God's Billboard

Hello, friends! I'm sure many of you have at some point or another in church, etc., thought about who you are in Christ. That could be a whole other set of posts, but do you realize the influence you have on others around you as a Christian? Christians claim to have an almighty God, have access to His throne, and have Him living inside of us. No pressure, but those are a lot of reasons for Christians to be different from the world.

When I recently spent a week at Life Camp, a speaker mentioned an analogy how Christians are God's billboard. The image stuck with me, and I immediately saw a blog post in it. If you think about it, what is the purpose of a billboard? It promotes something. It shows the best part of a product and makes it appealing. It attracts people to the restaurant, etc. It makes people want whatever is featured.

If you're driving down the highway and see a poorly done billboard for a restaurant, with maybe a grainy picture and hard-to-read lettering, the chances are that your first impressions of the place aren't going to be great. You'll likely pass it by and find some other place to eat. Now, the restaurant itself might serve amazing food at fantastic prices, but you won't know if you don't visit it.

An attractive billboard, however, is much more likely to draw your attention—followed by your business. Isn't that exactly what we as Christians are supposed to be? When people know you are a Christian, but you act just like the rest of the world, why would they look into Christianity? Now, if you are different—a light in the darkness—they will eventually want to see what makes you that way. Even if people don't know you are a Christian, when they see you cheerfully helping a grouchy neighbor, or stopping to fix a stranger's flat tire, or handing someone the money he dropped and didn't notice, or forgiving someone who hurt you, or remaining calm and trusting God in a bad situation, they will wonder what makes you so different. They will want what you have.

Christians are God's billboard. Be a good witness; you never know when someone's watching. Most of all, you know that God is always there. Do your best to be a good billboard. Are you acting like you have the only all-powerful God living inside of you?

Summer Has Come . . . and Gone

*crickets*

Well, hello everyone! You may or may not have noticed my extended and unplanned absence from the blogging world. Rest assured that I have not forgotten about all of you, my wonderful followers! I'm dropping by today to recap my summer and attempt to justify my blog hiatus. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure how much blogging I'll be able to accomplish in the coming seasons, but I truly hope that I'm able to post more frequently. I still plan on posting my blog birthday Q&A which has been mostly written for a month, just not finalized. For now, and without further ado, here is a taste of my summer months:

JUNE

Toward the beginning of the month, I was briefly reunited with my best friend from first and second grade. It was enjoyable to see her and catch up a bit. My grandparents came to visit one day, and we all were blessed to see one another.

I finished my sophomore year of high school midway through the June, and after that my family and I left on vacation to Lone Pine at the base of Mount Whitney, the same location where I attended the movie-making camp last November. I was relieved to finally have some time to relax and unwind after a hectic last month of school. We did a lot of sight-seeing, hiking in 110 degree weather, photographing, fossil hunting, and—of course—reading. :)

Horseshoe Meadows outside of Lone Pine. About 10,000 ft.

A creek near where we stayed while in Lone Pine.

The Alabama Hills where many famous westerns have been filmed.

The following week we spent focusing on cleaning the house, going through papers that have stacked up, etc. Near the end of June I had a marvelous time at my best friend's eighteenth birthday party. (Happy Birthday!!!)

JULY

The first week of July found me counseling at a Christian camp for kids aged 7-13. For five days I had a great cabin of nine and ten year old girls. I came back exhausted with lots of stories from my second time counseling. It was a fabulous week!

From there I had one day at home before I was whisked away with my sister to spend several days visiting my grandparents in Pacific Grove. The weather was lovely, (especially compared to the extreme heat back home) and we were able to participate in several fun activities. Whether playing in the sand, taking selfies, talking with my grandparents, going to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, or on a whale watching boat, I enjoyed my time immensely!

Whale watching. :)

The flag off the back of the boat.

Most of July was jam-packed with many smaller activities, so that looking back now I'm seeing that I was away from the house much more than I was home all summer; this has probably been the first year I've been away from my family this much in a summer. Of course, all the activities were good ones, like finally getting to go to the beach with my best friend and that family. (I had the best time! It was the first real time I'd gone to the beach all summer.)

Panorama of the beach I went to

To cap off my month, my family and I went back to my grandparents' and hiked around Jack's Peak. Then my parents went home and my sister and I spent a few more days there finding treasures at garage sales (I got a really nice tri-pod for a dollar!) and watching fireworks (it was my sister's first time seeing real ones).

The view of Monterey from Jack's Peak

My family and I on the trail

That's me. :) Always with my camera.

