study day

Here is a photo journal of what I did on study day. Enjoy!

My morning started off with some yummy banana bread that my mom sent me.One of the lovely things about Study Day is that I didn't have to make my bed. Instead I stayed in bed and just worked on... ...my CEF application which is taking way longer then I had anticipated.

The surprise/praise of that day is that I got a printer. The senior girls were have a senior sale and I got this printer for a very good price.

I have been saving these Doritos for a very special day.

For Gospels and Acts I have to have read through Acts in the Ryrie's Study Bible by Monday, so I got a good chunk of reading done.
At about 4:20, I got a phone call from Hannah saying "You have dinner plans, and don't worry about anything, Meg and I have it all taken care of. Be ready at 5:30." We didn't quite get out at 5:30, but they had prepared a picnic and got a bunch of us together to go to Grandview. The menu included:

-turkey and provolone cheese sandwiches

-nacho cheese bugles and salt and vinegar chips

-chocolate covered strawberries

-girl cupcakes and boy cupcakes

-delicious Welch's Mixed Berry Punch

I will not deny that West Virginia is absolutely gorgeous!

There were seven of us that went. These are the four of us girls: Me, Manda, Meg, and Hannah.
When I got back, I still had to take care of my dishes.

The day didn't end there, but my camera batteries died, so alas, no more pictures! At 10:30 we had our SPS (Secret Prayer Sister) Reveal! My SPS was Alicia, and she was awesome. She got me a ton of York Peppermint Patties (yum!), a candle warmer, and three small candles. What I most appreciate from her though is her prayers. Anyways, that pretty much sums up my day!

end of the semester

Well, today was my last day of classes, and that is definitely a praise! I got all of my assignments, papers, and projects done and handed in, and the ones I am getting back, I am pleased with the thoughts of my instructors. The only thing I have left is to study for exams, and to read through the book of Acts in Ryrie's Study Bible. Hooray for the end of the semester, and my freshman year.

Tonight is my last Wednesday night with my kiddos at DBC. I will be doing a review of the fruit of the Spirit, which is the study we have been doing this semester. I have grown to love these children (though they can be very challenging) and will really miss them this summer. But as of right now, I plan on going back to DBC next year, so I will get to see them again soon.

Tomorrow is study day where we well....study. We can sleep in and the faculty serves us breakfast to our door. We have one every semester, and I loved it last semester. It is a very productive day, and I am looking forward to what I can get done tomorrow.

Friday is work day, which is when everyone from ABC (full-time and part-time students, faculty, staff, families, etc.) help clean up around campus. I will be cleaning the inside of Beukema (a classroom building), but some of the other tasks include: cleaning the buses and vans, trimming bushes, sweeping sidewalks and roads, cleaning the dining room chairs, washing windows, and still so many more. We will be cleaning from about 8:30 until 3:00. Friday evening we have an all campus picnic where there will be 'boat' races across the pond!

I am also working on my CEF application, which has been long and extensive, but I am excited to be involved in that ministry this summer.

The countdown!
7 days until I see: Dad, Mom, Scott, and Sarah
8 days until I see: Daniel, Tim, and Beth
21 days until I am home in Vermont!

IMPACT overview

Thank you all for prayed for impact this past weekend. It went so well, because of the Lord, through your prayers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We had around 150 kids, which is awesome. Mr. Naff's goal was for 150 but when we only had 46 signed up two days before the deadline, we were thinking that was a bit unreachable. But God is indeed good, and brought several more (some after the sign up deadline, but we weren't going to be picky), which helped us have a fantastic weekend.
I helped with registration which had me down at the Alpine at about 4:30, no nap for me that afternoon. We set up the tables and tried to get organized. We only had a few glitches, but by the end of the weekend, we weren’t even thinking of those. I was in charge of explaining the registration process to the groups, taking their forms, and selling T-shirts! Call me weird, but I love that kind of stuff—paperwork (on the receiving end, maybe it is more filing and organizing of the paperwork that I like)!

