Learning about Yourself Personally

Monday was a packed day! We did many things and had class in the morning and afternoon. This will be our regular Monday schedule from now on. We all start off splitting up boys and girls to spend time talking over the past weeks precepts that we did individually. We are studying the life of Abraham. We then went into group worship and were presented our Lifeline Topic for the day. Our topic this past week was Body a Temple. We had about 45 minutes to work on our statement to tell what we belief about The Temple Being a Temple. The last part of the assignment is to be given a scenario and talk in groups about how to approach the scenario and then talk in class about them. After lunch we came back to the classroom and got the afternoon to examine ourselves. We spent the afternoon talking about spiritual gifts and personality. We took two tests to discover our top spiritual gifts and search out what we thought of our personality and others as well. My top three spiritual gifts are Administration, Service, and Mercy. We took the DISC test on finding out our personality. I am a S and a closely followed C. I am People Oriented Reserved person. Then I am a Task-Oriented Reserved person.

On Wednesday and Thursday we got the privilege to have Rod Handley come and teach us about Character and Integrity. Here are some of the highlights over the two days.

What does character (integrity) produce? What are the benefits of leading a life of character?

1)     A clear _Conscious _ (Psalm 26:1-2, 11)

2)    It _Delights_ God (Psalm 15)

3)    The inheritance of a lingering _Legacy_ (Proverbs 20:7)

4)     The opportunity of being a _Mentor_ (Proverbs 11:3)

Paul (Training and Equipping You), Timothy (You are Training and Equipping Others), Barnabas (Encourager and Friend)

5)     True __Leaders__ develops (Job 8:20)

E.V. Hill, “If people aren’t following you, you’re not leading; you’re just taking a walk.”

6)    A __Humble__ servant heart emerges (Psalm 78:70-72)

7)    A __Crown of Glory__ awaits the good finisher (James 1:12, this does talk about salvation, however, Ron believes it also talks further about our integrity)

He then gave us Illustrations of Humility from the Bible and gave a principle to go along with it.

1. Matthew 18:1-5  Principle: Humility begins with a teachable spirit

2. Matthew 20:25-28  Principle: Christian humility is simply going down

3. John 13 & Luke 22:14-38  Principle: True humility is drawing close to God

I loved this quote from Ted Engstrom that Ron shared with us, “Accountability is the greatest prize of integrity. Accountability starts with yours truly—with an honest appraisal of who we are, of what makes us tick. It includes a long, hard look at our own ideals and motives. When we give an accurate account of what we think and what we do, then those around us can come to rely on us with confidence.” He gave us this quote after talking about how to sustain character and integrity. Then we went into detail about accountability.

Some of the verses that impacted me about accountability were

Hebrews 3:13 “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called ‘Today,’ lest anyone of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

Proverbs 12:1 “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.”

Confess, Prayer, Healing = James 5:16 “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”

Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

We have a huge test tomorrow morning over all that we learned last week from our Bible Overview Teachers. I studied really hard on Wednesday because I knew Thursday would be packed with other things! I am going to study some last little things I need to review one more time!

Be encouraged, Once we become filled with the Holy Spirit we are given a spiritual gift to uplift in the church and the church body. I would challenge you to seek out a test online and take it - they only take 15 minutes. By knowing what your gifts are then you can use them within the church and everyday life to share the gospel! So take a test even if it has been years since you have! It will be really fun to learn something about yourself.

Have an amazing time learning about yourself!!

Catch Up!

I am so sorry it has been a full week + some and I have not posted! It has been a crazy crazy awesome week!!! (Sorry Mimi it is so late.)

Anyways, I have finally gotten some down time to post for just a little bit.

This past week was Bible Overview week. I can describe it like this.

In 24 hours total in the classroom this past week we walked from Genesis to Revelations twice. We had two teachers walk us through the full Bible. We had 3 class periods with each, therefore in 12 hours we had walked through the Bible. Both of the teachers did a 1000 foot view and had very different teaching styles. Karen Chancey was the first teacher and she taught Monday - Wednesday Morning. She did a huge Visual Ad/Time Line that we filled in for the full Bible and 77 hand motions that explains the high points of the old testament. Mitch Maher was our second teacher and he taught Wednesday Afternoon - Friday. He taught us in person his dvd presentation called "Clarifying the Bible" He had written 20 Sentences that tell the story of the whole Bible.

