Goodbye Josiah!

For a month now, we’ve had a young man, Josiah Cochran, visiting with us. He wanted some experiences of living in Poland and helping during this time with the Ukraine situation. So, we say goodbye to him tomorrow. He has to get back home to Canada and get ready to head back to college where he is studying Bible.

The airlines (Lufthansa) lost his luggage on the way over. The funny thing is, they apparently found it and returned it back to his parents….yesterday! This means this whole time he’s been living mostly with the things in his backpack and carryon. He also bought a few things. Maybe he learned you can actually exist with a lot less than he had thought.

He helped me so much! I’ll admit - I had my doubts when my husband told me he was going to stay here. I was so tired and not ready to have someone else stay here. I was overwhelmed. Tired. Trying to tread water.

But I was wrong. My attitude was bad.

He was a very good guest - very undemanding. He fixed his own breakfast. He had his own money so he could pay his own way when we went out…which we did a lot when it was so hot I didn’t want to cook.

So what has he done?

Well, he did spend a week at that camp in Ukraine where my husband has been going to meet people.

While there he was able to visit other places and experience eating food Ukrainian style.

So what all did he do while here? He really helped me with our quilts project. I felt a little bad for putting him to so much work doing quilts- but he did anything I asked with a great attitude.

Here are a few pictures.

He was a good sport at the castle where he tried on the chain mail -

He helped pack up the trailers.

He helped carry quilts, pack quilts, pack boxes, make baby sets, count pillowcases, carry boxes—doing anything we needed.

He helped my husband at the church doing many things like climbing on the roof and fixing leaks, mowing grass, doing some general grunt work that isn’t hard for an almost 20 year old.

Being a good sport in a very crowded vehicle - after buying bolts of fabric and having to sit like that for a short drive.

He is strong and was quite willing to carry just about anything.

He tried to talk to everyone - was very friendly and the Ukrainian ladies liked him!

So now, Josiah, as you head back to your home country, we wish you God Speed. You helped us incredibly while you were here! Thank you!

He told me his goal when he’s been here was to help me completely finish up this quilts project. And he did.

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!

Becky Petersen6 Comments