Chase Silver JWI 2011-2012 @chasesilverjwi - Tumblr Blog

The Bottom Line

God is in control

God knows what's best

God loves me

Wise words from PJ and Sheri Lewis

Week 16

January 9th 2012,

This week is preview week number two. Tristan and I have another preview student, his name is Tim and is twenty. This weeks preview students are a lot more interactive compared to last week. The engage more with the other and us preview students and seem to want to build relationships with one anther, which is great. We had our Philippians test this morning, it took me about an hour and twenty minuets to write both chapters 1 & 2 but I passed on my first try, which made me very happy. I finished Just Don’t Fall and I am starting to feel book deprived, so I asked people on facebook for recommendations.

January 11th 2012,

Tristan is sick today, so I get to look after him and bring him food during meals. He slept for the majority of the day maybe being awake for only two hours total.

January 12th 2012,

For sweeps today we started off at the tube run getting the line set up. Then we went to the snowboard hill to set up two tabletop boxes. While doing that Jordan came over and grabbed me saying he needed help moving some snow machines. He told me to hop in the snow cat and we would drive around and grab them. I was stoked because riding in a snow cat is on my bucket list right above driving one. So I am half way there with that one. It was awesome getting to do that and talk with Jordan about multiple different subjects.

Tonight we had our 80’s themed dinner night. I wore my silver shimmery shirt with 80’s basketball short shorts. After dinner we went down to the ice rink and skated around for a few hours. I still suck at ice-skating, but I’m not horrible, just I'm not very good and skating backwards and forwards.

January 13th,

This weekend I am working at program. Which means I will be a green coat for the weekend. I started off helping Johnny Norwood around camp unloading wood grabbing some stuff. Then Johnny took me to the G-Store and bought me a drink and a cliff bar. After helping Johnny I went back to the tube run and was stationed at the bottom where I kick peoples tubes as they come down to help redirect them and to help slow them down if need be.

I decided I'm going to speak in an Irish/ British accent for the night just to have some fun and keep my self entertained.

January 14th,

Today I worked the tube run all day, at the bottom-kicking people again. I was in charge of deciding how many people we were going to allow in trains during the day. We broke a Joshua recurred of eighteen sending a group of twenty-two people down at the same time. I was very proud of nick up top that designed and set up the huge train of campers.

After dinner I was stationed on top of the tube run unloading people and pushing them off, I still talked in my accent and would ask three questions. First question was “What is your name?” Second questions was “ What is your favorite color?” Third was “ What is your quest in life?” It was weird only one person I talked to knew what that was spun off of. But it was great being able to ask a philosophical question to kids and have them pray about it on the way down and come back up to let me know what their answer was if they didn’t know right away.

I was asked to go to prom by a girl on the tube run as I was throwing her down it.

January 15th,

I got to ref broom hockey today. Which means that I am going to get extra hours. Zoe and myself were refing the girls games. During one of the matches we were booed for making the correct call, which made me laugh because the youth pastor from the church who thought they scored was leading his church in booing us…I thought to myself how it was great he was teaching his church about Christ and how loving he is.

It is crazy how crazy people get over broom hockey. Its like the fans of the broncos at Hope community but even nuttier.

After the semi-final I headed over to the tube run to work from the top again chucking kids down. The girl who asked me to prom came up to confirm the dates. I told her I would be in Israel and won’t be able to make it.

After dinner it was the Kurth Kup Final for broom hockey, which I got to ref. It was a major blow out for both the guys and the girl’s games.

At ten I headed over to the tube run which is where the box sled blitz is going to take place. The box sled blitz is where church youth groups make sleds out of cardboard boxes and duck tape and that’s it. The best sled in my opinion was a very large battleship that had about ten kids in it and was called the “USS Yahweh”

I didn’t get off until around midnight tonight, and the majority of the program staff decided not to come to work early tomorrow, so I guess I might as well sleep in a little bit.

January 16th,

Didn’t start work until eleven today. All I did was clean the skate window and help sort and fix kneepads from the broom hockey games.

We had dinner at the Joshua building tonight and also had evening speaker. Our speaker this week are a couple who used to live in Carson City. Who just moved this past November down to Fresno. They are really cool and I cannot wait to hear more from them this week.

We leave this Saturday for the DR!!!!

Shalom and ohanna,

Chase Silver

Week 15

Friday December 30th,

This weekend I am working at High Adventure. It is crazy around here at Hume as we prepare for the New Year. Today at H.A. we are working on the screamer and cleaning paintball. Because I feel confident at both the screamer and paintball cleaning, Jordan has me go and run the spire. It was pretty sweet just hanging around talking go to people. One guy I talked to had this very heavy British accent. His four-year-old son was a climbing monster. It was great seeing such a young child out there climbing.

I got off work around five but I really didn’t want to just stop then, so I asked Jordan if he thought I could go help out with program. He said that would be a great idea and told me to meet Johnny Norwood at the Ark around 8:15. Johnny was very happy to have an extra pair of hands, he sends me over to the tube run. At first I’m at the bottom just watching kids come down and kicking their tube if they drift to close to the edge at the bottom. After about twenty minuets, Jason sends me up to the top. Well I’ve never worked program and have never been trained on how to run the top of the tube run. So once up there I get a crash course from Austin and Andy on how to pull kids off the towrope quickly and efficiently. After Andy, Austin and Daniel leave, it is now Logan, Justin and myself. Once we get in the grove of things we become a working machine. I worked at the tube run till about 11o’clock. It was nice getting some extra hours in for the day.

Saturday December 31st,

Today is going to be a long day. It is family camp up here at Hume and because of this we are allowing people to go off the screamer tandem. Well none of us at high adventure have ever been trained on this, so Jordan gives nick and Melanie a crash course. Brooke and I are going to be their test dummies. We jump off tandem together about seven times. Luckily Nick landed us safely every time. After the tandem jumping we head up to prep for paintball. Because I have refed paintball before with Jacob Espy, Jordan puts me as Head ref for our sessions today. So Nick, Melanie and I get everything set up. Guns have CO2, full hoppers of paint, are firing right, Masks are set out. Every thing is ready for out two sessions today.

For the games I am the one who is talking to everyone at the begging explaining the rules and getting everyone ready for a great session. I have Brooke and Galo to be my side refs for the matches. I have about three different ideas for the game styles that they will play, capture the bunker, capture the flag and protect the president. Both sessions run amazingly well and we don’t have to many hiccups, which is good because I have never lead refed until today.

After paint ball its time for dinner, I am exhausted and still have to keep going sense it is new year all the Joshua students have to work the night at Pondy dinning. I take a quick nap before having to show up at 10:15. I show up a little after they had already distributed the tables for the pizza train, so my roommate gave me one of his tables. The pizza train is where we dance out with pizzas and goof off as we take them to our tables. The night was a blast and even though we are all dead tired, it was worth it in the long run. Because we all had a great time begin able to act silly and be able to serve the Conference that was here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1st 2012,

Today was cleaning day at High Adventure. We hauled all of the paintball gear down to contractors the day before so that we can clean all the equipment inside where it is warm rather then be outside and freeze to death. It was an all day cleaning we got off work around three. I spent the night deep cleaning my room, previews are starting and I want my room to be spotless incase we are chosen.

