Joshua Wilderness Institute

Day Two In Mexico

rferreira — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:04:17 +0000

It’s Tuesday, our second day in Mexico, at the lovely RANCHO SORDO MUDO! (click here to see some pictures from today) Today we were separated into different work groups, and we were in the most privileged group, which was of course with Rich and Kari. We painted the inside of the dining hall with primer, which is still all over our hands and clothes, and we are convinced it will never come out. Rich had a Joshua playlist of music prepared for us to listen to while we primed the “now whiter than ever” eating area. Each song had a specific meaning related to our time at Joshua. Such as relationships, being even, love, love and more love. We then had the adventurous time of cleaning the plethora of primer out of all the paint rollers. After we finished our project, we sat in the dining hall and ate Scooby doo snacks, and opened the store on the ranch. Linde was the cashier, and collected all of the money Joshua students wasted on candy. When the store closed, Rich gave us our second job; it was to help plant beautiful rose bushes into a memorial garden for Barbara Everett. And for our third job, we got assigned to clean brush throughout the ranch to create firebreaks; the brush clearers went by the name of “bush babies”. We were privileged to have a previous Joshua student, Charlotte, speak to us about teaching deaf children on the ranch and her experience at Joshua. It is the end of day two, and we have two more workdays before our free day in Ensenada, Mexico! Which we hope we get… everyone better read Mere Christianity for our book discussion, it is our dream to go to the Baja 1000! Good night, or BUENOS NOCHES!!

Loveee Linde Lu and Chelsea

Mexico

rferreira — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:45:22 +0000

Hola
Hey everyone just wanted to take a second and let you all know that we arrived safely at the Ranch in Mexico. This week the Joshua students are serving at Rancho Sordo Mudo (click here to see their website), which is a free school for the deaf and mute kids of Mexico. These kids arrive at the ranch without a language and the staff here work with them to not only teach them how to communicate but also to share the love of Jesus and teach them the hope that is only found in a personal relationship with him. It is great to be back as the Joshua group has been serving here for the past 9 years and God once again showed himself to us just in the trip down. First off all the main roads through LA were shut down due to the bad fires and reopened hours before we came to them. We prayed a lot for the border crossing and none of the vehicles were even stopped as we just drove right into Mexico. This was a huge blessing as we had 30 gallons of paint, as well as materials for the projects we were going to help with and half the cargo van was filled with much needed food for the ministry. Some years they check the van and let us bring in the materials and other years the border police confiscate it and keep it for themselves. All that to say they didn’t even stop us to look in the vans. Well enough for now but keep checking in as I will have some of the students write each day about their experiences.
Adios
Rich

Solos and Grunting!

rferreira — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 06:12:40 +0000

This past month, we have started our Solo Initiatives and Grunting. Solo Initiatives are things that we have always wanted to do, but haven’t ever had time to—such as learning to play guitar and or piano, learning Hebrew, screen printing, video editing, fort building, writing, studying the Bible in depth, being Rich’s disciple, astronomy, the list goes on. We are given about a three-hour block of time on either Tuesday or Thursday afternoon to learn these new things. This is personally one of my favorite things at Joshua. It is also nice just for the fact of taking a break from our busy schedule to do something that we may only daydream about. If it’s not our day to do solo, we are grunting. Grunting is basically doing “grunt” work around Hume. This can vary from packing envelopes in the Administration office, digging trenches on the new tube run, helping get Hume ready for the next group coming in, or cleaning the Joshua kitchen. This is a pretty cool thing because first of all, we get to practice working out of love without complaining or arguing (Which we are learning from Philippians), but also it’s fun to get to help out at many different places and meet a lot of new people.

-Scott

Getting to Know Carl and Vickie

rferreira — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:08:15 +0000

Good Evening Ladies and Gentleman,

Rich has informed me that he has already told you that Vickie and I will be joining you on your trip to Israel. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves.

You can see by the picture that Vickie and I are in our mid-thirties . . . 35 to be exact. As a matter of fact, we have been 35 years old for some time now. Because it seems like we haven’t been able to master the fine art of being 35 years old, “they” have held us back from turning 36. Therefore, until we are allowed to advance to being 36, we simply remain very experienced 35-year young adults . . .

