What a Year

As this year has come to a close, I want to start off by saying that it has been an incredible year with incredible opportunities and with incredible people. I cannot begin to describe to you all of the experiences I've had this year. What I can tell you is that God has moved this year. He has definitely moved in my life and I know He has moved in the lives of my class mates. I get so excited when I think about where Link Year will be in 5 years! I would recommend Link Year to any high school graduate who might not know where they want to go or are just looking to get grounded more into their walk with Christ. I hope you have enjoyed this blog I've kept this year. I hope to continue it throughout my experience at Baylor so keep an eye out for it. 

You may be wondering what my plans for the summer are. Here they are:

I am enroute to San Diego currently (literally 34,00 ft. in the air) where I will be staying for about 3 weeks. I will be attending my sister, Laura's, graduation from Westmont College in Santa Barbara next weekend. When I head back to Branson, MO on May 20th I will be attending a paid internship with the PR/Marketing department of Kanakuk Kamps. Around June 22nd I will be headed down to Waco, TX where I will be attending Baylor's Orientation and Line Camp. There are some exciting things happening soon. Stay tuned!

Until next time.

8.Days.Left

Sunday at 2:50 PM, I took off with Joe White and his assistant, Mark Landers in Kanakuk’s private jet to head to Longview, TX. Joe spoke at a Pure Excitement event (click here for more information about Pure Excitement.) Right after that event we went right back to the airport to head over to Waco, TX. On the way to the hotel, we stopped for dinner at Taco Cabana. That got me really excited for some good ‘ole Roberto’s when I get back to San Diego in less than two weeks! The next morning was a little crazy getting everything we needed for Joe’s chapel at Baylor. Chapel went very well and it was fun to see some good friends who are there right now that I’ll be able to hang out with next year.

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After, we hit up lunch at Vitek’s and you don’t go to Vitek’s and not get a gut pack. In a gut pack there is Fritos, beans, cheese, beef, homemade sausage, and some bread. Now I made a little mistake by getting a large. I was able to finish only after about 45 minutes of sitting there with it in front of me. While we were sitting there, Joe received an email from a girl who attended Baylor’s chapel just an hour prior who had planned to commit suicide but God spoke to her through Joe and instead of taking her life, she gave it to God. Praise the Lord! The next few minutes were so powerful and I will never forget the emotion that was attached to it. We went straight to the airport after lunch and headed back to Branson. Needless to say, this week started off right. I did have to miss probably the best Mystery Monday which was zip lining but I think I still won. 

This week our speaker was Tim Watson who is almost a certified counselor. Tim is one of the most personable guy I've met. He's the kind of guy who you just want to keep spending more time with because he's so nice and cool! But anyways, he's teaching us how to be ​counselors. Biblical counseling is based on these pillars: must be rooted in God, you must exalt Jesus Christ, be empowered by the Holy Spirit, and you must love as Christ loved us. This leads to what biblical counseling is all about, to serve the glory of God and for the good of mankind.

It has been a good week, crazy, but good. As excited I am to go on to be a Baylor Bear, I have been super blessed by my time here at Link Year. It has helped shaped the man I am today and I am so grateful for that. Excited for whats to come. If you have a little time, check out my friend Michelle's blog she just started. First post is pretty cool!

​Until next time.

How Much Longer?!

...16 more days! I cannot believe it! This week has definitely been awesome! We started the week off with Mystery Monday by going to Mid American Mixed Martial Arts and getting a self defense class from Teacher Don. It was a lot of fun! We got into it and people might have gotten a little too into it. It was a pretty intense time. Best quote was when the instructor called Kevin a milk dud with teeth.
This week we had the privilege to listen to Austin Ochs who is awesome! He hails from Wichita, went to Wheaton College and is back living in Wichita who co-owns multiple companies. Austin opened my eyes to incorporating Christian values into companies. The pros seem to out weigh the cons. Another favorite illustration he used was living a open-handed life. If we keep our hand closed around something (i.e. a car or piece of technology) we cannot receive anything from God. Austin did a fantastic job this week of inspiring everyone to give, and sometimes more than we are willing to give up.
Thursday night, April 11th, I had the opportunity to go to a Springfield Cardinals game with 9 other guys. It might have been a bit chilly but it was a blast and we definitely made the best of it. I laughed a good amount of the time.

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This weekend, God has given me the amazing opportunity to fly down to Texas with Joe White to take pictures. I'm really excited about this opportunity and what it will bring. I'm sure I'll meet a lot of great people just by being with Joe White. Look for an update next week on that.
Oh and this last Sunday, April 7th, was my birthday, it was fantastic!

Until next time.

End or Beginning?

This week was jam packed with good stuff. Mystery Monday was a nice stroll through Dogwood Canyon which I ​have been to multiple times but it was fun. Timothy Wright and I pretty much talked the whole time. Good times. Also, if you would like to read a little article I did on the Kanakuk Adventure Seires that I did this past summer for Shout! Magazine, click here.

Sean McDowell, son of Josh McDowell, came to speak to us this week. Sean and his dad have many really well-known books out. Sean is co-author of Is God Just a Human Invention?, Unserstanding Intelligent Invention?, Evidence for the Resurrection, More Than A Carpenter ​and many more. Needless to say, this dude is smart. He came in on Monday night to do a little Q & A with whoever wanted to come. This was a great time to get know him and his family a little. Tuesday he role-played as an 'athiest' and this was frustrating for a lot of the students because he Killed us! Yes, with a capital K! What I learned from this is that you need to know your information before going into an argument, or a discussion. We went through a few arguments that day and we spent a good amount of time defining 'truth'. Subjective and objective truth. Very interesting stuff. On Wednesday we broke down intelligent design, which Sean has written a book on so he was well prepared. We also spent some time on talking about how we can know the New Testament is true. I really enjoyed Sean and he shares my love of San Diego (he lives there). So that made him that much better.

​Wednesday night, Adam Donyes always does a Q & A for students who want to get deeper in the Word, I always go but this past Wednesday night was abnormally awesome. The discussion was really good and peaked some interest in certain subjects. God is good. 

The days are getting shorter, and it's scary. The main thing I'll miss is some of the people. For example, Rand, Timothy, Alex, Clayton, and Adam D. All great guys that I'll be friends with the rest of my life I'm sure. 

Encourgement: If it don't match the Word, forget what you heard!™

​Until next time.

The End is Near

The days keep getting shorter and shorter. So on a brighter note, check out this trailer for Despicable Me 2!

If you're interested to watch some action now... watch The Wolverine: International trailer here.

This Mystery Monday was spent at the Hillbilly Bowl. It was a great time even if I didn't win... I did get 5 strikes though. Moving on to class. Our speaker this week was Joshua Straub Ph.D. and he serves as the Executive Pastor of Family Ministries at Woodland Hills Family Church here in Branson, Missouri. Joshua was well liked by many students including me. As a counselor, he was able to talk to us with validity about relationships and relationships styles. Relationship styles form at such a young age with implicit and explicit memory. We always want to have this 'safe' feeling which could be different for a lot of people depending on how they were raised. It was really interesting to see how little things that my parents did when I was young has had a big impact on I think about different things. On the last day, Joshua went through what he calls emotional coaching. He goes takes couples through this when they are having a tough time relating to one another and he used some examples that really helped see how when a problem is brought up in a relationship that how you respond effects they way they will respond. 

Joshua also spoke at The Fort and talked on Proverbs 27. He killed it. If you have time, I would strongly encourage you to take a listen here.

Before you go, make sure to ​look back on Sunday for a little post about Easter. Have a great day!

Until next time.​