January 2nd 2012,

Today we have our first round of preview students coming. My room was chosen to be one of the ones that will have a preview student. His name is Evan and is twenty-two. He is pretty cool and I think he would really enjoy the program.

January 3rd 2012,

With the preview kids here are class schedule is a little different. The guy R.D. Chad taught a class called Identity Statement. Where it is pretty much sums up who you are and why you are here, and is focused toward God and Scripture. A good example is the one Chad has for himself and that is “a follower leading other followers.” It was a very interesting class and I hope we dive more into it.

January 4th 2012,

I’m sick today. I slept the majority of the day until about one or two when I woe up and just read in bed. I finished a book called Lead… For God’Sake it was a fantastic book with a great view on what true leadership is about. I started another book called Just Don’t Fall By Josh Sundquist who is one of my favorite motivational speakers.

January 5th 2012,

Today is the first day of sweeps for this month. I’m sweeping at High adventure with Logan. It will be fun to be able to hang out with him as we work with Jordan doing all sorts of crazy things. Like using an extremely long tall ladder on ice holding it as Jordan climbs up to exchange the light bulb, which was about the size of a cantaloupe. For the first half of our sweeps we got to get the tube run set up which means that we just ride tubes down it to get a good line and check it before the weekend starts. I was at the top chucking down people, which was pretty fun. Tonight is pause night and its funny how every other week that is the one thing everyone looks forward to, pause night is so much fun just getting to hang out and goof off. Tonight we played Mexican train, which was a lot of fun because Greg played with us.

January 6th 2012,

This weekend I am working in the pantry at pondy dinning. In the pantry we are prepping the salad bar and putting stuff in containers so that it can go on the line and once we are set up we stand out there and wipe up the mess that people make as they are getting their salad and then refill stuff as it runs out. During camps and conferences we are able to go to chapel and sit in on the worship and sermon. This weekend the speaker’s name is Chris I met this guy a couple months ago as he randomly walked up and introduced himself to me and told me I was doing a great job. I didn’t realize that he would be a speaker for one of the winter camp weekends this year. I’m very glad I decided to go and sit on his sermon because watching him speak is amazing. His story is quite amazing, he woke up one morning in the eighth grade with disuses, and he was unable to talk, walk, and do anything. The doctors told him that he would most likely never walk again and that even reading would become very difficult and speaking was hard to imagine. Well today Chris can walk, he can talk and he can read. Sure he has to walk awkwardly. Sure he has a slur. Sure reading can be a challenge at times but not so much any more. The most important thing is that he travels the world with this disability and is touches thousands of lives. His sermon had the attention of every high school student in that chapel. Focused and listening to what he had to say. It was amazing to watch and listen to him.

January 7th 2012,

I got to bring my knives to work today. It was pretty sweet because I got to help cut some huge roasts of meat and well Cutco did a fantastic job. The workday went by quick, which was nice. I went to evening chapel so I could listen to Chris again. Tonight he did an alter call, where he asks for people who want to give their lives to Christ and for Christians who need to realign their lives with Christ. It was amazing watching how many students went up to either accept Christ or to re-focus. One thing that Christ said was that if you walk out those doors and you feel led to flip a 180 and come right back in because you feel led to then do it. He didn’t say it quite like that but close enough. So he dismisses those who didn’t come up for the alter call so that those who did go up can talk with counselors about it. I was up in the balcony when all of a sudden a kid walks by towards the front of the balcony. David, Josiah and I pray over the kids who were committing and re-committing to Christ, once we were done David and Josiah left. I was sitting there starring at the back of this kids head he is sitting there just starring at everyone below. So I get up and got sit right next to him and just start talking with him. His name is Jay he is a sophomore in high school and is from Nicaragua, he and I talked for about thirty for forty-five minuets, he is a Christian but he felt that he needed to realign with God but he didn’t know who to go talk to because he came to Hume with a church he barley new. I would tell more about his story but I don’t feel I have the place to do so. But all in all it was amazing getting to sit down and talk with him for such a long time and get to know him.

January 8th 2012,

Last day in the pantry, didn’t have a whole lot of prepping to do so we started deep cleaning in the pantry then the kitchen early, which was nice because we got out earlier. Tonight is the night where people go “Oh my gosh, we have a Philippians test tomorrow” Everyone is around the building in groups or by themselves studying away because tomorrow we have our second Philippians test on chapters 1 & 2 hand written. So I’m in my room where it is quite practicing.

Shalom and Ohanna,

-Chase Silver

Week 14

Friday 16th,

Today is the beginning of Christmas break for me. Kelsey, Andy and I left Hume around eight after eating breakfast down at staff dinning. Once we got into Fresno we went to Andy’s grandmas’ house and hung out with her for a while. After leaving Andy’s grandmothers we met up with Benjamin at Chic-Fil-A. We were there for about two hours just talking and having fun. The owner, who was one of our speakers earlier in the year, came into work and chatted with us for quite a while. After Chic-Fil-A we went to the apple store so I could get a radio transmitter so I could play my comedy through my radio and not have to use the cassette player. Well once we were back out of the store my cassette taps I had in there was stuck and I had to get it out. I spent forty-five minuets fiddling with the thing, but I conquered it and got it out! We were finally on the road again heading out of Fresno around 4pm. We drove to Sonora where Benjamin is from and had dinner with his family and hung out and played card games. Ben’s parents also gave us all their house rules so we can call Ben out when he breaks one. Andy, Kelsey and I left Sonora around 10 and arrived at Kelsey’s house around 11:30. Andy and I were on the road again. We were about 90 miles out of Reno when I noticed it was really windy. My car kept being blown sideways whenever I turned, I thought nothing of it and just kept on trekking. Well I started to get tired so Andy and I switched places and he started driving. The second he started back on the road I thought to myself “There was no wind when I got out…” So Andy and I pull off the road on the next exit and sure enough I had a tire going flat. So we changed the tire out for my doughnut tire. We drive to the next exit and my Dad and I decided it would be a good Idea to check the tire pressure. Well luckily enough the next exit was a gas station. Andy pulls up to the air pump. And I try three different tire gauges, but they all keep saying less then 10psi. At first I assumed they were all broken but nope the tire was at 10. So I pumped it up to 45 and we were on the road again now going no higher then 50 on I 80 with our flashers on. We didn't get to Andy’s house until 4 A.M. Saturday.

Saturday 17th,

My first day back was pretty fun I hung out with Dave, Drew, and Jacob for the evening. We went to Panda Express to get some orange chicken! I absolutely love going there! After dinner we went back to Drew’s house and had a huge Nerf war. It was fun hanging out and just goofing off for the night.