I met my three girls as they passed through registration. Two of the girls, Becca and Megan, were sisters, and the third girl, Cassie was a senior whose church sent the seniors to impact as a senior trip/senior gift. They were all very sweet, although I am concerned with exactly where they are standing spiritually. I know one of the girls was specifically convicted over the weekend, and was excited to go home and change her youth group. If you think of these three girls, please lift them up in your prayers, as we all know it gets tough to live out convictions once you get back home and get back to day-to-day life.
Dr. Anderson (president of ABC) was our speaker this year, and he truly did an fantastic job. The teens were very attentive and stayed awake (as much as I could see through my eyelids, just kidding, I was awake). The first night he talked about being awake (duh!) and asked three questions: Do you know what time it is?, Do you know what trouble is?, and Do you know what type you are? I know it is kind of hard to understand the whole message from just that, but I promise you it was very convicting. One of my girls responded to this message, and Praise God for that. Saturday morning Dr. A talked about the life of Sampson (Judges 16), and I confess I don’t think I have read/heard that story since I was young, but what a powerful story. Sampson got caught in sin, and that sin blinded him, binded him, and grinded him, but God’s grace found Him! I would have to say this was the most convicting for me personally. We had one last message on Saturday afternoon talking about three teenagers from the Bible as life examples: Daniel, Mary, and Timothy. I am so thankful for the messages Dr. A brought us reminding us to be awake as Christians.
The activities committee did an exceptional job with the activities. Friday night, Greg hosted a game of what most will know as “Minute to Win it” on TV He would give the teen a ‘task’ to do, and they had to do that in 60 seconds. He had one contestant rolling ping pong balls down a tape measure into a bowl about six feet from the teen; a contestant trying to take out all of the Kleenexes from a box, one at a time; he also had a contestant who had to blow like 20 disposable cups off of the table, but the air in a balloon that he repeatedly had to blow up. These are just a few of the activities, but it had us all laughing and very engaged. Saturday morning, we had a big game of Capture the Flag…Mattress Style! The twist to it being mattress style is that the flag was a full size mattress. Without going into all of the rules, we all had a blast playing this game, and I actually did tag some people, and didn’t fall into the pond (though a few guys tried to make it so there was no else but the pond to go). Sadly, the guys pretty much won, but oh well, it was fun playing!

Another activity we did was on Friday night around our indoor ‘bonfire’. Eric, in his creativity, asked for four volunteers: two guys, and two girls. He had one girl and one guy lay on the floor where there was plastic laid out. He then gave each team (guys’ team and girls’ team) a bowl of peanut butter and told them they had like 20 seconds to smear as much of the peanut butter on the person laying down(‘s) face. No worries, he made sure his volunteers were not allergic to peanut butter. He then gave each team a bowl of cheerios, and this time, they had to get as many cheerios on this person’s face. It was very noisy as the teams each cheered for their team/gender. By this time, it was very messy down there, so Eric decided to be nice to the girl and guy laying down, and help them with the cleaning process, so he had the team member standing up take off their socks and shoes and clean off the other’s person’s face…with their feet! I was thankful I was not down there, but it was a blast to watch as the contestants were all good sports about it and had a blast doing it.The weekend left me exhausted with a long week ahead of me, but God is good and is helping me get my work done. Now only one full day left of classes- yay! If you think of them, please pray for the teens that were here this past week. We know of one girl who accepted Christ, and we praise God for that salvation. We also know of several who responded to rededicating their life. They need our prayers that they hold strong to the commitments they made this weekend. To God be all the glory!

agh

This won't be long, but just to give the quick update:

Life has me going "agh!" Impact went very well, but left me dead exhausted. I will probably post pictures from the weekend....after Wednesday! I have my research paper comparing/contrasting the pharisees and the essenes due this Wednesday and to say the least, it has me a bit stressed. Praise the Lord though I am doing better in the stress department after last night. I spent some time just forcing myself to work on it, and I made good head-way. If I push REALLY hard this afternoon in the library, I think I could get the bulk of it done. I am still very tired from the weekend and stress and just pushing hard to get through Wednesday. Prayers are very much appreciated.

