Week 3: Fast Forward, Pause!

The first regular, same ole’ same ole’ week I guess. I went to classes, ate, slept. Pretty much nothing super special. It was the first week Jason Knott taught our Old Testament Survey class. I really love that class, but I was bummed because I had to leave for lunch KP so I was only there for about a half hour. I decided I like KP, I just don’t like the clean up afterwards. Washing all those dishes was going to drive me insane. And my black flats will forever smell like dish water… nasty.

We had our first catalyst couple this week, Cathy and Craig! They were great. Cathy was always baking something for us. She even made onion rings and they were super delicious!  She let me come in and use her oven to make huckleberry muffins.

Wednesday was girls night. We put Paige and Marina on the hot seat for their birthday where we got to ask any questions for 2 minutes. We played a game and got to know each other a little better.  Later, Cathy got on the hot seat for 5 minutes and the questions were more serious than before. I really enjoyed it.

OH! We got our Pause families this week!!! That was on Thursday. In my group is Michelle, Shiloh, Tim, Trevor, and Morgan and we got the Saunders (Scott, Happy, Dayton, and Dylan) and another family whose name escapes me at the moment.... Anyway, we had a ton of fun! Of course, I was like one of the last to get called, but it’s all good because I obviously have the best pause family of all. First, we went to the Saunders house and had cookies and milk. We played a game where we each picked a straw, all of different lengths and then we had to state a fact about us for every time we could wrap the straw around our finger. I got a long straw, of course! After that, we went to the other family’s house. It was funny because he was driving all over camp, going in circles, telling us to “Remember how to get to my house, because you’ll have to tell me how to get back.” It was hilarious! When we finally got there we played the Truth Truth Lie game which was fun. Then we filled out a paper about our favorite things. They said that once for each of us, a whole Pause day will be dedicated to one of us, with all our favorite things! Then we ate apple cake and had hot apple cider. We talked about going to play laser tag in Fresno. I can’t wait!

When we were playing Truth Truth Lie, Tim said “I’ve never flown on a plane, I love spaghetti, and I broke both my shoulder blades.” I guessed the Spaghetti one was a lie, and he said I was right. He even said “I’ll eat it, it’s just not like my favorite…” Everyone thought it was funny and we were making jokes about him not liking spaghetti all night. Later, after we got home, Tim said that he actually had flown on a plane and the he really like spaghetti. He didn’t know why he said yes to me and he didn’t know what to do after that because everyone was talking about it! He was like “I lied to my pause family about spaghetti! Now we’re never going to eat spaghetti ever! I love spaghetti.” It was the funniest thing ever! He was freaking out about it.

This weekend was like the longest weekend ever. I worked 22.75 hours and man am I exhausted. I was a dining host the first day and then worked in the bakery the other two. My feet were screaming at me all day and my back was aching. It was a women’s conference this weekend and they eat three times what the men’s conferences eat. It was ridiculous. Today I worked from 6 to 3. I slept for 4 hours today, from 3:30 to 7:30 and totally slept through dinner and church tonight. I kind of feel bad about that but I needed my day of rest, or at least a few hours!

Week 2: Into the Wild

Well, who doesn’t like being woken up at 4:30 in the morning? I certainly didn’t. But this past week we were at Wildwood. Going into it, my heart was so closed to the idea of spending a few days sleeping in tents, getting attacked by bugs, and not showering (talk about gross!). I prayed the night before that God would open my heart to it but even driving off into the wilderness, I was still turned off by the whole thing.

We hiked into camp around 6:30 probably ( actually I have no clue, we weren’t allowed to have watches). After getting all settled in to our tents (I stayed in Compassion), we had breakfast. We had time to do devos, and the started our GI’s (group initiatives). My team got to start out with the stumps and logs where we had to figure out how to get from one stump to another using only 4 logs and a bunch of smaller stumps. Jenna kept disabling our strongest player by making them blind, deaf, or lose a limb. I was so miserable from my allergies plus I broke my glasses, so I was afraid I was going to ruin the whole exercise for everyone. We never made it to the other stump, but we never really got frustrated with each other, which was kind of the point to the GI. However, we did manage to break one of the small stumps! Afterwards, we had a ton of free time before dinner, ate, and then had a campfire where we got to know a little about the staff. We got to hear about when  God became real in their lives. I also learned that Brett is afraid of invisible cars and Jen has a fear that people come into her house and move her furniture while she sleeps!