Needless to say, we were overwhelmed with information this week. Each teacher brought up different parts of the Bible and I know for me and I can easily say for all the class that we learned something everyday. 

Example: how to remember how many books are in each Testament = Old Testament is How many letters in OLD = 3 and how many letters in TESTAMENT = 9 and guess what there are 39 books in the Old Testament!! New Testament is How many letters are in NEW=3 and how many letters are in TESTAMENT=9 and this testament is about the TIMES of the Gentiles = 3x9=27 and guess what there are 27 books in the New Testament. 

Example:I can show you on a map the route of for the People of God starting with Abram and going to  Canaan then Israel then Captivity then back to Israel. Also I can show you the route of each one of Paul's Missionary Journeys and Imprisonments.

I loved this week's teaching and I am excited to dig into books more in-depth. Daniel/Revelations and  1 John I know for sure we will be doing at some point during the year.

With this weeks teaching we have successfully been taught the Bible from cover to cover with a 1000 foot view and we have our main project for the semester that goes this that.

We have a Bible Overview Presentation due on Nov. 8th or 9th. This project is us teaching in front of Karen Chancey and Mary Beth (our grader for the year) and in 30 short minutes walk through the Bible. We are able to choose an age group to focus on. Being creative and making it be useful to what you want to do after the Institute is key. Example if you want to teach high school youth after this tailor it to that, if you want to teach by just speaking to people at a coffee shop have it on laminated notecards that can fit in your purse, If you want to teach to kids have a puppet show or tell it in character.

I believe after just thinking about it for about a day I am going to do something with music and teaching piano notes at the same time. So elementary music lessons with Bible Overview involved. I will keep you posted the more I work on it! I am very excited about the project.

Other fun things that have happened the past week.
We had Jack Herschend come and speak to us for about an hour on Monday. We had the privilege to have him talk about politics and our founding fathers and to think about why our country is faltering from such ideals they had set for this country. It was interesting but not enough time to fully dissect the topic. If you don't know Jack Herschend is the Founder and Owner of Silver Dollar City here in Branson as well as other Amusement Parks in the United States.
On Monday we had our first Lifeline Statement Assigned to us. This assignment is very much so like the Belief Statement but it is over a hot topic in the world and not necessarily over doctrine. Both Belief Statements and Lifeline Statements are valuable. This last weeks topic was Pornography.
On Wednesday we went to Chapel for the month. Keith Chancey was the speaker and talked about the Key Matthew 16:13-24.
K-There is a Kost for the Kingdom - Verse 21
E-Eternal Perspective - Verse 22-23
Y-Yield Yourself to God - Verse 24
On Thursday we were introduced to a college ministry called Lightbearers. This ministry is really really really cool. They (staff of lightbearers) build and own a apartment complex near a college campus and have distinct tenants who are coming to live there to be in an intense discipleship program for their year stay. Lightbearers have found church members in the town to come and disciple the students as well as actual Lightbearers staff. After the first year of staying at the apartment complex you can stay again and you are asked to find three new people to live with you and you be the discipler to those three people. The cool thing is there is accountability and a community that uplifts and encourages you to pursue Christ. Another cool thing is that all rent money goes to support an Oversees Ministry, Orphanage or Well Project or others that Lightbearers are apart of. Now I know you are thinking why did we get told about this ministry because we are out of college. We got told because they are in the process of opening up other apartment complexes and need more staff to start it up - so us coming to work with them and disciple college students. The University of Arkansas is the only active college doing this and Oklahoma State University has built the apartment complex and will be starting very soon. I loved hearing about the program!
This weekend was very chill, Dan's Parents and Sister came up on Saturday to watch Joseph at Sight and Sound. Then stayed till Sunday and we went shopping.
This Saturday also a ton of our classmates got the chance to go to Dallas Texas and witness the Marriage Ceremony of two of our classmates! Connor and Shelby Wade!! We (Dan and I)  are beyond excited to walk life with them their first year of marriage and years to come prayerfully.