This was the first time I tried the fireworks setting on my camera.

AUGUST

Day one of August brought with it a new experience for my sister and me. We rode both our horses down to a neighbor's arena and, as much as I enjoy riding in open areas, the confined space gave us so much freedom. I absolutely loved our time together and with the horses out in the middle of God's beautiful creation!

I'm riding Baylie, my sister is on Dream.

Then . . . my mom made the "dangerous" mistake of leaving to go visit her family in Los Angeles. That left my dad and his crazy awesome ideas alone with my sister and me who pretty much go along with his insane ideas. Thus was born the newest addition to my family's collection of home movies. We planned and filmed a ten-minute western complete with Indiana Jones music, horses, explosions, and chase scenes. It is truly . . . epic. And didn't have to leave our property to create it. Hours upon hours were spent with planning, filming (in trenchcoats and 100 degree weather), and editing. We had it finished by the time my mom got back and surprised her with it. She decided to never leave us home alone again. :) It was such a fun time!

Lights . . . camera . . . action!

The day after my mom returned, my sister and I left again, this time for LIFE Camp! It is always one of the top highlights of my year, and this week at camp was no exception! I was part of the high school group which did additional amazing activities and had fantastic classes that I thrived on. We studied the incarnation of Jesus Christ, in addition to how we can share our own testimonies to bring others to know God. The activities included watching The Nativity, painting Christmas sweaters, and making gingerbread houses. (Guess the theme—Christmas. :P) Non-Christmas related activities were traveling to the beach with the other high schoolers and best of all, just hanging out with my amazing friends. My sister and I recreated the Battle of Wits scene from the Princess Bride for the talent show. I was Westley and she was Vizzini. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to watch the movie! :) My cabin became the prank cabin of camp, and that was incredibly fun. I already can't wait for next year!

The Battle of Wits from the Princess Bride

Being in the high school group, I only got about five hours of sleep a night, (part of that was because the latest I got up was 5:30 and we didn't go to bed until around midnight) so I came home utterly exhausted. Two days later I began my junior year of high school. Yes, my junior year. I can't believe I started the second half of my high school years. So far, school has been going well. This semester, I'm taking Physics, PreCalculus with Trigonometry, American Literature, and studying worldviews and world religions. I am truly looking forward to the rest of this semester. I have a feeling it's going to go great!

 ~

And that brings you up to date! Now maybe you'll understand why my blog has fallen to the wayside over the last few months. I truly hope that I'll be able to get some more posted in the coming weeks. Stay tuned, and thank you for sticking with me through my crazy busy life! God bless you all!

Bethany

P.S. I updated my both my written profile as well as my profile picture. Let me know your thoughts!

I just recently made this from a picture my sister took.

I am an aspiring teen writer with enough ideas alone to fill volumes. I enjoy living in the country where I have many scenes to photograph and hardly a car passes all day. I love reading and blogging. Interacting with horses is another hobby. My newest interests include screenwriting, cinematography, and making movies as well as operating my amateur radio. I adore The Princess Bride, and if you don't that's truly INCONCEIVABLE! My imagination is one of my best qualities, and I'm definitely an introvert.

Most importantly, I seek to honor God in everything I do, say, think, and write. Thanks for stopping by and I'd love to have you join my wonderful group of followers! You all mean the world to me!

~

Another note: An idea I've been mulling over in my extended absence is possibly doing some posts regarding defending the Christian faith. It's a subject I've studied and my family is passionate about. The Bible says to be prepared to give a reason for the hope that is within us, and I would love to share some of my knowledge with you. The Bible is true—from Genesis 1:1 to the end of Revelation—and there is evidence. It's not a blind faith. Please let me know your thoughts. I'd enjoy knowing who is interested, and if you have any specific areas that you would like more information on. Thank you!

Discipline

No, I'm not in trouble. :) Let me begin to explain the title: I went to L.I.F.E. Camp last week (June 13-16) and we studied a few of the various spiritual disciplines. Before I talk about that, let me recap a bit of my week of camp.

I was pretty nervous about going to camp this year in particular because it was my first year attending the high school camp. There were only seventeen campers and I knew very few of them. As the week went on, I learned more about studying the Bible and I made several new friends. The awesome thing is, many of the friends I made had actually been attending the camp for the exact number of years as I had. In the small group environment, we finally "met" each other and became friends, for which I was so grateful. Making these friends changed the course of my week and made camp so much more enjoyable for me. (Thanks, you guys! You're the best!)

