The Final Post...

Well, it’s about that time. I know we were all expecting it to be so far away, but it’s finally here. The final blog post. In a week, Link Year will over. It’s a very sad fact, but looking back it’s been a great year. Last night at the Q&A with Donyes, he said something about how much I’ve grown this year. Its been an incredible amount, and I doubt he even knows the extent of it. I was even browsing through my Facebook history (and obviously deleted stuff) and was astonished at some of the things I’ve said and done. I’ve been told various times over the year that I seemed different, and I can finally see it. Different in a good way, though, because I am so much closer to the Lord as a result. Although Link Year is coming to an end, I have a ton to be excited about! I am going to get the opportunity to come back next year as a protégé! I’ll have the opportunity to mentor the students of next year while also being mentored myself. I’ll be so ready to take on whatever the world has for me. Anyway, our speaker this week has been Jonathan Pokluda, the leader of the Porch, a youth ministry under Watermark in Dallas. He’s a really great speaker, and a worthy speaker of our last week of class. He spoke at the final Fort of the Year as well. Quite an ending. He spoke on ways to ruin your life in your 20’s, and several pitfalls people fall into in their lives. I am trying to write a blog entry worthy of being the final one, but I have no idea how to do that. This year I’ve learned how to have legitimate friendships and relate to people, how to start a conversation with anyone, and how to live a life that’s honorable to Christ, yet I can’t end a blog correctly. Oh well, maybe I’ll learn how to do it if I continue blogging next year. We’ll see. For the last time, until next time…

Today was a very good day.

Really excited right now! But more on right now later. Last TGIF we got to take kayaks across the lake to get ice cream, and we were accompanied by Joe White himself! I decided to walk down the the street with Link Laurel and talk to some friends of hers. They were some kids selling t-shirts for their rehab program. We talked to them for a while and even lost track of the time. When we decided to get back to the others, we discovered they had left! Once we got back to the dock we saw a few people left, who were looking for us. It was all around a pretty fun experience. This weekend, a bunch of people went on a trip to California, so classes were kind of small this week. Our speaker was Austin Ochs this week. Some of the main things he spoke on were being courageous leaders, being good stewards of what we are given, and that we never truly own anything, it is always given to us. At the end, he gave us all money to go out and do with it as we please, but we were encouraged to use it to serve someone and email him, telling him what we did. I got an entire hundred dollars, while the lowest amount given was twenty. I feel a ton of pressure, because someone last year found a guy who practiced golf every day on a course that he couldn’t afford to actually play on. The student paid for the guy to play a whole round  and played with him. Definitely inspiring, but also raises the bar. If you have any suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them! Until next time, folks! 

Excitement Is Rushing Through My Veins Right Now!

This week has been an absolute blast! Last Friday for TGIF we went to Ride the Ducks, a ride around Branson in an amphibious truck! It was pretty cool riding around and suddenly splashing into the water of the lake. Can’t remember the name right now. I’ve also worked this weekend at Hollister and actually enjoyed it. I’ve become closer to my co-workers, which has definitely made it much more bearable. The weather has probably been a huge factor in making this week so wonderful as well. It’s been bright and sunny, until it rained on us for 20 minutes today. This week’s speaker was Rich Ferrera .He runs a gap year program similar to Link Year, but up in the mountains of California. The thing I enjoyed most about his talks was definitely how much he knew about first century Jewish culture. Knowing things like that is hugely beneficial to understanding the Bible better and even brings some of Jesus’ parables to life. This has been a weird week, because the speaker came on Monday and Tuesday. We had small groups and accountability Wednesday, and today we have been working. I’ve been shoveling mulch for seven hours total today, so that’s fun. But really it was great, I got the chance to get to know one of my classmates who I’ve hardly talked to at all this year. Moments like that are definitive of the Link Year experience. We were shoveling for a few hours this morning, then a storm passed over us and it rained hard. Only for a bit though (see above). This week, I’ve been realizing how much I took the Hope Center and the things they did for me for granted. I plan on letting them know how grateful I am soon… I also had my protégé interview today. Within two weeks, I’ll know whether or not I’m going to get to live in wonderful Branson for another year! That’s all I have for you guys this week, enjoy it, share it with friends, and praise Jesus for literally everything!!!!!

Productive? Nope.

