a message from Josh...

Dear Friends,

The month of January was quite a busy month with school starting up again, Basketball starting, and really, just getting back into the swing of things, coming off of a month of Christmas vacation!

Going back to school was tough! The teachers decided to hit us right of the bat with big loads of homework, and also, I resumed my HACIA practices.

HACIA Democracy is a simulation of the OAS (Organization of Amercian States), organized by Harvard University. They prepare an annual conference, this year located in Panama, where students from all over the western hemisphere gather to practice debate, diplomacy, and consensus building. I am a part of the 15 student team from my school that will travel in March to participate in the conference in Panama.

To prepare for the conference, I have been going to weekly practice sessions, writing multiple papers, and meeting with my assigned advisor on Fridays to help with certain debate strategies and topic preparation.

Apart from HACIA, Basketball started up again on Monday. We are in the middle of tryouts, and will know who made the team by next Monday! Practices are very rigorous, consisting of many suicide drills, and numerous sets of pushups! What a great way to get back into shape!

On the 27th, we had our Spiritual Emphasis day at school, a day set aside for spiritual refreshment for the students and staff. It was such a great day, something I very much needed.

Without our wonderful church home, it has been very hard for me to feel filled up and on that day, I felt full again and encouraged! I'm currently reading the book of Joshua and it is just really neat to know why I was named what I was named!

Mom leaves to go home on wednesday, so please be praying that everything works out well while she is gone! Thank you all for your support and prayers!

~Josh

P.S. Towards the end of January, I participated in my second Triathlon and took fourth place among guy students! I beat my time form last year by 45 seconds!

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