Man Week

Well this week has been exciting. It is…Man week, and women week. The guys and the girls have been split up hearing from a different person each day in a different setting. The first day we heard from Mark Harris, I knew his son Marcus from kamp, but he talked to us about what it looks like to be a godly man, a godly parent and the importance of not worrying about what people think, just speak truth. That afternoon Adam Martin and I went and hung out at Bass Pro, talking looking at guns and boots and water shoes, ate some fudge of course. Just doing life together. People use that term here like they grew up with it “doing life together”, I had never heard that before, but the idea is so awesome. I don’t have to sit and have a class session to learn from my mentors, sometimes going out and doing stuff in the real world is where I learn the most and get to know them best. We went to Joes house yesterday, we got to go to the trampoline room. Yes you heard me right, Joe has a trampoline room complete with a basketball goal right infront of it. We had a friendly dunk contest and then moved upstairs into a serious time talking about the way that we view women. How lust and pornography destroys your mind and in you continue to live in that sin it will cause you to not have control over how you view women, which will destroy your marriage and inhibit your relationship with God. Afterward we went down to the lower fields of K-1 and had a wiffleball game in the freezing cold. It was pretty intense. My team emerged victorious, before heading back up for lunch. Jon and I met up with Grant Gaines yesterday and went over Hebrew, we are only on chapter 2 of our study, but it has been awesome so far. Later that afternoon Lydia and I went on a hike, exploring a creek area, filled a few bags full of trash and went and hung out by a waterfall for a while, just talking and getting to know each other better. That was really fun, it was a little chilly though, so I was glad to have put on some layers. Then today we heard from Tim, Brain Wangs brother in law, he was really cool, he talked to us about how all of our actions are just an overflow of our heart. Our circumstances don't cause us to say the things we do, what you put in is what you will get out. 

I am back!

            Another week in the life of a Link Year student. It is good to be back though. Im getting so excited about going to Fiji Australia and New Zealand. We leave in two weeks. I am reading more and more about their culture and language to best prepare for this trip. I also will be doing a denominational study. I am researching Jehovah’s witness. I kinda know what it is but not that much, so I look forward to learning more about it. I will have limited internet access while out of the country. I should have it almost everyday in Australia, but during fiji probably not at all and new Zealand some of the time. We will see. I probably will not post on my blog until after I get back, but I will try and log my adventures extensively to keep you filled in. I got a gopro for Christmas so I will be taking pictures and videos everywhere I go. It should be a ton of fun. We also got funds raised to build a chicken coop. That will be really essential to this community. It will be one of their primary sources of protein. It is weird getting all of my summer clothes out when it is so cold here in Missouri. The weather is going to be so warm. I cant wait. Then when I get back I will be able to see a bunch of my friends at nationals so that will be a lot of fun. This week one of my pastors here in Branson was our Link Year speaker. Ted Cunningham, he came and has been talking to us about a few things, one he is a huge advocate for marriage and he talked to us all about all of the things someone should consider when deciding who to marry and then about how he believes that people of our generation are unnecessarily delaying marriage. He thinks this is a lot of because of prolonged adolescence. Kids are not transitioning into adulthood as early as they should. They need to be becoming adults that make their own decisions when they leave for college, but instead they are coming back home after college either because their parents want them to or to “save money”, but really all it is doing is prolonging their transition into adulthood. He then talked to us about how communication works in a relationship like marriage. Some examples of bad communication and how to correct that and communicate well with your spouse. Also about what personalities are most compatible.