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!

Good To Be Home

Boy is it good to be home! I am so thankful that I am able to come home for Christmas and that God kept me safe traveling home. I'll be home until January 6th and then gone for a couple months, but hopefully able to come back for Spring Break in March.

I absolutely love HBBC and am excited to get back to school and hanging out with my friends. Don't get me wrong; I am absolutely loving being home and not having to worry about homework, but I actually miss being there. It is a totally different atmosphere down there and I like that I have a schedule for my day; I never feel like I haven't done something productive. Anway, I love you guys and am enjoying spending time with you all.

I have posted pretty much all of my photos from Heartland on a website called Flickr. Please check them out by clicking on the link below. It is so much fun taking pictures for the yearbook, but more work than I thought :D!  http://www.flickr.com/photos/amber90/

Please be praying that I just step back and trust God to supply the money for the monthly payments for school next semester; I am a little worried about it, but I know deep down that God will supply if HBBC is where He wants me. Please also be praying that Amanda and I would get along with our roommates; we have hit some rough spots last semester and are looking for a smooth second semester. I am thankful for all of you who are and have been praying for me and Amanda. I love you guys!

Almost Done!!!

All of us girls arrived here at College safetly and with no complications! The time I had with you all was too short, but I will see ya'll again in about a week and a half! You can tell that everyone here is anxious for the semester to end and for the break to begin. I am SO looking forward to being home and not having to worry about homework.

There really isn't anything new happening right now other than everyone's getting ready to attend the Christmas Banquet and looking forward to the Midnight Breakfast. We've also got finals next week that everyone is dreading; I know that they will be difficult. Please pray that I will study hard and do a good job!

Well, I miss you all and look forward to seeing you soon. Have a wonderful week guys!

SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Amanda, I, and Sarah Boyer (former pianist for Assurance Trio) will be leaving tomorrow around 2:00pm for Nebraska!!!!!!!!! I cannot wait to see my family and all you guys; I miss all of you SO much!

There is a family here called the Buffingtons; they went to school with Carrie Wilkenson. I've felt drawn to this family and really enjoy talking with them and picking on them. They do not have any kids of their own; in fact Mrs. Buffington has had 11 or 12 miscarriages, but she is one of the happiest people I've talked to here! Instead, they foster children and are in the process of adopting two of their three foster children. The two boys came from an angry, and abusive home, but are now saved and desire to witness to their parents. The little girl, just 3 yrs old, has only been with them for a month. When they first met her, they could hear her screaming down the hall; this is what she did whenever she wanted something. I went out to supper with them lastnight and she did not scream at all; infact she was very well behaved! I just love them!

The chapel and sunday school messages have been awsome and I am learning a lot. There are many things that I knew before, but had never really clicked in my brain until lately; it's been a blessing!

Work is going well except for all the thefts we've had lately. About a week ago, there was a man who tried running out the back of the store with 10 boxes of shoes. He escaped with 6 boxes after dropping 4 when the alarm sounded from the back door being opened. There was also another many who walked out of the store with shoes in his sleeves, but he left his buddy behind who got arrested :D. The third theft we've had recently was when one of our managers saw and approached a man wearing one of our pairs of shoes; he was also arrested. There is AT LEAST one pair of shoes stolen daily and it will only get worse as we approach Christmas unfortunately.

Amanda is doing well and is enjoying classes. She and I have become closer friends and I am so thankful that God has given us a strong friendship. Another plus is that she puts up with me!

I have a few prayer requests:
~ please pray that God would supply the funds for the next semester monthly payments; they are huge!
~ Chelsea Hatahlie (one of my good friends)- her family is going through a very tough time right now
~ Glori Dominigo (lady at my work)- she is a very sweet, 70 year old Philippion lady who had a massive stroke the other morning. She is making huge progress, but is not out of the woods yet. Please pray that she would recall the stuff in the track I gave here and that this would be a good opportunity to witness to my other co-workers.

Well, I've got to get going to choir. I love you all and will see ya'll Wednesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hillbilly Hayride

God has been SO good to me lately here at school! He is teaching me sooo much and helping me to get victory over things. He has provided for me time and time again, teaching me that stressing out is pointless; everything is going to work out!

First of all, I want to thank EVERYONE who had a part in making my b-day special! It was the BEST b-day I have had.  Ya'll really made my day with the answering machine messages and packages. My friends even bought me a little mini choco cake, a card, and took me out to CiCi's Pizza. I have such wonderful friends who care about me and encourage me daily. I love you guys and cannot wait to see you in only a month!