We have three children who are a little older than you. Our daughter (Cori) is 28 years old, is a nurse and has a little boy by the name of Christian. One son (Jeromy) is married to Jenny and they have four children – Ian, Anna, Esther and Emma. Jer works in a sporting goods store and Jenny is a teacher. Josh is the twin brother of Jeromy. Josh is single and is a third-year Dorm Director at Colorado Christian University.

Vickie is a school teacher as well. She is very good at what she does and enjoys the upper grade school level. Do you remember your theme dinners and Halloween costumes . . . that’s how Vickie teaches school ! You will have to ask her about it when you see her . . . God has given her an abundant gift as she is quite a blessing to her students. She last taught at San Antonio Christian School but is now taking a short break in order to help Cori and Jeromy watch their babies.

I have been working in the Middle East for the past three years. Vickie and I have been OK with the separation so far because we have been able to take some great vacations the best of them being our trip to Israel last year. Click here to see info on this year’s Israel trip and to see a promotional video, or here to see pictures from last years trip, or here to read blogs from students on the 2008 trip.

The short version of our being afforded the opportunity to join Marty, Rich and last year’s class is a two year story and definitely part of my Testimony. Because of the long chain of events that led to our joining the class last year, there is absolutely no doubt that the hand of God was at work. There is no other way to explain it. I will have to tell you the story when we see you in April.

As you prepare and look forward to your trip to Israel next spring, please know that it will quite literally change your life. Immediately after getting off the plane, Marty and Rich had us at Beth Shemeh looking out over the Soreq Valley. The wheat field in front of us could have been the very same wheat field that Samson set on fire by lighting the tails of the fox. Just a few short miles to our left (west) lay Ekron . . . from whence the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant in a cart pulled by two oxen.

The following day, we were sitting on another hill at Azekah overlooking the Elah Valley where David met Goliath. Below us was the stream from which David got his five smooth stones. We visited Capernaum and Bethsaida. You can’t help but to be filled with awe and the sense that, “Wow, this stuff really did happen just like it says in the Bible !”

Having been to Israel, the stories of the Bible will come alive in your mind. You will understand the context of Biblical history, the people, the culture and the geography. As you read the Bible after visiting Israel, you will recognize the place names. You will be able to see the valleys and the Wilderness and the wheat fields in your mind’s eye because you will have been there and seen it for yourselves !You will be able to smell the flowers fields, the salt air of the Dead Sea and the uniquely fragrant aromas of local cuisine. Think about this for a moment . . . while you are in Israel, your feet will be walking on the same ground that Jesus walked. Your eyes will be seeing the same hills that Jesus’s eyes saw.

After visiting Israel, I guarantee that you will never read the Bible the same way again.

I hope that you are as excited about going to Israel as we are about joining you again. Like Marty always says, “It’s going to be a big . . . big . . . big trip !”

Vickie and I will be meeting you at the airport in Tel Aviv. Until then, we will be following your adventures throughout the year on the website. Please feel free to drop us a line at any time.

Semper Fi, (Always Faithful), Carl and Vickie Kusch

Consequences of Bad Ideas

rferreira — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:30:51 +0000

Well as some of you may know that from time to time punishments from the staff have rained down on the students at Joshua…especially the guys. It seems as though we have a really hard time obeying the little things that they, Rich and the staff, have asked us to do. Some of the punishments we have received are humorous and some we absolutely hate. Most of the punishments are group punishments and some are not. It is the responsibility of everyone here to keep each other in check and make
sure that we are doing the things that we committed to at the beginning of Joshua. It’s interesting to look back on these past few months as some of our punishments have really dampened the attitude of the guys but at the same time they have caused us to grow individually and as a group. I thought you might find it interesting to hear a few of the things we are learning from. Two of the guys hurt themselves doing things that would not be advised, such as: skateboarding without a helmet and climbing the chimney of Joshua. As a result of those bad choices those guys for two weeks had the honor of wearing a helmet and the other a whole set of climbing gear. All the men had the opportunity to do breakfast duty together for a week because four guys forgot to show up for their turn at breakfast kp. Another one is that we the guys can no longer close our hallway doors because we continue to be loud after quiet hours. There are probably more, but as you can see we have failed in doing and not doing what the staff have asked us. I guess the funny thing is that we know what we are supposed to do but we just keep messing up because we are not focusing on the little things. Rich always tells the class that we need to be obedient in the small things first both in common tasks as well as our spiritual lives, and to tell you the truth this is a lesson that we are all learning to do better in. For a lot of us guys we are working through the tough parts of corporate punishment as many times a lot of us are not at fault yet we live in community and are beginning to realize that our actions affect more then just us personally.
I have been reading about Joshua in my devotions. At the beginning of his leadership, Israel entered the Promised Land. They were supposed to destroy the city of Jericho and completely annihilate it. Yet there was one man who failed to obey God’s command in destroying everything you find in the city. As a result, Israel lost their next battle because of the disobedience of Achan. He was killed, him and his whole family because of his sin. Israel then decided to obey what the Lord commanded and they were able to conquer the land without any more problems. If we as a group can follow Israel’s example in following what the staff tells us to do and what not to do, then we will be able to live without the punishments. I believe that we as a class can learn to obey all of the little things, even if it takes a while with many more punishments to come. What it comes down to is our integrity and doing what we said we would do. The road to growth is tough and takes time but the cool thing is we are in this together.
Signed
Tim (a work in progress) Leinen

