There is a program at Hume called the Joshua Wilderness Institute, a nine month long program for college-age students that emphasizes intense study of the Bible, life skills, work ethic, evangelism, etc. The students have two Thursdays each month to "pause" from their hectic school, study and work schedules to spend time with a family (assigned for the year). We have been super blessed to be able to be Pause parents for the second consecutive year, along with our close friends, the Davies (we share one Pause family because our own children are still little enough to require a lot of our attention on any given night -- between the four of us adults, we figure they get the equivalent of at least two regular people!). We have six fantastic students and are having a terrific time getting to know them!
A tradition of Pause is the annual Christmas party and gingerbread house competition between all of the Pause families. Last year, Joel, Ellie and I were on a plane to Disney World during the party, and thus missed the festivities. During our absence, our family's very well-intentioned gingerbread scene (under the direction of the Davies) suffered a series of mishaps and ended up winning the award for "Most Inappropriate." Last night, we had the chance to redeem our group's standing -- any other award was to be considered a victory. Much to our excitement and surprise, we did not just win a different award, we won first place! (Well, technically runner up, but they decided that it wasn't fair for the staff entry to win, so the runner up became the first place -- whatever you call it, we'll take it!) We like to tease the Davies that this is the difference that our influence makes, but in reality, we'll give the credit to our students. :)
A tradition of Pause is the annual Christmas party and gingerbread house competition between all of the Pause families. Last year, Joel, Ellie and I were on a plane to Disney World during the party, and thus missed the festivities. During our absence, our family's very well-intentioned gingerbread scene (under the direction of the Davies) suffered a series of mishaps and ended up winning the award for "Most Inappropriate." Last night, we had the chance to redeem our group's standing -- any other award was to be considered a victory. Much to our excitement and surprise, we did not just win a different award, we won first place! (Well, technically runner up, but they decided that it wasn't fair for the staff entry to win, so the runner up became the first place -- whatever you call it, we'll take it!) We like to tease the Davies that this is the difference that our influence makes, but in reality, we'll give the credit to our students. :)
The first picture and the one below are of Ellie Mae and Ellie Ferreira singing Christmas carols. They had a great time together all night, and especially enjoyed tickling one of the Joshua students during the quiet story time!
Our Pause family hard at work: (left to right) Will (from South Carolina!), Damon, Julie, and Tom (they also had an ugly Christmas sweater competition, which explains Tom's fun stripes!). 
Jake is another of our Pause kids, and loves the little ones! Connor and Olivia Davies are on his lap. 
Here are a lot of us with the finished masterpiece: Jake, Tom, Brittany, Jen, Ellie Mae, Ashley, Breanna, Julie and Connor.
And the winner is..."Alone Time with God" - a depiction of the Wildwood fire that happened at the beginning of the year, rumored to have something to do with solo time in the woods, a campfire and a certain Joshua student. The fire was really put out by a helicopter with lots and lots of water, so our scene is fairly realistic! Poor student, but we hear that he is a good sport! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment