was debating if she should stop by the Target that was right near there. Needing a few items, and having time, she drove to Target. As soon as she walked inside, she saw her friend walking in.

"Hadassah I was hoping I would see someone. My car broke down. It was brought to the shop that's around the corner, so I walked here figuring I would meet someone. My car won't be ready for another two hours."

"Malka, that's HP! Do you want me to drive you home?"

As soon as they got into Hadassah's car it started pouring rain!

One Cup of Coffee

Rabbi Banor was getting ready for Shabbos, when he noticed his wife filling up their hot water urn.

"Dear, why do you fill it up all the way every week? It's just the two of us and we only drink one cup of coffee each. It's a waste of water to fill it up all the way every week," Rabbi Banor said.

"I don't know why I do, I have always filled it all the way. My mother has always filled it, her mother always did, my great grandmother.......I guess it's tradition. And I don't want to be the first one to break this tradition."

Not wanting to mess with his wife's family tradition, he kept quite.

Early Shabbos morning there was a knock at the Banor home. Opening the door Rabbi Banor saw his across the street neighbor standing on the Banor's door step, holding two empty mugs.

"Good Shabbos, Rabbi Banor." the neighbor said. "I forgot to plug in our hot water urn before Shabbos. Do you by any chance have an extra cup of water to spare. My mother-in-law is by me for Shabbos, and she doesn't do well without her coffee.

"Oh, you bet we have hot water, we have more then enough to spare. I'll fill these cups, go back home and get more mugs for me to fill!"