That is what has happened here in my small little world. Studying God's Word, Learning more about it everyday, doing incredible assignments, hanging out with classmates and creating projects to teach the Bible to others! It has been an incredible first month here at The Institute. 

Inductive Bible Study

Hello Blog Followers!

I am so excited to share with you all what has happened these last couple days!

Monday-Wednesday we had David Lawson as our speaker. I started talking about his stay at the end of my last post. He came to talk with us and teach us about how to Inductively Study the Bible. He actually works for a company called Precept Ministries International that creates Inductive Bible Studies for people. We- as The Institute Class- are going to go through Genesis Part 3, Becoming a Friend of the Faithful God, A Study on Abraham, Chapters 12-25.
David told us about himself and then explained how to use an Inductive Bible Study format in studying God's Word.
There are three principles in this study - Observation, Interpretation, Application.
Observation - What does the text say?
This step takes the most time but allows you to understand the text in a deeper level so that you can interpret it and then apply it to your life
In this step you question the text with the 5-Ws and 1-H, who, what, when, where, why, and how.
You also look for the obvious which are People, Places, Events, and Repeated Words and you mark them in your Bible or on a separate word document. This is so that you see the pattern and flow of the text. I love this step and do both in my Bible and on a separate word document. There is a lot to mark so I don't mark everything in my Bible or I would be overwhelmed. However, marking truly does show the patterns and helps you focus on the words of the text.
Once you mark then you make a list of what you learned. So make a list of Paul and Timothy when you read 1 or 2 Timothy. Then evaluate the list and look for application and ask questions.
Interpretation - What does it mean?
During this step you look at the context and the biggest thing is to remember that CONTEXT RULE INTERPRETATION. Interpretation will be correct with solid observation. During this step you do word studies and cross references.
Application - So what?
In this step you have two different areas that you can apply the text into your life.
Either belief or behavior.
After learning about the three principles to Inductive Bible Study we put it into action and started our precept study on Abraham. It was a lot of fun to do it in class and talk through the questions out loud with each other.

Today's and Tomorrow's speaker I am going to hold off on and talk about in my next post over the weekend. You will be stunned by the stories I share and there are even ones I won't be able to because of confidentiality sake. Anyways that is all I am going to say and keep you on the edge of your seat until I post again.

I just have two more quick social aspects of The Institute to share on this post.
1. Wednesday the girls received their accountability partners and touch point leaders. I was beyond excited to finally know who these people were going to be in my life. We were given a notecard with our names on them. There was a symbol and a color lined on them as well. The color indicated what touch point we were in and the symbol who our accountability partner was within that touch point group. It was so so fun. We had to search around the dinning hall for our group and accountability partner. I was so lucky to get the young women I have as an accountability partner. We actually walked in together so didn't have to search long to know we were together. Her name is Annalisa Keipert. She goes by Anna! She is super fun and can't wait to get to know her better throughout our stay here and years to come! My touchpoint leader is Cat Hampsch! Super excited about that because got to spend some great time with her over the summer. She is so wise and has three kids that she is incredible with. I have one more set of girls in the touchpoint group. Liz and Kimia. So we will get to know each other really well.
2. I started my internship and I am having a blast with it. I am in the planning stage and doing a lot of brain storming. I am excited for how it will turn out!

Thanks for reading my blog today and be challenged in looking into doing an Inductive Bible Study. You can go to any Christian Book Store and ask for them. You can do any book of the Bible. I loved 2 Timothy and James. Go and have a great day!

Hurray, catch up day!!

Hi

I am going to catch everyone up to where I am right now! Get Excited!!

This post will be about Thursday - Monday. To finish off the month of September!

So without further a do, here I go.

Thursday

We had class in the morning and we learned about how to do a scripture memory box. This is just a tool that we can use to help memorize scripture throughout the year and for many more to come. All you need is five supplies to do this assignment.

