Before we left for Habitat for Humanity (click here to see new photos from Habitat) we had the opportunity to have Mike Bogart as our guest speaker at Joshua.   Mike’s background is in world religions and spent the week teaching the students about the different world religions and how they compare and contrast to Christianity.   Below is one of the talks from the week.
-Joshua Staff

Cosmic, Acosmic, and Abrahamic - Mike Bogart

During my time in Joshua I have already been through a lot of life changing experiences. I have seen snow fall for the first time, seen the golden gate bridge for the first time, and Wednesday I experienced what it is like to be high on drugs for the first time. I stepped on a nail during work and got sent to the hospital for a tetanus shot. The nurse gave me some vicodin for the pain. I took 1pill every 2-3 hours. So I had 4 pills of vicodin that day. Now I have never had any type of strong pain reliever before so I had no idea what it was going to do to me. Aside from telling the same stories multiple times, having a conversation with a sandwich, and all the other craziness, I had tons of people caring and praying for me.  Rich drove me to the hospital, waited for like 3-4 hours there then bought me lunch. Josh was my personal doctor the whole day and made sure I got my drugs correctly. Hanna, Julie and Matt gave me slurpies to drink. Multiple people helped me get around and just loved on me a whole lot and Dan and Paul carried me to a couch to sleep on with my own room. The love I got from my new family here was really overwhelming. I couldn’t believe how much people were willing to help me. The next day when I was off the vicodin I was sincerely asked from pretty much everyone how I was doing.  I cant thank everyone enough for all the love and support I got. It made me appreciate everyone here so much more and makes me even more excited to be working with this amazing new family of believers.
Jonathon

Hey everyone we are back from our trip to the Bay area to work with Habitat for Humanity.  From the directors perspective I am very proud of the students and the hard work that they did.  Awhile ago when we were talking with the people at Habitat they mentioned that they had a big job in a warehouse that they needed done but figured that we wouldn’t be interested as volunteers always want to work on houses.  I told them that we were here to serve them and that we would be willing to do what ever they needed done.  On a side note Habitat is not a Christian organization by any means so it is always cool when we are able to serve them and just show them God’s love through our actions and attitudes.  The students did exactly this and once again the people at Habitat began to ask questions about our program and what we are all about.  Anyway we will soon be loading some more pictures from the trip but in the meantime listen to a few words from Rachel and TC.

Rich

Thoughts from Rachel and TC

Well today was just one of those fun days.  As Joshua director it is not unusual for me to spend some of my time in the emergency room during a trip.  With 56 college students there is always someone who ends up needing some medical attention (usually stitches) so you end up sitting for hours on end waiting to get in.  Today Jonathon accidently stepped on a nail while we were working at the Habitat warehouse, which in return sent us to the ER for a tetanus shot.  The day was sort of boring until they gave him some vikadin for the pain.  At first it made him tired and then he became the worlds best storyteller and told the same thing over and over.  A few times he told me he loved me and at one point he was talking to a sandwich.   All that to say he is fine now that the medicine wore off and it made for a good afternoon.  I think the lesson for Jonathon is not the nail as that was an accident but that drugs are bad and he should never even think about doing them.   Always a teachable moment in Joshua and those stories I mentioned, oh you have to hear them some time as they were amazing and this particular story is one we won’t soon forget.  Click here to see some new pictures from our trip.Take careRich-Joshua Director

I love to get dirty. That feeling one gets when digging in trash and rolling in old carpet is just about priceless. It’s a beautiful thing to see 55 brothers and sisters rockin the dust and work like crazy. Capture the flag wasn’t so bad either.
Today was our first day in the Habitat for Humanity warehouse. I must confess, I was pretty bummed when I found out we weren’t going to actually build houses. I imagined going to an office and shuffling paperwork. Not that I would have been too bummed but there’s something to be said about working side by side as a family toward a common goal. Anyhow, we roll up in our creeper vans to this depressing looking back-ally, suicide-inducing cluster of warehouses. Everything was grey grey grey and covered in barb wire. And we couldn’t really get in. Problem if you can’t find the place you are supposed to volunteer at.
So long story short, we found the Habitat warehouse. And it was excellent ☺. We divided up and got to work just cleaning up and organizing their warehouse space. It was super dusty so we had to wear some excellent SARS masks so we didn’t die of particle-inhalation. Capture the flag was a nice break and we are all pretty competitive so it was an epic game of light shirts versus dark shirts. The day went by pretty fast and we left early because of lack of stuff to do! At the end of the day our man-in-charge Hans told us we were at where he thought we would be tomorrow afternoon. All in all a fun time working hard and hopefully showing Christ through our actions. And I still love to get dirty ☺.
Love, Peace, and all that good stuff,
Amanda Cooper

P.S. we worked so hard we MIGHT get to work on houses on Thursday. Legit.

