“And coming on the ice to defend their three year undefeated Kurth Cup title, give it up for the masters of the ice, the Hume Lake boys!!” The crowds burst into an uproar and the broom hockey arena shook with the cheers of the Hume Lake full-timers, part-timers, Joshua students, proud parents, and all the defeated teams living vicariously through this epic event. Broom hockey at Hume Lake is life. The weekend winter campers versus the Hume kids game produces enough frenzied excitement to match the Superbowl; the Hume kids train the whole winter to hone their sidestepping, snapshotting, and blocking skills to prepare for the Big Weekend with expert coaching and strategy from the dynamic Pat Gamboa. The game was as good as expected and though most of the opposing team towered twice the size of the Hume boys, the players fought hard and won with an amazing 3-1 victory, pumping their fists to the cheering of the fans and raising the Kurth Cup trophy high, proud to be a part of the team. For me, this event was one of the first times I realized that I’m a part of a real community up here. People care about you more than a random student in the woods and want to incorporate you into their lives. We saw our pause families, staff members, weekend work partners, fellow students, and people now a part of our lives in a real way, all united over their love for this community. Wearing our Hume shirts, the whole community got to go on the ice and take a picture with the boys. It was a special moment I won’t forget for a long time.
Bringing our week back down to reality was a five a.m. shift the next morning in the Ponderosa kitchen. It was pouring rain on our walk down, and I was still waking up from a fellow Joshua student knocking on my door at 4:40 asking if I was going to work (my alarm had unfortunately forgotten to go off). For perspective, the walk down the hill is fifteen minutes, so you can imagine the state of mind I would be in, having only five minutes to get completely ready for an eight-hour shift in the drizzling rain.
Once we were there, however, the day went by quickly as we got to experience the slow brightening of the world outside while doing a short devotional on Psalm 19 and 1 Peter 4. The beginning of Psalm 19 fit the day perfectly, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” I also loved the imagery of this verse, “More to be desired are they (the laws of the Lord) than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them, there is great reward.”
After crashing the rest of the day from our shift, we went full swing into a week of hosting preview students and learning from Josh and Annette Sofaer with Jews for Jesus. I loved having the preview students here and seeing the hope and excitement for next year. Hi Aspen, Hailey, Matthew, Madison, Ariana, and Seth, if you’re reading! We played more broom hockey, lots of board games, and enjoyed getting to know new people that will make this place so special next week.
One of the coolest things we did this week with the Sofaers was a full-on Jewish Seder, the Passover meal. Annette led us in Hebrew songs from her days in the Liberated Wailing Wall choir on the piano. Josh taught us blessings in Hebrew and showed the rich significance behind the bitter herbs, matzah, wine (grape juice in our case), greens, onion, eggs, and saltwater in the pre-dinner ritual. The symbolism, chants, and order fascinated me and I loved how the Jewish people can participate in an unchanged tradition from millennia ago, remembering the work of God all the way to the beginning of time. I can only dream of one day going to Israel and participating in a Passover meal with an Israeli family. Josh and Annette also shared the history of the War in Gaza, how to evangelize effectively with people of other worldviews, and their personal stories of becoming Messianic Jews. I can’t wait to see them again in Los Angeles in two weeks! Stay tuned 🙂
