Btown Madness

You may be wondering "what do those linkys do in their free time?" Allow me to enlighten you!

The favorite spot is obviously Sonic! You cant ever go wrong with a quick trip over to Hollister MO for happy hour! there is ever a dull moment when it comes to trips to sonic! more often than not, they end with an epic dance party in the parking lot. Which I am totally okay with. 

James and Claire Bear. 

Another fun place to go is Andys Frozen Custard! In Katy the favorite is Ritters Custard...now nothing can beat Ritters, but Andy's is a pretty good substitute! Located on "The Strip" Andy's is a great place to go if you need to satisfy your sweet tooth!

some of the girls!

Claire Bear and James....Mom Dad and toddler. guess which is the toddler.

Grahamster!

My personal favorite hang out spot is the one and only Vintage Paris! It's a hidden treasure! By far the best coffee shop I have ever been to! With free wifi, this quaint little spot is study hall central. You can come and sit down and before you know it you have been there for 4 hours! Once you enter the walls of Vintage Paris you lose all sense of time. And you leave smelling like 14 different types of coffee...its perfect.

YUMM. this creation is called the Marie Antoinette...white chocolate and raspberry. its heavenly.

so comfy and cozy.

Of course every once and a while you need to do some laundry! So just take a trip to the "Ye old wash house" and be sure to bring plenty of quarters! Being away from home means no mom to do your laundry ! So trips to the wash house are always an experience!  But watch out for the Branson natives...they like to hang out at the laundromat...don't worry, they may not have teeth or where shoes but man they are friendly!

ready to go! mom taught me well!

the friend we made on our last trip..notice he is not wearing shoes.

BIG BIG WASHER...the only way to go! 

Being a college student, we often struggle with finances. So, when we have spent every last penny on sonic, custard, laundry, and coffee...we never fail to create fun inside the hammocks!! PS: hammocks are what we call the dorms! From Facials to movie watching the possibilities are endless!!

movies in bed...you have to get creative here.

facials are always a god choice.

group movie at the Smith house

when all else fails...hang up the hammock!

I hope this helps give you a look into the life of a linky! It's not always glamorous but it never ceases to be entertaining! To view more pictures of linkys doing our thing please check out our flickr page!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/linkyear

Life as a "Linky"

Alright. In order to fully expirence the link year life via my blog, I decided you should know what a day in the life of a "Linky" looks like. PS: a linky is what I have decided to call Link Year students, it may be weird, just go along with it.

So, Tuesday through Thursday we have class in the neighborhood chapel every morning.

Now, I don't know about you...but this is better than any classroom I've ever been in!! How blessed are we that we can hold class in such beautiful chapel?? I love waking up knowing that I get to walk up to this sight every morning for 8 months. Jealous? yup, I thought so.

So, class begins at 8:30 with worship and then 15 minutes of prayer. PS: our worship band consists of 3 linkys! They are all very talented and love serving others through leading worship! lets take a moment and give Alex, Brenton, and Katie a round of applause! After prayer and worship, Adam comes up and introduces our speaker. Each day we have the opportunity to listen to a different speaker. They each teach us about a different topic applicable to our lives and our faith. I will explain more about each  speaker in another post! Class ends at 11:45 and that's when the stampede to the dining hall for lunch begins. After lunch the rest of the day is ours!

Claire Morgan and Graham got bored during class

Jay Holden speaking on strengths

Jay Jay got a little sleepy.

Our AWESOME worship band!

Alex(right) and Brenton(left) jammin during worship! they are so talented!

If you didnt notice, Monday and Friday were not mentioned in the above explanation. Well that's because those days are totally different and totally awesome. Mondays are known as "Mystery Mondays" around here. The goal is to make Mondays the best day of the week, instead of the one day everyone dreads waking up for. So every Monday the staff plans a fun event for us to do! this week was roller skating at the prestige and famous Skate World. All they told us was to wear neon clothes and bring socks. SUPRISE! we are going skating! it was awesome! by the end of the day we were sore and sweaty, but it was totally worth it. 

Najee and I livin the thug life.

AD (the RA) and I were matching!

Now for Fridays! Friday is rough because we start at 8:00 instead of 8:30...you may not think that's a big deal, but 30 minutes can make or break my grumpiness. But anyway, at 8 o'clock the boys and the girls meet separate for bible study and small groups. Each week we have a bible study to complete by Friday morning along with a memory verse to learn! I love this day! (besides the whole 8AM thing) I love spending time with my small group having awesome conversation and spending time learning about each other as we dig into the word! We finish around 11 and have the rest of the day to ourselves! What to do in our spare time...the possibilities are endless! Trust me!

