For the past two months, the myriad of agonizing possibilities we have pondered regarding Josh’s disappearance essentially boiled down to two primary questions: Is he alive or is he dead? We came to the place where we realized that we may never know the answer and attempted to make peace with that. You may wrestle with whether it is coincidence, fate or an answer to prayer but we now have clear evidence that Josh is alive.
We wish we had more answers than we still have questions but that is not so. What we do know is this. Two months ago, Josh left his scooter at the trailhead leading into the northernmost of seven remote valleys comprising of hundreds of square miles in the northern part of the Big Island of Hawaii. With the exception of the most southern valley, access is only possible on foot or by helicopter. There are a very few structures scattered throughout the valleys left from the days when sugarcane was prominent in Hawaii. Crops were irrigated by water from the valleys. These cabins are now sometimes used by helicopter tour companies and by a few others such as department of land and natural resources workers.
Within the past week, Josh entered one of these cabins deep in one of the valleys and left behind several pages containing some thoughts and ideas in his handwriting. There is no doubt whatsoever that the author is Josh. The papers were found three days ago by a helicopter pilot who photographed them. A week before another helicopter pilot was at the same cabin and the papers were not there. The photographs were seen by a friend who works at the helicopter company familiar with Josh’s disappearance and recognized Josh’s birthday written on one of the pages along with several other clues as to the identity of the writer. He shared the photos of the papers with us and there is no question at all, they were written by Josh.
We are overjoyed that we are able to definitively answer one of the two primary questions we have been asking for the past two months. Josh is alive! While half of the myriad of agonizing possibilities we have been pondering are now resolved, the other half still remains. Half of a myriad is still a myriad.
So many have been praying, wondering, being frustrated, confused and hoping along with us. Thank you so much for your continued thoughts and prayers!
Josh is alive… we hope to see him soon!