Sunday 18th,

I went to the Rebellion this morning, its amazing how much the youth group has changed sense I left, many new faces. After church a huge group of us went to sushi in honor of Troy and myself being back in town. Ate around eighty dollars worth of sushi at Hirobas, which is by far my favorite sushi place. Then later that evening my Dad and I went to Living stones, the sermon was great the guy that was speaking had a lot of passion and drive in his message. The drummer that was playing was absolutely amazing, very talented. After Living stones I went to the new collage group that Hope started up. Then around 9 or 10 I went to Dave’s house and he and I did some recording on my IPad that he needed done.

Monday 19th,

I ran a few errands this morning around town then went to Gentlemen’s Revolution where Andy and I spoke.

Tuesday 20th,

I left Reno today heading up to Seattle to spend Christmas with my Mom and my moms side of the family. When I landed my mom and my cousin picked me up and ran back to the house dropped my stuff off and then my cousin and I went rock climbing at a new indoor placed that open up and Factoria mall. The place is huge; one of the coolest things was that they had rings in the weight room, the ones that gymnasts use. I love playing on those things.

Wednesday 21st,

Hung around at my mom’s house and at my cousins all day. Until my cousin and I went down to the Clancy’s house and hung out with Josh and Luke and played cribbage until midnight.

Friday 23rd,

Today I got up early and went shopping with my Aunt and cousins and some of their family friends. Down town Bellevue is one of my favorite cities, it is very clean and elegant and there is so much to do when you are down there. Later that evening my cousins and some of their friends and I went bowling at AMF bowling. It was a lot of fun just hanging out and talking and bowling.

Saturday 24th,

My mom, Jerry, Grandma Stella, Grandpa Tom and I went to Crossroads church in Bellevue. My mom and Jerry just started attending it a few weeks ago, so we decide to go to the Christmas Eve service. After church we went back to my mom’s house and had some dinner. Then we went to my uncle’s house to play the card game “baseball.”

Sunday 25th,

My mom and I woke up around six before the rest of the house so she and I went over to my Uncle’s house to say hello and watch them open some of their presents. After that we went back to the house and opened our presents with Grandma Stella and Grandpa Tom and Jerry. After opening presents at my mom’s house we went back over to my uncle’s house and we opened gifts from each other. I bought my cousins gift cards and I took the gift cards and put them into small puzzle boxes, which I then wrapped them in duck tape. Then put the puzzle boxes into another box and wrapped that in duck tape. It took my cousins about ten minuets to get to their gifts. After that we all just hung out and talked and played games. It was a pretty fun and entertaining day.

Monday 26th,

Slept in today until ten and then was picked up by my uncle to run to home depot to get roofing supplies. After that my Uncle Mark, Dawson and I started demolition on the roof of the shed in their back yard.

Tuesday 27th,

Worked for seven hours today working on the shed. Putting down paper to go underneath the shingles and then nailing the shingles up. One of my Christmas presents from my Mom and Jerry was getting to go indoor skydiving with my cousins Dawson and Denali. It was such an amazing night!

Wednesday 28th,

I left Seattle around noon heading back to Reno. It was raining pretty hard when I left, which I love the rain so that was a special treat. I hung out with some friends till one in the morning.

It was great getting to see all my friends and family this break, I cant wait to get back up to Joshua and get started with part two of Joshua!

Shalom and Ohanna,

-Chase Silver

Week 13!!!

Monday:

This week is going to be very different from all the others. Only five days away from a road trip to Reno then a few days later flying out heading up to Seattle! Our speaker this week is the director of Joshua. Mr. Rich Ferreira ladies and gentlemen.

Tuesday:

Starting at one in the afternoon my pause family and I headed down the Joshua hill to go and watch Rich bakers kid. August is by far one of the funniest babies I have ever met. We watched him for over eight hours total. The funny part is my pause family is even, with Kelsey, Krista, David and I. It was so weird that we were allowed to be even together all four of us kept commenting on it. When we first got to the Baker’s house Rich and his wife were just about to put August down for a nap. He slept until 3:30. During this time we just sat around and hung out, talked, hoped online, pretty much just busing ourselves. Once August got up from his nap we fed him and Kelsey changed him. One of the rules was that guys are NOT allowed to change the babies or give them a bath, so the girls had to do it. David and I found this really funny because we could pretty much only hang out with the kid and have fun with them. Then Krista and Kelsey insisted on cooking dinner for all of us. We had pizza and a yummy salad. The best part of the night was before we put August down for the night is we were given the okay, only if the parents asked us to, play a movie for their kids. Well Rich and his wife asked us to either play Tangled or Toy Story 3. August picked Tangled, so we got to watch it with him. He was so funny while watching it. He was so enthralled by the movie; his eyes barley ever left the screen. The best part was during the scene with Rapunzel’s parents he was teary-eyed, as were the rest of us, but this fifteen-month-old baby was crying. Then a happy scene when the family was reunited he was happy and clapping! I had a lot of fun watching this child with my pause sibs. Once we put him to bed for the night the four of us played board games. The afternoon and night were amazing, as a family we bonded and grew closer together.

Wednesday:

This morning we had a sleep in morning, which we all needed so deeply after being out late babysitting. Tonight is our Joshua Christmas party. We had a formal dinner with only the class up here. We had pizza and coke in glass bottles. After dinner we quickly rearranged the building. The pause family’s started showing up at 6:30 and the first event for the night was the ginger bread house contest. My pause family had been planning for a little over two weeks. We came up with the idea of building Cinderella’s castle from Disney land, hoping that Jen would be the one judging (knowing she loves Disney Land). We had a lot already prepped before tonight, at least structure wise. The castle turned out great and it was a lot of fun working as one large family in competition against everyone else. We one in the category of bigger is better. After the ginger bread contest we went into the great room held worship and one of the Hume staff played some Christmas songs. Then the bell choir played a Christmas song for everyone. Then we went on to the final competition of the night. Ugly Christmas Sweater contest, I must say mine was so utterly atrocious that I contemplated burning it. But the chef for Joshua, Kelsey said to keep it for more sweater contests. I lost but that's okay the winner had a pretty good, I mean ugly sweater.

Thursday:

Today everyone starts work and I have the weekend off. Andy and I leave tomorrow morning to head for Reno. The camp here this weekend is called Victory Outreach were kids from downtown city areas are here, around 900 the first three days then another 700 the next three. Tonight a few of us are going down to chapel and seeing how they run it for VO. Then after that I have a bro date with Benjamin, were going ice-skating!!

I cannot wait to get home and see my Dad and my friends then head up to Seattle to see my mom!

Shalom and ohanna,

Chase Silver

Joshua Week 12

Monday:

For one of our classes today we watched more of the Masada videos! They are surprisingly entertaining. Morgan and Desire have been kicked out of the program for breaking covenant. Its wired that we are down to fifty-one students; the announcement was made right before lunch. I have never been in the dinning hall with all the class and have it so quite. As if there was no one in it. No one talked no one made a sound. It was kind of eerie. But it turned out to be a good day; Hume needed people to be extras for the making of the broom hockey music video. It was great just dancing around and goofing off with a bunch of people who went down to be in it.

