Hello Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. I am writing this update to let you know that I have arrived in Orlando. Well, I am actually just outside of Orlando at a campsite where I met Stacy (YFC Ministry Staff) and her family. I arrived here yesterday evening at about 5PM EST. It has been a lot of driving but I am surprisingly not too tired. Praise God. Stacy's family and church family have warmly welcomed me and I already feel like part of the family. Speaking of warm, it sure is hot out here. I have made sure and applied the suntan lotion but I still have gotten burned. You won't even be able to recognize me when I get back. I expect to get quite a tan.

Last night after I got here I helped with the music for a worship service we had. I think that we are having another one tonight but the guitarist that usually plays will be back so I will be able to sit back and enjoy the worship. Tomorrow we leave for Miami. It is a 4 1/2 hour drive which is not bad compared to the 19 1/2 hours that I have already driven. Well, we are about to cook dinner so it will probably be a few hours before I actually get to post this to the site. I will write again when I get settled in Miami tomorrow.

This is it!! This is the last day before I leave for Florida. I will be leaving at 4AM tommorow morning. I hope that you will all be praying for my safe travel to Florida and for all of the other interns as they travel. I will arrive in Miami on Monday morning. I am spending the night in Pensacola tommorow night and then I am staying at a campsight near Orlando for 2 nights before we go on in to Miami. Once we get to Miami I will meet with my host family and then we will have a week of orientation training before we leave for Mishawaka, Indiana. We will be going to Bethel College for Summer Institute training(SI). Needless to say I won't be getting a lot of rest for the next couple of weeks. Please pray that I will be energized and prepared to learn during SI. I hope that all of you are doing well. Please send me an email or leave comments on this post. I would love to hear from you all. I think the internet may be the best cure for homesickness.

I know that the form for email updates is still not working for some reason. If you would like to be added to the email update list then you can send me an email at broken@gmail.com and I will send you an invite. Hopefully it will work that way. I am working on a way to post pictures on the site as the summer goes on. I will also probably be posting pictures to another site that we are working on for YFC. If we get that site up and running I will post the website address here.

I still have not raised enough money to support all of my expenses over the summer. I am getting worried because the gas prices keep rising and I am driving a lot this summer. Fortunately, I am able to continue raising money through the summer. If you would still like to sponsor my internship I believe that I have posted the information in one of my previous entries on this page. Every little bit counts. If you know anyone else that might be interested in sponsoring my trip please please please refer them to this web page.

I love all of you and I am so lucky to have such a supportive group of people stand behind me in prayer and financially. Please continue to pray for God to use me in great ways this summer. I can only imagine what He has in store for me. I know that He will take care of me. I also know that this will not be easy work that I have been called to do. He didn't say it would be easy. Only that he would be there every step of the way.

God bless all of you and I will try to post another update for you all tommorow night when I arrive in Pensacola if possible. If not then I probably won't have internet access again until Monday.

Joshua

Hello Everyone,

I have added a new feature to this website. You now have the option of being updated by email everytime that I add a post to this site. All you have to do is simply enter your email address in the box located on the right hand side of this page. You will then be sent a confirmation email. You must reply to the confirmation email to be added to the list. It's that simple! I hope you will sign up for this list. I want to keep in touch with every single one of you while I am gone. This website is one way that I plan on doing that. Once again, thank you for all of your prayers and support. God Bless!!

Joshua

My departure is growing steadily closer and now I have less than a week before I leave for Florida. I have been growing more nervous about traveling alone. I have never travelled this far by myself before. However, this morning God has given me a peaceful feeling. It is very early in the morning and nobody else in my house is up yet. I am about to go on a hike with several people from the YMCA. We are going to Glen Rose (Dinosaur Valley). As I look outside I see the beginnings of a beautiful day made by God. The sunrise is so awesome. The cool air of a summer morning feels great.

I just recieved my information for the training in Indiana that I will be attending. The training is called Summer Institute or SI. Please join me in praying that God will help me make the very best of Summer Institute, that I will learn more about my relationship with him, that I will understand more about my call as a missionary to lost youth, that I will be kept safe while traveling, and that God would oversee all aspects of the preparation of Summer Institute.

In order to keep you updated on my fundraising efforts, I have added a section on the right hand column of the main page of this site. I will keep it updated on my current account totals and my goal. I will also be adding some cool links to the right sidebar of this page. I have come across some great online resources and I will pass them on to you through this new "Links" section.

Hey everyone,

I am getting excited. Only a few weeks until I leave for Miami. And I will be flying to Indiana for some training about a week after I arrive. It is awesome that God has taken care of all the little details for my trip. It looks like I will not have to pay for any hotel while I am driving to Miami because I have places to stop and sleep. I will be leaving on Friday the 28th and will arrive on Monday the 31st. Please be praying for my safe trip. I won't have much time to rest because we get started on Tuesday and it looks like I will be working a lot of hours. I am flying to Indiana on the 7th or 8th (I am not sure yet).

I have just added a feature to this site that will allow you to post comments on each of my posts. This feature will allow me to communicate with all of you through the site while I am gone. When you post a comment it automatically sends me an e-mail. You could also just send me an email if you would like. My new email address is broken@gmail.com . I will have the address you can snail mail me at in a week or so. I cannot remember which address they asked me to use.

I also thought I would let you know where I stand on fundraising. As you know my fundraising goal is between $4000 and $4700. As of right now, a little more than 2 weeks before the trip, I have $1,465 in my fundraising account. Unfortunately this does not even cover all of my traveling expenses. I greatly appreciate all of the donations that have been made so far. There is no way I could do this work that God has called me to without you. I ask that if you know anyone else that would be willing to donate that you would ask them for me. Here is the donation information for those who are interested in making a donation:

All donations are tax deductible.
Checks should be made payable to "YFC/USA"
Please write "RD# 23825" in the memo line of the check so they know it is for my account.
Checks should be mailed to:
YFC/USA
P.O. Box 228822
Denver, Colorado 80222

I also ask for prayer. We have an awesome team of people coming together to change the lives of many youth this summer and the enemy is not happy about it. Please pray for me and the other two interns, Mary Ann from Ohio and Verity from New Zealand. Thank you all and God Bless!!

Welcome to my online journal. This journal will serve to keep all of my brothers and sisters in christ who are supporting me financially and through prayer updated on my youth ministry efforts in Miami. In the coming weeks I hope to be able to share all of the wonderful things that God is doing through our ministry in Miami. Today, I would just like to begin with telling you how much I appreciate you all. As most of you know my fundraising goal for this summer is about $4000. At this time my account shows that I have $1,325 so far. That means I still have a long way to go. I know that some of you have sent in checks that just have not been added to my account yet since YFC is a little slow at getting it updated. I ask you to pray that God will provide the resources I need to complete the mission he has called me to this summer. I will try to keep you all updated as much as I can.