I'm Going to Colorado!

It has been a long time - too long - since I wrote on my blog.  But since my last post, some big changes are coming up, so I thought this  would be a good time to pick up blogging again.

The biggest change that's coming up is that I will be moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, for a semester to take classes at the Focus on the Family Institute and to do an internship there.  The semester starts on January 20th, and ends on April 29th.  So I will be there for a good four months - I'm so excited!

The Focus on the Family Institute is for mainly college Juniors and Seniors who are interested in Christian leadership positions and ministry for their future.  The classes I will be taking there revolve around family studies (duh!) and Christian Worldview.  I'm not exactly sure what my internship will be quite yet - but that will be assigned to me soon.  There will be about 80-90 other students there with me.  We'll all be taking the same classes and living in apartment complexes.  So exciting!  I will live in an apartment with three other girls.  Our apartment has it's own kitchen, living room, and dining area.  This may sound silly - but I'm SO excited about that!  I guess after having lived in a dorm and eating cafeteria food for so long, I'm excited at the opportunity to cook my own meals and live a more "normal" life in an apartment, rather than just a dorm room.

I'm also really excited about the people I will meet there.  They pray really hard about who they will accept into this program, and only accept people they feel like the Lord is leading them to accept.  It will be great to meet peers that are interested in similar things as I am, and also build new friendships.  

I'm saving up for a new camera right now, so hopefully by the time I get there, I will be able to post some pics of my apartment, the Institute, and my adventures along the way!

Most Inspiring YouTube video EVER!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

Above is a link to watch an incredable video from "Britain's Got Talent." This video represents so much more to me than a man finally being able to live his dream - it represents a man taking advantage of "a God given opportunity" to do what "he was born to do." What a gracious God we have that would see fit to give us as humans the opportunity to have such gifts!! It makes me cry everytime. May we all have such a moment in our lives.

Credit Crisis

The following website helped me understand the oft-mentioned "credit crisis" - if you are not a fan of all the financial jargon, this will help - and it comes from a Christian perspective

www.realtruth.org/credit_crisis

I hope this helps!

Homecoming Banquet!

Hey ya'll! I write this to you in a very tired state. I was up really late last night writing a book review for Old Testament Theology on Stephen Dempster's Dominion and Dynasty. The book's thesis is that we need to be reading the Old Testament as a whole and finding unity in the text. We too long have focused on the minute details of the Old Testament and have missed the main concepts. Dempster argues that the two themes he sees emerging through all of the Old Testament are Dominion (Land) and Dynasty (Genealogies). These twin themes weave their way into the text and give all the small details in the narrative unity. But I won't bore you with the details :) I really recommend this book if you are seeking to understand the Old Testament better. Because I love all of you and I know most of you (if not all of you!) want to understand God's Word more - this is my message to you (from my meager two years of being a Bible major!): Don't ignore the Old Testament!!! It may seem really confusing at times, but there is SO much richness there that you cannot afford to miss. It really unlocks the New Testament when you understand the Old. Alright - I'll get off my high horse now :) But seriously, if you are at a loss as to where to start, let me know, and I'll give you some suggestions. This has seriously changed my life and I think the church needs to fall in love with the scriptures as a whole again.

Ok - to what this post was ORIGINALLY supposed to be about - Homecoming banquet! So my tiny school has a lot of banquets every year, and the first one is Homecoming. At Bryan, it is traditional for the guys to come up with a creative way to ask the girls to the banquet, so it is fun to hear all the stories. I went in a group with my friend Ryan. Him and his friend Nate asked me and a friend, Diane, by giving us scrammbeled notes in our mailboxes that we had to decifer. We finally figured out where to meet them and when. When we got to the spot, they walked out of the chapel and asked us :) Sweet!

The banquet was really neat. It was an under the sea theme, complete with goldfish centerpieces. I won the gold fish at my table. Sadly, Campy (named after my friend Hannah Camp) and Stevie (named after my dad!) are now in Fishy heaven :( I tried folks - I really tried. Anyway - after the good meal and entertainment, our dates took us to Wal-Mart (Dayton is a SMALL town - we do what we can!) and we did a scavenger hunt for ingredients for a desert we were going to make. After this we went to a prof's house, made our desert and watched a movie. Fun times! Although I'm not a big fan of all the hype and drama that goes into banquets at Bryan (sometimes it seems a little High School), I am trying to appreciate them and enjoy then while I can, since this is such a short season of my life.

I snapped pictures all night - here are some of my faves!

Donating Plasma

I did a scary thing (for me) the other day...I donated plasma! If you have never heard of this before, you might be a little freaked out right now, but it really is not that scary. Basically, plasma is the clear, liquid portion of your blood. Donating plasma is a lot like donating blood - all they do is stick a needle connected to a tube into the vein in your fore-arm (by your elbow) and remove blood. The blood then goes into a machine that spins it really fast, separating the red blood cells from the plasma, and then emptying the plasma into a little container. After your plasma is collected, they return your red blood cells through the same tube into your vein via saline solution (which makes you feel really cold - weird!). The whole process takes about 45 minutes to an a hour, and barely hurts at all. You even leave feeling just as energetic as when you walked in, because unlike donating blood, you get your red blood cells back. And...the best part is...you get payed! I got $40 dollars for my plasma - which is awesome.

So what is plasma used for...and you may be wondering if I'm super desperate for moolah that I would have this procedure done (don't worry - I'm not!). First of all, plasma is used to help people that have diseases like hemophelia where their blood doesn't clot the way it should. They take prescriptions that actually contain plasma so they can lead healthier lives. It saves lives. The neat thing is, you are getting paid to help someone have a better life.

