Hi Everyone,
Can you believe that you will be starting
the Kaleo Program in less than a month?! If you are anything like I was, you
are probably a little nervous, a little overwhelmed, and more than a little
excited. You are about to embark on one of the best years of your life that
will be unlike any other. It is going to be filled with adventure, learning,
ministry, growth and of course, lots of new friends.
My name is Nora Cullen and this past year I
was the community award winner. Community is a huge part of the Kaleo program
and it is one of the things that makes the program so special. You are about to
enter a community of people that does basically everything together. This does
have some challenges don’t get me wrong, but it also has huge rewards. You are
about to make friends that love you for who you are and will want to see you
succeed in everything you do. You are about to make friends that will care
deeply for you and will be genuinely concerned about how you are doing. You are
about to make friends that you will have countless inside jokes with that will
make you laugh no matter what the circumstance. Trust me, the friends you make
during the Kaleo program are friends that you will have for life, but it is
going to take some work on your part to make that happen.
The first thing I would encourage you to do
is spend time with people. This sounds silly, but it is sometimes easy to get
caught up in other things and lose sight of how important it is to spend time
with the people around you. Throughout the Kaleo program there will be free
time that you will get to decide what to do with. It is easy in those hours to
just want to sit in your room and browse Facebook or text a friend from back
home. However I encourage you to take advantage of the time you have to have
fun with your classmates. Some of my most memorable moments from last year were
the times when my classmates and I would organize some kind of fun activity and
just spend time together. These activities ranged from volleyball games, to
campfires on the beach, to Dutch blitz tournaments, to walking to Crofton to
get ice cream, to even just sitting by the fire place talking about what God
had been teaching us lately. Those crazy times of spontaneous activities are
the ones that I will remember forever, so I encourage you to do the same!
The second thing I would encourage you to
do is be real and vulnerable with each other. It took me a while to get to that
place where I was honest with people about who I was and what I was struggling
with. But once I did I watched as my friendships grew and deepened in ways I
would’ve never thought possible. So my advice to you is don’t be afraid to be
honest with each other, and don’t be afraid to ask tough questions to the
people around you.
I guess the best advice I can give you
about the Kaleo Program is to make sure that you have balance. Balance the time
that you spend in the books, with the time that you spend with your friends.
Balance the time that you are hard at work, with the time that you take to have
tons of fun. You should know that the past year of Kaleo students have been
praying for you since about last February, and I am sure that they continue to
do so. We are all excited to see your
pictures and hear your stories about how you experienced God during your year
of the Kaleo Program.
With many blessings and prayers,
Nora Cullen
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