Tuesday:

Today was the first class of Isaiah. Its great because Rich Baker is teaching it and his voice is so deep and sounds like a cowboy all the time, it makes me laugh. The class will be pretty sweet diving into Isaiah and seeing how amazing of a prophet he was.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a normal day nd nothing exciting happened. I edited some photos, which was pretty sweet.

Thursday:

Had sweeps at creative again. I just sat at the computer and read my book. That night we had wonderful themed dinner. The theme was Jewish night many people wore kippahs. My favorite thing we had was lathakas. That night my pause family went to our pause house and worked on what we wanted to design for our ginger bread house competition that is coming up this next Wednesday.

Friday-Sunday

Learned how to ref broom hockey, which I really want to get the chance to throw a kid off the ice. Grab ‘em by the mask pull ‘em up close and yell get off my ice! Bam! Haha. The majority of the class had this weekend off again. There was not a large conference and they were only here Thursday, Friday and Saturday. So only a few of us worked and the majority of people who were working were all the high adventure people because we pretty much wont get the chance to work any where else the rest of the winter and spring. I worked at Support Services on the night crew with Andrew Schmidt. It was fun we worked from 4:30 to 1am on Friday. The camp is awesome at night! Then from 1:00pm – 9:30pm and then on Sunday we worked 1:00 to 4:00pm. I really liked working at SS because they are so encouraging and fun to be around. Sure were on our hands and knees scrubing otilets and vacuuming, cleaning the entire camp but Kevin who ran the night crew was really fun to be around and learn from. He did Joshua two years ago. It was fun comparing our classes. This weekend turned out to be a lot of fun, even though had to work. One really good thing is I finished book eight of the Left Behind series so good!!!

Shalom and Ohana,

Chase Silver

Joshua Week 11

Sunday

Got back to Hume. It was a really great drive, listening to comedians the entire way down was hilarious. Im sure cars that I passed were thinking “What an odd duck, just laughing by himself in a car! He must be a villain.” I made great time from Reno to Hume, it only took me about six hours to get here. I met up with David G at a gas station on the 180 and picked him up so his dad would not have to go all the way to Hume.

Monday

Today was our last day of 5 AM’s; it was really nice knowing we would not have to get up early the next morning! We had an Israel prep quiz this morning and I did pretty well, only missed about four or five questions. Today the Forge came to Joshua. The Forge is a discipleship program kind of like Joshua in Taylor, Texas. The director of that program came was our speaker for the week, and brought six of his students with him. It was hilarious, they walk in I’m sitting on one of the couches reading and this guy named Jimmy, goes hey Chase, I look up to see who this was and I must if had an awkward puzzled look on my face as I was trying to figure out who he was. They studied our names on their flight to Fresno, which would explain my confusion for not knowing him.

Tuesday

We have been assigned our last two papers for our Elements of Bible study class! I’m excited to move on to Isaiah and start that class up! The man hall meeting tonight was intense and got a lot of people steaming. For different various reasons.

Wednesday

It has been great having the Forge here, it is interesting to hear about another program like Joshua, even though it has some huge differences. Like the Forge kids don’t know about any of their trips for the year other then Israel. They are just sprung upon them! Kind of like our trip to wildwood. Also the forge kids as a class design their convenient and what rules they want to set. Which would be pretty cool but I’m sure that is really hectic.

Thursday

For sweeps today I sat at a computer and read while backing up a bunch of DVD’s of all the camps so far this eyar. It was great I finished book six of the left behind series! The coolest part about today is I gave my photography portfolio to creative to see if they will request to use me this winter for Winter Camp! Which would be amazingly fun and would give me a lot of time behind the camera!

Friday

Life skills class was a lot of fun today. We worked on how to memorize things better, such as names, or lists. It was fun learning tricks for name memorizing, sense I have trouble with that. Fourty-eight of the fifty-three Joshua students have this weakened off, do to no conference being here. So a big group of around twelve of us are going to go down to Ventura and Stay the weekend there at Matty Berg’s house. Our goal was to leave around five. My car and another car decided to eat at Hume in the dinning hall so we would leave around 5:30 together. Well we did this and by about the 10th or 12th turn out, the car behind me was no longer there so I stop and wait about two minuets, then I flip a U’e and race back wondering where they went. I didn’t find their car on the road so I had My passenger Chris grab my mag light and we are now going to go search the cliffs and make sure they didn’t run off the road. After about three passes and no sign of them we head back for camp. I drop Chris off at the stop sign at the entrance to camp and I head to the dinning hall to see if I can find someone who can help. I find my pause dad and he says to check the Joshua building then let him know. So I run up there and no one has seen them there sense about the time we had left. So Chris and I do three or four more passes on the road to check again. Then we decide that well go to our rendezvous point and if they are not there we will head back up if they are then we will continue. Thank God they were there waiting now for me with the other car that had left earlier. I thought for sure that Melanie, Andy and Deb had died haha well maybe not, but you never know.

We drove all night to Ventura getting there around elven thirty or so. Matts mom and dad were awesome, they prepared for twelve kids to come on a last minuet notice and were so openly welcoming to us all.

Saturday

We went to a beach about forty minuets out of Ventura. We hung out their for the majority of the day. We had lunch at this bomb burger shack. So tasty!! I had a double bacon cheeseburger that would make your mouth water just at the sight of it! We were at the beach until the sun set down over the horizon. During the sunset a big group of us went swimming one last time in the freezing cold southern winter water! It was great!!!!

That night we went to the store and bought some bread and peanut butter and jelly. And went to down town Ventura to walk around and give homeless people some sandwiches and pray for them. I was in a group with Andy. Melanie, Deb, Alison, and Isaiah. We handed out every last one of our sandwiches and met some really neat people. There was this couple that have been living on the streets for four or five days now. The wife has cancer and they were evicted from their home. They have a really good out look on life and are looking on the bright side. The guy was from Jackson Alabama and had the greatest accent ever and talked really fast. And he loved to talk, a lot. Haha They had a puppy with them named Lucky hoping, the wife named him this as her good luck charm for her recovery.

We then went and had pizza at a place called Rusty’s down town. We had our own private room in the back where they let us play guitar and be really loud! Haha After dinner we met up with Richie Luna who did Joshua last year. And we went to Nicks house to say hello to his family and meet all of them.

All in all it was a really good day and we had a lot of fun!

