The Last Days (he he he he)

Ok, well, not the last days on earth, but thelast  few days of this semester!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am SO excited to be able to come in six days and sleep in my own bed, eat my MOM'S food, see my parents, pet my cat, and of course see ya'll. The last month and a half have been absolutely crazy with school, activities, work, and more school. They have been very stressful and challenging, but it all works out for good.

I work on Bus 12 and I am still loving it! For Friend Day, we had over 800 kids at the church from the entire 24 Bus Ministry!!! There were 57 kids on my bus and it was crazy, but I love it! Getting to know the kids by talking with them and yes, yelling at them :D, it such a blessing and to know that you have a part in possibly their salvation and service for God someday is very rewarding.

For Thanksgiving I went over to Jude and Monica Buffington's house (an AWESOME family by the way!) and we had a great time cooking, pigging out, talking, and watching movies. I worked for ten hours on my first black friday ever and it was pretty crazy. I would get an isle all picked up and organized only to turn around 5-10 minutes later and it be destroyed again! I was so frustrated; thank the Lord they put me on the cash register after that!


I am typing this blog from my dorm room...yes, my dorm room. We have finally gotten wi-fi in all of the dorms!!!!! It's a true blessing because the students don't have to go anywhere to do research, check their email, and whatever else. We do have restrtictions as we are under the school's interent filter, so we don't have to worry if anyone is doing or looking at inappropriate things. This wi-fi makes things so much easier

Last night approximately 385 students, staff, and SWBC members enjoyed a flank steak, mashed potato, and veggie dinner at the Sheraton Reed Conference Center for the Christmas Banquet. All the girls dressed up in their formals, got their hair done, and painted their faces and the guys dressed in their nice suits and ties (or bowties). We all has SO much fun taking pictures, eating, fellowshipping, and heard some good preaching and singing. The last time I got this dressed up was at Julie Hennecke's wedding.....I LOVED IT! After the banquet groups usually go out walking around, bowling, or laser tagging in their formals. Me, Amanda, Eunice, and Gwen decided to go back to the dorm and had fun just relaxing and hanging out.

About a month and half ago we had our HBBC Singles Western Hayride. Everyone dressed up in cowboy attire (some dressed as Indians) and we played games, heard some preaching, and at some good food all day. I roped my first calf, shot a gun (and hit the target :D), and almost go ran over during a skit! It was another great time to relax before midterms.

Well, I've got a book I need to read for finals next week so I'm going to log off. Can't wait to see you soon!
Amber

Great Day!

My day started off by getting up at 5:00am, leaving campus at 6:15am, then leaving SWBC at 7:15am for Derby, Kansas to help a Pastor and his church (I forget his name, no shocker there :D) canvas and door-knock their area. It was hard to think that I was only 3hrs away from home!....sniff sniff. Several people expressed interest in the North Woodlawn Baptist Church and said that they might visit while others were not interested. MANY people were not home so we left the tracks on the doors. Please pray for the city of Derby that God would get a hold of their hearts and that many would come to know Christ as their Savior. 

I also just got finished with Missions Prayer Band about 10 minutes ago and boy was it good! The theme this year is the Unreached People Groups of the World. This evenings section of the world was Sri Lanka where 5 people groups are 100% unreached with the Gospel! However, I am happy to announce that I know of three missionaries supported by SWBC who are currently serving in that region. 

It really  is amazing to know that even though I am not on the mission field, I am having a part by just praying for them. I really love Missions Prayer band because it's a time of great encouragement and it reminds me of why I am here at HBBC: to train for whatever mission field God wants me to go to.  

The group I went with had prayer letters from Africa that we all read and shared prayer requests and praises for. It was great to hear about the progress several missionaries, who have been sent out by SWBC, had made. 

Please pray for me that I would stay focused on the committments I've made to God, that I would fall back in love with Him, and have a desire to delve deep into my devotions and prayer life. I miss you all SO very much and look forward to Christmas time!!!!!!!!

Love, Amber

Updates Updates Updates!

First of all I want to appologize that I have not updated this blog in like, forever! You wouldn't believe how busy I've been. Even now I feel guilty taking time to update this thing seeing as I have a boat load of homework, but I know it's wrong to keep ya'll waiting.