1. Bible

2. Sharpie

3. Notecards 3x5

4. Notecard file dividers 3x5

5. Notecard box holder (from Walmart or hobby lobby)

On the notecard file dividers you will put these file names. Everyday, Monday, Tuesday, etc., 1, 2, etc - 31. By having these file names you have covered everyday of the week and the month. The object in having this scripture memory box is to continually be looking and refreshing yourself on the scripture you want to memorize. You should have no more than three verses in each section. You start by putting it in everyday and then will move it to once a week, then move it to once a month. You can go at your own pace. If you need to focus on three scripture everyday for three weeks then do so or if you can work on them one week then move to only saying them once a week and you do remember them do so. You have the freedom in that.

After talking about how to use the box we went straight into learning about our FIRST ASSIGNMENT. We were give a 4" binder and told by the end of our time here it would be filled with all of our assignments. I got so excited but really overwhelmed because of how big it was. That is going to be a lot of assignments. Then I took a step back and reminded myself that these really weren't assignments but us digging into the Word of God and having clear beliefs and vision and ways to teach what it is saying. I LOVE THAT!!! Okay, now to talk about our first real assignment that was graded and will determine if we get graduate credit and graduate from The Institute. Our assignment was to write our FIRST BELIEF STATEMENT!! I was so so pumped. We were to write about conflict resolution.
A belief statement is a statement that states your belief on any issue or concept. A belief statement is fully backed up by Scripture. This means for every thought written down on your belief statement it must be backed up with at least two verses. This is biblical-based and not opinion based. On my finished belief statement I have a paragraph of nine sentences and three pages worth of verses to back the nine sentences up with. This assignment took me quite a few hours to complete. We were given time in class on Thursday to work on it. Then I finished it up Friday afternoon. The belief statement was not the only piece to this assignment. After writing our belief statement we were asked to write a teaching outline for when we are going to teach on this subject. I chose to relate my teaching outline to middle school students. The outline had to go through the biblical way to resolve conflict mainly Matthew 18. Having your belief statement already written truly helped with this assignment. I walked through the belief statement and can teach middle schoolers how to resolve conflict. The last part to the assignment was to develop five discussion questions for a discipleship opportunity on conflict resolution.

Thursday lunch we had JBU come in and cater Danna's BBQ and afterwards talk with us about the opportunity to partner with them and get a masters program while here at The Institute or even afterwards up to five years later. Dan and I decided we will not be pursuing that avenue at the moment. We would rather be all in for what The Institute offers and its community. However, we will definitely be talking about it the next couple years again. After their talk we all went through serve safe training with Gina Hinch. This training is for us to all work in the dinning hall throughout the year. We each have a dinning hall duty that is around 3 hours a week and is apart of our tuition that is paid for us. The evening was ours to do whatever we wanted and I worked on my belief statement.

Friday
We had class in the morning and it consisted of a longer worship time of almost an hour, and us discussing our class declaration. I can see why churches struggle so much in laying the foundation for a new church. This is because of the different personalities within the body, the people pleasers, the over thinkers, the outspoken, the soft spoken and so on. It was very apparent during the two hours we worked on making a single sentence who are going to be leaders in our class. Here is our Class Declaration
The Kanakuk Institute Class of 2014 Declaration
"In order to fulfill the Great Commission, we as the KI class  of 2014 commit to God through humble submission, commit to others through sacrificial love and service, and commit to ourselves to godly discipline and the unity of believers, so that He may do immeasurable more for His glory!"
The rest of Friday consisted of finishing up my belief statement assignment, eating leftovers, and playing games in the lounge with fellow Instituters.

Saturday
Sleep in day!! It was glorious to sleep in. I had breakfast at 10 and then lunch at 1. During that time I was researching supplies for a Wedding Shower I will be putting on on October 21st. After lunch I searched the stores here in Branson for supplies. I was out in the rain with no umbrella or rain jacket so it was quite an adventure going from store to store. Once I got back I had dinner and played some card games with a girl here, named Hannah. Then honestly went to bed.

Sunday
Went to FBC Branson 9:35am service and then to a newly married Sunday school group afterwards. We have been to the class twice now and really have enjoyed it. We just started a new series and it being week two it was all about Having Fun in a marriage. The lesson has us each doing something fun, exciting, and meaningful to our spouses as a surprise each day! Super fun for Dan and I to enjoy the fun planned events with each other.

