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!"

Wrong Number???

Tzippi Kessler was planning a small high school reunion for her classmates and the alumni that lived in her town.
The day of the reunion Tzippi was going over her To Do list when she realized she forgot to buy paper goods.
Tzippi wanted to run out to pick them up, but her baby was sleeping and her kids were expected home from school within the next half hour.
Really wanting to get everything set for the reunion, she picked up the phone to dial her across the street neighbor to see if she could babysit for her, while she ran out.

"Hi Leah?" Tzippi said.

"No, I'm sorry this is not Leah, this is Chaya, who is this?" the voice at the other end said.

"Oh I'm sorry, I must have gotten the wrong number" Tzippi said.

"Not a problem, it happens. Wait, you sound so familiar, is this by any chance Tzippi Weiss?"

"Yeah that's my maiden name, who is this?" Tzippi asked surprised.

"I knew I recognized your voice. Everyone remembers you and your stunning voice. This is Chaya Basser/Jacobs. I was a senior in high school when you were in tenth grade. I just moved to town a few days ago."

"Chaya, wow, its been so long, I would love to see you, we are actually having a high school reunion tonight at my house, for my class and any alumni that live in town, please come, you could see everyone, they will be so happy to see you!

"I would love to come stop by. Well this was Hashgacha Pratis! Thank you so much. I'm running out now to do some errands and grocery shopping, is there anything you want me to pick up for reunion? Chaya asked.

"That's so sweet of you Chaya, I'm so glad you asked, I actually do, I forgot to buy paper goods. Would you mind picking some up?"

"It would be my pleasure!"

After giving Chaya her address, Tzippi hung up smiling not believing what had just happened.
What Hashgacha Pratis!

ICE CREAM

Last Sunday was my neighbors birthday party - she is 8 years old. The party was from 1:00- 3:00. Since I work on Sundays and don't get home until after 2:oo, I told them that I would come at the end and help clean up. But they should save me a piece of Birthday Cake.

Sunday, when I got home from work I realized I forgot to buy her a birthday present. For an eight year old this is very important. I didn't have time to run out and buy anything, so I took a piece a paper and made a ticket that said "THIS TICKET ENTITLES YOU TO ONE OUTING TO ICE CREAM WITH ME"

(She was very excited!)

The next day she called all excited, asking if we could go out for ice cream. I was really busy and apologized that it wouldn't work out.

She called me the next day, the day after that, and the day after that. I was really busy every night and I wasn't available to go out with her.

Thursday night I needed to bake for Shabbos. When I came back from work I was really hot and I didn't want heat up the house with the oven, so I decided to bake late at night when it cooled down. Now I had an extra half hour before I had to run out so I called my neighbor and told her to put on her shoes....... we would go out for ice cream!!!!

When we got to the ice cream store, the cashier told us that TODAY there was a SALE!!! ONLY TODAY ICE CREAM COSTS..............$.99! YAY!

Valuable Math Lesson

Mrs. Jonas (the math teacher where I work) told me this HP story:

Every year Mrs. Jonas takes her math class to the supermarket for a class math trip. There they do a math related activity and after they have a party with Popsicles, soda, chips, and snacks. (she does not teach nutrition) While her students were doing the activity Mrs. Jonas bought the Popsicles and snacks.

As the cashier was ringing up her items, he told her the Popsicles were $3.99.
"Excuse me, but there was a sign that said they were on sale for $1.99." Mrs. Jonas said softly.
"Oh no they are not on sale, go check again." the cashier replied.
Mrs. Jonas went to check again, she returned and replied calmly that indeed there was a sale.
"I'm sorry Miss, but they are NOT on sale."
"Well then I don't want to buy them, I will go put them back."
When Mrs. Jonas went back to the freezer section the store manager happened to be right near the Popsicles.
"Sir, are these Popsicles on sale?" she asked the manager.
"Yes, they are on sale of $1.99" the manager answered.

The store manager went with Mrs. Jonas back up to the cashier. Admitting he was wrong, the cashier apologized to Mrs. Jonas for the trouble of going back and forth. He gave the Popsicles to her FOR FREE!

At this point her class was done the activity. (just in time to see Mrs. Jonas getting the Popsicle's for free).........Now that's a math lesson to remember.....when shopping, make sure the cashier drives you nuts, that's one way to save money!

Shattered Glass

This morning I put potatoes in the toaster oven for lunch. The potatoes were in the oven for about half an hour when there was a sudden explosion!

The toaster's glass door exploded and shattered everywhere - the kitchen, the living room, on top of the table, under the table, on the counter, on top of chairs . . . basically it shattered everywhere.

Now for the HP......

My father's seat in the kitchen is next to the toaster oven. Right before the explosion, he was by his seat working and gathering his papers. A few seconds after he left the kitchen to go to the next room, is when the glass shattered - right where he had been A FEW SECONDS earlier.