It’s crazy how fast 9 months can go by.  It seems like just yesterday 56 new faces showed up at our building ready to start the Joshua program.  Since that time we as a group have been to San Francisco to build houses with Habitat for Humanity, Mexico to work with a school for the deaf, Pine Valley Christian Conference Center to serve alongside their staff, LA to do inner city work with the homeless, Las Vegas to do street evangelism, and Israel for two weeks to see the Bible come alive first hand.  If that wasn’t enough add all the Bible classes and different speakers and you have an amazingly full year.   Yet the sad part is every year after experiencing all these things together we come to that point where it is time to graduate the class and say goodbye.  This past Sunday this year’s class left Joshua and headed back into the real world.   Like I have told them all year Joshua begins when Joshua ends and the true test of their time is what they do when they leave Hume.   Well the halls in the building are quiet for now but we look forward to the next group of students who will soon join this family we call Joshua.   Feel free to read the past blogs from the students talking about what they have learned or click here to see pictures from this year.

Take care

Rich Ferreira

Joshua Director

We just arrived at the airport in tell Aviv and we already miss this place. Our entire trip was over all Amazing yes, with a capitol “a”. We made it to each of our destinations safely, and thanks to our tour guide Marty we all have really enjoyed our time here. It ‘s hard to summarize our journey in the short window of time that I have right now, mainly because we are all, each of us, taking away something different. However, I think I can share one thing on behalf of my Joshua class that we learned and will carry with us for the rest of our lives. With out writing a book, that one thing is simply how immensely important it is to understand the roots of our religion. The visual aid combined with how much time we spent in scripture did exactly what they said it would…it brought the scripture alive. I want to say hello on behalf of my class to those of you who fallowed along with us from home, hope you have enjoyed the photos and such, make sure and slip a thank you to Rich and the staff for all their hard work. Click her to see pictures from our journey or here to see past blog posts.
Now, for the twelve hour flight…YES!
Autumn Brooke Huffine (listen to my and Sabrina’s thoughts on the trip)

Listen to student thoughts from:
Adam and Brad
Erin and Mailie
Megan and Sarah (Butter)
More songs from the trip

Doxology
Let us adore

Today was our first day in Jerusalem, and man was it a crazy day. We were all over the city, around it, and under it. Our day started with a trip to the Temple Mount. We went to the Wailing Wall and prayed alongside the Jews. They pray at the western wall because, when the temple was still on top of the Temple Mount, the Holy of Holies was closest to that wall. The Jews pray there because that is the closest they feel they can get to God. Since we have Christ in us, we don’t feel as if we have to be there for God to hear us, but it was a good reminder of the fact that we worship the true living God. After visiting the Temple Mount we traveled across the way to Hezekiah’s tunnel. It was incredible. We traveled underground through the waterways. Another highlight of the day was the Mount of Olives. It was not what we had expected. We had assumed that the place would be a grove of olive trees yet it was a bit different. You see, it is written that when the Lord returns the dead will rise first from the Mount. So, the eastern side of the hillside is crowded with the graves of thousands. As we stood on the Mount and looked east we could see the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock. The Temple Mount no longer belongs to the Jewish people and the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on the Temple Mount, is a constant reminder. Today was almost unreal, we ended the day singing worship songs in Saint Anne’s and visiting the Holy Church of the Sepulcher, the place where many believe that Christ was crucified. Jerusalem was more than any of us could have imagined. Tomorrow will be bittersweet as we spend our last day here and then head home. Click here to see pictures from our trip and here to look at some of the past blogs we as a class have written.

Matthew Veccio and Ariel Weddle (listen to our thoughts of the trip)

Listen to the Joshua students singing in Saint Anne’s Church in Jerusalem

Compared to our other days of rigorous hiking and strenuous climbing, today was a relatively calm day. We said our final goodbyes to Nof Ginosar hotel and headed towards Megiddo, our first stop of the morning. Marty taught us all about how the final battle on earth (the battle of Armageddon) was going to take place in the fertile valley we were seeing spread out below us. Armageddon comes from the word Har Megiddo, which means in Hebrew hill of Megiddo and is where we get the word Armageddon from. . It’s the second oldest city in the world, and it was amazing seeing the stables of Solomon’s horses and the incredible water system they created under the city without any tools or technology. We headed towards the coast of the Mediterranean Sea to see one of Herod’s castles and the Roman aqueduct. Being by the ocean is absolutely my favorite place to be. It reminded us of being at home at the beach but it was the Mediterranean Sea. Crazy. Herod’s castle was destroyed and pushed into the sea, so it’s still possible to find pieces of the marble in the sand. We all got to find marble mementos to take home to remind us of how great Herod’s castle once was, and how something once so great so easily fell. Things here on earth don’t matter. We sadly left the seashore and drove inland for a long time towards Jerusalem for the next part of our trip. Now we’re here in Jerusalem at the Grand Court Hotel right in the midst of Passover. We’ll see if us crazy Americans can stay out of trouble for the last leg of the trip. Click here to check out pictures from our trip or here to see past blogs. Shalom!