The friday and saturday after my b-day I went to Nevada, MO for Friends from Heartland visitation and it was fun! It is about 5 hrs away from the college and the scenery on the way there was absolutely beautiful!!! Me and a girl had a very intersting visit with an 80+ year old Mormon elder. I had to shut the visit down after about half an hour of debate because it was taking too much time and it was starting to get heated between my partner and him. However, it was good to see that we got in a few "punches"; I could tell we made him think a few times by the look in his eyes. He finally took our "Friend Day" invitation so he could contact the Pastor to talk with him.We left on a good note and I hope that he didn't give the pastor too much grief :D.

Yesterday was the Hillbilly Hayride. It's similar to the Hobo Party except about 5hrs longer and they have more games. Almost everyone dressed up in hillbilly attire and some took it to the extreme (as you can see in the pics). The games consisted of bobbing for apples, hub cap toss, toilet seat horse shoes, 11 legged race, hatchet thow, jar-o-spit, wheelbarrel race, frying pan throw (with a real cast-iron frying pan), 10-15 mph hay rides, and steal the bacon. There was also a photo booth where you could pose in either an outhouse, on a toilet, a rusty bench, or some tree stumps. They also had a costume contest judging on the best costume, best smile, and best pig call. The girl who won was Maddison, the one who has one every dramatic reading during the times she came for College Days.
The food was good and we had preaching as well. It was a good time to get out and make complete fools of ourselves playing hick games. We even got to make up our own hilbilly names; guess which one I choose? Yep, Marlene. I couldn't pass it up :D.


I WILL put pictures on here this week!!!


Midterms are finally over and eveyone is starting to relax. Work is going good and we all have a good time acting like clowns there. Please be praying that they give me thanksgiving off so that I don't have to quit. All my managers seem to like me, so I'm praying that they would rather let me have it off than fire me :D.
Anyway, I need to get going so I'll talk to ya'll later!

Dorm Day!

Tiffany and Chrissy

Amanda

Hi everyone! It's been a busy past few weeks with homework and other activities. Last saturday was the dreaded White Glove Inspection Day where all the students are busy deep cleaning their rooms and the dorms all week long. Each resident of the dorms is assigned a dorm duty to do everyday and are responsible for getting their room duties done. We also left room and dorm bribes to get more points from the judges. On Saturday, the RA's (resident advisors) went through each dorm room and ran a white glove over everything to make sure it was all clean. Awards were given for cleanest room, most creative room, and cleanest dorm and, drum roll please.................... my dorm won! So, all of us in Faith dorm get to have a catered mexican dinner from Ponchos! I hope it will be tasty!

  

Monica



Megan

 

Sign on a bench

•  Last month I and a group of students traveled 2hrs to Sperry, OK for Friends from Heartland. This program takes HBBC students to surrounding churches who need help in canvasing for any events that they're wanting people to come to. It was a blast! When we got there we were told that we would be canvasing in rural areas, so lose dogs were to be expected. My friend Chelsea and I went together and were approached by a large, black, pit bull that decided to bark and growl at us. It was really funny when the owner came out and yelled, "Ornery! Ornery get back here!" What an appropriate name for that dog! Chelsea got her shoes nipped at by some very protective weiner dogs...but, all in all we only had one lady reject the inviation. Next saturday, Lord willing, I'll be traveling to Nevada, MO (about 5hrs away) to do some more door knocking!

• Last saturday, most of the students helped out at the church with the Fall Festival, an great time for kids to be able to come out and have a good time playing games, eating cotton candy, popcorn, and snow cones, and just have a great time. I was incharge of directing the kids down the lines for cotton candy and just making sure they were all behaving. I was able to get a way and take some neat pictures. There were probably over 250+ kids we had, but not all at one time; they came in two waves so as not to overwhelm us. Something I'd never seen before during a children's activity like this was a soul-wining booth. They had some HBBC students go around with tracts and ask the parents and kids if they knew if they were going to heaven or not; there were 5 that got saved and one of the boys was baptized @ church on Sunday!!!

• I love working at Shoe Carnival! I've gotten to invite two more people to church and God's given me the chance to witness to two people. They're treating me really well and are being patient with all my questions and mistakes. One of my favorite parts of my job is getting to call out stuff over the speaker system :D!

• Well, I've got more homework to do so I've got to get going. Oh, please continue praying for Bro. Doug Taylor; he is doing better and is slowly improving. Here is the address for his blog if you'd like to keep up to date with his progress:

http://www.dtaylorjourney.blogspot.com/

I love you all and look forward to seeing ya'll in about a month and a half! Chow!