I found out about donating plasma through a ministry at my school called LifeBlood. Every month this ministry takes willing Bryan students down to Chattanooga to the plasma center so that they can donate, and then collect the proceeds from the donation and donate it to an orphanage in India. The money that a person gets for one plasma donation provides an orphan at the center in India with a month of food, clothing, school, housing, and medical attention. Isn't that awesome? It felt so good to know that when I was donating my plasma, I was helping people with life-threatening diseases AND giving a month of protection to an orphan "untouchable" in India.

This is SO awesome, because with how tight the economy is right now (and for me, how tight my college budget is!), we all know how hard it is to scrape enough money together to do good for others (especially above and beyond normal giving to our churches). This provides a little extra income to do good for others, if that is what you choose to use it for.

So - from one scaredy cat to another - I SO recommend this. The first visit takes a while, because they have to give you a physical and what not, but after that, you are pretty much in and out. I am so excited to continue doing this and I just wanted everyone of you to know about it so that if you have a burden on your heart for a ministry or cause but can't think of an avenue to get funds - this is a cool way to go about it.

Hope you all are having a GREAT week!
Love,
Becky

p.s. - Bryan College beat COVENANT COLLEGE (our HUGE rival) last night 2-0! Whooohoooo!!

It's NOT ok When Your Eye Starts TWITCHING!!!

hehe...it's true. I have a chronic eye twitch. The other day, I was exasperated beyond all belief with my fluttering left eyelid that I went to Wickepedia and read about eye twitches. It said that they are nothing to worry about, but that it is a sign that you in a time of intense stress and overly fatigued. I felt like I was reading a diagnosis of my life - which is sad. Even though it sounds crazy, I think this little thing called an eye twitch was God's little reminder to me that it was time to slow down.

As you know, I have been taking 19 units (0r hours, as they say in the east!) a.k.a. - 7 classes. I am also facilitating an hour-long book discussion once a week with four freshman girls, leading worship every Wednesday night for a prayer group I am involved with, and in charge of coming up with some activities for freshman girls on the fourth floor of my dorm. All in all, I felt like I was being stretched to the limit - and that all the ways I was being stretched were not good ways, but ways that were draining my life and joy away from me. I was trying to be strong in the midst of loads of stress and little sleep.

Then...I talked to my mentor Jana. She is a pre-med student who is a senior here at Bryan. She said, "Becky, God made us a creatures of rest and he made us to thrive." Thrive. This word really made my ears perk up - the last time I felt like I was thriving was when I was a freshman, taking 15 units, enjoying close fellowship with dear friends, and able to have deep times with the Lord. He did a great work in my heart that year.

Then I started asking some hard questions.

Why am I killing myself with so much work and so many commitments? I realized a lot of it came down to my pride - I was really trying to be superwoman. But as I was trying to be my all-in-all, the true All-in-All was waiting to fill my cup, if I would just sit at his feet for a while and let him. What a painful but good lesson.

So I did it. I withdrew from a class today. This sounds like nothing - but to me, it was a huge deal. It meant I was giving up on something; I was saying "I can't do it". This is hard for me. But I know that this is my spiritual act of worship - saying "God, you are my All-in-All. I cannot do it. Have your way in my life." I already feel so relieved - like a burden has been lifted. I finally reconciled my expectations of myself with what I can really do.

I also learned that because of my double major and my hopes to go to Focus on the Family Institute in the Spring, I may be here an extra semester. BLAAAAA!!!! I'm learning to be ok with taking things a little slower - but it is a process! I'll just have to be ok with be a 5th year-senior. ;-)

Anyway- sorry this is so long. I could write so much more too! I love you all and hope that you are learning that it's ok not to be super-people too. Only our God is truly super!

Love,
Becky

Time flies when you are having fun...or are just super busy :)

As of today, I have entered into the blogging world again. After spending an amazing summer of doing missions in Slovakia and blogging every week, I discovered how amazingly refreshing it is to once a week recap what I am learning, what God is teaching me and other random happenings - not just for my own enjoyment, but for the enjoyment of others too.

Did I mention that I'm taking 19 units this semester?

I am crazy...I know. I'm doing this weird thing called double majoring - and I won't explain why. The story is so very long and arduous. But to make a long, arduous story short - my two majors are Biblical Studies and Corporate Communications. I love so much everything that I am learning, but I have to work ever so hard to learn it. It will be so worth it in the end, and it is even so worth it now :)

In one of my classes called "Personal Leadership" (it's about how to lead your personal life... :) We have been learning about the doctrine of vocation as it appears in the Bible. Vocation literally means "calling". I realized that my calling right now is to be a student. I desire to use what I am learning to help people in the hear and now - and maybe this blog can be a platform for that.

But - since you are all my friends and family, I also want to keep everyone posted on what is going on in my life - general happenings and funny events. I realized this past week (I'm not sure why I didn't realize this before) that I like to laugh more...alot more...than the average person. I seem to find humor in things that other people don't find funny at all...so I will use this blog as an outlet for the tons of the funny things that come across my path during the week - and maybe it will illicit a laugh or two out of you, if I'm lucky :)

Like the title of this post states, time is flying past me at the speed of sound in these college days. I am having fun - which is factoring into that - but I am also just so busy. God teaches me so much in my fast paced days - one of which is to slow down. He is teaching me so much about His grace - and it is amazing. It sounds so cliche, but I am really learning about God's grace for the first time. At least just now starting to understand it.

I love you all and I hope you are doing well! It is my hope that this blog helps me feel more connected to you and vice a versa.