-Bree &Mitch (listen to our thoughts below)
Special thanks to Daniel Parker for all his work recording and editing all the audio talks

Our days here have been big, and the lessons we have been learning and the application to life has been bigger. Today’s weather was an answer to our prayers; the breeze was cool on our weary bodies. We went to Nazareth today, and made our way through the wheat fields. The difference with Nazareth compared to Galilee and a few of the other places we have been is that it is completely different then it was around two thousand years ago. It is a bigger city, the fields were nice, and I loved seeing a big long line of my family trailing down the way; throwing wheat “rockets” at each other. I have been realizing on this trip how much being a part of the Joshua family is a blessing in my life. We have also added to our family on this trip with our bus drivers Duran, Egal, who have become such a big part of our trip. They have such amazing personalities which make getting on the bus so fun. I had a funny thing happen with Duran, because at one of the hotels his luggage got delivered to my room and I didn’t know it. Well he was looking for it for over an hour and he was frustrated, I finally figured out that I had someone else’s, and now it’s a funny thing he jokes with me about, and he keeps asking me why I would want to try to wear his clothes. I hear Charlotte and Bri constantly quoting him. Ronny and Boaz, our Israeli tour guides have been such a blessing. They have such knowledge about every location; they really add so much to this trip. Ronny’s name means joy, and happiness, which is so evident in any conversation or bus ride with him. Speaking of bus rides; we have learned a song a wonderful song that hopefully you will all hear. The moral of my story and the lesson I have learned today is that anywhere you can make family, and that family will always be a part of you. Today with our new family, we had the second annual Usa vs. Israel soccer game, which was another great opportunity to hang out together. That has been one of the best things about our time in Israel is all of us being together as a family. Click here to see pictures from our trip or here to see the past blogs from our trip.

Katy Danger Bernheisel (listen to my thoughts below)
Listen to Salem and Jake’s thoughts on the trip
Here is a talk from today as well as the Joshua students singing at the Jordan river

Message from Rich

Today was a BIG BIG DAY! Nice and hot and how could we forget, HUMID! So we started out our day at Mount Gilboa, which was where the Philistines gathered in the valley like locusts to take Israel, who were camped on the mountain. The story is in 1 Samuel 28 and it talks about how the Israelites were outnumbered and Saul inquired the Lord but didn’t hear anything so he disguised himself and left Mount Gilboa (where we were standing!) and snuck across the valley of Philistines (which we were looking at!) and went to the mountain of Endor to consult a witch. Basically the witch brings up Samuel and Saul pretty much gets his death sentence and goes back to Gilboa, fights, and he and his sons die. They got nailed to the walls in Bet She’an (where we went later!)
After that we walked down a little ways and stopped at a stream. This stream was called “The Stream of Harod” which happened to be the one where Gideon brought his men down and the Lord told Gideon that he had too many men in his army to fight Midian. So the Lord told him to take the men down to the water and depending on how they drank they would be kept in the army or turned away. It was pretty crazy looking at it and imagining all this strong men lapping water in their mouths before they headed off for a battle and now we are puny tourists looking at the crabs swimming by and playing with rocks.
Then we went to the middle of nowhere and saw he backside of Mount Gilboa, walking up a hill through a WIDE gate. Continuing our walk we went to an overlook and all of our jaws dropped muttering a few Holy Cows! We were overlooking the capital city of the Decapolis, Bet She’an. It was amazing work of human architecture and ruins. We found out how the pagans had everything and the disciples from Capernaum, Bethsaida, and Korazin had really nothing to offer the Gentiles there and the only thing they could offer was their story of how Christ has affected their lives. After that we went to Susita another Decapolis city and found out how one man’s story changed the face of the city forever when he told them how Christ drove the Legion of demons out of his body. Our last stop was the Jordan River, wait what did I just say? Oh ya, THE JORDAN RIVER, where we did baptisms. It was amazing and we got to see our brothers and sisters make that proclamation of a life of obedience to God and then get dunked in the rushing Jordan River. So cool! Then after that the rest of our Joshua class jumped in and felt refreshed from a long day of walking. We sang a song together and then headed towards the bus. Another amazing day in the Land of Israel.
Jeff and Sarah Dean (hear our thoughts about the trip)
Click here to see pictures from our trip

