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• Alleged Lodi con man on reality TV show

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February 8th, 2010

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February 4th, 2010

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February 3rd, 2010

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Lodi Academy principal takes job in Egypt

They say you can never go home again, but don't tell that to Lodi Academy Principal Samir Berbawy.

He has agreed to take a job as principal of an Adventist school in Egypt he attended as a child.

It all started when Berbawy and his wife, Tonya, visited their daughter in December 2001, who was on a year-long missionary trip to Egypt.

"We saw the need our church has there," Berbawy said. "I believe God was speaking to me. He said, 'You've got to come back.'"

Berbawy leaves on July 26, so the end of this year at Lodi Academy will be his last. He will work in Egypt at least six years.

Berbawy said he will miss the people of Lodi, working on the city's Youth Commission and the city in general.

"It's a nice place to live," he said. "This is home to me, now."

Berbawy's next school, located in Cairo, encompasses kindergarten through the ninth grade. There are roughly 1,100 students there, and most are Muslim.

"When I go there, I want to run it as a Christian school without offending the Islamic religion," Berbawy said.

Samir Berbawy

He also emphasized that there should not be conflict a between the teachings of the Adventist church and those of Islam.

"They believe what we believe," Berbawy said. "We've made so many divisions, but we both have faith in the same things. Muslims and Christians should be able to pray together."

Berbawy said one of the hardest things to leave behind is his family. He said he has three cousins in Egypt, but both his son and daughter will be staying in the United States.

"It's been a major concern for us," he added.

Berbawy's son is currently on mission in Egypt, and will return June 9. Less than a week later, Berbawy's daughter will graduate from Pacific Union College in Napa Valley -- the same school her father graduated from -- as a credentialed math teacher. She has secured a job teaching at an Adventist school in Auburn, Berbawy said.

"To leave her as she starts her career is tough."

Berbawy's son will be starting his junior year at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee this fall. Both of Berbawy's children graduated from Lodi Academy, where Berbawy has been the principal for 11 years.

Prior to Lodi, he worked as a teacher and principal in Bakersfield for eight years.

Berbawy was born in Egypt in 1955 and moved to Lebanon in 1968 -- the last year he was in Egypt until his late 2001 visit.

He said he's not worried about unrest in that area of the world.

"Things are not great there," Berbawy said. "But people hear on the news that things are much worse than they actually are."

Having lived in Lebanon during wartime, he understands the localization of war and how states can function with fighting going on in individual cities.

"I'm not worried at all," Berbawy said. "Nothing happened while my daughter was there, and nothing's happened to my son in the eight months he's been there."

The principal said several considerations went into the decision to take the job nearly 7,500 miles away.

"We finally decided we'll go help," Berbawy said. "Financially, it's a sacrifice, but we believe God will provide."