I hope you all have a beautiful week, and are able to do something fun and relaxing this week!

IMPACT, CEF, and a lovely care package

IMPACT weekend has finally arrived and I am so excited to meet my girls! Please be praying that this time we have with them (Fri evening through Saturday afternoon) is a life changing time for them. Please pray that their hearts be softened. I am counseling the girls from two churches (each church could be bringing only one girl, so I have no idea how many that means I have) and hoping they find both encouragement from my words, and The Word. This year's theme is Awaken and comes from Romans 13:11 "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

Also, I called about another job for this summer. I am seriously considering working as a CEF summer missionary in Vermont doing 5 day clubs. Please pray for me as I prayerfully consider this option.

Another tid bit of excitement for me is a care package from my mom (totally blog worthy). I was walking down to the post office hoping to get some good mail today and vaguely imaging the little laminated piece of paper that reads "You have a UPS package", and I opened my mailbox, and there it was--the little laminated piece of paper that reads "You have a UPS package". I was so excited. I gave it to Mrs. Chesley and she said "a big orange box" and I smiled and responded "must be from my parents, thank you!" I couldn't keep the smile off my face as I walked back to my room to open the lovely package. My mom is awesome--she sent me a package to help me make it through the last week and a half at ABC including: granola, banana bread, Dove dark chocolate, Vermont maple hard candy, Apple Cinnamon tea, M 'n Ms and a lovely note. I most definitely won't run out of my fill of sweets before they come and pick me up (13 days!). Anyways, I just wanted to remind you all of what a fantastic mom I have, and to let her know just how much I appreciate her and the package she sent me (Thanks, Mom! I love you.)

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend! Enjoy meeting with God on Sunday!

football in chapel

So I probably should be working on my english comp paper right now, but I am dieing to share about chapel this morning. The speaker was Rev. Jeff Davenport, and he did a fantastic job this morning delivering the message. I highly encourage you to listen to the message, because the particular object lesson that struck me will be way better listening to him tell it, then to reading it in my words.

If you are anything like me, you have no idea what Pro Bowl is. And again, if you are anything like me, you still don't really know what it is, but that doesn't matter. All you need to know is that it is football, and it is a group of men from different AFC and NFL teams that kind of join their own team (sorry, I am sure I am totally butchering this). The thing is, they are all wearing the same jersey, just different helmets.

Rev. Davenport was sharing with us this morning how these Pro Bowl games usually are not played as aggressively as a regular football game, and that is largely because while they are on the same team, they aren't on the same team as what their helmet identifies them as (New England Patriots, Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys etc). They don't tackle as hard, or run as hard, because they aren't putting every ounce they have into these games because these people aren't their real team, and this isn't the real NFL games they are in the career for. I assume another reason is they don't want to end up hurting one of their own players (but what do I know?). Rev Davenport was relating this to our spiritual life. Are you wearing the jersey of Christ, but still have your own helmet over? If so, that is obviously hindering your walk with the Lord, and your testimony as a believer. You can't decide to say you are part of a team, when your real loyalty is to the name on your helmet--yourself! You have to be completely sold out to your team, putting your every ounce into life while wearing the Christ jersey (I don't mean for it to sound corny).

I encourage you to examine yourself on whether you are playing a Pro Bowl game, wearing the Christ jersey and your own helmet, or are you playing an NFL game, wearing His jersey and helmet?

It isn't often that a sports analagy strikes me, but this one sure does. I hope you are able to find time to listen to the message, and that it encourages you as much as it did me.

update on the life of Rebekah

So I haven't written a real blog in a while just on what I am up to and how this semester is going, so here it goes....

As far as classes, they are going well, though they have really picked up. It seems like I have just had several projects due at the same time. What is known as "the busiest week of the semester" is past and done, but since then I have wondered if that really was the busiest semester. I will admit, though it has gotten stressful and overwhelming at times, never I have felt like it was unachievable- Praise the Lord. Most of my classes (with the exception of Ecclesiology) have been a lot of fun, and I have been learning a lot (even in Ecclesiology).