Click here to read past blogs from our time in Israel

Audio from one of our talks today

Every morning we start the day with a devotion, a prayer, and the Shema. The Shema is a Jewish prayer consisting of the greatest commandment, “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord is our God – the LORD is One…” For the both of us God used the tail end, The LORD is One, and revealed it in our day.
Our first hike for the day took us up to the North Eastern region of Galilee called Gamla. The ruins were once a city built by Zealots, Jews who stood for God through the sword not the Scriptures. Holding their Creator as “numero uno” was “muy importante”. Their passion for God was strong and is a powerful example of obedience.
After our hike into Gamla we drove North to Caesarea Phillippi. The area was covered with lush plant life and beautiful water falls. In Matthew 16:13-16, Jesus has taken his disciples up to a group of Helenistic people who worshiped Pan, half man and half goat, the Greek god. To say the least it was a corrupt place and now here he asks his disciples the question, “Who do you say I am?”
Next we traveled to Tel Dan a tribe whose ruins showed their inability to hold God as their Lord. This site drove home our point of having the Lord as our One. Their disobedience took them further from where God originally put them and further from the other tribes. They ended up worshiping a golden calf and completely losing sight of God.
Our last site was a current archaeological dig of a Herodian temple, Omrit. This six story building was found in 2000 after a fire exposed a piece of the temple that was hidden by brush. The reality of all this history is still being found and there is still more to be discovered about the past of Israel and their stories in the Bible.

Daniel LaPoint and Kellie Mendenhall (check out our thoughts about the day on audio)

Click here to see past blogs from the trip
Click here to see pictures from the trip
Audio teaching from Caesarea Phillippi

Hey everyone I know you have been enjoying the website with all the pictures so I wanted to highlight two people who have been working hard to make that happen. Karley and Allan are my two staff photographers and they are the ones capturing all the photos. If you want you can e mail the guys and tell them thanks as they have gone above and beyond to make the web page happen. Their e mails are aschuler@humelake.org kmase@humelake.org
Take care
Rich

Hey there, it’s Autumn and Jeremy here. (hi mom!) At the moment we are sitting in the lobby of the Nof Ginosar Hotel still dripping wet with water from the Sea of Galilee! Yes, it is true, we got to take dip in the very body of water upon which Jesus Christ walked. It does not get much more real then this. It’s been an amazing two days, and it’s hard to even recall everything that happened. Saturday was what Marty would call “A big, big…BIG day” . First we hiked in Ein Gedi which is where David fled from Saul. We sat there at the foot of a hidden waterfall while Marty spoke about the living water and challenged us by asking if we were satisfied with paddling around in the Dead Sea (which we did the day before) or, if we would choose to fully emerge ourselves in God, who is the living water. While saying this, he dove in and we all followed. Then, off to Masada! Yeah!! With trumpets blasting we marched up the snake path to the top of the impregnable fortress, conquering the mountain’s side in 55 minutes flat. This was one of the most anticipated places for the majority of the group because of it it’s immense significance. Upon this mountain Jewish zealots defended and died for their faith against the tenth legion of the Romans. It was awesome! Oh yeah! But wait- there’s more! After Masada we went to Qumran and stopped at the site where the Dead Sea scrolls were found. Then we hiked some more, up a cliff, and then a mountainside, and then finally when we got to the top we were overlooking the Dead Sea and all its majesty. At the top we took time to reflect on our devotion in our walk with the Lord. It was incredible!
The next day we woke up bright and early, and hiked to the top of Mount Arbel . But honestly, to call it a hike would be an understatement; it was more in the category of mountain climbing. We learned that the rabbis call it Prayer Mountain and at the top we got time to reflect on our own prayer life. We also stopped at points along the Sea of Galilee including: Areamos Topos(sermon on the mount), Capernaum, Chorazin, and Bethsaida.
Sounds like two full days eh? You have no idea! The coolest part is, we’re not even half way done yet.
Cheers!
Autumn and Jeremy

If you want to see a great website with good Israel info click here

Click here to see past blogs from the trip
Click here to see pictures from the trip