As far as the activities at camp, we did tomahawk throwing, swimming, slip 'n slide, capture the flag, Apples to Apples (SO MUCH FUN IN A BIG GROUP!), lazer tag, an after-dark hike, and so much more. It was amazing. The staff had all been at previous years of L.I.F.E. Camp and I knew them all. They were wonderful mentors for us!

As I mentioned above, the focus of the teachings was the spiritual disciplines. As a group we made a list of them. They are in no particular order.

1. Prayer
2. Silence/Solitude
3. Fellowship
4. Bible Reading
5. Encouragement
6. Resisting Temptation
7. Fasting
8. Scripture Memorization
9. Meditation
10. Speaking
11. Preaching
12. Worship
13. Testimony
14. Celebration
15. Service
16. Rest
17. Accountability

Of course, this list could include many more areas, but these are the ones we came up with. I found this series of teachings to be very fascinating and a great reminder of the things we should be doing. Some of these are easier than others depending on the person, but all are equally important. This is why they are called spiritual disciplines. We have to discipline ourselves in all these areas.

Even Jesus was disciplined. At age twelve in the temple he studied with the teachers. The important thing about learning these disciplines is that they take work. None of them will be easy at all times, and most take training. Jesus also demonstrated this.

Looking at this list, I shake my head. How am I supposed to do ALL THIS?? But I can, it just takes work. If you wish, join me in trying to train toward being better at all these disciplines. Let me know and we can encourage each other! And keep each other accountable. Hey, that's two of the disciplines right there!

Hopefully sometime in the semi close future I can bring you up-to-date on everything going on, but next week I'll be gone at camp again—this time as a counselor! (It's my first time counseling and I'm the youngest counselor.) I'm super nervous and I'd really appreciate all your prayers. Thank you all!

LIFE Camp Verse Memorization

In August my sister and I are going to LIFE Camp again (you can read the previous two years posts about my time at camp by clicking here and here). LIFE Camp stands for Living in Faith Effectively, and rather than being an evangelistic camp it is a camp for youth who have given their lives to Christ and who want to grow in discipleship.

My sister and I are working toward raising money to pay for it by memorizing a given list of verses. We are asking our friends to sponsor us per verse we learn up to a certain amount, or just a set amount. Some have sponsored each of us at 10 cents a verse and others for more. Please feel no pressure to sponsor one or both of us but if God leads you, and if you are able, it would be greatly appreciated! All money goes to the camp, and any that we make over and above our total will go toward helping other kids go to camp next year.

If sponsoring interests you, please leave a comment containing which/both of us you wish to sponsor, the amount per verse (or a flat amount), a maximum amount (cap) if you want to specify that, and your name with email address. I will not publish the comment if it contains any of the above information. Another alternative would be to send me an email with the same information via the contact gadget on the right sidebar just below my blog header. You can use either method if you have any questions as well.

On August 8th, I will send out an email to those of you who choose to sponsor. It will contain the amount of verses memorized, your total, and my address to mail it to. You will make checks out directly to LIFE Camp, but mail them to me. Again, please do not feel obligated to sponsor me, but if you choose to, thank you!

The list of verses for us to memorize are as follows. So far I have memorized 15 verses. We will most likely not finish them all but are just working down the list.

Isaiah 57:15
Isaiah 44:6
Romans 6:6
Romans 4:5
Psalm 34:8
2 Timothy 2 (the whole chapter)
Philippians (the whole book, if we can . . .)

Thank you, Everyone!

Biography of Dwight L. Moody

Here is the first biography from LIFE Camp that I will post. May you all be inspired!