Well we left Hume Sunday afternoon after receiving our first small snow (it wasn’t enough to even stick) and then drove to the bay area.  In the evening we finally arrived at the church that we will be sleeping at all week in Brentwood.  We are here this week to work with Habitat for Humanity but since they take Monday’s off we decided to take the students into San Francisco for the day.  We dropped them off at Fisherman’s Warf and let them experience a bit of the culture.  All in all it was a great day and we are eager to start work tomorrow.  Click here to see some pictures from today.
Take care
-Joshua Staff

Just to let everyone know we will be away from Hume for the next week up in the Bay Area working with Habitat for Humanity.  We will try and do blog updates a few times while we are on the trip so keep checking in for pictures and stories from our trip.  Also make sure you check out all the new blogs from the past week as well as pictures from our crazy 80’s skate night.

-Joshua Staff

This past weekend I was assigned to work in the Pondy dish room.  I can’t say that I was super excited about it but I was definitely ready for it.  When I got down to the kitchen they told me that I got switched to be a server for the women’s conference and I was so happy about it.  Saturday morning I was setting up the coffee corner in the dining room and three women walked over to me looking for coffee. They got it and sat down and starting talking to me.  We were just reading in Spiritual Leadership how God puts people in our path and if we feel like we don’t have time, think again.  I was busy working but I thought it was worth my time to talk to them.  We ended up having about a 30 minute conversation and they just asked me a bunch of questions.  We talked about Hume, Joshua, my life, Israel, etc.  They got a pretty good idea of who I was in that short period of time since I am an open book.  When we were talking about Israel she asked me how the students were supposed to pay for it.  I told her that we were encouraged to send out support letters, and that I was probably going to but I didn’t really want to because I didn’t want to ask for money.  She stopped me right away and told me that I couldn’t look at it like that.  She said that I didn’t realize how just talking with her I touched her life and she said, “Look, I have goose bumps!”  She told me that going to Israel was going to impact my life and allow me to impact others from my experience.  Then she asked me to send her a letter because she wanted to support me.  She was a complete stranger!  But wait it gets better.  The next day she walked up to me with a camera and took my picture.  She said that she wanted to send my picture and my letter to everyone she knows and with faith see what God does with it.  How amazing is that!  We talked for a while longer and she prayed with me and for me this most amazing prayer that made me cry.  God sent her my way and put her in my path.  She encouraged me and blessed me so much.  The amazing thing is that I wasn’t even supposed to be a server; I was assigned to the dish room.  God is so amazing and faithful and I’m so thankful that He allowed me to meet her.  I’m just praying and waiting to see what He does through this.

-Brittany Carli

 It’s true I do have the best job.  On any given day I might get the chance to teach a Theology class, take students off roading, go on a missions trip, or on a fun hike in the woods. Where else do you get paid, for the most part, to have fun.  When it comes down to it working with the students is my favorite part of the job as they do the funniest things.  Yesterday I was working on some paper work and wishing I was outside when a few of the students (Tyler, George, and Klark) came into my office and told me that they had formed a gang and were willing to offer me their protection.   Bellow is the note that they left me on my desk to consider.   Anyway just wanted to say that the year is going good and that this class is a lot of fun.
Take care
Rich

Rise of the Locos

Joshua has been a peaceful community filled with courteous kindhearted people. The presence of the Locos has in most ways shocked the community. This rising force has caused fear to the unresolved. What has been unknown about this group is their own good intentions. They have seen injustice amongst the masses and seek to bring reconciliation. Either your for the Locos or against them. All well respected God fearing people should not be afraid for the Locos are your ally and offer you their protection.

Monday we had our first DTG with the guys staff! Crazy we know, a Ditch-the-Guys with the guys, but it was awesome! Rich, Dallas, Paul and some other wonderful volunteers took us 26 girls off-roading in 10 Suzuki’s.  (Of course OUR Suzuki being the best cause Rich was the driver)  We rode in the lead car to a special spot where each year the girls of the previous class leave a note for the girls to come; words of wisdom, thoughts about their year, and so on.  The best part is that we will in fact be the “wise” ones in 7 months writing to the next class!  After reading the note, Rich gave us exactly 10 minutes to talk about the note, what we wanted to get out of the year, and other girlie things such as feelings…  The next ten minutes were devoted to grilling the guys where we could ask them anything.  We brought up questions like what was their testimony, what was their most hilarious moment, and if they could travel anywhere in the world where would it be and with who? Our last question being… Can we go off-roading now!? The whole day was amazing, and we were so thankful to break away and do something most of us girls have never done before! Click here to see pictures from our adventure!

Britt C. and Mama Mal