Here is an audio talk from our trip

As we traveled from the Shephelah to the Negev many things changed; not only the landscape but also our skin color as well. Looking out and seeing all the desert land was how most of us pictured all of Israel to be. I know Israel became a lot more real for me today while walking through the Ramon crater where our Jewish ancestors wandered for most of their 40 years. After hiking a few miles through the desert, we made our way to the Wilderness of Zin. This place was incredibly gorgeous, and after walking a few steps we sat underneath the shade of a Terebinth tree, the only tree like it in the whole place. Marty spoke on how God can redeem anything after immense indiscretions. God will make us into oaks of righteousness. Getting out of the Wilderness of Zin was no walk in the park. This was the most difficult part of the hike for me; we hiked up steps almost directly vertical, and climbed up ladders to get to where we needed to go. We panted and hurt, but praised God when we became victorious as we made our way to the top. And then took our very cool picture with our Aviator glasses on.

When I look back on my life it’s the little things that make the difference. Though this saying has been drilled into our heads all the more this year. It’s true about the places that we go. Tel Arad seemed like a pretty normal site, and it was one of the first times we had the chance to sit in a duplicate of the temple that had been built and then filled with sand when Hezekiah decreed that all the worship and sacrifice should be done at the temple in Jerusalem. After heading out from there we walked into what seemed like an everyday pasture. The reason was that the Bedouin’s lived on the other side of the field and they were willing to take all 65 of us in and give us some of the greatest sweet tea and freshly baked bread. This culture had remained unchanged for thousands of years. Their hospitality was an inspiration to us all and the way that they dealt with strangers, crazy. They were willing not to ask questions but instead take us in and serve us. Later that night we went into the dead see and floated our sore muscles away, and everything burned…

Bunches o’ Love,

Jared Lucht and Kayli Graciano

Click here for pictures from our trip

Click here to read past Israel blogs

PS just so you know tomorrow evening we travel later into the evening so we might not be able to make a blog post. If so we will make sure to make up for it the next day

Audio from one of todays talks

Today, Thursday, April 10 2008.
Our wake up call was at 6am for our first full day of hiking. We were on the road at 7am headed to Beth Shemeh, which is located in the Shephelah (low hills). Beth Shemeh is the area that the tribe of Dan was given during the time of Joshua. It was also the region where Samson lived (also from the tribe of Dan). We had the opportunity to go into our very first cistern or giant well. This particular cistern was discovered in 1997, so it was amazing to see that Israel is still uncovering much of its past history. The cistern was down under the ground, so we had to make our way down stares and down a narrow path into a giant black room. A lot of the kids in our class were slipping on the limestone because it was so smooth and clay like.
The second site we visited was Azekah, which is a Tel (city on a hill) and a fortified city. This is also located in the Shephelah and it overlooks the Elah Valley. The Elah Valley is significant because of the fact that this is the very place where David fought Goliath. It was amazing to see the actual lay of the land and how the battle would have looked from where we stood on the Tel.
Our next stop was at Gath. This was a Philistine city, and the hometown of Goliath and his family (from the lineage of Anon). This particular city was dubbed “the city of the giants”. David came to this city to escape from the wrath of Saul who was particularly jealous of David and trying to kill him. The first time David arrived at Gath he was alone and realized that he would more than likely be put to death, so he pretended to be insane and the Philistines released him. The second time David went to Gath he brought with him 600 misfits to battle. David asked the Philistines to give him the city, and they did. This is the last recorded history of the Philistines.
Our forth stop was Merasha; which had a Gethsemane or an “olive press”. Apart from popular beliefs Gethsemane is not the Mount of Olives. The location of a true Gethsemane is under the ground. The olives are brought in at harvest and are put into a giant olive press, once the olives were pressed the oil was gathered and used for lotion, candle oil, food, ect. The technology of that time allowed the workers to regulate the temperature in the Gethsemane so that they could produce the best oil possible.
Lachish was the last site we visited today. Lachish or “fortress” was specifically recognized in the bible because of Hezekiah and Israel’s run-in with the angel the angel of death. 2 Kings 18-19 talks about Lachish and the miracle of the death of 185,000 soldiers. Read the story and discover the miracle that happened at Lachish.
We had an amazing 1st day in Israel and are discovering and uncovering (they rhyme, things like this are funny when you are very tired) awesome new things. Please, please, please, keep us in your prayers.
Adam and Joy

PS click here to see pictures from our trip <