Dwight L. Moody

• He was born in Massachusetts in 1837
• At the age of four his father died leaving a wife, seven kids and twins in the womb.
• The children had to work on farms to earn their living and support their large family. They worked Monday to Saturday weekly.
• Moody worked for his uncle in Boston.
• His uncle's requirement was that Moody went to church with him. Eventually Moody became willing and often read his Bible.
• He accepted Christ through a Mr. Gemble who (I think) was a Sunday school teacher.
• From then on Moody fervently spread the gospel.
• Then he moved to Chicago.
• His two life goals were to make $100,000 (which was back then A LOT of money) and to preach.
• In Chicago, he reached out to the street children. He rented a pew in his church and brought random street kids.
• Eventually he was paying for four pews a Sunday.
• He reached out to 12 year old girls and brought them to Christ.
• Moody gave up his goal of making $100,000.
• At the age of 23 he left his job in 1860.
• He worked for YMCA (while it was actually Young Men's Christian Association and lived up to its name) and became a missionary.
• Traveled to England.
• His home was a victim of the Chicago fire in addition to his church.
• He built another church, but yet another fire destroyed it too.
• At the age of 54 Moody developed a terrible cough.
• He had been preaching three times a day but four times on Sunday.
• The doctor said that he needed to slow down or he'd die.
• On the way back from a trip to England, his ship began to sink with both Moody and his son aboard in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. At this point Moody had been considering what the doctor had said and thinking about minimizing his preachings.
• While aboard the sinking ship, Moody realized that God did not want him to slow down. So Moody trusted God to get him through his sinking ship and simply went to bed. Some time later his son awoke him to say that they had been rescued by another passing ship.
• Moody continued to work hard trusting in the Lord for seven more years. Then at the age of 63 Moody died.
• During his lifetime he had brought hundreds of people to Christ, started numerous Bible schools, etc.
• Most of all, Moody is a great example of trusting in God even in very hard times when your life is at stake.

I hope that you all were inspired by the brief explanation of Dwight L. Moody's life. I would love to hear your thoughts!

LIFE Camp 2014!

Well, even though LIFE Camp was a ways back I am still doing a post about it. I have been blessed to attend this camp for four years now. This year, as I said in an earlier post, the theme was about the Armor of God. It was very thought provoking as a new Bible teacher took one part of the armor a day and spoke about it. Also, the people in biography as well as our chapel speaker each night spoke of the same part of the armor. I would like to share each of the biographies that we learned over the next few weeks by posting about one person at a time. We studied D.L. Moody, Charlotte Diggs Moon, William Tyndale, and Pete Flemming. Also each day we learned one hymn and a brief biography about its author. Some examples are I Surrender All, Take My Life and Let it Be, and A Mighty Fortress is our God. Perhaps I will also do a weekly post for five weeks each with a hymn. I would love your input as to if you would enjoy this or not. Here is a brief explanation of what a day at camp would consist of:

We wake up at seven. (Or at least that's the set time...) A few minutes to 8:00 we raise the flag to several patriotic songs and prayer and then march on to breakfast. After that there are three classes: Biography, Bible, and a new class dubbed Discussion. (More on that in a minute.) Then there is lunch which includes mail delivery, camp and cabin cleanup, swimming, and field games. Verse memorization, snack, and two hours of free time are next. Directly after free time, we lower the flag, eat dinner, and then rush over to chapel. To end the day there are night field games, snack, and devotions. And then, one of my favorite parts of the day, lights out! (Zzzzzz)

Although we are busy, it is a good busy. Most years instead of discussion we have missionary class but I think that I enjoyed discussion better. During this time, the entire camp (boys and girls) are divided up into several small groups. We talked about the part of the armor that we studied that day in more depth depending on your age category. Biography was my personal favorite class. I enjoy learning about such influential people in the Christian faith. Studying them helps to encourage me to follow their examples and being more open to God's plan for my life.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and thoughts. I felt like I was encouraged in my walk. I had a super cabin and superb counselor. As a cabin we got into great discussions and truly had a blast. Sorry that I don't have any pictures but again thank you all very much!

Prayers for Camp

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't been posting consistently, but since summer vacation (when we visited our relatives), starting school, etc. I have just been too busy. I still have many posts that I wish to do, such as on our first day of school and camp next week, so hopefully I will be able to find some time to do some more posts. I really appreciate comments, they help me feel like someone is still reading my blog even though I don't post consistently so if you have time, they would be greatly appreciated. Thank you to those who do comment!

Here is a short post just asking for your prayers. Next week my sister and I are going to a camp by Lake Lopez that is all week long. It's the same camp that I posted about last year, (see Off to Camp!) called LIFE Camp. The LIFE stands for Living In Faith Effectively. This will be my fourth year at this particular camp but each year they have a different theme. This year it will be the armor of God. I would be ever so grateful for each and every one of your prayers not just for my sister and me but for all the other children as well. Please pray for safety, fun, and for growing closer to God. Specific prayers for me would be that I don't get nervous answering questions or speaking up because of what people may think of me. So if you could pray for me then THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

God bless you all!

A Dream Come True

What ya doing?

Dream's feeder and OUR boardwalk to keep out of all the dust.

LET THE VIDEO LOAD ALL THE WAY FOR BEST VIEWING!!! ENJOY!