I expected Sign Language to be my favorite class, but in a way, it has become the most burdensome. We learn 30-50 new vocab words most every class period, and after they are covered in class, we are expected to have them committed to memory. I have found that extremely difficult, and at times very discouraging. This past Tuesday though, my teacher brought in some of her signing friends, one of which was fully hearing, one who could hear out of one ear, and the other completely deaf. I was SO nervous, but after talking to them, I was still nervous, but was thoroughly enjoying the conversation. I think they had fun working with us. Let me tell you though, their 'slow' at finger spelling, is faster than I can even spell my name. It was insane. That experience was discouraging and encouraging though. I learned that there is still so much that I don't know and so much I need to work on, but I also learned that I know more then I think. I am ready for the class to be done, and hope that I will find the time to keep working with it, and that I gain enough courage to talk to David back at my home church.

The coal mine explosion took a toll on the school as we were greatly affected. The town in which the incident happened was where ABC started actually. Praise the Lord though for students being able to go. These students became a part of the families, and have actually been invited to one family's family reunion. Thank you for your prayers, but please them coming. These families still have so much healing to do.

Church down here has been going well, and I am REALLY going to miss the children and other people here at church. I have been teaching every Wednesday night for the 2s-5s and enjoying it. I have been going through a study on the fruit of the spirit. We have found the curriculum to be a bit above them, and so it has taken some extra work to improvise and change some things. One thing I love is that the children are really getting to know me and I love being able to get on the floor with them, and have them crawl on to my lap and ask me to read them a book. I just love children! I have also been teaching Children's Church one week a month, and enjoying that as I have been able to use some of my 'teacher' talents. The people at this church have been wonderful, and so accepting. Two women specifically stick out in my mind. One woman always says "Hi" to me when she sees me and genuinely asks how I am doing. Last semester, she cut an article out of Country that had pictures of VT- so sweet! Another woman started coming with her husband, three sons, and daughter after I had started going. I am not sure I have ever seen her without a smile. She has a motherly way about her that makes me want to give her a great big hug as she asks me how I am and what she can be praying for. Little does she know just how encouraging that is to me. What especially sticks out to me about her is that she checks back with me to see if my prayer was answered, which proves to me that she has been praying for me. I most definitely will be missing these dear people.

For Easter, I did not have to eat at the cafeteria. As many of you know, each Sunday night, I go over to our Sunday School teacher's home, where his wife gives us a light dinner. I especially enjoy going over there as it is a home, with children. They invited the college students over, and we happily accepted. Nancy cooked us up a storm. She also let me bring dessert, so that was fun getting to bake. I brought one of my family’s favorites- Hot Fudge Sundae Cake. We had a fantastic time of fellowship, closing up the afternoon with going through a Tour of The Truth Project.

Spiritually, God has been showing me some convicting, yet exciting things. One particular thing He has been teaching me is how I need to be a true disciple of Him. In Personal Evangelism and Discipleship, we have been looking at the relationship between the Rabbi and Talmid. Wow- I fall so short. I have been challenged with the thought that if I truly believed what I said I believed, wouldn’t I be automatically be living the life of a talmid, and not just talking about it. Prayers would be so appreciated as I work on acting out the things I believe. Through Sunday School, we have been going through the book Holding Hands, Holding Hearts, and this has been neat to go through and learn what the Bible has to say about dating (the answer is ‘Nothing. And everything.’). On Sunday evenings, we have been doing The Truth Project, and I have especially been marveling at the fact that we when I accepted Christ, I was not just saved from Hell, I entered an intimate relationship with the Creator. I encourage you to think about that for a little while and allow it to connect to the idea of being a true talmid.

This weekend is IMPACT, and though I am excited, I am a little nervous about not having that time to work on papers. Today, I worked hard and got my homework done up until Thursday, which is a huge praise. Hopefully I will be able to work on next week’s homework this week, so that I don’t have to cram it all in Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

That is a not-so-abridged update on what is going on in the life of Rebekah. I am ready for summer, and excited to see my family in 18 days! Exams are May 3rd -5th and I will post a schedule when it gets a little closer. Thank you all for your continued prayers. If there is any way in which I can be praying for you, please shoot me an email, and I would be happy to pray for you. But for now, I am going to go get ready for bed, and then get some shut-eye before tomorrow.

