Through The Wilderness: April 2013

I am sitting in the Ramat Rachel hotel, in Jerusalem, soaking in my last few hours of being in this beautiful country. God has taken all of my expectations for this trip and completely thrown them out the window, He has done more in my heart these last two weeks than I ever thought he would.

I came into this trip expecting the stories of the Bible to come to life before my eyes and to experience all of these "feelings" as I walked the footsteps of Jesus and saw the places where The Israelites triumphed in the most impossible circumstances, because God was on their side, but what I experienced on this trip was so much more than that. Yes, I am now reading the Bible in a new way and I have had the amazing privilege to walk in the land where Jesus was born, lived, preformed miracles, died, rose again and will return one day. My Jesus lived here but now I have the joy of knowing that he lives in me.

This trip has been 10 days of going to amazing places, I've been to: the Valley of Élan, where David fought Goliath, sailed on the Sea of Galilee, hiked to the top of Masada,floated in the Dead Sea, ventured into Caesarea Philippi, saw ruins of ancient palaces, stood in the foot prints of Paul, walked the roads to the cross and stood on the Mt. of Olives where Jesus will return.

Jesus has invaded my heart and shown me the blessings of being able to spend this year at the Joshua Wilderness Institute. I have been surrounded by a community that loves me and puts up with me. I've wrestled, doubted, fought, fallen and challenged God but through all of that He has been incredibly faithful to me. Being in Israel has taken everything that I have been learning about God and myself and has solidified my faith in a way that has never happened before.

Jesus is real and the Gospel is life changing. To know that Jesus was born into a tiny little country and lived the life of a little Jewish boy, learning and growing up to be a man who loved his Father and took twelve unqualified men to be his disciples and study under a Rabbi. He did impossible miracles, healing the blind, making the lame walk and raising people from the dead but more than anything he willingly died a horrible death on a cross and rose again 3 days later. He took on the sins of the world, mine and yours, because he doesn't want people broken by sin, he has given us freedom if only we believe. To see the steps of the gospel played out in front of me left me breathless.

As we went from site to site our Joshua staff kept a constant theme of preparing us to leave Joshua. They reminded us that for 7 months we have been poured into by others and now as we transition into summer staff it's our job to pour into others and build community. It's our job to live out the Shema, love God and love others! We are the influencers, we are the builders. So as we move on into summer and into life after Joshua we must move with God and not be forced into action, or else this year was wasted.

Thank you everyone for you support. You have played a huge role in my life being radically changed.

In His Grip,
Paige

P.S.
I'll be putting up a photo blog soon with details of all my adventures

I had no idea that one of my favorite trips would be so close to home. At the beginning of this month we took our trip to inner city LA and we were presented with opportunity after opportunity to see God work and move and how we were forced to put our faith into action and our world views to the test.

Some say "ignorance is bliss" on this trip I learned just how ignorant I was and how that ignorance led me not to bliss but to a spot where I was so ashamed of my ignorance that I wondered how I had been completely unaware for so long.

Our first stop was the His Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights, it is one of the largest buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere. We were given a very in depth tour of the temple by our guide, Don, and he explained to us a lot about Buddhism and their beliefs. As we walked around we talked a lot with Don, he was in his seventies and we were shocked to find out that he was born and raised a christian, he graduated from Azusa Bible College and was even a methodist minister in Texas for a number of years. I think more than anything this broke the hearts of a lot of us in the group, to see someone who knew all about God and the gospel and yet walked away from it all, this opened our eyes to this harsh reality of what happens so often to people who have grown up in the church. In our few short hours at the temple I could see why Don fell so quickly for the teachings of Buddhism, it is so self gratifying and gives a sense of fulfillment but in a religion that has so much respect for others it is so self centered and so lacking in hope. My heart broke for Don and I just couldn't understand how he could be so easily swayed from Jesus and at the end of the tour I only prayed that Christ would give me enough faith to hold on to the truth which he has graciously shown me throughout my life.

Our second day was by far the busiest day on the trip and it started before the sun came up. At 4:30 my group headed down to Skid Row, we worked at The Midnight Mission, and I was shocked at the number of homeless people that came into the mission that morning. For 2 hours we served breakfast to almost 900 people who are currently living on the streets of LA and the thing that hit me the most was that this was only one of several missions in Skid Row. In the afternoon we were split up into groups of five and were each given $10 our mission was to take that money buy ourselves lunch and help someone who was in need of something. My group ended up buying some pizza and eating lunch in a park with some homeless people. We met a young guy named Ben, we first spotted him and some of his friends trying to bandage up the back of his heals which had horrible blisters from a bad pair of shoes. Ben shared his story with us as we all ate pizza, he is the son of a pastor but after Ben got into drugs he was kicked out and has been on the streets ever since. We ended up buying Ben a first aid kit and some new socks through all of this he told us that we were the first people who ever showed him that God really did love him. At the end of our time with Ben we were able to pray with him and his friends before we left.

We also did a lot of other evangelism trips as well we made our way down Hollywood Blvd., UCLA, and the Grove. My group didn't have any really awesome moments of sharing the Gospel but it made the fear of talking to people about Jesus a lot less scary. I learned more than anything it needs to be an everyday part of my life not just on sundays or while I am living at Hume Lake.

We also had a day at the Getty Museum, that was a fun day of seeing what God has graced humans with when it comes to art and talent.

On our last work day we drove into Compton, we worked with Compton Initiative and helped paint an elementary school in the community. we had a blast and we all ended up covered in yellow paint. One of my favorite parts about Joshua is working together with everyone, especially when we are able to have a lot of fun and serve others with a joyful heart.

Before we left Sunday afternoon, we attended Faith Inspirational church in Compton, it was an amazing experience of watching how a charismatic black church worshiped together as a community and brothers and sisters in Christ. They showed us true hospitality and the love of Christ even before we walked in the door.

LA was easily the most impactful trip for me, I learned the meaning of "Love God Love Others" and that I cant love others unless I love God and I cant love God unless I love others. So I am grateful for the opportunity to serve in my own backyard.

Forever in His Grip,
Paige

Lauryn, Olivia me and Lexi at the Buddhist Temple