Ah, Sunday, October 13, 2013, a day to remember indeed. For on this memorable day my family and I picked up our horse that we have been given. Although it was extremely difficult for me not to share this with you all before, I was determined not to until after she was on our property. Going back now to August, I had a horse and didn't even know it! My dream come true at last! Back when we left for camp, that Wednesday, my mom and dad had been offered a horse and decided to take her. On the Saturday my sister and I came home they told us. So from Wednesday to Saturday, basically four days, I didn't even know that I was a horse owner! Can you imagine! I was so excited! (And still am:-)) We decided to name our mare “Dream” because she was a “dream come true”! Dream is an eight-year-old pony appaloosa. This does not mean that she is a very tiny horse but rather she is not quite full sized. She is the perfect size for my sister and me. She is also considered a “pony of the America's” aka: POA. We have free-ridden once so far and we do “ground games” a lot with her. She is a great horse for us. She's quiet—not like a high-spirited Arabian or something. : ) She was actually used with handicapped kids if that helps you picture her! Another good thing about her is that as we learn our training method, Parelli Natural Horsemanship, she is learning too because she was never trained with this method so she does not get frustrated as easily. (Notice I said “as easily”! LOL) Our friends who gave her to us also taught us how to ride, but most importantly, to build a relationship with her.

Now she even trots to us when she sees us or we call.

 

Neighing at me."Well, howdy yourself Dream"!

I am queen of this hill!

We are converting our playhouse to a tack shed for her. We made her a nice feeder too out of a tractor tire. We have been so blessed by friends offering advice, loaning us equipment, giving us tools, and offering physical help. Thank you if you are any of the above mentioned. Since we are first-time owners, we need all the help we can get! So far we have had a good experience except for a few minor mishaps. :-) Expect that I will be posting a lot more with her included!!!

Off to Camp!

Last week, my sister and I went to a Christian camp, called LIFE Camp, by Lake Lopez. The goal of this camp is to help kids live in faith effectively. The fruits of the spirit was the theme this year and our “challenge passage” (a passage out of the Bible for the kids to try to memorize as well as the daily and theme verses.) was Galatians 5.Our mom and dad dropped us off Monday morning and picked us up Saturday. Although it was a long time to be away from our parents and home, my sister and I had a marvelous time growing closer to God and having fun.

I like everything about Life Camp especially just growing nearer to the Lord. In the morning, the first of our three classes is Missionary where you learn about one missionary all week. This year it was Dr. Carl Becker, missionary/doctor to the people in mid- Africa– especially the Pigmy people. Our second class of the morning, Biography, was taught by the director. We discovered the lives of a different person every day. A few examples are Joni Ericson Tada, Eric Liddel, George Washington Carver, and Jim Elliot. Our last class was Bible where we learned about Ruth, Paul, Joseph, David, and more. In the evening we had chapel with a different speaker every night.

Life Camp offers lots of fun, active activities. After lunch girls go swimming for about an hour to an hour and a half. Directly afterward is field games where we play multiple different games such as: capture the flag, belly bumpers, soccer, dodge ball and that is only scratching the surface of all the games. Soon afterward, everyone enjoys what is probably most people's favorite activity– free time! At this time the campers are allowed to do just about anything. The only hitch is that if you want to go outside the boundaries or into the creek that flows by, you must have a staff person who is willing to accompany you or at least keep you in their sight. During some free times the staff have organized activities for the campers. One day there was a gold hunt in the creek where whoever wanted to go could learn how to pan for gold and the likely places gold would be. Another exciting expedition was when a group of campers hiked a ways up the mountain to search for fossils. Most kids found one– or two– or even more! I was in the category of “even more”. I found two rocks but combined in the two rocks was a total of three clam fossils. I was given two more rocks with fossils, their total– six plus!!! The last activity at the end of the day is “night games”. During “night games” we mostly play “blob tag” which is similar to family tag. The only other game that I can remember playing at night was capture the flag.

My LIFE Camp cabin group.

Everything about Life Camp was a lot of fun- so much fun that is- that I can't choose which thing was the funnest. I was blessed to be in a small cabin with only three other girls and one fantastic counselor. Between night time Devotions and Missions, swimming and free time, snack and dinner, everything was so fabulous. I feel like I grew closer to God and will be able to be better at the fruits of the spirit. Thank you, Jake, for putting on Life Camp so faithfully each year and for being interactive with the campers! Thanks everyone who sent me and my sister letters at Life Camp! It meant a lot!