{"id":5638,"date":"2019-12-18T16:15:27","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T22:15:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/?p=5638"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:55:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:55:17","slug":"week-13-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/2019\/12\/18\/week-13-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 13"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Monday, December 9, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we gathered in the dayroom\nthis morning, everybody was full of energy and were ready to get the day\nstarted. As we were patiently waiting to go to class, we conversed about what\nwe were going to give our last speech about. We were all called out to go to\nthe PEP room by none other than Gami J. We got our badges, found our seats and\neveryone who had homework due turned it in before we prayed in. After that, we\nheard one of our brothers read the word of the day to us. It was very inspiring\nand had a lot to do with striving to do better in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we are continued our final\nToastmaster speeches, my brother Samuel H. went up to speak. He talked about our\ninevitable release, which was really motivating. He also told us we might have\na test on Integrity Selling <\/em>in the\nnext few weeks. This got a whole bunch of us nervous, because we have probably\nfocused more on our pitches than reading the book. We also have to be prepared\nfor our Entrepreneurship test on Wednesday. To a lot of us, our grade point average\nis very important, and we are doing the best we can keep it high or to improve\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are taking all that we can\nfrom the program and getting ready to use it in the free world very soon. We\nwant to make our families proud and get back to them as soon as possible to\nshow them the new men that we have become. We thank PEP, and we thank God that\nhe gave us this opportunity to redeem ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jose\nO. (a.k.a. \u201cSelena Gomez\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First off, we would like to\nthank God for another amazing day. Today has been great because we have finally\nfinished Toastmasters and now have extra time to work on our 7 to 12 minute\npitches. It\u2019s hard to believe that we are almost ready to graduate, and with our\nPhase One brothers here looking on, it\u2019s a good feeling to be able to share our\nexperiences with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like we say, we need to make\nthe next class the best class. We push for that and with so much to give back,\nit\u2019s only fair to say that it is worth it. There is so much love and fun in\nthis program that it becomes infectious. We are here to help each other change\nfor our families for the better so that we can help create a better future. We\nwant to accomplish things and create a great journey to success. We are able to\nshare stories with each other and show that we can relate with one another\nregardless of where we come from. We want to live our dreams, and in order to do\nthat, we have to change the way we think and put thought into our choices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All we can do is take what PEP\noffers and use it to make the change that needs to be made. Today was a good\nday, and we can\u2019t wait to explore and share the love we have been freely given.\nWe are thankful for the effort and time PEP puts into us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramon\nO. (a.k.a. \u201cSweet Little Cookie\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, December 11, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we began our class as\nusual with a pray-in and reading from our daily devotional book. Afterward, we\nproceeded to take a test on Chapter 12 from our Entrepreneurship <\/em>book, and our whole class passed. This now makes two\nweeks in a row that not a single person has failed the entrepreneurship test. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we received much praise\nand congratulations, John S. proceeded to teach the curriculum on how to do\nproper valuations for our businesses. Now as smart as our class is, the\nmaterial was quite confusing. It took us some time to understand it, but thankfully\nJohn S. was very patient with us and made sure that he explained everything in\nways that would be easier to understand. Then we had the honor to make a\nrecording of a few pray-outs for some of our brothers who are leaving soon. It\nis very important to us to show our brothers support and to wish them well\nwhile on their righteous journey through life. We then got to watch some video\nupdates from some of the brothers who have recently been released, and they\ngave us some pretty encouraging words. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toward the end of our class,\nwe received homework assignments for our business plans. We have been working\nhard in preparation for our competition, and we can\u2019t wait to show the world\nthe Servant-Leaders that we have become. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curtis\nP. (a.k.a. \u201cThe Mader\u201d)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, December 12, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today has been a great day. In\nthe PEP classroom, the Phase One brothers continued their journey through Authentic Manhood,<\/em> while Phase Two\nbrothers worked as facilitators, doormen and even emcee. The rest of us that\nare in Phase Two were in the computer lab or in the dorms studying for tests\nthat we have to take this upcoming week. We must always stay prepared for\nanything the program throws at us, because we know that we can be tested on\nanything we have gone over in class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the day rolled on, a few of\nus decided to hold a study group on the Chapter 13 from our Entrepreneurship<\/em> book. We are almost\ndone with all of our tests for the class and have only one more left after\nChapter 13. After that, we decided to study Crime\nand Punishment<\/em>, parts 3 and 4. This book is a really hard read because of\nhow slow and old it is. Nonetheless, it is a really good book once you get into\nit. We also have Integrity Selling<\/em>\nthat we need to focus on, but we are able to teach each other the material that\nwe need to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank God that we are near the\nend and will be graduating on January 24th<\/sup>, 2020. This has been one\nincredible journey, and we all hope that we make our families proud. Thank you\nPEP for this experience and opportunity at redemption.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark\nP. (a.k.a. \u201cSebastian\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expressions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can give without loving, but you cannot love without\ngiving.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~ Amy\nWilson Carmichael<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nreason I chose this quote is that as a man, you think that the word \u201clove\u201d\nmeans a relationship with someone. I was raised that love is a good thing, and\nyet I was also taught that love could hurt the person who shows affection. As I\nhave grown and become a man, I have learned that the word love is something\nthat you have to put a bridle on, because I have kids of my own and I will\nalways love them, but I also have to teach them about love so that they will\nhave a good understanding of it. You can\u2019t be use the word love loosely around\nothers, because they can it the wrong way and you can end up hurting that\nperson. So I will always watch what I say and how I say it. I will use it, but\nputting the best interest of others above my own means I recognize God\u2019s leadership\nin fulfilling my dreams. May the Lord help me to love others well. I want to be\nthe one who shows love to everybody regardless. You never know \u2013 the love you\nshow may be all it takes for that person to get through a difficult time in\nlife. God love us all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Edward P. (a.k.a. \u201cHoney Bunches\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, December 9, 2019 As we gathered in the dayroom this morning, everybody was full of energy and were ready to get the day started. As we were patiently waiting to go to class, we conversed about what we were going to give our last speech about. We were all called out to go to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}