Another Home Calls...

And so goes another exciting week here at Link Year. Last week’s T.G.I.F. we got to go see The Hobbit 2: The Desolation of Smaug! It’s an awesome movie, as any would have to be with that many goblins getting their heads cut off so cleanly. No spoilers here, mainly because I feel asleep for maybe 15 minutes and was confused ever after. Still really good, though! Jefferson Bethke and his wife came to speak to us, in quite an impromptu fashion, then went with us to see the movie, so that was cool. I slacked all week and rushed through my precepts this weekend, which was super stressful. Sunday evening our small group had dinner at Adam Martin’s house, watched Man of Steel, and had sleepover! It was pretty cool, especially since the hammocks didn’t have hot water in the showers for some reason. But Monday was a normal day, with the exception of going to Adam’s and having another sleepover, this time including free haircuts. I tried a Mohawk, but didn’t like it a ton. When we finally decided to move out of Adam’s house, the timing was perfect, because there was hot water again! Since the Institute left a week earlier than us, we got to use their classroom, which is on campus and is kinda sweet. The speaker for the week was a house church pastor named Bret Jenson. He’s really cool. Though he spoke on some great things, mainly focused on fighting a spiritual war in the physical realm, I was mostly impressed at his involvement in our community here at Link Year. He came to breakfast (which most of the students don’t even attend), lunch and dinner with us all three days he was here. He was at the Fort and led a great Q&A, full of discussion including all the attendees. He and his partner-in-ministry even came and talked amongst us during the breaks in class. I’m not at all surprised he’s come every year to speak to the Link Year students, he’s great. Donyes needs to continue to invite him every year. Tomorrow is the last day before we take almost a month away to be with family over Christmas. I love Link Year, but I’m absolutely ready to be home for a while. So I’ll be reading Mere Christianity and writing an 8-page paper over it while I’m home- in L.A. Fun. Until next time!

P.S. If you get the title reference, you're cool. ;)

So Many Feelings About This One!!!