Sunday

Left Ventura around 9:30 this morning. Andy and I were in my car and we zoomed along to Fresno and met up with another car from our group, and had lunch and then went thrift store shoping. I bought an ugly Christmas sweater and some vintage short shorts for only eight bucks! Haha

“You know a weekend is amazing when it feels like it was a week long!” –Andy Schmidt

Shalom and Ohana,

Chase Silver

Joshua Mexico/Thanksgiving break

November 13th

Left Hume today at 8:30, we have an immense amount of vans! Literally we were probably bigger then a military caravan! I was in Ryan’s van; we nicknamed the van as “Viva Viva Viva” in light of Ryan’s playlist on his IPod that he played the entire way down. Ryan’s taste in music is all across the board, which was pretty sweet because it never got boring. We drove from Hume all the way to San Diego. We had a pit stop for dinner before heading to where we were staying for the night. Benjamin and I went to Bjs and split nachos! Which meant that he and I spent exactly $6 for the meal, which is what we were allotted for each meal, we had to buy! We were both pretty stoked about that. We spent the night and San Diego Christian Collage. The trip so far was great and was setting us up for a pretty amazing week.

November 14th

At SDCC we were given a tour of the collage, the coolest part was there church service that they hold every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. We ate in their cafeteria before heading out, it was a good size dinning hall, but the amount of food they served was the coolest part of all. Mounds and mounds of food! After the satisfying meal we headed out of San Diego and headed to the boarder. It was quick and painless and the entire caravan got through with out a problem.

November 15th

To day was our first full day in Mexico. I was on the work crew that was paving a path to a zip line that was donated to the deaf school. I find it weird that sign language is not a universal language, I know a little ASL but having to learn MSL was interesting, sense I do not speak Spanish. But needless to say I learned it pretty quick at least enough to where I could have a full conversation with someone. Two of the older kids at the school were Alfredo and Angle they were the two I talked with the most at the school, Alfredo and Ausitin and I would play this game where you had to sneak up behind them and as they were looking away hold your finger so they didn’t notice and have them hit it once they turned. When you did this you would get a point. I spent about an hour and a half photographing today, running around to all the different groups that were spread out through the ranch.

November 16th

Day two Rancho Sudo Mondo. Today the work crew I was on did touch up on the trail in the morning. But sense we blazed the trail so fast and so well, manly because we rock, but sense we did it so fast we only had a little touch up to-do.

The food here is surprisingly really good Mexican food. In the afternoon we worked on turning dirt in front of this house where they want to put some grass and flowers and cacti. I spent about an hour photographing all the different groups also today as well.

November 17th

Day three RSM. We worked on the garden again this morning, then in the afternoon some of the Joshua girls ran a 5K with the RSM girls. All the guys were spread out through out the course to help and cheer them on. That evening we played a a soccer game against the kids and they destroyed us at 3-7. They were really good for a not being able to just yell out each others names. Tomorrow we head to the Baja 1,000!

November 18th

He Baja 1000 was crazy!!! The first truck that went in that class came flying around this corner on only three wheels! It was intense!! Andy Schmidt and I are amazing hagglers! W started playing a game while shopping in Ensenada, the goal was take an expensive item bring them down to a price you wanted then walk away. I choose a tiffany necklace, they were asking $75 for it and I got em all the way down to $35! I kind of won haha!

November 19th

In van Viva Viva Viva again. Getting through the boarder was a lot faster then I thought it was going to be. We basically flew through it. On the way to LA someone rear ended Kelley’s van. God news was there was no damage to the van, only to the car that rear-ended it. Those of us going to Fresno and Hume stayed the night in Bakersfield at a local church there.

November 20th

Left Bakersfield early this morning and went to Starbucks! After the Fresno drop off, the Vans were empty, it was super weird. Half way up the hill to Hume we had to pull over and put Chains on all the vans. Some of the vans chains were the wrong size so we had to abandon them on the side of the road and the staff had to go back later on to pick them up. After vacuuming out the vans and packing a bag real quick I loaded up my car and headed to Reno. I gave Krista and Jenna a ride down the hill, which was nice because the entire seven-hour car ride I was not by my self. I got back into Reno at 11:45 that night.

November 21st-26th

It was really nice being back home, hanging out with friends and family was amazing! I went back to Damonte to say hello to friends and old teachers. It was funny how many kids cam up to me and said hello, when I had no idea who the heck they were

November 27th

Left Reno today right after worship at church, drove all day only stopping twice and made it to Hume around 3:45pm. I am pretty dang proud of that sense the drive is normally at least seven hours. Its nice to be back at Joshua. Its weird that we will only be here for three weeks, then we head for Christmas break.

Shalom and Ohana,

Chase Silver

Joshua in the Snow! Week Eight

The days before papers are do is hilarious, people are franticly racing around to try to finish their papers that are due the next morning at nine A.M. Monday night was Halloween! I dressed like a gangster. I wore baggy pants, a black t-shirt with a button down shirt over that only buttoned at the top, a bandanna. I must say I looked pretty spiffy in my gangster attire. The best costume was Brooke dressing like Chris Beretta she was spot on. That night we watched our Old Testament class video because our speaker was not here yet.

Tuesday was a laid back day for me, we had our speaker in the morning sense he was not here on Monday night.

Wednesday Night was another dress up themed dinner. The entire class dressed like one of our staff members, Ryan. Ryan’s usual attire is jeans, a V-neck t-shirt, a Hume Lake zip-up-hoody, and vans. Ryan also has an orange beard. So we all wore an outfit like Ryan and we put on beards using high lighters, paint, or markers. What ever we could find that was orange. The reason we dressed up is because it was Ryan’s birthday! I got to lead worship Wednesday night before speaker, I played guitar and sang, Andy was on the Cajon, and Logan sang with me. It was really cool to play guitar and sing especially sense I only did that a few times back home.

Thursday I woke up for K.P. not feeling all to well. But that was our chore for the day so I thought to my self maybe I can push through it. I felt horrible by the time breakfast was done. I couldn’t eat anything I had no appetite. Jordan Bandanna convinced me to go back to bed and that they were fine in the kitchen and didn’t need my help to clean up. I went back to bed and slept on and off until 1:30. I was put on room quarantine by the Chad the guys R.D. I spent the day reading, studying for our Philippians test that is coming up, and organizing things. The day was pretty boring.

On Friday we woke up to SNOW!!!! I can’t wait till we get enough snow that I can go skiing!! It was cool because Friday we didn’t have class until ten A.M. This weekend I worked at High Adventure ankle deep in the snow for the majority of the time. I shoveled snow, took down ropes,

On Saturday at High adventure, I walked the Joshua hill to go and shovel the snow at the shotgun range. We four of us were told at 9:40 to walk up the hill shovel the snow and be back down at 10:30 at the Ranch House. We only had fifteen minuets to shovel the entire area, which was not a lot of time. All of the HAG (High Adventure Guides) staff helped programs with the Great Race event for the Fathers/Daughters conference that was here. I worked the spit ball station where they had to get three spit balls to hit a target three times. That afternoon I took a group through the High Ropes course. Then later on Saturday I help run the Zip Line. It was a busy day

Sunday at High Adventure my self and Matt put t-nuts in on our bouldering wall, which was, a lot of work especially sense it was snowing. All in all it was a great week eight of Joshua.

Shalom and Ohana,

-Chase Silver

Week Seven

Chase Silver

October 24-30, 2011

Week-In-Review

Winter is right around the corner! It is starting to get cooler here at Hume, and I cannot wait for the snow!