This week has been good, but certainly not the best. I had productivity goals that I haven’t been making and that’s frustrating me slightly. I even took a nap today, one that set me so far behind in my work. Naps are not good for being productive. I’ve broken my Lentin fast and been on the internet several times. Not a great week. On the other hand, our speaker this week was Joe White’s son, Brady White. He’s pretty funny, and Donyes likes him apparently, so he was sure to be a great speaker. He spoke on several things this week, certainly not the least of which was how much emphasis our society puts on feelings. In relationships, if we no longer feel love towards our partner we divorce or break up with them. On a related note, we were created to love God and one another in the way God loves us. Αγαπε, or “agape” (I have a Greek keyboard now (I know some Greek now)) is the divine, selfless love we were created for, and we put much more emphasis on ερος, or eros, the sexual love. This causes the feelings of emptiness people get from one night stands or putting their identity in a significant other. I haven’t even talked about Logos! We got this super expensive bible software at highly discounted prices (~$2,000 off and 50% discounts after that!!) and all we have to do is take a class over using it. It was an awesome deal. With Logos, you get a ton of different books, both teaching books and textbook-type deals. You can cross reference them side by side, read related verses in separate tabs, and even see the original Greek and Hebrew words used so that you can truly understand what God meant originally. I recommend it to anyone with a few thousand just lying around. I got my job back at Hollister as well! Not super excited about it, but I now have an income and can finish paying for Ireland, so that was definitely a plus for this week. My friendships here are going amazingly, these guys are the best. Okay, the random updates are over. Until next week, party peeps!

Very Productive Week!

This week has been quite a fun one. Link Year is a fantastic place and I learn so much each week. First off, last Friday, we went rock wall climbing! Don’t worry, it was in an indoor gym. I found out I’m not the worst climber in the world, but my forearms don’t much endurance. I made it up the easy and medium difficulty walls without much problem, but by the time I thought I was ready to try the harder walls, my arms were cramping and I couldn’t even do a full pull-up. I even waited another hour to try and get rested up and go for it again, but I still couldn’t do it, I was exhausted. It was fun though, and the Chik-fil-a definitely helped heal my sore arms. I had a productive weekend and accomplished all my goals for the week, so that was fun. Right now, I feel like I’m rambling slightly more than usual. I may be a bit out of practice with this blog thing. Over the week, we’ve had different speakers from the staff of the  Kanakuk Institute, the older people who we share a campus with. Joey Tisdale talked to us mostly about college and how to be lights wherever we go, no matter what we choose to do. Chad Hampsh acme on Wednesday, but I forgot my journal in my room, so no notes were taken that day. I remember playing an altered version of the morality game where we were asked to split based on whether or not we loved Jesus with our whole hearts, felt confident about sharing the Gospel, and believed wholeheartedly that Jesus is who He said He is. We also discussed the validity of the Bible and relationship/dating stuff. Dating is, to me, a pointless tradition that only encourages premarital sex, but he made some valid restrictions to actual dating that could work, I guess. One of the lesser-known things that make Link Year such a fantastic program is the thinking it makes you do on your own. My view of dating was formed here, but not because of anything a speaker said to us in class. I came to my conclusion after discussing with protégés and reflecting on my life and experiences. Anyway, back to the week. Today we had Keith Chancey, the president of the Kanakuk Institute, and he walked us through Paul’s journey after becoming a follower of Christ. I once tried reading through the book of Acts, but couldn’t get very far. I may try again soon, the talk was interesting. If you wanted more updates on the week, I’ve been working out a bit harder than before, have enjoyed the warm weather days and sat by the dock on a few occasions, and have made sure to build community and hang out with people daily, rather than sit on my computer or read in my room all day. I’ve got a masquerade ball starting now, that I’ve gotta leave and get ready for. In case you missed it, I’m in the place a semi-formal party is starting dressed in basketball shorts. I now have to leave the party, get ready for it, and come back. Later, party people!

Hello There Lads and Lassies!