So, in case you didn’t know, this is a very special week! It’s called Link Year Gives Back, and is essentially a week of missions in the Branson Area. It is so exciting to be exposed to so many ministries that are so close to where we live!  To be completely honest, we have so much free time I could’ve found out about some of these and just volunteered, but I now know about them! After a fun weekend (I think) that I seriously don’t remember at all, came Monday. Monday was a very normal Monday, with the basic Monday schedule. With the exception that I didn’t go to elective because I went to the airport with my small group leader, Adam Martin. Tuesday, however, was a completely different story. On Tuesday…..I got an extra hour of sleep!!! It was great, really. After the hour came and went, we got up and headed to the Ala Moana to discuss the plans for the day. Because of weather, we went into the community and shoveled driveways and walkways. I went to Brian Wang’s neighborhood and we even got to invite a girl to the Fort! Later on in the day, we went to a home for the elderly. We just sat and talked with them for a while, got to know them, and even sang Christmas carols! It was definitely a good time. On Wednesday, there was no extra hour of sleep, much to my disappointment, but we went to the classroom to be greeted by the Mayor of Branson! She spoke to all of us for a while, encouraged us, and asked a few questions about who we are and what we plan to do in life. She’s kind of a cool person. Afterwards, we went to a Boys And Girls Club. There were donuts and delicious hot chocolate waiting for us there, and it was great. The guy running the place talked to us about the impact we were gonna have on the kids without even seeing them, when they see the work we’ve done there. He also told a really inspiring story about a kid who have all the right ingredients for a troubled teen, one who would possibly end up in a serious prison, and how Christ molded him into the person he was meant to be through his engagement and involvement in the Club. After hearing all this, we ready to do some hard work and have fun doing it. I joined the group that would be doing dirty, outside work. Our first task was to move a greenhouse without taking it apart. Easier done than it seems, actually. We really just lifted it up and moved it over a fence. After that we got to take apart the platforms it was on and burn the wood, so a really good day. There was also some really good snow on the ground, so we had a few snowball fights. I love it here, just saying. I tended the fire for a while and talked with a fellow link, Derek. I left before lunch there to be interviewed about Urban Entry. I’m confident about most of my answers, but I also feel like some of them were delivered rather less good than they could’ve been. We were then given the assignment to go out into community on our own and perform a random act of kindness, or RAK. I got food because I missed lunch, but then went with Vito and Emily to the Walmart. I ended helping an old lady load her groceries into her car, including a 50 lb. bag of dog food. Then I went to work at Hollister for a few hours, also knocking of a day of Advent. The time passed very slowly, and I was so tired, but I did talk a bit to a coworker I hadn’t met yet and I really want to get to know him more and I really hope to be able to show him Christ’s love and make an impact on his life. I’m so excited for this!!! I’m encouraged to go to work now! But back on topic, Thursday, we went to ministry called Jesus Was Homeless and bagged meals for the housed homeless of Branson. The term housed homeless is used to describe people living permanently in hotels because apartments are too expensive on their salaries, so they can only afford the weekly rates of about $200 in the hotels. These people work on the strip, and so the added lure of the hotels is their proximity to the places the people work. Many of the hotels don’t have kitchen areas and so the families live on fast food and microwaveables. It was fun there, all the volunteers are great people.  Josh Ong’s mom was also there, so that was cool. Once that was done, we went back the classroom to watch the video projects over one of the seven pillars we should’ve been working on for two months. No one did, they were all done this past weekend. A lot of them were so funny, others really deep and insightful, but they were all done really well and were amazing. Most of us were free to go after that, but a few students got to out and hand out the food bags we had made earlier and hand them out. I was amongst those lucky few. It was great seeing the happiness in the kids eyes, the gratefulness in the adults, and the joyful serving hearts of the volunteers. I really did love doing, and I got to see Robin, someone I usually only see on Monday nights, so that was cool too. It was great, but we got back just before this blog was due, and I always write about the entire week so I’m turning this in late. But only eight minutes late, thankfully! Also, in Word this post is three pages long. That may make it the longest post so far. This week was great, in case you can’t tell. Until next time peeps!

I've Really Missed This Place

It has been so long since I’ve written a blog post!! I think the past few weeks have had some of the deepest meaning to me of the entire year. Urban entry taught humility, love and to have a teachable heart through all of life. Thanksgiving break taught me how easy it could be to fall into temptation without the Link Year Bubble, and the impact I have on others, particularly those younger than me. And how much I’m gonna miss Link Year in May. I think it would be the best graduation gift ever if Donyes told us Link Year was officially expanded into a two-year program. So I got back on Saturday to start working at Hollister, what a joy that was, and the island was dead. I hung out the entire next day with my buddies Link Vito and Link Hannah Grace, so fun. Until my life happened and everything went awkward. But whatever. Everyone else got back on Monday, to great fanfare, and we all met up in the chapel to do advent calendars! On these calendars we have nice things to do for other people for each day leading up to Christmas. If you’re on mine, you’ll know in a few days! Tuesday was our Monday and we had accountability and small groups. Wednesday we had Brian Wang as our speaker for the week (Wednesday and Thursday) and he taught on the three things we should understand as we follow Christ. First, we need to deny ourselves. Basically, this means we should put others before ourselves. Second, we need to be completely dedicated to following Him. I can’t say that any more clearly than I just did… Third, we need to willingly be obedient to His commands when He gives them. No questions asked, just as Abraham did when he was told to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And thus is the rundown of my week. Until next time peeps!

Side note: It snowed today!! After class though, so we didn’t have a snow day, it only messes with our TGIF.

Incredibly Tired, But So Full Of Energy!!!!

