Dear Oprah,

So today I'm going to talk about my kind of bad day. When a day starts by waking up late, having to turn around twice (yes, twice) because I forgot things, clouds, and a cold cup of coffee, I think it's a pretty good sign you are going to have a kind of bad day.

When I arrived at school this morning (ten minutes late due to the turn arounds), I was handed a letter that was passed out to the rest of the staff. It wasn't like I didn't know it was coming, because not for profit organizations can only keep their head above water for so long in this economy, I guess I just never really believed it.

As of March 13, the school will close temporarily for six weeks in order to raise the funds needed to hopefully re-open for the rest of the spring term and for summer term. However, we also need about $10,000 to even complete payroll up until March 13. When I was hired in last April, I (as well as the rest of the staff) took the job knowing that sometimes the funds might not be there for payroll but also knowing full well that God would provide (if not through payroll, through other means). In the past 3 years, the school has not missed a single payroll. Only once was it even late.

So of course, we have questions. Did God fail us? Of course not. Are we actively seeking His will? Is there something else He has for us to do? We have a lot of questions and there is a lot of uncertainty, but one thing we do know is this: "Faithful is He who has promised."

Probably the worst part was telling all the students today. However, we also told them that if they have any ideas on how to raise money, to let us know. So as I was sitting at coffee break today, a student leaned over to my friend Terry and said, "You need to call Howie." Terry was confused. "What did you say?" The Korean student repeated in her thick accent, "You need to call Howie! You know...Deal or No Deal! You and other teachers get on show and win money for school." I laughed. Hard. And then I said, "Okay, we'll call Howie, and you write letters to Oprah and President Obama, and then we'll have all the money we need to keep the school open!"