Monday Today!!
We had class this morning with David Lawson. We will have him as a speaker until Wednesday. He is teaching us on how to Inductively Study our Bibles. While we are here at The Institute we will go through two precepts, one each semester. So David is setting us up for success in those. After lunch we had a short one hour talk with Chad Hampsch about Finances. He gave us the 7 principles of Dave Ramsey on living a debt free life and challenge us to start working on that this year. This evening we had fun field games with the Link Year Students. These students are just out of high school and are doing a gap year program that focuses on Biblical truth and equipping them for college. So we needed to get to know these guys and gals so why not have dinner together and then some healthy competition. Luckily, I had bug spray so I didn't get eaten alive when we went to the lower fields to play. It was a great time and my team got progressively better at each rotation of a new game. And there weren't any major fights about sportsmen like conduct or how competitive people can get.

All in all these past two weeks have been jammed packed but so great! I have learned a lot about myself and really look forward to the rest of the 8 months here.
Excited to keep you posted on what is going on here in Branson MO. My plan is of right now to post either Wednesday or Thursday and Saturday or Sunday. Thanks for your support and prayers and I hope my long posted don't make you tired or bore you. Have an amazing Tuesday and Wednesday! Talk with you soon!

Lazy Day

Hi everyone,

So I have had a great lazy day here in Branson, MO. I have not given myself enough time to write out a full post, but didn't want to leave anyone hanging. I will post tomorrow evening and we will all be caught up then. I hope this doesn't disappoint anyone. I really have really just enjoyed a full day of church fellowship, institute fellowship and a wonderful nap with my husband. Therefore, I didn't give blogging a second thought. I pray your Sunday brought rest and seeking God in that. Have an incredible Monday! Talk to you all soon!

Three Incredible Speakers in 3 days!

Hello blog followers, family and friends!

Today and tomorrow are going to be yet again long posts but then you will be all caught up! My hope and plan is once I catch you up to post twice a week. So let's get started!

Monday - Todd Wagner, Tuesday - Braun Brown, and Wednesday - Timothy Ateek.

Todd Wager came to speak on conflict resolution. Todd Wagner is the pastor Watermark church in Dallas Texas. He is a long time Kanakuk Guy. His daughter goes to OSU and we did K-Life together. However, I had never heard her dad speak. So it's awesome to finally hear him speak here at The Institute. His topic was a fun one for Dan and I to hear about. Conflict resolution actually was one thing over the summer that Dan and I worked on in our marriage. Hearing what he had to say, and the steps he has placed in his church to resolve conflict was so cool to hear about.
Our main focus for the class was to review over the verses Matthew 18:15–18. This is where in the Bible Jesus talks about how to resolve conflict. First go to your brother who is in sin in private. Second take a witness if your brother doesn't listen to you. Third if your brother still does not listen to you or the witness you take it to the church. Watermark church has a field guide on how to approach these three steps if need be. Todd Wagner gave us the field guide and we walked through it together. There was time to scripture and we dug deep into them. As well as the helpful hints the field guide provided. Todd Wagner and his church believe that the reason why we resolve conflict is to glorify God. Through that we must look at our own sin first before approaching our brother. And then we are to be reconciled with God and to others.
We are called to be peacemakers, Matthew 5:9. Because of this we should see conflict as an opportunity. An opportunity to glorify God and become more like Christ in being a peacemaker. To be a good peacemaker like I said the first thing in resolving conflict is to look at your own sin in your own life, Matthew 7:5. Todd then gave us the step-by-step process that he lays out for his church in confronting a brother. He calls it the 7As to become a peacemaker.
1. Ask the Lord and others for help in self awareness.
2. Address everyone involved as soon as possible
3. Avoid the words if, but, and maybe
4. Apologize
5. Ask for forgiveness
6. Accept the consequences
7. Alter your behavior
Todd then talked about how to avoid minor offenses and what was a minor offense. He gave us four questions to ask ourselves to see if it was a offense we needed to approach your brother on or one that needed to not bother us.
1. Is the offense seriously honoring God.
2. Has it permanently damage a relationship
3. Is it seriously hurting other people
4. Is it seriously hurting the defender himself
Todd concluded his talk with talking about reconciling. We are to be reconciled by God and then to others. This is what it takes to be a peacemaker.

