Hey guys! Maddie here, and I am so excited to tell you how my week at Joshua is going. First off, I got the opportunity to go car camping in Big Sur, a beautiful coastal cliff area, over the weekend with my Joshua brothers and sisters. It’s mind blowing that I get the experience of doing such randomly thrilling things, like marveling at God’s sunrise off of a mountain or running to our cars at night from the bathroom because we’re afraid of what’s in the dark.
This week we jumped back into classes and speaker after Phillipians testing week. Since it’s getting colder up here at Hume, we were taught how to start a fire in our building’s massive fireplace, and Dallas gave us the rundown of splitting wood! I felt the Lord gave me the time and ability to be present in the moment in community and good conversations. I couldn’t be more grateful for the girls community here. We decided to create randomly assigned pairs of “sunshine sisters” in which we send notes and prayers to each other throughout the week. It’s so encouraging to have such intentional, Spirit-driven girls in the program. Learning how to balance fun and studying and my solitude time with Jesus has been something I’ve been working on. It can definitely be challenging to manage, but I just like to remember that each of these things when done intentionally bring so much goodness and fulfillment towards my relationship with God and others.
This week’s speaker was David Rimestad, who is actually our Missions class teacher. His family came up and shared with us the incredible work God’s done in their life as they lived among the tribe of Maliyali, learned their language, and shared the gospel, all while enduring much physical suffering, living with almost nothing, and raising their 3 kids. I highly recommend listening to David and Emily’s speaker sessions on our Joshua Youtube channel! From these messages, and everything else this week, God has been teaching me that he alone is my Redeemer and sustainer. I don’t need to depend on anything other than him – in the present moment and for my future. The depths of these words go far greater than how I can write them, but I truly am so joyful to live fully attuned to the fact that the Lord is my One Thing. Each moment here is such a blessing, thanks be to God for all I get to experience!
With much love,
Maddie (current Joshua student)