Hello friends! My name is Luke Wyatt, and here’s an update from the past week here at Joshua!
We had the privilege of hosting Josh and Annette Sofaer—a Jewish couple—who came up to
the lodge to share in depth about the rich history of Jewish culture. On Tuesday night, we got
the super cool opportunity to participate in a traditional Messianic Jewish seder. I’d never taken
part in a seder like this before, and it was such a sweet and eye-opening experience! We
laughed, sang songs, and even acted out parts of the Exodus story. I especially loved learning
the Hebrew blessings and hearing their meanings in English.
We sampled matza (unleavened bread) and walked through the symbolism behind each of the
foods on the table. Josh and Annette are part of a unique organization called Jews for Jesus,
which we’ll get to partner with later during our time in LA. Jews for Jesus serves the general
Jewish community in a variety of ways, including running a local coffee shop called Upside
Down Coffee—a space for events, art shows, and gospel conversations. Check out the Jews for
Jesus website if you’d like to learn more!
For our catalyst couple this week, we hosted the lovely Bruen family! A catalyst couple is a
family that stays with us for a week to get to know us on a deeper level. Megan, Nick, and their
three kids were such a joy to spend time with, and we’ll actually get to see them again later in
the program. Their youngest son, Crosby, turned four this week, and we loved celebrating him
as one of our own!
This week was an absolute blast overall. Our whole class decided to dress like our director for
fun, three of my Joshua brothers “decided” (they lost a coin flip) to go bald, and someone even
put up a random 20-foot tall inflatable Santa in our great room! Between the hilarious
spontaneous moments and the incredible speakers and catalyst families, I know I won’t forget
this week.
People keep saying that our time in this program will be “the good old days,
” and it definitely felt like one during our retirement-home-themed dinner! We read The JWI Daily, played bingo and
Jeopardy, and had a grand old time.
Signing off for now—see you guys later! (Current Student)