{"id":5695,"date":"2020-01-23T17:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/?p=5695"},"modified":"2025-05-03T22:55:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T22:55:23","slug":"week-18-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/2020\/01\/23\/week-18-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 18"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t\n

Week\nin Review<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, January 13, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we started out class as\nwe do with all of our classes: we prayed in, followed by the word of the day.\nAfter that we practiced our graduation walk. We did three runs of it and had to\nwork out the rules. On the third run, almost no one messed up. We are eleven\ndays away from doing that walk for real, and we cannot wait for it to get here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we practiced our\ngraduation walk, a few of our brothers did their pitches for the class. We have\ncome a long way since we started this class, and it shows in how we have been improving\nand delivering our pitches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then we had pray-outs to do\nfor our brothers who are either already gone or about ready to leave. Pray-outs\nare emotional times for us as brothers. It means we have one less brother here\nwith us, but it also means that one more of our brothers is back home in the\nworld \u2013 back with their families and getting their lives together after being\nin a place like this, which is something we all want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the second half of the\nclass, after lunch, those of us with children coming to our graduation went in\nand decorated the t-shirts for the teddy bears we will be giving to our kids.\nMany of us finished them, and they turned out nicely. It was fun but somehow it\nseemed like glitter got on just about everyone when it was all said and done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank God for another blessed\nday here at PEP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brent\nB. (a.k.a. \u201cPinocchio\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we went to the PEP room\nafter lunch and the few of us who had computer lab went over there to finish\nassignments. While we were in the PEP room, we had the opportunity to finish\ndesigning our t-shirts that are going to give to our children along with a\nteddy bear at graduation. The other half of us were working on practicing our\npitches for next week\u2019s Business Plan Competition \u2013 this is the big day we have\nbeen waiting for! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have been waiting for this\nmoment to finally accomplish something; for some of us, it will be the first\ntime we can show our families the men we have become throughout these past\neight months. These pitches are very important to us. We want to show every\nsingle volunteer all the great advice and feedback they gave us was put to good\nuse. They have taken time out to come and sit down with us and help build every\npart of our business plan. We know how valuable time is and all the things they\ncould have been doing with it, but they chose to come and spend hours of their\nquality time here with us. We are truly grateful. After practicing our pitches,\nwe gave each other advice on how to present our pitches with our body language as\nwell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After we finished, we prayed\nout and went back to our dorms where we continued to practice our pitches\nagain. We are all very anxious to graduate and show all the volunteers and\nespecially our families that the man we once were no longer exist and introduce\nthe new men we have become. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armando\nB. (a.k.a. \u201cDouble Rainbow\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, January 15, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today was another amazing day\nin PEP. The anticipation is like static electricity building as graduation day\nlooms in the distance just outside of our reach \u2013 we are at 9 days and counting.\n\u201cWho\u2019s coming to graduation?\u201d is being asked by everyone one of us. Mothers,\nfathers, kids, nephews, nieces, wives, friends and PEP brothers that are in the\nfree world \u2013 so many people finally getting to see the change in us for the\nfirst time. We talk about whose business plan pitch is the best and who needs a\nlittle more work, along with asking ourselves, \u201cWho has the best chance to win\nthe Business Plan Competition?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve H. came to give us his Integrity Selling<\/em> seminar, and he did a\ngreat job of having us sell our businesses to him. He did an excellent job relaying\nthe information in a way that made it understandable and applicable. We don\u2019t\nthink there has been another executive that has taken a whole day out of their\nschedule to lecture us for eight hours. Steve H. was funny, engaging and informative,\nand we truly appreciated his time and dedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So all in all, in the words of\na famous philosopher that goes by the name of Ice Cube, \u201cToday was a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyrone\nB. (a.k.a. \u201cRed Hot\u201d)<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, January 16, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today\nthe Phase One brothers enjoyed another segment of the Quest for Authentic Manhood<\/em>, where author Robert Lewis reviewed the\ncore essentials for a successful marriage. During this review, Mr. Lewis\nstressed the significance of the husband being, above everything else, a\nservant-leader. This ties in directly with one of our 10 Driving Values. He\nrounded out the session by listing 25 ways to be a servant-leader. Many men,\nmyself included, found more than one area where we possessed strengths or saw our\nweaknesses. This session was truly one to grow on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nlunch, we built camaraderie by breaking down barriers through fun with the\nmost-feared of all PEP activities: the chicken dance. Tedious at first, we\nloosened up, paired up, lined up and began to learn the moves that most\nkindergarteners know merely by instinct, or so it seems. All PEP brothers know\nthat this is a rite of passage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following\nlots of clapping, a whole lot of gyrating and no small amount of laughter, with\nthis daunting task behind us, we got down to the serious business of lip sync\ncontests. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is true: the reigning champion has been\ndisplaced, and a Phase One brother now holds the title. The rivalry continued,\nimaginary walls were broken down, a number of us dropped our guards and by the\nend, new bonds were forged. The highlight, however, was the dance-off. East\ncoast versus west coast, inner city versus country folk \u2013 laughing men of all\nages enjoyed themselves today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good\ntimes had by all, we followed up with a heartfelt pray out. Backs were slapped\nand hands were shaken before we left class and called it a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert\nC. (a.k.a. \u201cLil Dirtbike\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cThe ultimate measure of a man is not\nwhere he stands in the moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands\nat times of challenge and controversy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

~<\/em> Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This quote\nis very inspirational to me and has helped me in many ways, especially with how\nit motivates me to stay focused on my goals and never to stop trying to reach\nthem. It has helped me grow in a way that I have never been able to do before\nbeing in this program. In PEP, we have been faced with many difficulties, and\nbeing able to overcome them is essential to our growth as men. We have gone\nthrough endless hours of studying (and sometimes failing tests, with a lot of\nhomework as a consequence). Sometimes you have to read and understand\nsituations to really grasp the deep meaning of things that seem dull. I am very\nthankful for everything that this program has given me and continues to do for\nme. Without it, I don\u2019t know where I would be at today. I will continue to\nstrive and reach my full potential even when I am released. Thank God for\neverything he has done in my life and all that he will continue to do for me.\nGreat quotes come from great men, and I will continue to find the ones that motivate\nme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alejandro C. (a.k.a. \u201cLittle Pawn\u201d)<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Week in Review Monday, January 13, 2020 Today we started out class as we do with all of our classes: we prayed in, followed by the word of the day. After that we practiced our graduation walk. We did three runs of it and had to work out the rules. On the third run, almost […]<\/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-5695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5695","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=5695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/family.pep.org\/estes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}