Braun Brown came to talk to us about student ministry. He is the head of the full student ministry at Watermark church in Dallas Texas. Yes, that is correct if you've read the post from yesterday and the section right above this, we've had three speakers from Watermark church in Dallas Texas. The staff here at The Institute truly believe that it is a church following after Christ and has biblical teaching for its members. His talk consistent of telling us key things to know about being in ministry. Here are the high points.
-Ministry is a great privilege. God doesn't NEED you to do ministry He wants to use you to do His work.
-Be teachable and passionate. Make room for God to teach you through other people. Proverbs 27:9. Always assume the best when people are teaching you.
-Live in the light and Foster living in the light. John 3:19-21.
-Relational, spiritual, and professional trust are three keys to team leadership. Own your own stuff. Prayer, accountability, sharing what God is teaching you are ways to provide a team atmosphere. The ability to get stuff done, follow through on and projects, and being all in in all aspects shows you want to be apart of the team. Having short accounts, an open door policy for confrontation, and asking forgiveness with every team member allows it to be a smooth and productive team.
-Keep the Sabbath rhythm to your life. This means to have rest. Physical, spiritual, and emotional. These are all part of keeping your Sabbath restful. Know the signs of when you're in a stage unrest, and need to take some time for yourself.
-Trust God it's writing the story. Examples such as David and Joseph.
Braun Brown concluded his talk by talking through things that have changed in student ministry throughout the years. This was very enlightening and great to hear about. He talked about how parents are more involved today than ever before. And that small groups are the entry points to bringing new kids to join a small group, not the big events anymore.

Timothy Ateek is from Waco Texas. He has a ministry called      and it focuses on college ministry. On our schedule it said he was coming to talk to us about how to make amends with a friend. However, when he came up on stage to talk with us he told us this, "I know your schedule says I'll be talking about making them into different. However, on Sunday I really felt like I needed to talk about something else. So on Monday I called Chad Hampsch and asked if I could switch what I was talking about. We decided to pray about it till Tuesday. And now I'm here on Wednesday and our talk is going to be different. Today I'll be walking us through verse by verse of one book of the Bible and that book is Song of Solomon."
The whole class giggled and got a little scared. Let me just say this, there are two married couples out of the 76 people here. There are six engaged people. Four of them are couples and are both here attending the Institute together, two their future spouse is not here. Hence, there are a lot of single people in the classroom. I can say now I was very glad we had this talk. I was a little apprehensive at first with how our class was responding to what he was saying. The atmosphere got better as they realized this was a book for everyone no matter the status of our relationships. Timothy was quite funny with this intense subject we were talking about. If you don't know Song of Solomon is all about LOVE. The love that God gave us here on earth to enjoy as a married couple, one man and one woman. I am not joking when I say that we went verse by verse through this book. However, we did not make it through the full book, because of time. We only got to chapter 4. Even though we only got through half of the book it was so enlightening and so cool to see how God has given us a full book on relationships. Tim titled his talk Finding, Making, and Maintaining love.
These are the highlights of what I got out of Tim's talk about Song of Solomon.
Chapter 1 verses 1–7, is section 1. It is titled, who you're looking for and who you want to be.
1. Verse 3, is the girl talking about Solomon. His oils and fragrance, and how she compares that to his character and reputation. Tim challenged the guys and asked, what do you smell like? Is your character something to be proud of, smell good or not.
2. Verse 7, is the girl talking about how she wants to meet Solomon, but that she won't go out wondering like the other girls for men. She will wait for him to pursue. She will stand firm and her beliefs. Tim challenged the girls and asked, are you wondering for you waiting for God's man in your life?
Chapter 1 – Chapter 3:5, is section 2. It is titled, how to date well.
1. Verse 11, is the girls friends talking about helping the girl get ready for a date. I loved this verse because that is still true today. Whenever a girl gets out on a date the first thing she does is call her friends and they ask her what she is gonna wear and then they help her get ready.
2. Chapter 2:2, is Solomon affirming the girls beauty after she states she is just common. I loved this verse and how Tim put it. Guys are here to affirm and push us to believe that we as girls are beautiful. No not for us to find our security in them but just like friends to speak truth when we listen to lies. Tim put it like this, "guys if you let a girl wander in her beauty then she will wander in her security."
Chapter 3 - Chapter 5:1, is section 3. It is titled marriage and sex.
We did talk through this section, however I am not going to write about it on the Internet.
I loved hear Tim talk over this book of the Bible. I love how it is still relevant today, such like the rest of the Bible.