The next day, our GI was the high ropes. It started out good, just climbing up the wires and walking across the “Giants Necklace” but then came the partner ropes, where we had to lean on a partner to get across. The second I put one foot down, my legs started shaking like crazy. Lexi was my partner and I seriously don’t know what I would have done without her. She calmed me down by talking to me. When she mentioned the verse “I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me,” something clicked in my head, and I was able to make it across. Of course I burst into tears as soon as I reached the platform, but I did it! Walking across the wobbling balance beam was hard too, and I cried after that also. But then came the Tarzan ropes, and I completely froze. My head was spinning and my heart was beating a million times per second. Fortunately, I went to the bathroom beforehand so I didn’t pee my pants. As soon as I stepped on, my legs went crazy again, but this time I didn’t have Lexi right in my face helping me get across. It was just me… or so I thought. I grabbed the first rope, terrified out of my mind, and scooted across the wire. As I went to reach the second rope, I realized I had to let go of the first so I really started freaking out. But then I remembered, “I can do all things through Christ….” And I kept repeating that in my head. Suddenly, I felt like I was being washed over by a wave of calmness. I got a grip and slowly made my way all the way to the other platform (where of course I cried hysterically), but I did it! And I realized it wasn’t Lexi who got me across. It was God working through her and through me. It was an incredible experience (which I will never do again).

Later that day, they had us go out into the woods, alone, and just spend time with God and His word. I was out there for probably a good 6 hours. The first hour wasn’t so bad, but being the type of person who gets distracted easily, the other 5 hours weren’t so great. I had a hard time trying to focus that long, not knowing what time it was or when we could come in. Now I wish I would have spent the time more wisely, but I’m still learning. After about 5 hours they started playing music for us, which was really nice. We were called in by the conch and had hobo dinner (meat & veggies cooked in tin foil over the campfire).

The third day, our GI was to swing from one platform to another and then using a bunch of small planks, getting keys and buckets off of trees all without touching the ground. We were rocking at it, even when we got a penalty, until poor Mallory blacked out. She was okay afterwards, but we stopped just to make sure she was okay. My group worked so well together all 3 days. We also awarded the plunger award to Brandon the first day because he was awesome even when both his arms were taken away, Lexi the second day for being so encouraging to everyone, and to Fletcher the third day for literally getting down in the dirt and letting people stand on his back.

That night, we also had dinner, but this time our wrists were tied to the people’s next to us! So we had to get up as a group, walk to the kitchen, get our dinner  (which was Cesar salad, spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and RED punch), go back to our table, pass out the food (it was family style) and eat, all while tied to two other people. It was hilarious and we all worked so well together. It was me, Jonathan, Sara, Lexi, Megan, Logan, Morgan, and Eric. We also had to go up and get cake (it was Brett’s birthday! And also National Talk Like a Pirate Day) . Later on, after we were untied, we had a book discussion on the first 8 chapters of Spiritual Leadership.

The last day at Wildwood was spent mostly tearing down the camp. I got to help Kelsey with the kitchen so we got to go to the trash compactor and back to the building. After dinner, we had a girls night in our jammies while the boys had a guys night at Wildwood. We had different flavor popcorn,  got to know our female staff a little more and even had a one song dance party (“We Are Young” ftw!).  When it was a little more serious, we all filled out a paper anonymously of things that we might struggle with & it helped us to realize that we aren’t alone in our struggles.

Friday and Saturday I picked up some extra shifts in the kitchen on my weekend off. I love working in the kitchen but I spent 3 hours cutting 75lbs of bell peppers! Marty  says by the end of the year I’ll be in the 2000lb club! Sunday night I was even dreaming about cutting peppers! That is, until my stomach started hurting. Between 1:30 and 5:00am, the pain in my stomach moved from there to my chest and I started having trouble breathing. I tried to walk to the bathroom to get some pain medicine but it was like all my muscles were shutting down. I managed to crawl to the counter & take some pills but when I got back to my bed, I was so weak and couldn’t breathe. I woke up Shelby and she ran and got Jenna and Jenae for me. Jenna helped me get my breathing back to normal after a while but it was so scary. I genuinely thought I was going to die.

I’m feeling a lot better now and I even went down to Pondi to see if they still needed my help. I ended up helping Jason and Sarah off the clock. Everyone thought I was crazy for working without getting paid, But I really enjoy doing it.

Week 1: Movers and Shakers

I cannot believe it has only been a week here at Joshua. I feel like I’ve been here a month at least with how busy I am. Saturday was move in day, which took forever because of the amount of stuff I brought. Fortunately, I had a place for everything to go so my room wasn’t overflowing and my roommate wasn’t overwhelmed. It’s really starting to feel like home here. I love my classes, the people, everything about Joshua. Except for that stupid hill.