Why Are We Here?

It's very rare that you find a group of 32 students from all over the United States who all share the same eagerness to learn more about our faith in one place. So, the question is the same for everyone "Why are you here?" Well, I am at Link Year for a permanent life change. I forever want to live a life that is pleasing to God. No longer do I want to live my life constantly pleasing others. This year I hope to increase my knowledge of the word and dive deeper into what it means to be a Christian so I that can positively impact my college campus, and be a light to my friends and family.

 I never thought I would be the person not knowing what they wanted to do after high school. My life was planned out perfectly in my head, but after hearing about Link Year everything changed! I felt like God laid on my heart to attend Link Year, and I am so glad I put my trust in Him and allowed His works to take place in my life! Let me assure you, putting my trust in Him was NOT easy. All year I struggled with wondering if I had made the right decision. It became even harder once my peers began to find out roommates and buy dorm decorations. The worst was when they would come back from orientation and talk non stop about how excited they were! I wanted nothing more than to be excited for them, but I was filled with so much jealousy and I was so worried I was going to be so left out of the whole "college life" experience. So I prayed continuously that God would calm my heart and give me a peace about my decision, expecting that this "peace" would come sooner rather than later. Well, even a week before move in day I still wasn't sure about my decision, but as soon as I arrived and began to meet the incredible people I will live with the next year, all my doubts and worries were gone. I knew the Lord put me here for a reason. I have no clue what the Lord's purpose is for me here, but that is what I hope to learn! 

The first night, our leaders took the class out to Martin's Point (a BEAUTIFUL camp site on a lake Kanakuk uses during the summer) and we hung out and roasted hot dogs and SMORES! The night even consisted of some bluff jumping...which I hate...but I faced my fear and jumped anyways. But before we could stuff our faces with graham crackers and chocolate, we all stood up one by one and said why we were here. 

I was expecting everyone to have similar stories for why they are here in Branson MO...I was dead wrong. Each student had a completely unique story and reason for coming here. Most were fairly normal, no tragic experiences or anything. Others were very sad and heartbreaking and made my life seem so easy. But with each story told I realized how blessed I am to be apart of something that is so evidently orchestrated by God alone.It is insane how lucky we are to have the chance to walk through God's will together as one class! I am so extremely excited to see what plans the Lord has in store for this crowd in the next 8 months!! Keep reading, and you will be able to experience this year along with us!

Meet The Roommate

Out of all the people I could have as a roommate, there is no one else I would rather have then Jamie Smith. She is one of my best friends and knows me better than anyone else I know. Living with her this year is bound to be full of surprises! There is never a dull moment in the Smith house! Every second is filled with laughter and Lecrae is always jamming in the background. Not to worry, I will keep you updated with story after story of whatever crazy thing Jamie does. Prayers are appreciated... ;)

our door!

smiling is overrated. 

i walked in to find her napping on the floor...like i said, never a dull moment.

I LOVE YOU.

A New Chapter

It has finally arrived!! The time has come for me to leave good ole Katy, Texas and move to the always exciting Branson MO! The trip started out bright and early as all good road trips do, we packed up the car and headed out on our 12 hour excursion. Of course Dad had to bring sarge along. So we he was the official road trip buddy!

The trip was way too long for my liking. Minutes passed by slower than ever, I could not wait to pull up to my new home! But finally we arrived!! I was officially in Btown! Once we arrived at K-Kuai (my home for the next 8 months) we checked in, found my room and began the long process of unpacking!

a blank canvas! mom and i couldn't wait to get started!!

We arrived in Branson at 3:00 and didn't finish unpacking until 6:30! It was a long, but very exciting afternoon! and it's safe to say the hard work payed off! The room looks great!!

We finished off the evening with a late dinner at Fudruckers! Dinner was filled with laughter and fun until it came time to say goodbyes... surprisingly only a few tears were shed! but if i know my mom I am sure more tears came down on the road trip home and days to follow! So I left the resturaunt and headed back to my newly decorated dorm to begin the newest chapter of my life!

My mom and Dad worked so hard and were a huge help!! thank y'all so much!! I couldn't have gotten here without the two of you!