The speakers were the main activities that happened in those three days. There were a couple other things I would like to share about which happened during that time though.
While we are here at The Institute we will serve in an internship here in Branson. On Monday, we got the chance to talk with different ministry opportunities to intern with face to face. Just yesterday we were given our internship placement so I would like to share about mine now. Mine is not with a church, or K-Life, instead I will be working with Kanakuk Kamps in their kamp kitchen and food department. I will be working along side Gina Hinch in developing a new way to keep track of every food item served at kamp and its ingredients. There will be a version online for parents to see as well as a hard copy in every kitchen so the cooks have the knowledge as well. I am SUPER PUMPED about this project and can't wait to start and tell all of you how it is going. I really believe this will benefit kamp and help with the process of offering different foods and having allergy food kids be able to enjoy the amazing place of Kanakuk Kamps.
The last thing we did in these three days was go to chapel on Wednesday. Shay Robbins, one of the men directors for The Kanakuk Kamp K-2 spoke. He spoke about Justification. This means to be set free from sin. His focus was on how we are in bondage because of our sin and that the belief in Christ is the only way to get out. He finished with talking about a heart change to follow Christ. No this isn't mandatory, however if you believe In Jesus Christ then you should be compelled to change. How a heart change comes from repentance. How repentance is to agree with God about my sin. And how our reaction to this repentance it heart change,

I hope yet again you have been encouraged in some way from reading my blog. I do take this seriously. My faith, my walk with Christ and how I portray it to others. I pray The Lord brings you to repentance because we all need it daily, and through that we decide to make a heart change. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day or night (to cover whatever time you are reading it at!)

Recovery and Service in Branson

Friday was set up to be like a regular Monday schedule day. So we had worship, class, lunch, class and then dinner. We had our first out of town speaker and it was phenomenal! The speaker was John Elmore from Watermark church of Dallas Texas. He came to speak with us about recovery. He heads up the recovery program at Watermark church. This subject was an intense subject but a fun one to dig deep into. We walked through his 12 step process to bring recovery. 

1. Nature of man

2. Nature of God

3. Salvation

4. Old self

5. Confession

6. Turning from/to

7. Follow Christ

8. Forgive

9. Amends

10. Short accounts

11. Intimacy with God

12. Great commission

The first 3 steps talk about salvation

4-9 talk about repentance

10-12 talk about abiding and walking with God. 

We proceeded to go through all of the steps in-depth and talk about scripture that correlates to them. Steps 1-3 were easy to talk about. They were things that we've all heard about growing up in church about our sinful nature and God and His salvation for us. Step 4 is where it got interesting. We were given a huge Excel sheet document, and it was to be our inventory of all past. We were asked to start filling it out by remembering sins we had committed. There were six categories to fill out were these Resentment, Fear, Harm to Me, Harm by Me, Sexual, and Recovery Issue.

 Here is an example. 

After spending some class time on filling parts of this inventory out we proceeded to step 5. Before starting step five we took our break for lunch. So when we return from lunch to start step five we broke up into boy and girl groups. This was a good thing because what we're about to do was confess our students to our peers. This was such an incredible time. I say incredible not that it was easy but that was very hard there were intense sins that needed to be confessed and also the need to be prayed over for each group. This made our community so much closer. That we could confess sin and be forgiven and be held accountable to continue to stay away from such sins. Step 6 turning from/to is what John Elmore like to call repentance. This step also had an Excel worksheet to fill out.