IMPACT update

The Lord is already answering our prayers- Praise the Lord. Here is an update from Mr. Naff:

"Just wanted to thank you for your prayers and share a blessing with you. Right after our meeting at 9:00 p.m. with prayer for IMPACT registration, I checked my email and someone literally registered at 9:41 p.m. with 23 people. Coincidence? I Think not."

Please continue to be in prayer that we get more teens signing up.

IMPACT

I am tired, and am headed to bed after this, but I write pleading for your prayers. Each year, ABC puts on a weekend teen retreat, IMPACT. Scott worked with it in his time here, and I have been looking forward to being a counselor since I first came to school and learned that freshmen can do it. This retreat is next weekend (4.23-4.24) and we have been planning for this since the before spring break (well, it has been being planned since last year, but this is when we all started getting involved). We had a corporate meeting tonight when Mr. Naff (one of my instructors who heads this retreat up) announced that only 46 teens have signed up. We aren't looking for the numbers for numbers sake, but with this few, we will have to cancel. Our prayer is that more teens sign up by this Friday (4.16) so that we can use God's word to have an impact (hence the name) on these teens' lives. We have an awesome group of leaders and counselors who are excited about serving the Lord in this capacity. Please join us in praying for the teens that the Lord wants here, and that He be softening their hearts. We want the Lord to be glorified during this weekend.

my room

It was brought to my attention that I haven't really shown anyone current pictures of my room since no roommate. This is my lovely room. At first it was kind of lonely having my own room, and it still is at times, but for the most part...I love it! If it is ever messy, it is my own fault; I can go to bed when I want; I can get up when I want (without disrupting a roommate); It isn't cluttered and I have lots of space, and so on! I enjoy my room, even though it gets a little tiring sometimes since I spend the majority of my time in there. Anyways, enjoy seeing a few different views of my room (a typical college dorm room).

Coal Mine Explosion

Please remember there is a post below about the coal mine explosion. Under the blog entry, I have been posting updating comments. Please join us in prayer for all those involved. Today is going to be a hard day.

scavenger hunt

Last week, some of us here at school decided we wanted to do something fun that was inexpensive (because we are college students at the end of spring semester). One of the guys looked online and found a scavenger hunt. We broke into two teams, guys vs. girls with four on each team. It was a picture scavenger hunt, meaning the point of the scavenger hunt was to get pictures doing what the list said, and for different things we had done, we got a different amount of points. Some of them even had bonus points. It ended up being a lot of fun. Below are some of the pictures we took, or you can click here and maybe see some more on facebook (not sure if it will work though, with your not being 'friends' on facebook). I apologize that the quality of the pictures isn't the best of quality, but we were doing things quickly and I don't think the quality of the camera was the best.

The girls' team consisted of Hannah, Meg, Me, and Kirstie

The whole team in front of a stop sign

The team in a shopping cart

The team with the Wal-Mart greeter

The entire team each wearing masks

The team with lampshades on their heads

The team bagging someone's groceries

group hug!

This was a fun one, we had to run down the road you see to the left a ways in order to get this picture: the team in front of the town's sign.

The team in the trunk of Kirstie's car

The entire team with blue tongues

Coal Mine Explosion

This past Monday, April 5th, there was a coal mine explosion about 20 miles from here. 25 have been pronounced dead, but there are still 4 that are missing. You can read the current news from this morning concerning this explosion and the search efforts. Please be in prayer for the families of all those involved, as well as the families that are still holding out hope. Hope is dimming, but they should know by today the final results. Also please pray for the ABC students and faculty who have gone to Moncoal, WV to minister to the families and help with counseling. This is affecting many all over the state, including here on campus. They need us to come along side of them to encourage them and to pray for them. Please join me, and several others, in lifting these families and ABC students and faculty up in prayers.