This has been an extremely amazing week here at Link Year, full of growth, perspective, and of course relationship building. I’ll start with our very first work day, which we had last Friday. In order to  keep our student tuition as low as possible, we have one day a month where us students work maintenance on K-Kauai. The guys and girls went to different areas to work, so no one would be distracted, and us guys began to work on the lower fields and making the ground and soil loose and clean enough to plant grass. The lower fields are quite large, so we were busy from 8 until noon. It was freezing at first, but later got really hot. So that was the only thing interesting about about Friday, until I began doing precepts and got to the day about reconciliation. It talked about righting wrongs and reconciling relationships, especially when you are the one doing the wrong and hurting the relationship. Jesus said that unrighteous anger is murder in your heart. This rocked me very deeply, and I felt terrible for all the anger I’ve felt at others and all the anger I’ve made others feel towards me. I have been trying to reconcile for a few different things I’ve done and said lately, and will continue at that as long as I need to. So there went my weekend. Monday was accountability and bible study, probably one of the best yet. We also started our new electives. The one I chose is a book study of “Just Do Something”. The book tells us how Christians are always trying to live their lives according to God’s will, but though He has a plan for you, you don’t know it and will never find out until you take chances and fail a few times. The speaker this Tuesday-Thursday was Shay Robbins, men’s director for K2 Kamp. He spoke to us about intimacy with God, Spiritual gifts, and how God speaks to us. It’s been awesome hearing him speak, but I’ve been so tired lately I could barely pay attention. I got some decent notes, though! The most amazing part of the week was the Q&A with Adam Donyes after The Fort. We got quite a few insights, learned a bit about Donyes, and saw how much spiritual warfare really is going on around us. It’s triggered a huge increase in communal prayer, and is only making us more excited for how awesome Urban Entry is going to be! By the way, I can’t wait for Kansas City! It’s going to be amazing and give huge amounts of perspective. Thanksgiving is going to be the week right after, and I’m gonna miss all my Linky friends so much!! I also got a job at Hollister this week. Blah. This may be my last post for a few weeks, so whenever I get another chance to post, I’ll see you then, I guess. Later!

Stress......But Tons of Fun!!!

Blog time!!! This week has been pretty exciting, for many reasons, as you’ll soon find out. If you have the patience or interest to read through this thing. So let’s start with TGIF! In last Friday’s activity, we (the guys) got to ask one of the lovely Link Year ladies out on a date with a $20 budget! I asked out Link Victoria and we went to eat at a café in this really fancy hotel next to the lake. We saw Christmas decorations inside, sat and looked out over the water, and walked around the grounds. It was kinda awesome. I’m nowhere near the best date, but we had fun. After a weekend of hilarious haunted houses and slacking off of homework, I had a super stressful Sunday night. On Monday, Link Selby’s parents ordered a charter bus for all of us students to come down to Tulsa and attend a private concert by Steve Moakler. Their house is beautiful, and Link Selby’s room is covered in pictures, I think mostly from Kanakuk. It’s a little ridiculous, but it is Link Selby. The concert was a lot better than I expected! I really only went to maximize my moments here at Link Year and hang out with my fellow Linkys, but I enjoyed the concert a lot too. The four-hour ride there and back was great as well. We got back around 2 and I was in bed around 10 minutes later. Mostly normal week since then, with Pastor Marvin Daniels speaking to our class on Tuesday  and Wednesday. He spoke on morality, living above the standard of the world, and being “insulated not isolated” from the rest of the world. We got to play a game of sorts where we go to a side of the room based on whether we agree or disagree with a statement, such as “Abortions are bad unless the mother is raped or could die from the pregnancy”. The arguments got pretty deep and intense, but ultimately brought us all closer together as a family. Because once a month we have a work day to make Link Year tuition cheaper, Friday’s TGIF was moved to this morning! We split into groups and went around campus learning various skills such as how to change tires, how to write “Thank You” cards (we wrote some to Link Selby’s parents), and dancing lessons! It was pretty fun, and a lot of our dancing was hilariously atrocious. Overall, a really great week, one that I will certainly look back on at the end of the year. Until next time, later peoples!

The Week of Awkward...

Hello world! TGIF was most recently a very fun but competitive game called Bigger and Better. Basically, we all started with a paper clip and you trade that with someone for something they have. You trade that to a different person, and keep going until you’re satisfied, or in our case, until you have to be back in the classroom to see who won. My team got up to a mandolin, and probably would’ve won, but at the last second traded for a vending machine. Due to legal issues and the uncertainty of whether that is a profit or if we just went bankrupt, we did not win. The winner was a washing machine. Whatevs. We had fun, and I (we) owned a mandolin for a while. Our local Spaniard Xenia was in love with the mandolin and barely let go of it, but I played it a bit. On Monday in Worldview Studies, we talked about both Cosmic Humanism and Post-modernism, as most of us will be gone next week for a concert. Cosmic Humanism is the overall term for Scientology, Buddhism, Hinduism, Pantheism, etc. Post-Modernism is the The speaker this week Was BJ Thompson, and his series was called “Who am I? Who Are We? Why Are We Here?” The most memorable things from his talks were over our relationships with one another. He told us that we are so often hiding behind a mask that we don’t let people know the real us and thus never form true relationships. From that we can never know real love. He said that the reason so many of us love our mothers so much is that they know exactly who we are and we can’t hide from them. The very first people were naked and unashamed, but when sin entered the world, they were ashamed and wanted to hide from both God and each other. What’s remarkable about this is that this drive to hide ourselves has continued to plague us as long as sin has been around. We hide most often behind our own accomplishments and achievements in an attempt to put our best foot forward, but never actually take a full step and show our weaknesses and flaws. All in all, a very good speaker with a hard hitting message. That’s all for this post, and I’m currently very excited for the upcoming trip into Kansas City. Next week, same time?

I've Learned To Manage Time!! Coincidence???

It’s blog time again!!! Honestly, I stress so much over these because they’re technically homework assignments, but when I do them, I realize how useful they are! I have to go through everything that’s happened throughout the week and I retain so much more information. I also realize more how blessed I am to be able to do this program. I can definitely say that this is where I am meant to be right now. That being said, on to stuff that’s happened! Friday morning, I had breakfast with my mentor Adam Martin before TGIF as our one-on-one.  We talked for a while then headed back to the island to meet everyone else for the activity. We went to Big Cedar and got to play archery tag, where I proceeded to dominate. Along with the rest of my team, of course. There was a tournament, which my team won, and it was so much fun.  Don’t exactly remember this weekend, but I’m sure it was really fun… On to Monday and worldview studies! This week was about Leninism/Marxism or Communism. This worldview holds the belief that everyone is equal in power, status, and responsibility to help out the whole group. This leads to lack of incentive to work hard and does nothing to stimulate creativity. So the system doesn’t work, basically. Not to mention the fact that it denies the existence of God. This week the staff has been talking to us about managing ourselves, our money, and our time! You’ll see the coincidence if you scroll down to the previous post and read it… I highly recommend doing so. In managing ourselves, which Brian Wang taught, there was so much information discussed. The main and longest point was the “killer P’s”. These included wanting pity for having so much to do, pats on the back, people pleasing, and pride. Adam Martin led the class in managing money on Wednesday. This was a much shorter recap of high school economics, basically. He talked about credit, how to use it safely and wisely, banking, debt, and how to manage the money you have in a budget. The safest thing to do is to live below your means, at the most spending 80% of your monthly income on yourself and necessities. The other 20% should be split between tithing and saving. Thursday, we heard about managing time from Adam Donyes. He told us how much time we waste on things like social media, television, and….. video games. Yup. We get angry at people who waste our time, yet on things like these we waste literal years! We have tons of time in between everything else on our schedule that we waste over and over again. Time we could spend reading a valuable book, i.e. the bible, or listening to a good commentary. We also waste time watching pointless shows, movies, and endless commercials. Literally, years;  yet we claim not to have enough time to have quiet time, get homework done, or get things done. We make time for things that are important to us. This is a pretty easy way to see where your priorities lie without going on a soul searching walk along the beach, skipping stones every few minutes. Valuable life lessons are the daily norm here at Link Year. And that concludes my time here with you guys, until next week, I’m learning and praying! Later!