This worksheet was to help us see the sins that we do over and over again. After completing the worksheet we could see why we fell into the same sins continually. I have not finished this worksheet yet but I do believe that once I do I will be able to see the sins I fall into over and over again. Not only does this worksheet show you the sins you continually falling too but it gives you a way to stop and repent from then to no longer do them again. It does this by showing you what allows you to fall into that soon. The areas that are sinful nature over turns for spiritual walk, and once you recognize this you're able to battle our flesh and live in the spirit. Steps 7 and 8 where are self explanatory. When we got to step 9 he gave us an anagram to be able to remember how to seek amends. The anagram is RUT-ABC. R-recognize the wrong, U-understand the hurt, T-take responsibility, A-ask for their forgiveness, B-behavior, C-change. The last 3 steps he had to go through quickly because he was running out of time but he gave an amazing scripture if you're wanting to know more just let me know. That concluded our time with John Elmore and we were all very grateful for it. The evening was ours to do whatever we wanted to do with. Dan and I decided to clean up our room and get everything put into its rightful place.

The Institute staff had planned our first Saturday of being here at the Institute. We were to help with the FBC Branson church in their service project for the year. We all got up and went to the church at 8 AM in the morning. We were given teams and we went out to different houses and helped paint. My team got the privilege to paint the whole outside of this widows home. Her colors were a grayish blue for the wood and white for the accents. We had lunch in between working and we finished around 3PM. After that the evening ours to do whatever. Dan and I decided to do dinner here at the Institute with leftovers.

Sunday, I got to do something I have never done before. I got to volunteer at a triathlon. All Institute students were to volunteer on Sunday. There were different time slots and I got the amazing time of 5 AM to 9 AM. It was freezing. I had on three layers for my whole body. I had gloves and a hat and my big winter jacket. I felt like I was going snow skiing. It was 46°F outside when we woke up and didn't get above 50°F by the time we left so therefore it was cold. Like I said this is something I've never done before, volunteer at a triathlon. So I had no idea what I was doing. This was contrary to what my personality wants me to do, know everything that was going on. Dan was very eager to get started when we showed up so he volunteered for the first placement of volunteers. Guess what that was, parking cars. We had no direction and we had no idea where the parking lot was. So with that said, it was quite an adventure. The task ended up being quite fun we got to meet athletes and encouragement them and then meet the fans as well. We were stationed at T1which means transition one. This area is where they swam and then got on their bikes. So we watched them from the parking lot swim across to the other side of the lake and back and get on their bike and take off. Once they got on their bikes I had my next job. It was to tell the bikers which lane they were supposed to use for the rest of the bike portion of the triathlon. I am not for sure if this is for every triathlon but for this triathlon the bikers were riding into the oncoming traffic however traffic was stop so no worry of collision. As I was facing the bikers as they were passing me. I was pointing with my right arm for them to go into the left lane. Therefore the next day my right arm was quite sore. By 9 o'clock all the athletes had done the swim portion and were on their bikes. After our eventful morning Dan I decided to go to FBC Branson and attend there 9:35 worship time. After main worship we found the young marrieds Sunday school class and decided to join in. The only problem was neither one of us and had breakfast and we were starving. Luckily there was zucchini bread provided by one of that wife's and it was delicious. Sunday school was quite fun and we look forward to going while were here in Branson. For lunch Dan and I decided to eat pizza. We had a Domino's Pizza gift card that given to us as wedding gift and we hadn't gotten to use yet. So we found a Domino's and used it. Thank you very much Sharon Boydston. After lunch I took a nap and then woke up and continue to work on the recovery inventory Excel worksheet that John Elmore had given us. For dinner we had Domino's as leftovers, it was still so good. After dinner it was uneventful I continue to work on the recovery inventory Excel worksheet. It was nice to have a more relaxing day and be able to get the inventory worksheet done.

That concludes our first full week at the Kanakuk Institute. Wow, we have learned so much already. The community is growing and we are excited to see what God does. We have learned about vision, purpose, expectations are while were here, confession, how to write an effective testimony, how to recover from sin, about truth, about discipleship, and character.

Hope you enjoyed and be encouraged to reflect on your sin nature and seek God to reveal ways to turn away from and go to Him more.
Romans 8:5 "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit."