This past week at the building has been a busy one to say the least…last weekend was our last long four-day weekend of winter camp, and the majority of the Joshua students were working long and hard hours through Monday afternoon. As exhausted as we were, we had no idea how mentally exhausting the week in itself would be. In a good way, we were stretched. Our speaker Lem came up from San Diego Christian College where he works as a professor. He blew our minds. Lem spoke to us about our cultural and spiritual programming, the things we have programmed to believe about ourselves whether by cultural influence or because it’s something that we have grown up hearing and just taking for truth from the church. He got us to understand that God is much bigger than the little boxes we all put him in. Maybe it was time for us to re-evaluate our boxes, to come to understand that God cannot be contained by the size of a box, and that maybe we should make our boxes a little bigger and expand on what we know about God and who we believe God to be. We also were encouraged to think about the things we were programmed to believe about ourselves, all the lies that people, experiences, and the past has made us to believe to be true. We participated in an exercise where we were to write down a five word story about ourselves that would describe how we see ourselves if we were to look in the mirror. More often than not, they were negative. We were to write down a phrase that people have told us, that stuck with us, and shaped our identity, and who we believed ourselves to be. It was an emotional night, coming to hear the things our fellow Joshua brothers and sisters have believed to be true about themselves. A lot of brokenness, a lot of pain, this world is a broken place and we are all broken together. But there was redemption. We all were able to walk around the Great Room and have other students write for us, a new five-word story. A story of how they saw us, so that we could compare the lies with the truth. It was truly eye opening this week being reminded that we are no who this culture and the brokenness says we are, we can have confidence in the truth of who God says we are, and a God who is far bigger than any of the boxes we put Him in.
Aside from being spiritually mind blown, it was a week for stress when it comes to academics. This week we were studying through the book of 1 Corinthians and had some heavy talks about that. We also were all so looking forward to our Philippians 3 test…and we say that with all the sarcasm in this world. We had to recite Philippians 1, 2, and 3, and also prepare ourselves for our Israel test on Friday! The stress was real, but the wonderful catalyst couple had plenty of chocolate in their apartment for us to calm us down. As the days quickly approached the test, the building was as quiet as it’s ever been, and it never is. But the day has come! And the majority of the entire class passed! Throughout the day we heard cheering and hugging and high-fiving as well all congratulated each other on passing. As stressful as it was, we know that we are all capable of doing this, by the strength of God and the encouragement of our Joshua siblings. As we all prepare for a last day of tests and school, we look forward to the weekend to come. It’s one of the last weekends of winter camp, and our last weekend to see the way God works in the lives of those who just come with willing hearts.
Aside from school and the craziness that is to come this weekend, we are beyond stoked to head to L.A. next week! Only a few days until we’re in the heart of the city, preparing our hearts to talk to people about all that Jesus has done for us in our lives. We don’t really know what to expect yet, but we’re all pretty excited to just be out with people, getting to know them and waiting to see what God can do in the hearts of those who need Him. We got to practice a little this week and brainstorm different ways in which we feel would be effective for people to receive the gospel, but the one thing we all came to an understanding of is that no matter what, we just need to love. Loving people and meeting them where they’re at, the way that Jesus Himself did. Love is a universal language. It connects people no matter what race, what ethnicity, or what religion, and Jesus was the epitome of love. The Joshua students are getting ready to leave the mountain so we can all go out and love people the way that Christ did.
-Cassie, Simone, Jake, Tanner
In other news, Kelsey’s SWEEPS team made ice-cream sandwiches and they were amazing.