Keep checking out the comments on this, as I will update as I can.

glorious weather

This week, the weather has been absolutely gorgeous. And when I say that, I don't just mean it has been sunny. Last night we had a huge thunder and lightning storm, which was also beautiful. I was on my bed, and saw a bright flash, and then thunder struck, and shook the girl's dorm. I love storms like this, but I must confess this particular thunder caught me by surprise. I unplugged my laptop and turned it off and everything. I went to bed early (10:30!) and once I fell asleep, I was awakened abruptly at 11:30 to what sounded like lightning striking my window sills. The window made a cracking/crashing noise. My window, nor windowsill showed any evidence of such a thing happening. By now though it was pouring rain, so I decided I would shut one of my window, and bring the other window in a bit. I got back in bed and was a little irritated at its extremely loud crashing noises, until I remembered what someone once told me: just imagine God is bowling up in heaven, and the lightning is camera flashes. Once I remembered that, I started laughing (a sure sign I was tired), and soon fell fast asleep again. Other then this glorious storm last night, we have been enjoying upper eighty degree weather. It is so nice to wear capris, a t-shirt and flip flops...oh the life! The sunny weather had definitely helped people (myself included) with their winter blues. The daffodils have been up for over a week, the grass is green (and has already received its first cut), and my windows have been opened for over a week straight. I have enjoyed going on walks to the pond, sitting on the dock with my feet in the water. My busy week is behind me, and I have been able to enjoy some of this beautiful weather. Anyways, I just wanted to give you all a quick update on the glorious weather God has blessing me with down here :).

recent projects

As I had mentioned before, last week was a big week for me, including several projects. This particular project was assigned at the beginning of the semester, and was due on Monday. I had started working on it over spring break, but had become too frustrated, and sadly, had given up. Once I figured out the best way to work on them, they were far more enjoyable, and I am pleased with the overall outcome. Here are a few of my steps (starting after all the research I had done).

I practiced coffee staining a blank map.

Here are all five of my maps, ripped, and coffee stained...now to blow dry and put heavy books on them.

Project is now complete and in the folder with the outlines.

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The next big project I worked on was my Observation Report for the hours of Observation I did while home for Spring Break. There aren't really any pictures of getting to the end project because it was mainly just me sitting at a computer, typing and formatting. I am very pleased with how this portfolio turned out, and also pleased that I had it done over a week early. It ended up being a 30 page project.

This is one of the requirements of the report: a classroom sketch.

For each day I was there, I had to keep a close record of what was happening, the time, and how I was involved (or what I was doing during that time).

I also had to give three bulletin board ideas to remember, three game/activity ideas to remember, and three time management/organization ideas to remember. The above picture is of a bulletin board idea. This section of the report/portfolio will probably be one of the most useful to add to my teaching file, because of its practicality. As weird as it may sound, I really enjoyed doing this project!

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This is just an add on. The secretary at DBC (Daniel's Bible Church, and where I attend down here) bought this craft for us for Easter. It isn't my favorite of all Easter crafts, and I wasn't all for it when I first saw jelly beans, but thought it was a neat way to share the gospel. It is the concept of a wordless book, but instead of a book, it is jelly beans (kind of cool).

going to reblog again

I thought I would share my best friend's April Fool's experience....enjoy reading this article from her blog "Whats Wright in 407":

"April Fools!– 6:30am alarm…*gag* when I finally dragged myself out of my warm cozy bed to take a shower and study for my soc. exam I collected my shower stuff and went to open the door. A task easier than it sounds when you realize that some lovely April fooler decided to celebrate by tying all the door knobs in our hall together with rope so they wouldn’t open… I let out a pathetic whimper in my half asleep state to complain to my sleeping roommate who came to my rescue with scissors and freed me from our room. Crawling through a maze of string running from door to door I finally made my way to the bathroom to begin my day. When I go into the bathroom stall I tried to shut the door until I realized someone had duct taped all of the locks so they couldn’t be shut. Then I realized that they had duct taped all of the toilet paper dispensers so you couldn’t get any TP. All I could do was pathetically laugh because it was 7am and I didn’t have enough energy to do anything else. Ahh April Fools…hahah."