"When Joshua Ends, It Begins..."

September 2012 (Move-in Day)

May 2013 (Move-out Day)

August 2013 (Graduation)

A Summary and the End

I am having a hard time continuing this blog. Maybe its that-- on these posts-- Im going backwards as life at the present goes forwards. But isnt that a common obstacle with many writers? Whichever way, I am determined to finish well here, even if that finish looks different than I anticipated it would, twenty months ago when this page began. And at that time, I had no idea in the slightest what I was committing to, or what these writings would be on. I couldnt have anticipated any of that either.


Israel: The Israel trip was absolutely incredible. Yes, the historical locations and the geography were very neat. But here the thing, my classmates and I had been preparing for the trip all year long. We had studied and written papers and taken tests and read books. The trip itself was the culmination of the effort already put in. Even more so-- the studying and the writing and the testing and the reading-- it had all been done together. We were invested in the trip and we were invested in each other. That is what set the Israel trip to be incredible. And that I really learned to love Jesus for my own. The most incredible thing.

Summer: The summer was spent working at the camp where we had been living for the last year. At any given day there were +1500 students on campus for a week of summer camp in the mountains. I met a ton of neat people and got to do a ton of new things (like win a kickball championship and cutting all my hair myself?!). And, I hung out with junior highers and made milkshakes all day. Party party!!

Graduation: In August, myself and 51 classmates-- my dear friends-- graduated from the Joshua Wilderness Institute as the Class of 2013.

with the Staff

The closing of something amazing, and difficult, and unexpectedly beautiful. My hope is that these pages showed you pieces.

And that is the story...                                                  by Lainie Ford, 2014.

Israel: Day 2, A few extra photos...

with Mallory

Chris, Mallory, Taylor

Not pictured: Swimming in the Dead Sea. Yes, you float. And yes, the salt burns in every orifice. Novelty experience, "check!"

Israel: Day 2, Camels!

"Did you ever find the buses?" Yes. Eventually. After, of course, we happened to stumble upon a camel farm... A highlight of the trip?! Yep.

with Shiloh

(This is a favorite.)

Shiloh

Daniel

(This is a favorite, too.)

And, in case you were curious, camel fur is like a worn-out teddy bear, and their single-hump feels like a waterballoon in a cardboard shell. Strangest thing!

Israel: Day 2, Wilderness of Zin

At the top of the cliff was desert, desert, desert... 

For certain, "as far as the eye could see".

This is where the Israelites wandered for forty years and learned to trust the LORD for everything. Absolutely everything. 

(Biblical reference: Numbers 32:13) 

(And, fun fact, it would only take approximately two weeks to walk across this desert...)

Here, Rich told us the buses would come for us. But they didnt. "Well, we need to start walking..." So Rich, like Moses, lead us through the wilderness. We spent half-an-hour or so of what seemed to be aimless wandering. Just like the Israelites! 

(But we, unlike the Israelites, didnt complain. We trusted Rich and where he was taking us. Granted, we were there for 1/700800 of the time they were...)

This was among my favorite times of the trip. It was impacting. (Also, just really neat.)