Speakers from the past three weeks

rferreira — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:02:30 +0000

Sorry that I haven’t been posting speaker audio for a while but things have been pretty busy. With that said these past few weeks we have had some amazing speakers here at Joshua. Bellow is a talk from each of the guys and you can also click here to go to the speaker bio page.
Enjoy
Rich

Matt Lantz Oct 20th -23rd
Matt Lantz is the director of the “Forge” which is a program very similar to Joshua that runs in Tyler Texas (click here to check out their program). He spent the week talking with the students on the topic of obedience and what that looks like for our spiritual lives.
Obedience and Salvation

Ken Graves Oct 27th -30th
Every year if you were to ask a Joshua student who one of their favorite guest speakers were they would tell you Ken. He is a pastor from Maine with a passion for God’s word. If you get a chance ask your student about Ken as I am sure they will have plenty of fun stories.

John Alvarado Nov 3rd – 6th
John runs an organization down in Mexico called “Reflect Ministries” (click here to check out their webpage). Their purpose is to reach out to the poor and needy and to bring them the message of hope found in knowing Christ. During the week John taught on missions and reaching out to those around you. This was also a great chance for the students to get to know John, as we will be working along side his ministry as well as some others while we are in Mexico on our upcoming trip.

Working at Rich’s House

rferreira — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:51:44 +0000

So a couple weeks ago I had the weekend off and I chose to work with Rich and work on his house all weekend. Rich just recently moved so every week he works on his house and this is just a little glimpse of the fun that we had.
Anyway I started work by putting in a tile pathway along the side of his house, Dominique was there because she walked down with some friends and she was prompted to help, so Dom and I built most of a path way on day one and that was cool as it came together nicely and was easy to see the progress as we moved along. The next day (Saturday) we also built Wild Wood style stairs going from his walkway down to his fire pit and Dom and Hailey and I finished the pathway since we decided we could use another kind of tile. We also spread bark chips all around the side of the house and his Jacuzzi which was really cool as it made it all come together and look really nice. On Sunday, we began the fence, it was also Wild Wood style and a lot of fun to build, plus it’s a really inexpensive way to build a fence, all you pay for is the lags to bolt it together. We worked on that most of Sunday and were able to finish a good portion of it. So Monday and Tuesday Rich had a couple guys go with him to his house during the day because his SOD had just came in, (I know by this point you are thinking that Rich just uses us for a work force but really we don’t normally spend this much time away from Joshua) SOD was just one of the coolest things to do, because the whole image of the house and yard does a complete 180, and goes from dirt to fresh green grass and it all happens in a couple of hours. All and all it has been a cool experience as I have gotten to spend a lot of time with Rich as well as learn some new skills around the house.