 

 School started with a trip to the Red Hawks baseball game and Frontier City. I'm sorry, but baseball has got to be the most boring sport EVER!!! However, I had more fun this year than last year. Baseball players ran into eachother, a few of the HBBC guys played some of side games they have to keep people entertained :D, and just fellowshipping with the other girls helped the time to go by a tad faster.

Frontier City is a whole other story! My friends found out that I hadn't been on a rollercoaster since I was five, which was a tramautic experience on my fragile emotions I might add, and dragged me onto one of the of the rollercoasters called the Diamond Back. It takes off from a dead stop and shoots down towards the ground, does a loopdy-loop, then shoots back up and levels out where it comes to a stop. I have never been so scared in my entire life! Just when I think it's over, it goes backwards: I started screaming again before it even took off the second time :D. It probably only lasted a total of 1-2 minutes counting the rest at the beginning and ending but I really thought I was going to fall out. My legs were shaking SO bad and I was trying hard to contol my bawling. It took me a whole half-n-hour to recover from the rollercoaster, which was enough time to go on another one :D which lasted longer and was definitely worse than the first one. I screamed so hard that I my chest hurt. I screamed or yelled on EVERY ride but one including the tilt-o-whirl, both water rides, and even the sidewinder (which goes around in circles and gets faster the longer it goes.) I has SO much fun, even riding the rollercoasters :D.

The last monday of every month Southwest Baptist Church has a laides meeting where they have snacks, sing awesome songs, and have a little devotional. I was having a bad day yesterday and even contemplated not going, but I knew that it would be good for me to go. I am SO glad that I did because it was exactly what I needed. The theme last semester was "Singing I Go" and this semester the theme is "He Keeps Me Singing"; how creative is that? Since there are four words in "He Keeps Me Singing" and four months in a semester, each devotional is on one of the words. Anyway, the meeting went really well.

The preaching at Southwest and chapel services here at HBBC have been awesome! Bro. Williams (a professor from HBBC) preached a message last wednseday night called "Come Hungry, Leave Happy." He asked about our appetites; do we have an appetite for God or the world? Do we come to church hungry to hear about God or are we already full from whatever we've done that day or week? We should be so full with God that we aren't even hungry for worldly things. Example: Have you ever been SO full from supper that you couldn't eat your favorite dessert, no matter how tempting? Have you ever been so full from God that you weren't hungry for anything else, not matter how tempting? Oh man was that message convicting!!!

The classes I am taking this semseter are:

·                   Cultures or Customs

·                   Cults

·                   Methods of Teaching

·                   Bible Doctrines

·                   Research and Style

·                   Baptist History

·                   Fundamentals of Speech

·                   Yearbook

I am really excited for Methods of Teaching because they actually teach you how to prepare and teach a lesson to any age group. We give a series of lessons on a theme we choose starting with an object lesson, then a life situation, then give a Bible lesson that backs up our theme, lastly choose a memory verse and song that matches the theme then produce it in a visual that children can read from. I will be giving an object lesson on Monday using a puzzel to demostrate how we try to make our plans (puzzel pieces) fit in with God's plan (the complete puzzle missing a puzzel piece.) It's still in the toddler stages, but slowly developing into an awesome lesson.

Not only am I taking pics for the yearbook this year, but I am also creating two of the pages! I am really excited to get working on those and see how they turn out.

Right now God wants me to continue working at Shoe Carnival, so that's where I'll be staying until He indicates otherwise. I am so thankful for the shuttle that the college provides. I am able to get a ride to and from work for only $50 a month.

Well, I've gotta go. I am praying for you all and I would appreciate if ya'll be praying for me.  I am going to be a WHOLE LOT busier this semester with work, assistant RA stuff, and school, and trying to have a social life in the midst of it all. I'm looking forward to seeing ya'll around Christmas time!

Love, Amber

HBBC Here I Come

Well, another summer is over (much to the relief of parents nationwide) and the children are groaning as they anticipate another year of schooling....except me! I am very excited to be going back to HBBC this year. When the dean of women Mrs. Jett called and asked if I would reconsider the assistant R.A. position, it was quite a shock! As most all of you know, I turned down the position last semester because I knew that God would have me to wait for at least another year...or so I thought :D. Honestly, I knew that God wanted me to wait, for how long I did not know. After praying and asking what the Lord wanted me to do and also consulting my parents, I accepted the position! So, all of next week will consist of what is called R.A. inservice, which is basically a training course in CPR and also a series of lectures from the President and Vice President of the college. We will also be preparing the dorms for the students and preparing ourselves for the many, many responsibilities of leadership. Please pray for me as this will be a huge time of growth in EVERY aspect of my life.