Hey there strangers! SO much has happened in the past month! I’ve gone to Ireland and had a blast over there, hung out with my dad and brother, and came back and had a blast with my Linky friends. Ireland was fantastic, I built friendships on stellar levels while gazing out at that beautiful countryside every day. Just writing that and remembering how amazing the trip was makes me miss it terribly. I am so incredibly blessed to be able say I was in those places with those uber amazing people. We saw the place the R.M.S. Titanic was built. It was actually three separate places. Dangerously deep places. We also saw Tollymore Forest. Probably the second most fun day there. I was with Heather, Selby, Caroline, and Victoria. We climbed trees, told scary stories in the denser areas, and even jumped rivers. It was so awesome. On the last day we were there we got to climb a mountain! It started out in an insanely beautiful forest, full of streams and rocks and junk. I didn’t stop a ton to pay attention to it because we had been told we weren’t going to make it to the top because of time and I was determined. Later, once we passed the wooded area of the mountain we saw a sort of valley between the two peaks. It was pretty much what you’d expect to see when in an Irish valley. There were even sheep grazing near us! I filled my water bottle with the surprisingly clear stream water as we neared the top. The last leg got really steep and was really tiring. We ended up not making it to the top, a fact that disappointed me immensely. So that was Ireland highlights. Besides the amazing friends. Did I mention them? They’re pretty amazing. I also got pretty into poetry over there and wrote about ten poems, some for others and some for the poetry nights. Being back at Link Year has been a whole experience in itself. Having everyone back in the same place has certainly been nothing less than incredible. I’ve also enjoyed the speaker this week. His name is Joshua Straub, and he’s definitely in my top three of this year. I unfortunately don’t have my journal with at the moment, and this is due very soon, so I can’t share his wisdom with you guys. Maybe next time! Later!

MAN WEEK!!!! ROAR!!!

This has been a great week. I’ll start with TGIF, where we learned a few MMA and self-defense moves from an ex cage fighter. I’m no black belt or anything, but let’s just say you don’t wanna mess with me. Those few hours taught me a lot about tearing people’s hands open, breaking arms in several places with one quick jerk, and the number one rule of defense against random strangers. It’s groin shots. We were literally told that that is the first place to go. Then the eyes and throat. But groin first. Yeah. It was still fun getting to fight the other guys and not get in trouble though. The weekend came and went, and thus man week came into existence. This week has been dedicated to helping us Link Year guys become men the way the Bible says we should be. All of our classes have been separate from the girls’ this week, allowing the opportunity to talk about otherwise awkward subjects like the purity all Christian men should have, pornography and the complete revulsion we should feel toward it, or even the way should be viewing and looking at (or refusing to do so) our ladies and women all around us. We also got an extra hour of sleep all week. So all that stuff. Joe White’s house was awesome, too. We had a slam dunk competition on his trampoline, and then we got a lesson from Joe White himself on the weight that pornography and lust on our souls, hearts, and minds. Definitely the best talk of the week. I have been procrastinating doing this blog all day, so I have to cut it short so it’s not late. Peace homies!

Tough week... Also What Is Wrong With Me??

It’s definitely been a while. Hey peoples!! In case you can’t tell, I’m kinda stuck on what to say here. It’s been way too long. Christmas was awesome, I got to spend a ton of time with my family. They’re awesome peeps. It was amazing just sitting and hanging with my brothers. I absolutely loved it. So much so, in fact, that I didn’t want to come back to Link Year and all the work, growth, and learning involved. Once I got here, though, I was super pumped for everyone to get back. It was great seeing everyone after being away for so long. This very first week back has been tough, but sooo beneficial. On Monday, we had a normal day minus bible study. In small group time, we went and saw a plane that had landed in the wrong airport, and got an interview because one of our students was on the flight. We then went back to Adam Martin’s house to watch the news and see if we made it. The guy who was on the plane did make the cut, but none of the rest of us did. We talked about our breaks and since I played a bunch of video games, that was a heavy topic for the day. The talk was convicting and even though I wanted to argue against everything that was said, I did realize the validity of the points being made. The rest of this week so far has been great as well. Our guest speaker was Ted Cunningham, the lead pastor at Woodland Hills, a church here in Branson. He spoke on marriage relationships and what they looks like, from how our relationships with our parents will be, to how to tell your kids about sex. He is great at what he does, and did very well with what he came to do at Link Year. I feel like what he had to say was received very well, especially because it’s second semester and we can date now. Another topic was distancing ourselves from being under our parents’ authority, especially because of this relatively new idea we call adolescence. This idea is barely a hundred years old, and brought with it a huge slew of problems. Many people fail to ever actually grow up and become independent because of this extended childhood. Couple this with overbearing parents, and we have a generation of lazy, unemployed adults completely dependent on their parents. Definitely a good speaker, and I can say I loved and agreed almost completely with just about everything he said. There’s a reason Donyes keeps bringing him back. Until next week, my faithful readers (or lack thereof)!

P.S. Looking at my previous entry, I don't even understand the reference in the title... I have no idea what kinda junk I was talking about...