Hello from the guys of 107 and the girls of 229!
Wow wow wow! Guess what guys! We made it to year 2020! As we kick of the new year we have had so many exciting things happen! Morgan and I were so privileged to have a preview student stay with us for a couple of days! For those of you who don’t know Joshua holds events called Previews where prospective students will come to Joshua, room with current Joshua students and get the opportunity to experience Joshua first hand. We are praying that God will guide them in their decision to attend Joshua or pursue a different path. To all the preview students, thanks for stopping by, we had a blast hanging out with you! This week’s excitement did not stop with Preview. Next I want to tell you about two amazing individuals who invested their time in us this week. They are our wonderful catalyst couple Gordon and Karen. I going to tell you a secret. Karen makes the most amazing guacamole I have ever tasted. When you combine this guacamole with tortilla chips and salsa, it’s a party in your mouth! It reminds me of the scene from Ratatouille the rat eats a strawberry and cheese and sparks are flying.
This week’s speaker was Fred Blackburn. To be blunt, he blew our minds with his talks on gender, human sexuality, and religion. One thing that really stood out in his talk was that people go through life not being completely present. Today we had our first class hill walk. Yes it was rough, but man did we learn from it. I know for me personally the hill walk was an answer to prayer. As we started the second half of the school year I was in a comfortable place. I had my specific friend group, routine, etc., but was somehow disconnect from my peers. For me my perception of those around me was all clumped together. God showed me that only by taking a step back are we able to see others from a different perspective. God’s perspective. Just like how Jesus walked alongside his creation he calls us to walk alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ. Intentionally focusing on them and taking the time to get to know them. I am learning that it is easy to take my community for granted when I am in a comfortable position. Praise God that he is constantly revealing to us the lenses by which we view life and is replacing them with his perfect lens, that we might see things through his perspective.
I am really excited to be spending this year at Joshua and I am so grateful that God led me here! To everyone back at home I just want to say that I love you!
-Kiyo Nishiyama and Morgan Hewett
Hey Howdy Hey readers! Coming from you live from Hume Lake is a little Joshua Wilderness update! It felt so nice this week to get back on a normal schedule, having classes in the morning and good-ole continental breakfast. It’s a shame that we’re going to ruin the routine by going to the Dominican Republic in two weeks. Just Kidding! We are all excited to go! It’s coming up super quickly and a lot of us can’t wait to go. We all still have a lot of things to do before DR, such as Philippians 2, thankfully most of us have it done already! Going for no breakfast club.
-Nate
This is your weekly update with Reece Holzer, Joshua Wilderness Institute. Reporting live from Hume Lake California.
This week at Joshua sure has been a busy one. Coming out of New Year’s camp last week and the first week of winter camp this weekend we jumped right back into our daily routines, but with a few added twists. This week we had our first preview students up to visit. They stayed with us Monday morning through Wednesday afternoon, getting to experience Joshua for a couple of days. It was really awesome to get to meet some of next year’s perspective students. We also had Fred Blackburn up this week as our speaker, who challenged us to really think for ourselves in his lessons. Each topic was very engaging and pushed all of us into some great discussions in and out of the classroom. After Fred’s departure Thursday afternoon, we ended the night with pause family dinner. Jared, Ali, Grace, and I had dinner with Chip, Anna, and Grant before heading to their house for some games. As always it was an awesome night with the Logans, I am so thankful for all the pause families pouring into us, it is truly a blessing. As we close out our week, we are preparing for our second weekend of winter camp starting Friday. We are also studying for our Philippians 2 test on Monday, that’s memorizing all of Philippians 1 and 2! To wrap it all up we recently passed the four-month mark here at Joshua, time just seems to be flying by.
That’s all for me, this is Reece Holzer signing out for Thursday January ninth. Back to your regular scheduled program.