Please also be in prayer that God provide a car for me that I will be able to drive next semester. It is not a necessity, but would be a BIG help.

I will miss all of you and will try my best to update this at least once a month if not twice a month with pictures and news about whats going on. I look forward to seeing all of you around Christmas time!
Love,
Amber

So Good to Be Home!

Keeping this blog updated was harder than I thought it would be this year. The last semester of school was the hardest out and was impossible to set aside time to keep this blog updated...sorry!
Anyway, I am so glad to be home for the summer and the Lord has blessed me with it. There were many students who had to stay at HBBC over the summer to either keep their jobs or just didn't have a set job back home. God also blessed with keeping me and my friend Eunice safe during my car wreck (pictures on flickr). Please pray that the Lord will provide another car for me to drive down there this fall.

I am excited to be able to go back to HBBC in the fall and to see what more I can learn about missions and how to grow stronger in my relationship with the Lord.

While I was attending SWBC, I was able to work on Bus's 12A and 12B...I miss those kids! So, as a tribute to them and to motivate others to invited kids to church, I made a slide show out of pictures of my bus kids...hope you enjoy it!

This will probably be the only post ALL summer long....unless I get ambitious :D.

Bus Kids Video

Church Planting Conference

Hello! We just got through with the HBBC National Church Planting Conference! It was VERY good and I really enjoyed the preaching that I got to hear. My favorite message during the preaching was Bro. Metser's (?) message titled "I Wonder What Makes God Wonder?" out of Isaiah chpt. 59. God, unlike us, never wonders why the world does the things it does. Instead He wonders why there is no intercessor for them; why we stand back, watching the world do their thing and wonder how they can commit such grievous sins and why our society is in the state it is. Do I make God wonder? Does He wonder why I don't step in and do something? It was a very good, convicting message.

During the conference, Bro. Davison had several preachers give testimonies and present needs that needed to be provided for. There wasn't a single needy preacher presented that didn't walk out of there without some kind of help. One preacher that really sticks out in my mind need $10,000 to move his family; he had $4,000 already saved and was asking for 5-6,000 dollars more. God provided over $8,000 dollars for him! What a blessing!  It was also great to be able to meet in the new chapel building; it is SO beautiful!

The sunday school message this morning was excellent! We had the priviledge of hearing a missionary who will be serving in India with his family in the near future. He preached about our wrong ideas on supporting missions. Whenever someone thinks of missions support, money is usually the first thing that pops into our heads. However, support is SO much more than that! The greatest support the Apostel Paul asked for in his letters was prayer, not money or material things. Ephesians 6 talks about how we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, etc. The call to missions is a spiritual call and we should be supporting them in a spiritual way, mainly through prayer. It was very convicting, but extremely good. 

Thank you all for praying for me about my back. It feels so much better! I went to the chiropractor for the first time on Tuesday and it was like a fireworks show because of all the pops! However, on Thursday I slipped and bounced down 2-3 concrete stairs; so my back is better, but my tailbone is still sore. Please pray that I heal quickly and that nothing else happens to me! 

I have truly been blessed at work! Because we haven't been getting much business and have had so many thefts recently, they are cutting some of our employee's hours. However, God has been good in not letting my hours be cut!  I really enjoy working there; please pray that I would love the people, desire to help them, and most of all to have boldness in witnessing. Please also be praying that I get victory in my life over areas that I struggle with; slowly, but surely God is helping me!

Well, I've got to go and get some info for a future project. I miss you all and please feel free to email me anytime. Toodles!

Here's my email:

abeck90@gmail.com

Another New Semester

Well, here I am again! Another semester is about to begin and I am very excited to get started on my classes and get back to being with my friends. I arrived here safely and was greeted by Amanda and our friend Chelsea who squeezed the breath out of me as soon as I walked into my doorm room. Today everyone is going through the final registration processes and soon we will be preparing the campus for the Church Planting Conference which starts on Tuesday. I miss you guys already and am looking forward to seeing the youth at College Days and hopefully will be coming home for Spring Break in March. I love you all and will be back on here soon! Chow!