This past Tuesday I was at I.T. again. It was awesome because I didn’t just sit there and count change and read. I still collected the change from the pay phones around camp. I also washed I.T.’s van, I made that things shine like it was bran new. I also got to work on the Ark’s phone system; there was a bad connector to one wire that caused the majority of the phones to go out.

On Wednesday Chad taught our theology class, the cool part about the class is chad used an online program to make his power point. The website is called Prezie.com and it makes power points a lot more interesting and interactive.

On Thursday I went to Fresno with Ryan and Chad. Ryan had to take his DMV test for his class B license and I had to get some shots! My Dad drive down from Reno and met us at Visalia’s DMV and took me to get my shots. It was fun getting to hang out with my Dad after not seeing him in quite a while. We went and ate lunch at a restaurant called The Elbow Room, the food was pretty good and the lay out of the restaurant was really cool. My Dad has never seen Hume Lake before so when he brought me back up I gave him a tour of Hume and of the Joshua building. Thursday night I had pause family, we had amazing home made spaghetti and we got to carve pumpkins!

Hume staff is amazing! They put up with us, always give us rides up the hill, they are there for Joshua students and they’re also super involving. On Friday night a bunch of the Joshua students went and played murder in the dark with many Hume Staff, in this sketchy building that was freaky, I died in the first round as I found some dead people in a room. This one guy killed about five or six people!

On Saturday Andy, Logan, Cooper, and Chris, and I all went down to Fresno for the day. We spent about two hours at Starbucks while I tried to update my iPhone and my iPad, but it didn’t work which is sad but hey I got a lot of work taken care of there. After Starbucks we went to lunch at Panda Express (Love their Orange Chicken). Then we went to a thrift store called Yoshi Now, for some reason every Joshua student each year has gone here, mainly because there’s no tax for us there. After Yoshi Now we wanted to go find their bigger warehouse, but instead we stopped at this random corner in down town Fresno that had four thrift stores all next to each other. These thrift stores sucked, they were cluttered and there main goal was to just sell costumes. For dinner we went to In-N-Out, I miss Reno’s In-N-Out I like it a lot more.

We are getting closer to going to Mexico! And Thanksgiving!

Shalom and Ohana

-Chase Silver

P.S. All The guys back home:

Πράξη όπως και οι άνδρες

Joshua Week Six

This past week we went to Hartland! This was the first official trip that we have taken this year. Hartland is another Christian camp about two hours away from Hume.

On the way to Hartland was drove in Meghan’s van, which was awesome because she listened to Taylor Swift on the way there! But one thing I learned that T-Swift dose is reminds me of all my friends and all the exciting adventures we have been on, and makes me a little home sick. I miss all my friends dearly.

In Hartland we were put on to service projects, we had multiple different groups of people doing all different kinds of service projects.. I was assigned to the South Side Tree Team. I was given a brush saw, which was really cool. I would walk around and chop little trees and brush. The reason for clearing the forest was for fire protection. Before we arrived to Hartland the forest leading in was really cluttered and had a lot of underlying plants and things that would spread a fire very fast.

On the south side of the road, our section had cliffs about fifteen to twenty-five feet in the air. My team had been extremely careful about checking that the are was clear before throwing anything off of the cliffs. On the third day Justin was checking to make sure it was clear and pushed this tree off the cliff, right as he did it myself, and him saw that there had been a girl in his blind spot. Right about the time the tree hit her I had thrown the chain saw down and jumped off the cliff. The tree had hit Amber on the left side of the headfirst then hit her shoulder first. The tree size was a little bigger then my fists put together. Amber fell to the ground rolling in pain. It was hard to get her to breath at a regular rate from the shock and pain she was in. Her pulse rate at first was a seventy-five, then later once one of the EMT’s on site got there it had dropped to fifty-six. Her respiratory rate was only twelve. We waited about twenty-minuets maybe more until a helicopter arrived and could medevac her down to Fresno. That day we found out that Amber was fine no broken bones, no concussion. Only some scratches and bruises, which is amazing! God had a hand on her that day! How anyone could only walk away with scratches and bruises when a tree fell and hit them is amazing. All in all Hartland was a lot of fun. I had a great time on this first trip!

For the weekend I worked at High Adventure. The ironic this was the main thing we did this weekend was clearing trees out of the forest so we could chip them in the wood chipper for bark around the new bouldering wall. So for an entire week I cleared trees from a forest.

Shalom and Ohana,

-Chase Silver

Joshua week 5

This past Monday during our free time, all the guys hoped in the bans and drove our of Hume to go on a hike. We hiked up to the top of this mountain where we could see for miles. On top of the mountain two of the Joshua staff members, Chad and Ryan shared their testimonies. It is really cool to get to know the staff more. The cool thing is each night during the week one of the guys is going to share their testimony with everyone which is great because it is building us up and bringing us closer with noe vales hiding us for who we are.

On Tuesday I had sweeps again. I was back at IT for the second time and this time instead of just counting change I had the chance to help empty all the pay phones around camp. I counted over four hundred dollars in change. I also worked on two computers and read. It’s nice that they let me read while counting change because that can be very tedious and a boring job.

On Wednesday we had our first book discussion on “mere Christianity” it was a fun book discussion because we broke up into five groups and acted our each of the first five chapters and what they pertained to. Out speaker for Wednesday and Thursday was a lady who owns the Chick-Fil-A in Fresno. For all you renoiets who have no idea what that is, the serve some delicious chicken and ice tea and its all-scrumptious food. Cool part is the entire company has a major Christian influence. The whole purpose of the restraunt is to serve others and the stories that Sonia (the owner) told us were amazing. She talked about many things like women workings in a business world, what to do for an interview and gave many insights to running a company.

Thursday was the best! It was pause family night!!!! We were all pretty excited!! My Pause family is the Garahms in my family from Joshua is Andrew, David, Kelsey, and Krista. Greg Garham is the vice president of Hume Lake. He is a great guy and really fun to be around. They picked us all up at 4:30 and we went to their house, carried some stuff to their car, his wife Linda left and he said, “Alright who knows how to ride a dirt bike?” I thought to myself, well self I used to ride back in the day. A little over six years ago. Haha sutupid little ol’me. We go everyone else on quads and he go me a really sweet Kawasaki 250 I think… Any way I kept stalling releasing the handle clutch to fast and I started to realize how long six years really is. After feeling bad for taking forever to get use to riding again. I told Greg it probably be better if I just road a quad. Funny part is he had said to me a few times well you could just ride on the back with someone and try again next time. Haha but I are Irish, British and Portuguese and would hear nothing of it. Well the cool thing is Greg said just he and I will go riding some time which will be really cool to hangout with him and learn from the VP of Hume Lake. So I rode on the back of David’s quad, it was sketchy and I thought I might die, but I took some video photo age and at least that will be entertaining. We rode up to inspiration point where Greg’s wife Linda and his oldest daughter and her fiancé and a past pause family student Jared had built a fire and we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows. Then after it was dark we all hoped on the quads, luckily this time I was own my own for the ride which was really cool because we went on a long ride, from inspiration point all the way over to the shotgun range which is above the Joshua building, down some steep dirt roads to wagon train, then back to the Garham house. We all thought it was like ten or something but it was only seven. So we played apples to apples and sat around and talked for a while.

