Joshua Students, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all our friends and family who are back at home.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lol did you catch that! Well if not that is okay, most of the students here will. That is because our first Philippians Test is next week! And we have all been studying really hard to memorize and meditate on Philippians chapter 1. While it has been difficult, I am really proud to see my peers work so hard and apply the scripture to their lives! I will give you guys the actual beginning of Paul’s letter:
“Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,
To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Along with our memorization of Philippians in the past two weeks, we just got back from Hume So-Cal and we all had the opportunity to be off for the weekend. Many of us stayed at the building. But others went home, camping, down the mountain to get coffee at Clingans, and spent a lot of time having fun!
This past week so much has happened! In our Old Testament class we have been studying the law of the Torah. We have been practicing how to interpret each law for our lives today, as guidelines to serve and understand God better rather than restrictions. We also had our personal testimonies written and due for our Spiritual Formation and Biblical Interpret Class (our first big-ish paper!). In that class we have also been discussing how we can change the nature of our hearts through meditation of scripture and through action of living it out. Along with our testimonies we had our first Sim assignment paper as well! Which if you do not know what that is, (it’s okay I didn’t either), it is a reflection paper, meditating on scripture so that we can better apply it to our lives. This paper we meditated on Psalms 63:1-8:
“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
2 So I have dlooked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
3 Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
6 when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
7 for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8 My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.”
Even while you read this blog I would hope that you can join us in our experiences. If you have time, take a second and read it like we did. First, what is the objective meaning of the text? Second, what personal message does the text have for you. Third, what did you say to God in response to His word. And lastly, what conversation of mind, heart, and life is He asking of you?
In addition to school work and doing life together we had the opportunity to hear from Jordan Weaver, the Wildwood Camp Director as our speaker! He went over James 3, how to control our tongue. He gave us some homework for the week that really put into perspective how often I say things loosely without thinking. It is a daily reference test with 6 rules to evaluate our daily speech. The six are:
- Do not complain or grumble
- Do not boast about anything
- Do not gossip or repeat Bad things about anyone
- Do not put down others
- Do not defend or excuse yourself
- Always affirm/encourage other people and yourself
It was really lovely to not only hear from Jordan but also his wife during our speaker grill. They talked about what it looked like for them to steward each other in their marriage and their children! Their kids also joined us, John who is an extremely smart 3 year old, James who is the funniest one year old, and lastly Hannah who is so precious and only 5 weeks old. They are one of the most beautiful families I have met and us students are so lucky to have them here at Hume to seek advice and have fruitful conversations weekly!
Something also beautiful that Joshua and the Hume community does for us is set us up with Pause Families. These are families that commit to having us students over at their house every other Thursday. This last week my family made homemade pizza, carved pumpkins with us, and we all gathered at the table and played board games. This time is something I look forward to every time, knowing I get to spend time with my pause siblings, parents, and reset my mind from the chaos at the building.
Before I sign off I want to share some of the wonderful things that makes us the Joshua Class of 26-27:
The first thing is Soda Time! Started by one of my fellow Joshua students, Chris. Every Friday after work at 8:00 we meet outside for soda time. This time usually takes about 25-30 minutes of us drinking soda and talking about soda. We always have a soda activity and a soda question for the group. This week the activity was soda fun facts and the question was “what soda would the person to the right be?”. I was given Cactus Cooler by EJ and I gave the person to my right, Shira, SunKist Berry Lemonade Soda. We ended in a prayer thanking God for soda and fun fellowship together.
The second one is not unique to our class but we have a quote book of all our favorite quotes. I want to share some of my personal favorites:
- “You can have your dogs out as long as their muzzled”- Dallas (talking about us having to wear shoes in the building)
- “I was late to dinner today because I was riding my scooter”- Aubrey (on a razor scooter around the building)
- “The HITITES are here??? *sigh* Too much OT”-Bailey (We had been doing a lot of Old Testament)
- “Cash money, and Jesus”-Ruby
- “I feel like I’m in the great depression, waiting for rations and the toaster”- Chris (we ran out of avocados and we only have two toasters)
- “He’s from Nazareth I can tell, just by the way he’s two step-in out the tomb”-Linkin (sang in the “Choosin’ Texas” by Ella Langley tune)
- “To piggyback off your piggyback, DOUBLE PIGGY”-EJ
Thank you so much for loving and supporting us! We miss you all!
Love,
Izzy Cavalla (Current Student)