Jake

The Majestic Majesty Of God

rferreira — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:01:36 +0000

So, for our DTG the class was taken on a hike to this place with tons of boulders, rocks, and had an amazing view (at least that is what Rich told us) At first when we arrived at our destination it was really foggy and we really didn’t know how high up we were. Instead of looking out onto this beautiful forest, which is what happened when the fog was lifted, we were looking into the thick fog. It was really cool to see! We all started to eat lunch and then I looked up and I saw all the fog and clouds being lifted away and I looked over this amazing forest from really high up. Though it was really cold, it was so incredible! The really neat thing about our DTG was that right when we were starting to leave the clouds started coming back. So it was really cool to see God clearing the clouds so we could all see the beauty that we wouldn’t have been able to see through the thick clouds. Also Jeff Lilley the Director of Hume came with us and taught us some lessons from nature along the way. You should listen to the audio track below to hear a little of what we learned on the hike.
At the end of our time Rich asked 3 people to pray. I was privileged to be one of them. Just to be able to pray at the top of this mountain looking over this huge beautiful place just gave me chills! What a privilege! Also you can click here to see more pictures from our hike.
Enjoy
Grace

One of Jeff’s talks from the hike

Fire, Mercy, Grace, and Forgiveness

rferreira — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 02:05:30 +0000

As you read this next blog I want you all to know how proud I am with Dan and how he handled the situation you are about to read about. I asked him to tell his story as I have watched as God has worked through the situation to not only change Dan but also all the students in the Joshua program. Joshua is a place of change as the students throughout the year learn not only from their accomplishments but also from their mistakes. Here is one such learning moment.
-Rich

Have you ever done something that you felt so horrible and guilty about? Well that happened to me up at Wildwood this September, and yet I felt the Mercy and Grace of God through everyone and everything around me. I am sure you have already heard about it but I was the catalyst of the Wildwood fire this year. It’s crazy how something so small can become something so big as it was an inadequately put out tiny campfire that I thought I had taken care until the next morning when I saw the flames.
I’m sorry for what happened, as it was most definitely an accident. When I was asked to tell my story I have to be honest with you all, I didn’t want to write anything at all… I was embarrassed and prideful, it was the biggest mistake I made in my life, I mean why would I say anything? But why I’m telling you all this, is to tell you how God was so graceful and merciful to me, and He showed His power through the Forest Service, my classmates, and of course all of Hume Lake.
But what was so amazing was that when I walked back from the scene of the fire, all of my classmates came out, and forgave me of my “epic failure”, prayed with me, and told me that they were so worried about me (I was the last one back to camp). I spent about an hour after seeing the fire, broken before God with my brothers and sisters. But I was lifted up before God and experienced comfort and total forgiveness again in Christ.
It took the amazing crews only an hour to put out the fire, and after it was investigated, I was told by the investigator that the initial cost of putting out the 1/3 of an acre fire was a minimum of $30,000. I was devastated when I heard that. I spent the next week in prayer and I was worrisome as well. The Friday before I was about to go home that week, a forest service officer came to interview me, and during the interview, he proceeded to tell me that the cost had been cut down to roughly $2500-7500. I was relieved quite a bit when I heard that. The Officer also told me all of the legalities that may as well happen to me. When I was about to leave down the mountain for home, I was flagged down by the officer once more down in main camp… and the District Ranger was there to give the verdict, my stomach was in knots.
The officer proceeded to tell me that he was going to write me a $375 citation, and he told me that was all I would have to pay. At that moment, I broke down in tears and was thanking God over and over. Such a huge burden was taken off my chest, and I instantly felt so much better. The District Ranger, and the Officer were so merciful in giving me basically, just a speeding ticket. The reason they told me as to why they only gave me that citation, was because I was honest, forthcoming, and took responsibility for it. It was so hard, I could have turned away from the truth! And yet I thank God for giving me the courage to speak the truth right when I saw the fire.
I’d have to say, this trial was probably the first time I really trusted God to bring me through, and He really brought me through. Why hadn’t I done that for the rest of my life? God gave His Son, and His Son saved me, sinner me. I give all the credit and thanks to God the Father, and everyone else involved with putting out the fire, and aiding me in my healing.
This is my story in a very small nutshell. I thank you all for your forgiveness; prayers, patience, and helping me get through my epic failure. Click here to see more pictures from the fire.

In Christ,
Dan Mitchell

John 8:32-
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Theme Dinners

rferreira — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:10:45 +0000

While Joshua does focus on the important things like theology, understanding the Bible, scripture memorization and spiritual growth; that at times can get a bit boring. Our cooks do a great job of not only making incredible food but they also put together theme dinners. There is something really fun about watching all the students relax from an intense program and get dressed up and just have a good time (my question is where they find these costumes). I thought you might enjoy seeing some of these fun pictures so click here to go to the theme dinner gallery. Take care
-Rich