This weekend was the first time not working at high adventure for me. It was really nice to be working somewhere else. I was a serve at the dinging hall for the women’s conference that was here. The only thing that sucked about being a serve was that I have a small head cold. So I was always having to run into the kitchen blow my nice, rewash my hands then go back out only to come back and so it all over again. Being a server was cool and was totally worth it when women from my section walked up to me today and said “ thank you, you were such a blessing and you just a nice young man. God bless.” That was really amazing; to be told that by people you have only had a few hours of influence on.

This next week we head to headland, another camp about an hour and ahold from home. It will be interesting to see what God has in store for us there. I’m excited to see what all is planned.

Shalom and Ohana,

-Chase Silver

Joshua Week Four!

This week we started sweeps. Best way to describe them is it’s a chance for us to help out in the camp during the week and learn some new skills. You either work on Tuesday or Thursday in a specific place for a month. I worked this past Tuesday at IT and will be there for the rest of October. At IT I worked on computers fixing them up. I also counted change from the pay phones around camp. In a two-hour period of time I counted over eight hundred dollars! Luckily IT has an automated coin counter. In an average week during summer, IT has to collect the change from the payphones in camp about three times. They collect over two thousand dollars every time! Pay phones make bank up here!

This week we got to watch quite a few good videos and movies. We watched a few of the Maccabeats YouTube videos. My favorite song was Candlelight:

“…I flip my latkes in the air sometimes sayin ayy ohh spin the dreidel

Just wanna celebrate for all eight nights singin ayy oh, light the candles….”

The videos that we watched by them were awesome I recommend checking them out! On Thursday night we watched a movie about Mt. Sinai. The current mountain Mt. Sinai is in Egypt, many people go and visit this biblical place but once they get there are disappointed or confused. The mountain dose not fit the biblical description of what would be there. The movie discusses a mountain in Saudi Arabia. This mountain that’s there, on the top is completely black, you can literally see the rock instantly change color. There are rocks stacked in huge piles with large rocks with hieroglyphs of the calf the Egyptians worshiped. On another side of the mountain looks like where the sacrificial table would have been. On another side of the mountain is this four-story rock perfectly split in half, and the area around it looks like there was water erosion. The video was amazing and I cannot do it justice on how interesting the movie was. Also the Saudi Arabia government has then entire area blocked off and has guards all who patrol it. Very interesting.

On Friday we had our life skills class with Kip. He is so much fun to learn from and be around. We learned about a free program that is like AutoCAD but better because it was free! It was a very sweet program that could be used for so many things. We also perfected our drawing skills, which is a very important thing to do.

I had this weekend off, on Friday all who were off had to deep clean the Joshua kitchen. I scrubbed and squeegeed the entire kitchen floor. Friday afternoon was kind of boring; I just hung around camp doing nothing. On Saturday I drove down to Fresno, a big group of us went down and shopped. Ooooooooo fun! Not really, it was an uneventful day. I was supposed to get two shots, but the doctors’ office was closed. So I’ll have to go again some time before we go to the Dominican Republic. The good part of the day was I got to go to In-N-Out! Which was very tasty! Yay for a number two animal style, with well-done fry’s, and a medium drink containing ½ pink lemonade, ¼ ice tea and another ¼ containing water. Tasty tasty!

If you have any questions for me feel to ask away!

Hope all is well in your life! and if you have anything that you would like prayed about let me know!

Shalom and Ohana,

-Chase Silver

Joshua week three

This week was our first week of being on a regular schedule. All the class is finally getting settled in and starting to call the Joshua building home. It’s a blessing how much free time we have I was able to finish the first book of Left Behind series. I am currently on book two and I’m almost finished with it!

Monday our very first Catalyst Couple arrived! Chris and Anna were a pleasure to have here for the week. They teach high school; Chris teaches health and is the wrestling coach. Anna teaches health and leadership. Their life story was awe-inspiring. Our speaker this week was Jeff Lilly; he was a very funny speaker. The theme of his sermons was character building and building your seven pillars. Jeff used Psalm nine for his main talking points; it was very interesting to see the connections from it.

Tuesday our first paper was due. The paper is called a skill paper and it helps you to focus on different ways to study the bible. We had to read and study the book of Jonah in depth. The paper had to address the author, purpose, and the date of the book. We also had to write about the historical side of the city Nineveh.

Wednesday we had out first writing class in which we are addressing the proper use of words and their meanings. Such as awesome, amazing, just, cool, righteous, sweet… How would you use them? Also in writing class we are working on grammar, thank goodness for Damonte Ranch High School and having so many teacher focuses on DLG and lessons pertaining to grammar.

Thursday we had our first etiquette dinner. The entire class dressed up in formal attire and we were paired together in groups of two, and the gentlemen had to escort the ladies to dinner. We had an amazing fancy dinner that night where our lovely professional chef made a five-course meal, ending with one of my favorite desserts chocolate moose! The evening was very fun and it was interesting to see how everyone was with table manners and dinner etiquette. One thing that was fun to watch is the fact that when a lady leaves the table, all gentlemen should stand out of a sign of respect. It was fun to watch every male at a table stand…. Until a lady at my table got up to excuse her self for a moment and two of us did notice her get up till a little late…. Oops haha.

Friday we had our second life skills class with Kip. We broke up into groups to look at a list of items such as; paper and pen, emergency flare, mirror, first aid kit, bible, survival guide, flashlight, a compass with a magnifying glass, space blanket, rope, flint, water bottle, and a knife. We had to look at these items and figure out which ones we would want with us in the order of highest wanted to least wanted. I choose the knife first; it’s a multipurpose tool. Next I would want the water bottle then the flint.

This weekend I work at High Adventure, which is Hume’s high ropes course. It’s a horribly tough job. On Friday afternoon we practiced the screamer, which Andy, Matt, Justin and I were the throwing dummies, which was pretty fun to just fall off a forty-two foot structure over and over again. That night our boss Jordan took us out to a bouldering rock a little ways off of the property. It was a lot of fun to be out there with a bunch of people and just climb some rocks! Jordan is by far the best boss I’ve had!

On Saturday we had two sessions to go through. The first session was great my partner for that was Justin D. On the screamer we had every person jump, even the people who were scared out of their minds! That was great that people trusted us enough and the ropes and most importantly God to take that leap of faith off the structure. The first group we had the majority go through the advanced route on the ropes course but we had a few take the easier way through. The second session was the best one because not only did I get everyone in my group to jump but we got everyone through the ropes course on the advanced route, and everyone up the pampers poles! This weekend was the first time I had ran a group by my self. At the end of the second session everyone in the group gave me a hug and said thank you! I thought that was awesome!

