Thursday, September 27, 2012

my newest adventure


It’s probably an understatement to say that the past twelve days have been the most exciting days of my life to date.  It has been a whole lot of non-stop, hysterical, different, crazy, spontaneous, serious, unbelievable activities that have gotten me so pumped for this year.  Let me start at the beginning…

            Day 1:  MOVE IN.  I was a little nervous about this one, because I had no idea what my roommate was going to be like… but PRAISE THE LORD, she’s great.  Just the best answer to prayer.  Her name is Rachel, and she is from St. Pete Florida.  She lives on the beach.  I am from Iowa.  I don’t live on a farm.  At least one of us could break our state’s stereotypes.  J We have had a blast together, and it has been so fun getting to know this sweet girl! 

            Days 2-6:  Most of this time was spent getting to know more about our surroundings and the program… basically just a lot of rules and stuff.  But don’t get me wrong, we did a TON of fun things that first week here! 
             -Scavenger hunt around B-Town
             -Lakeside chats getting to know each other better
              -Worship Services
              -Ultimate Frisbee
              -Movie on the Lawn
              -Canoeing to the landing for Fro-Yo
                                                Just to name a few!

            Days 7-8:  For our first weekend together, we went on a retreat to a nearby lake house…or mansion.  We stayed at a lovely home the Lemley family was gracious enough to open to us.  We turned in all of our cell phones, and just spent some quality time together.  Donyes had us do an activity called ‘Cleansing and Filling’.  It forced us to open up about the junk in our lives and open our eyes to see what is keeping from a deeper relationship with the Lord.  We spent the day doing a challenge course, watching movies, taking boat rides, and mostly just getting to know each other better.  That night we had a bonfire and sang some worship songs.  That is one of my all time favorite things to do.  It is just so cool to praise our awesome Father in the middle of his creation.  I love it.  Anyways...

            Day 9:  This is one of those little quirks about Link Year that really puts it up there above other programs… MYSTERY MONDAY.  It really is a great thing.  Most of the time, students dread the start of a new week.  But no, no, not here.  Every week, our leadership team plans a different activity for us, and we have no idea what it might be!  This week we went roller blading.  It was a blast.  I actually wrote another blog post about this…. And you can read it HERE.  It really was a lot of fun and all… until about 20 minutes before we left when my dear friend Morgan Calvert fell and dislocated her knee… I took her to the ER, and she got an x-ray, which revealed that although it was obvious that her knee-cap had obviously been injured, but the patella had not been torn out of place, which means no surgery!  (PRAISE THE LORD) 
            Day 10:  The first real day of classes.  Donyes started us off with one of my favorites… Don Ford.  He’s a Kanakuk K-2 director, and a phenomenal speaker.  He talked to us about the importance of making goals.  He also gave us eight guidelines as to how to make goals that we can commit to.  These guidelines taught us that goals should always be God-centered, written out, attainable (but God sized), measureable, time-sensitive, clear, concise, and shared with others in order to hold you accountable.  I had heard Don give this talk before at kamp, but this was the first time I actually understood what he was saying.  He definitely convinced me that I need to be setting more goals in my life, and actually following through with them.  He helped us get started by assigning us a packet with different areas in which we needed to set goals for ourselves.  I am excited to see myself follow through with the goals I set, and be held accountable to do so. 

            Day 10:  During our first week here, we were asked to take an online test that would determine our personality strengths.  Jay Holden came in to talk with us about what each of our strengths meant, and how we could utilize those strengths.  My top five strengths are: 
            1.)  Restoration (problem solving)
            2.)  Connectedness (everything happens for a reason)
            3.)  Includer
            4.)  Input (I like to ask questions and gain knowledge in many areas
            5.)  Intellect
So I’m a thinker.  Surprised?  No?  Me either. 
He also talked about how we can work together to help cover our bases.  For instance it would be beneficial for me to hang around with the people-pleaser, outgoing, W.O.O. (winning others over) crowd.  But at the same time, there will be people that are harder for me to work with; the strategizers, the organziers, and the maximizers.  We’re just going to butt heads every once in a while.  It’s fine. 

            Day 11:  We heard from a man who was extremely diligent in studying God’s word and just has a phenomenal understanding for the bible and how it all goes together.  It was very inspiring to hear him talk about the ways he studies and prays for knowledge and discipline to teach him self all of these things.  I was so amazed by all of the things he has just learned over the years from thoroughly studying God’s word.  This man has never been to any kind of seminary or other bible-teaching school.  My prayer is that I will someday learn to be as diligent as him, that I might gain that much knowledge of God’s word!  He taught us about some of the resources he uses to study, and actually gave us some books to use throughout the year!  I’m excited to learn how to use them, and see how it affects the way I study the word!  He also taught us about a computer software he uses called Logos.  It shows the translations of different words, and how many different ways it is used in the bible, and what it means in which context.  Although that program is not readily available to us, he told us about a website which is very comparable, and free!  J 

This past week and a half has been such a great encouragement of what the rest of this year will hold for us.  Seeing the ways we have changed and grown already this week makes me super excited to see what the Lord will do in my heart and in the hearts of those around me in the next eight months!

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”  -Ephesians 6:19-20