The only team from the United States to compete in a big international robotics competition in Israel came from an unlikely place: a Christian high school in the San Joaquin Valley.
Thirty students from Jim Elliot Christian High School in Lodi traveled to Israel with their robotics coach, Tom Bray, for the FIRST Robotics Competition — an event for more than 50 teams and 1,000 high school students held March 14 to 16.
“My heart — why I am doing this — has nothing to do with a robot,” said Bray, a chemistry and physics teacher at the 200-student private school. “I’m doing this because it’s my opportunity to show 30 American teenagers, who will be making future decisions about our country, why they must support Israel.”
The students spent four days, including Shabbat, with Jewish teenagers in Ra’anana. They then competed in the three-day robotics competition in Tel Aviv along with 53 other teams: 51 from Israel and one each from Turkey and Bosnia. The March 9-21 trip was capped with a four-day tour of historic sites.
Although the Lodi squad didn’t win any prizes, “I had a blast,” said team member Ryan Neal, 15, a sophomore. “It’s definitely something I’m going to remember for a long time.”
The team from Jim Elliot High was invited to the Israeli competition during last year’s FIRST Robotics tournament in Atlanta. FIRST is a 20-year-old agency that gets young people interested in science and technology, largely with regional robotics competitions.
At the huge Atlanta event, which included some 1,800 teams from a dozen countries, someone from the Israeli consulate in Atlanta was attending, and she couldn’t help but notice an Israeli flag affixed to the Jim Elliot team’s robot.
The woman approached Bray and inquired about it.
“I told her: We’re a Christian school, our kids have to have a Bible class, and according to my Bible, it says: If you bless Israel, you’ll be blessed; curse Israel, and you’re going to be cursed,” Bray said. “We understand the place Israel has in past, current and present history, and unless I’m mistaken, the Bible says the Jewish people are God’s chosen people. So who am I going to support? I don’t want to come down on the wrong side of God.”
Hours later, a retired general from the Israel Defense Forces came to see Bray. He handed him a business card and told him: “If your team wants to come to Israel next year, e-mail me.”
After the school board approved the idea, Bray and his students began raising funds. They organized a movie night, a crab feed and a magic show, and also sent fundraising letters to friends and family. They raised $130,000.
“Robotics is kind of a sport for those kids who like science and engineering,” Neal said. “Only a few people have the opportunity to go professional in basketball, but in this program, everybody can go professional.”
For the students, the home stay in Ra’anana (a Tel Aviv suburb) was the best part of the trip. The families who hosted the teenagers were both secular and religious. Neal stayed with a more observant family; he went with them to synagogue on Shabbat.
“It was really interesting, seeing some of the rules they follow, and learning about all the different traditions,” he said.
The host families rented a banquet hall on Friday night so that all of the Israeli families and American students could welcome Shabbat together.
Before leaving for Israel, the Lodi team spent six weeks building its robot, staying at school until 8 p.m. on weeknights and also working for 12 hours every Saturday.
Neal said he and his teammates had a fantastic time at the competition, despite some electrical glitches that marred the performance of their robot, and definitely want to go back again next year.
“We’re working on it already,” Bray said. “They have friends, and they’re communicating with them daily on Facebook. Mission accomplished.”