Today is Sunday. I woke up early went to work and helped build the new bouldering wall at High Adventure. I also got to drive beastie or a.k.a. international, an old 1964 pickup up from the ropes course all the way up above Joshua to the needles dump, collect dumped out wood and bring it back so that it can be used in the build. Church was good tonight, although I really miss hearing Bill’s sermons especially hearing about how USC did… I think that’s the team… I’m not sure but I heard that his team did loose last weekend. The church here is a satellite church and we just watch a recorded video, which I am not the biggest fan of at all. But I’m sure ill get use to it eventually.

This next week is going to be fun; on Thursday we get to go to out pause family houses and hang out! Which I’m super excited for!

“ You may got to work but when you get home your work has just begun.” –Jeff Lilley

Shalom and Ohana,

Chase Silver

Hume Lake!!!!!!

Second week at Joshua

This past week started with a bang! A nice slow creeping Chad and I think Allen snuck into my room around 4:50 in the morning and woke my roommate Tristan and I up, saying you have ten minuets to pack and chucked bags at our faces.

We sprung to our feet scurrying to grab stuff that was on this little piece of paper they left us. Sleeping bag check. Shirts check. Socks check. Underwear check. Big snow coat that I will come to find out I don’t need check. Small travel pillow check. Toiletries check. Camera, water bottle, shoes, miscellaneous items check. Everything crammed into on bag, in ten minuets. Priceless. I was shocked I actually made it out to the great room on time.

All the guys followed Allen and Meghan down from Joshua, until we reached a phone booth where the cans picked us up and took us for a ride. The ride out to where ever the heck we were going felt so quick yet so long. Once we reached our destination we all got out and were told to grab a rock. Then we started trekking down this small canyon. WE had to be completely silent the entire way to out destination. We had to stop once near the river because the girls were ahead of us at the first stop. So we waited till it was our turn and we cam to a pile of rocks. Allen said it is called an Ebenezer, and that back in the day people would make these to signify importance of things. After putting our rocks on to the Ebenezer, we trekked across a log that was above the river and we then entered into Wildwood.

Wildwood, good old Wildwood. Rule number one, NO RECOLECTION OF TIME. Number two, NO SHOWERING. Number three, NO TECHNOLOGY. Number four, NO LOOKING IN MIRROS. I herd those rules and knew this week would be fun. I was extremely grateful I had remembered my deodorant.

Day one at Wildwood was pretty fun, we started the day there off with a devo time, which was nice sense the sun started to come up and was warming us up after a brisk morning. On Monday we had our first round of GI’s my group was with Jen and we went up past the high ropes course, our first task was to get everyone on this small tarp and then flip it over without anyone touching the ground. We didn’t complete the task but we sure worked as a cohesive unit. The next challenge was using two logs we had to get from one stump all the way across to another large stump. We didn’t complete that one either. But I did become blind for having a log fall into the lave. So that was kind of fun until every guy on our team had some type of disability. It was a very fun day and we ended it with listing to Sam Myer who was our speaker for the past two weeks.

Day two at Wildwood was pretty awesome. I woke up a little early and had a small devo time. Our GI today was at the totem pole thing with tires that we had to get on it without having them touch the pole. It was challenging but my group did a great hob working through it and we actually completed this challenge. That night was intense, we were told to go grab our Bible and a flashlight and a jacket and come back and meet at the fire put. We were then told we were going out into the woods for an extended devo time. We were out in the woods for around five or more hours. But sense Wildwood is all about not keeping time, I can’t honestly tell you exactly how long it was. But everyone has guessed it was around five hours, it could have been longer. The cool thing about being in the forest by yourself, is you have no distraction other then noises from bugs, bugs flying in your face, bugs trying to eat you, animals all around you, deer’s that you think could be a mountain lion or a bear, really no distractions at all. You are really able to focus out there. No really once you do get past all the distractions of nature you really can focus on God and his word. We started out in the woods when it was light and ended when it was dark.

There I was lying on the ground covered in dirt, unable to read because it had gotten to dark to be able read with my flashlight that would blind me as it reflected off of the pages. So there I lay, then all of a sudden I hear far in the distance music playing. The Joshua staff had set up speakers and were playing music, it was so amazing I cant even explain the feeling, If I could ever recommend one thing to do to grow your faith is go out into the woods or anywhere quite and secluded and stay there with no recollection of time and having no distractions and just focus on God. It will truly be amazing.

Day three at Wildwood still pretty awesome, our GI time today was the ropes course. I love rope courses, which is why I work at the ropes course at main camp. Our group did awesome; everyone went all the way through. Even the people who were scared to death of heights and screamed and cried all the way through, but those people who did scream and cry all the way through are awesome, because they were able to conquer a fear and know that God is with them where ever they go and they can do anything through him. Our speaker for the week Sam came back that night and he was one sermon away from leaving us. The things Sam taught us were amazing. His memory is incredible. You could ask him a question and in seconds he would have everyone flipping through your Bible to a certain book, chapter, and verse that would directly relate to the question, just absolutely amazing!

Day four, last day at Wildwood, we started our morning off with a little worship set, and then we had our last sermon from Sam. Sam taught us a lot, he taught us a little Hebrew, he taught us things I had never even thought of in the Bible, such as east and west, the fact that back in the day people didn’t orient them selves with north and south, they were east and west. And in the Old Testament as you read you can start to see that when people went east things got worse but when they went west things began to get better. Sam and his wife Ilene are such a cool couple, and very devoted to Christ. We all learned so much from them! Sense this was our last day at Wildwood, it was tear down time, we are the last group to use is so we tore everything down. After that we went back to the Joshua building and pretty much everyone ran for the showers. It felt nice to be clean once again.

I was supposed to work this weekend but I switched with a girl who wanted to work at the high ropes course. Pat, Steve, and David came up for the weekend, so Andy and I hung out with them; on Saturday we went down to Fresno and had a burger and the Habit. So good! We also went to Target and Wal-Mart. We also played a fun round of mini gold. We ate dinner at Outback and I definitely had a juicy steak that was cooked with wood smoke!

This past week at Joshua was week two. I love the fact that I’m here and feel so blessed to be apart of such a great program. I’m excited to see what God has in store for us all this next week!

Shalom and Ohana,

Chase Silver

Huge Thunder Storm!

Today there was a huge thunderstorm it was awesome!!!!

Today we had our first book discussion on the book A Tail of Three Kings! it was such a good read! i would recommend that book to anyone and everyone!!!!

During our free time today, we had the option to go and start truing to become High Adventure trained! It was An awesome day and can't wait till tomorrow to go and learn more about the ins and outs of the ropes course.

We had our first speaker of the year his name is Sam. He is an awesome speaker! and we get to listen to him for the next two weeks which will be sick!

Ill up load his sermon from tonight later this week or next.

Hope all is well!

Ohanna,

Chase Silver

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Chase Silver JWI 2011-2012