I’ve gone through all of my classes at least once, and I’d have to say, so far my favorite class is probably Old Testament Survey, because I am normally reading from the New Testament so it’s so refreshing to learn out so of the books of the Bible I’ve never even opened before. Life Skills is a close second. I’m excited to learn all these skills I’ll be able to use in the future.

Wednesday was our Etiquette Dinner, which was amazing! My date was Trevor, and he was so nice. Dinner was Chinese themed with dragons, paper lanterns, and origami cranes. It was a four course dinner, with cucumber onion salad, a red spicy soup, salmon with snap peas and brown noodles, and poached pear with vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. Before the meal, we learned all about good etiquette and how it’s all about respecting others and thinking of them before yourself. Sitting down was kind of awkward though, as the bar on the chair would hit the back of my foot when I tried to sit.

After dinner, was time to dance! They taught us how to do the Cha-Cha, Waltz, and Swing. It was so much fun and we could have kept dancing all night. Rich was very generous and didn’t hold anyone to their chores that day, as it was late by the time we stopped dancing. My feet hurt like crazy, but it was the most fun I’ve had in a while!

Friday was my first day of work. Fortunately, I didn’t have to get up early after a long night. I started around 1:30 in the Ponderosa Dinning Hall, first helping make center pieces for that nights event. Then I got to arrange flowers in a pot, which was way harder than I thought it would be. I had to shove towels, bubble wrap, and tweed to get the flowers high enough in the plants. I also got to cut bell peppers, clean the bakery, and bus tables. It was a lot of work and my feet & back were killing me, but it was great and I look forward to everything I get to do later on in the year.

Saturday was also a work day, but I didn’t have to start until 2:30. We started out putting all the décor together. It was an outside dinner so we had to move all the food outside to the Pondy Lodge and plate the food there. I was a server and bussed the tables afterwards. It was a lot of fun but my arms and legs were killing me when it was all done. The kitchen staff was awesome and gave us a bunch of dessert. We totally pigged out on the red velvet cake with strawberries, tiramisu, and chocolate dipped macaroons. Tyler didn’t realize we had spoons so he was using his hands to eat the tiramisu. Everyone was cracking up because we were so exhausted and everything that happened was hilarious. Today is Sunday and I only work about 3 hours today. We have a BBQ at Cedar and then go the Cedar Chapel for church. This first week has been great and I can’t wait for the next 32 to come!

Moved In!

I am now officially a Joshua student! Move in yesterday was so awesome. My dad wasn’t too happy at first about the amount of stuff I brought… which was a lot. More than a lot. (I out packed every other student here!). But fortunately there was enough room for all my stuff. I did realize I had 13 bottles of lotion and at least 12 mini bottles for hand sanitizer haha!  The room is really big, with 2 full size beds, a large dresser, a full size closet, a bathroom with a large shower and plenty for storage room, and a loft above our room (to keep my extra clothes!)

My roommate’s name is Shelby. She’s super sweet, but very quiet. I guess I talk enough for the both of us. We both love purple, have tons of clothes, and love Bath & Body Works.

Today has been an okay day. Breakfast started at 6:45, so we tried getting up at 6:00 but both of our alarms didn’t go off for some reason… fortunately Shelby woke up at 6:30 & woke me up, but it was a rush to get ready & rush to breakfast that ended at 8. We left about 7:10 & got to breakfast. Then the real fun began…. Walking back up the hill. At a normal pace, it probably takes a good 20-30 minutes to walk up that stupid hill. I’ve done it twice today, and needed a nap after both times and my legs are so very sore. Hopefully it’ll get easier, adjusting to the 5,000ft altitude and having asthma. But for now… not so fun.

Tomorrow starts our first real day, with classes and such. I really think I’m going to enjoy all my classes. They somehow manage to fit all 56 of us in a classroom a little smaller than a normal high school classroom. It’s cozy.  But I look forward to it. I think I’m going to like it here. 

Getting Ready

Hey everyone! (well i don't even know if anyone's reading this...) Anyway, I leave tomorrow for Fresno and then it's off to Joshua! I can't believe how fast the summer went, but I'm so excited to start this next chapter of my life. I'm still packing (I have waaaay too much stuff haha) and I have no clue how I'm going to fit it all in the car tomorrow. 

I would love to hear from you! I'll still have internet access so you can email me, leave comments here, message me on Facebook, or send me a letter! (I love getting letters in the mail) 


Send letters to:

Hannah Pettey, JWI
64144 Hume Lake Rd
Hume, CA 93628