You know those commercials about Dos Equis that have the tag line, “the most interesting man in the world”? Well we don’t have beer or that guy, but I do think that we have the real most interesting man in the world as our speaker this week. His name is Michael Smalley and we have had the privilege so far to hear him speak last night and in our Q&A session this morning. As he told us stories of his life and all that he has gone through, we couldn’t help but be pulled into his intricate story telling and the narrative about his life. Last night he spoke about his experience pursuing his wife and he weaved in the two most important things in his life, honor God and honor others. It seemed to line up with one of the things that we say everyday, the Sh’ma.
Like any conversation when you run out of things to talk about you bring up the weather. This weeks weather has been quite different than the past few months; we were finally able to experience weather in the 70s and full days of sunshine. It was so nice yesterday that a group of us took the opportunity to trek down our Joshua hill and into the woods into one of the hidden gems of Hume- the Art Gallery. The Art Gallery is a place in the woods where people have gone and placed various pieces of art in the trees, on the ground, and hanging from branches. We stumbled across a bent over tree that has bottles tied to strings dangling from the branches. When we got closer we realized that there were messages written on pieces of paper inside the bottles. One of the bottles had multiple scroll-type papers rolled up inside. After some shaking and twisting we were able to free all of the scrolls and were able to read what was inscribed on them. Most of them had children’s drawings on them and real simple prayers or reminders. On the backs of some of those were prayers to God for guidance and direction and prayers lifting up a particular family and asking God to guide them and give them strength. Some of the scrolls had encouragements and reminders on them as well, as I read some of them I couldn’t help but be encouraged and get chills reading these notes to God- it was a blessing to get to experience that.
As of today we are 12 days away from leaving for ISRAEL! It is quite insane to look back on this year and to see how quickly it has gone by. It seems like just last week we were all arriving at the building trying to figure each other out and trying to be too awkward around these strangers that we didn’t know yet. Looking back on our year and seeing where we all started compared to where we are now has been such a testament to the incredible power of God and His ability to work through this program in the lives of so many young adults. After Israel we only have about 3 weeks in the building before we go on our pre-summer break and then we begin summer! As we draw towards the end of our program and all that we’ve been able to experience and learn we can’t help but be thankful for this program and all that He has done through it in our lives. Looking toward the future we realize how precious this community has been and how important it is for us to surround ourselves with people, so our classmates and us have been very intentional with spending time with the people in our building and having the opportunity to soak in what this community has to offer.
For those of you reading this we ask that you would lift up our class in prayer. Prayer that these two weeks would pass by smoothly and that we would be able to make it to the start of our Israel trip without any hiccups. Prayer that we would have safe travels to and from Israel and that while we are there we would be impacted greatly by the word of God and all that He desires to teach us. Prayer that as we’re approaching deadlines and a time in our year where we need to really start making plans for what after Joshua looks like, that God would guide us and give us answers and peace in where we are supposed to be after this year. Lastly, prayer that we would be able to bond more and more over these next two months and that we would be an encouragement to each other and that we would finish out this year strong. Thank you for reading this and for all of your support!
– Cassie, Simone, Colby, and Sam
