another long post.

Well here I am, another week of Joshua! Just as you think you have things figured out, you get thrown for a loop. I have to remember to be flexible.

Monday-
We had another Israel prep class, still one of my favorite classes! We studied geography about the holy land and where Jesus did most of his teaching. Being one of the first rains of the year, many of us went outside for an awesome game of mud football. After cleaning up and eating dinner we were introduced to our new evening speaker- John Saltee. He asked us: “what is choking you in your relationship with Christ?” This really got us thinking about our distractions.

Tuesday-
During devotional time I read 1 John 1:9- “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” It made me remember that no matter what I have done God will always forgive me. In our Old Testament class, we studied the land of Abraham and what the culture was like in that era. John Saltee spoke Tuesday night and gave us a clear picture of how we are justified through Christ, and really defined what the gospel should mean to a Christian.

Wednesday-
During devo time I spent an hour in prayer; first I prayed for myself and things I wanted or needed, then my family and friends, finally moving on to those around me and the rest of the world. I was surprised when I finished and realized I spent an entire hour talking to God, I’m well on the way to completing one of my goals! We had one of my other favorite classes: Theology. In Theology we learned bibliology, or the study of the bible and its validity. We learned how to defend our faith when someone asks us, “How do we know the bible is true?” Rather than simply saying, “Because the bible tells us so?” Our evening Discussion from John Saltee was interesting; he spoke on predestination vs. free will and was saying that it is written in Gods book of life that there are an elect that are going to heaven, and the rest are automatically going to hell. This is a view that only 10% of christians have, and has been a debated issue for a long time. I found it hard to believe that the God who loves everything and can sacrifice his only son to save us from our own sin will automatically send everyone who is not written in the book of life to hell. Regardless, I believed what he was saying, and was upset for a long time because it wasn’t something I wanted to believe in.

Thursday-
Solo time was difficult because I was mad that my faith had turned into something I didn’t like. During our first class Rich Ferierra came in and asked us about the speaker the night before. He then told us that they brought John Saltee in on purpose, because he believed in that controversial issue that only 10% percent of Christians believe. He said they did it because they wanted to make us realize that we can’t believe everything that is taught to us, and the only real way to know your faith is to study the Bible. We need to question everything and make our faith our own, not simply believe what others tell us. If anything I would believe that we have complete free will to make the choices we want, but God always knows what we are going to do before we do it. We should simply live our lives to reach others, and let God worry about the rest. Because the one thing that I know for sure is that I don’t want the people I love to go to hell, and that God gives me the joy and strength that I have, and the fulfillment I get in everything I do.

Later Thursday afternoon I was introduced to a new feature of Joshua I was not aware of called sweeping: Student Work Experience Excellence Program; we get to work under someone in camp as an apprenticeship for a month and learn something and help out around the camp. For example you could work in the auto-shop one month or the kitchen and learn how it runs. I worked in the Joshua Kitchen, however was not busy long and went into main camp to help with the activities going on this weekend. We also had our Pause Families again who cooked us pancakes, eggs and bacon. It was an awesome time to relax and hang out with my pause brothers and sisters from Joshua as well as get to know the family a little better.

Friday-
After having another Elements of Bible study class all of the Joshua Students went into the Hume main camp to help turn it over for the weekend women’s conference. I got to work High adventure this weekend again! Definitely one of my favorite Jobs. We practiced on the ropes course to get ready for the women’s session on Saturday, also helping Jordan Sonerholm(the guys in charge of High Adventure and similar activities) with a few projects. After work, Jordan took us bouldering down by quail flats. We hiked around and found many different places to climb; we even saw some old Indian paintings that the elements haven’t washed away. All in all, a pretty awesome day.

Saturday-
After arriving at high adventure at 8 and practicing a little more, Jordan took us out to the snowboard run to trim trees and get ready for winter, I was just happy to use a chainsaw again. We had our first women’s session for High Adventure after lunch, it was run completely by the Joshua students, and I thought we did an excellent job. Afterward the majority of us went to the snowboard run to finish up what work we could before we called it a night. Saturday night was busy for Hume Lake; many people were here for Paul’s wedding(One of the cooks at Joshua, who i've known for a few yaers). We played soccer at the ark with all the previous Joshua students, and had a good time with our community.

Sunday-
We finished up work with Jordan, completing the small tasks he had lined out for us. After lunch he let us off to go to Paul’s wedding. It was a good time full of tears and laughter, watching our friend get married to his first love. The Joshua students weren’t allowed to eat at the reception because he wasn’t sure if he would have enough food for all of us. So instead I and two other guys took our trucks off-roading up in the mountains by Wildwood- one of the things I’ve wanted to do since I got here. We finally made it back to the reception, just in time to see Paul and Sarah Dixon’s first dance. After the reception we went to the Ark for another fun night of soccer and community. After soccer, most of the Joshua guys went up to Inspiration point to cook the fish they caught earlier that day, and have a good time with just the guys.