Thursday, January 31, 2013

Ambassadors


We’re Going to Ireland!!!! This week sure has been crazy! We Had a tornado warning, a friend’s birthday, three girls got sick, my family group painted Tanya’s office, and we had to pack for a month of super cold/wet/rainy weather in under 50lbs. There has been so much to do and to get done because we are leaving for Ireland bright and early tomorrow morning and will be gone for the month of February. We started off this week with a visit to the Titanic Museum. I’m not going to lie, I always thought the Branson Titanic Museum was a joke (it’s in the shape of the boat), but I was wrong. I really enjoyed the museum and learning a lot of interesting facts about the ship. Did you know that 22 tons of soap were used to launch the Titanic into the water? I also learned that the ship hit the iceberg 37 seconds after the iceberg was spotted by Fredrick Fleet. I had fun at the Titanic Museum here in Branson but I am super excited that we will get to see the Titanic Museum while abroad in Belfast where the ship was actually made.
Me and Jamie are ready for Ireland!!
Painting Tanya's office, A.K.A family bonding!

         Despite all the craziness around here we did have a great speaker come this week. David Marvin, from Watermark Church in Dallas, spoke with energy and enthusiasm on being missional. Research shows that the first place a church grows cold is in evangelism. We are called to be ambassadors of God’s kingdom and share the good news of the Gospel with those around us. It was sad to hear that ONLY 14% of the 450,000 churches in America have an outreach plan. And did you know that only 75-100 million men and women in America have NO knowledge of God or a relationship with Him. These statistics are sad. What is holding people back from sharing the Gospel? We looked at the characteristics of the early church in Acts 2:42-47, the following is a short list of the adjectives that describe the early church:
         1.devoted
2. communal
3. teachable
4. reverent
5. servants
6.generous
7. joyful
These adjectives describe the early church but do they describe the modern church today? They should, but that’s not always the case.

We also came up with a list of how the modern church appears to outsiders and we concluded that today’s church often seems hypocritical, condescending, judgmental, generous, and encouraging. Though these are just a few from the list, it is disheartening to see that the church is viewed in this way. So what can we do to make a change? David challenged us to be more intentional in conversations and to engage in more spiritual conversations, and though this is not always easy I would challenge you to do the same. It is the duty of the church to be missional, and that doesn’t necessarily mean one has to travel to a foreign country, we can be missional in our everyday life. BE intentional, and BE and an ambassador for God’s Kingdom anywhere and everywhere you go!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Proverbs 31 Woman



Wow, what a week! This week at Link Year has been the best week by far! This week was Proverbs 31 week for the girls, and manhood week for the boys. Therefor we did not have class together, and had different speakers. For mystery Monday we (the girls) started with a relaxing day of just hanging out and watching movies at the Donyes’ house and enjoying our favorite local subs from Jayne Dough. Oh and we had a little surprise shower in the kitchen.
We quickly grabbed any pots, pans, cups, and bowls in sight, as the water  seeped through the ceiling, and showered us with the oh so lovely present of toilet water.
            The speakers we heard from this week were phenomenal! These women were full of wisdom and truth, they really taught me a lot. I could go on for hours about the things I learned this week but I  really want to emphasize what it looks like to be a Proverbs 31 woman in our modern world. This is a term that I have heard time and time again, but when I read Proverbs 31, it talks about being a wife and a mom, something that doesn’t seem applicable to me at this point in my life. However, a P31 woman is a woman of noble character, and that’s what we saw when we examined the the text this week.  


Characteristics of a Proverbs 31 woman
Trustworthy (v. 11)
Faithful (v. 12)
Committed (v. 13)
Servant (v. 14)
Strong (v. 17)
Diligent (v. 15)
Smart (v. 18)
Confident (v. 19, 21)
Giving (v. 20)
Attractive (v. 22)
Tactful (v. 26)

These are all characteristics of a Proverbs 31 woman, and it’s never too early to start practicing these in your life. A Proverbs 31 woman is NOT about marriage and kids and a list of tasks a woman must do. It is about glorifying the Lord, living for his righteousness, guarding our hearts, dressing modestly and displaying self-control. Chantelle Mack, a wife and a mom of two, gave us this advice “before you can ever hope to be someone’s wife, you should be practicing how to be a P31 woman.” She encouraged us to start striving for these characteristics today, telling us it was never too early to do so. She also stressed that it is not always easy to be a P31 woman, but it takes practice, patience, and most importantly dependence on the Lord. I challenge all those who read this to strive to be a Proverbs 31 woman; a woman of noble character that loves the Lord. 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Link Round Two

 Me and Shelby!
                                                         
 Family dinner at Tanya and Jane's! I Love my Family!
Me Rachael and Jamie!
 Jamie and I wore our onsies to Mystery Monday this week:)


While it was great to be home for the holidays, it is great to be back in Branson at Link Year. Everyone at Link Year has become like family to me and I missed my Link Year family while I was away. Link Year has seven pillars, and it wasn’t until over the break that I was really able to see how these pillars have influenced my life over the past few months. The seven Pillars are: maximizing moments, student of scripture, authentic accountability, Biblical worldview, privilege responsibility, heart transformation, and growing in gratefulness. It’s taken a while for me to see how these pillars have influenced my life, but that’s because they are centered around heart transformation and not behavior modification. It was great to reflect over everything I am learning here over the break but I am so HAPPY I am back. I know this semester will fly by so fast but I am excited for what semester has in store for everyone here at Link.
            This week started off with a very big breakfast for Mystery Monday. We all hung out and talked about our breaks. We heard from Ted Cunningham this week, a local pastor, as well as a renowned Christian author. He spoke to us on the fun hot topic of relationships. He spoke about the unnecessary delay of marriage. I didn’t exactly agree with everything he had to say on this though. He talked to us about how people are prolonging adolescence, and not wanting to grow up.
I really liked what Ted had to say on communication. He said that the issue is rarely the issue. Usually there is something behind what people “think” they are arguing about. He pointed out that 93% of communication is non-verbal. Did you know that women on average speak 20,000 words each day while men speak an average of 7,000? Everyone knows that women talk more, but 13,000 more words each day, that’s a lot! Women and men communicate differently, but communication is key when it comes to relationships.  He shared two skills to help communicate better, the first being to L.U.V.  Talk. This means to listen, understand, and validate when talking to someone. The second skill drive thru listening, what he meant by this was that we have to actually listen to people and give them out full attention instead of half way paying attention. We are interrupted every 3.5 minutes, usually by technology, but it takes 25 minutes to refocus. If we continue to allow these interruptions in our life every 3.5 minutes then we will never be able to fully refocus on a conversation or task; this is sad.