Hiii guys! It’s Mary!
This week at the Joshua Wilderness Institute was nothing short of fun, emotional, cool, and full of God’s hand constantly working personally in my life.
We started out the week with Old Testament and Theology, one of our Theology professors being our speaker, Aaron Logan!
Aaron Logan, this week was amazing! He taught in Philippians, which was fitting because we are memorizing Philippians! We actually just finished our testing for Philippians 1! I had to do one 6am breakfast club which is getting up at 6am to go into the dining hall to study Philippians, which is what we do when we don’t test in time. It was fine, though, because I got it done!! Praise the Lord! Now, onto Philippians 2. Aaron told the importance of unity in the church and being humble in Christ. It brought so much attention to Philippians, to what exactly Paul is saying to us Christians and how we should act.
Having Aaron and his family around was amazing. He had his wife and two little boys around, which brought joy and fun into the building. We also had a catalyst couple, John and Terry! We got to play games with them in the apartment, like dominoes and Apples to Apples: Bible edition. This, I wasn’t that good at, but I had a blast!
The week went on, and we got to have a catalyst grill in which we asked the couple fulfilling questions, and they gave us fulfilling answers I think we all needed to hear. Missions class was next, and we got to talk to Adam and Ana from the Netherlands and their mission work there. Inspiring me once again and tugging my heartstrings to maybe do that one day.
Classes were amazing and fulfilling this week, especially Biblical Interpretation and Spiritual Formation. We talked about OT Narratives and made an outline of how to explain it to someone who might not know what it is. It was really cool to see the OT in that way and kind of have it broken down like that. So, we can also see how God has constantly given grace and brought His people back to Him.
We also got to talk to Dr. Jung in Study Hall and ask her questions! She always has such great answers and great insight! Her passion for the Lord is beautiful, and how she just wants to spread the Gospel is inspiring. I am grateful for moments where we get to learn from people who are full of the Holy Spirit. This is an amazing opportunity.
We ended the week with Pause families! I had so much fun with my pause brothers and sisters! We ate soup, bread, and salad and played games! It was one of my Pause sibling’s birthdays, so we sang to him and ate cupcakes and cookies! It was so fun to play games and have conversations with such cool people. We also went to the Ark and played around the world ping pong, a new game I learned!! I won once, so that was awesome!
Then small groups and Life Skills were amazing! Life-giving conversations and check-ins are what I am beyond grateful for to end the week with. Learning how to backpack with Tanner was super fun! Seeing all his awesome adventures was so cool, and learning about different trails was interesting to learn. Maybe I’ll backpack one day!
This weekend, I am off work, so some of us are going down the hill and hanging out! Also, fitting in some homework time in there!
Onto Studying Philippians 2!
Well, that’s the week here at JWI, from my perspective! Thank you for reading :))
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
Philippians 2:3 ESV
-Mary Getty (current student)
