What Christmas is All About

On Sunday we had our annual Christmas play. This years play was special in a way that I am not sure any one at my church even stopped to think about. I will explain that in my post :) First I will tell you a little bit about the play.

The play was written by our song director with different songs taken from majesty plays that Ron Hamilton put together. The name of the play was "The Candy Shoppe". It was a story of Mrs. Baxter (played by Sarah) who had two kids, Suzy and Bobby. (Kimmy and Elliott) There was a grumpy old man named Mr. Thompson (Mr. Malfi) who wanted to turn their candy shop, that had been in the town for 15 years, into a laundry service. To make a semi-long story short, the little girl, suzy, gets into a sledding accident and Mr. Thompson sees her and it reminds him of when his wife and daughter had been killed. Mrs. Baxter witnesses to Mr. Thompson at the hospital and he eventually gets saved. The candy shoppe is saved and Mr. Thompson adds on to the building to add his laundry service.

Although the story was great, and the singing was good, I thought the characters in the play had the greatest effect me. As I began to think about the characters in our play, it made me realize where they all had come from.

Elliott and Kimmy are the only two that have grown up in our church. The rest of the cast was saved in our church because of people in our church. It kind of blew me away when I began to think about the stories behind all of the members of the cast.

Mr. Malfi was saved at a wedding that we had at our church many years ago. He has been a blessing to me in the "Math" department in helping me when I've needed help.

Sarah came to church as a result of a family in our church selling a house to her and her dad. She was eventually saved and her and her dad faithfully attend our church and she is involved in several things at church.

Tyler, the narrator, had the most meaning to me as I thought about it. He came to several Christmas plays before he was saved. My friend Adam invited him to church several times. I even offered to try to fix his computer if he brought it to church and stayed for the service. Shortly after I left for college last year, Tyler was saved at a youth rally. He has grown to be a very good friend. He has a burden to see his family saved. Knowing that he goes through many difficulties not being in a Christian home, it has made me more and more thankful to have the blessing of being born and raised into a Christian home.

All of that was the biggest blessing to me this year and reminded me of what Christmas is all about. How Jesus sent his son to be born of Mary to live 33 years and die on the cross to pay for the sins of the whole world. He came all the way for us so that all we would have to do is reach out and accept the greatest gift given - Salvation.

From left: Tyler, Mr. Malfi, Elliott, Sarah, Kimberly

Our wonderful choir!

I will end the post with my favorite song from the play. The song is called, "Then Love Came Down"

On a hillside far away

in the twilight cold and grey

from the realm of endless day

came the Lord of all

From the heart of God above

came a perfect love

Jesus stepped from heaven’s hall to a lowly cattle stall. 

Then love came down wrapped up in a baby’s birth God gave the best that he could give and sent his son to earth to this world of sin and wrong came the music of heaven’s song in sin we were bound then love came down

All our hope had died within

crushed and cast aside by sin

in our hearts no room for him

on that holy night

Angel voices filled the sky

praising God on high

Jesus left his rightful place

bringing us AMAZING GRACE.

Then love came down wrapped up in a baby’s birth God gave the best that he could give and sent his son to earth to this world of sin and wrong came the music of heaven’s song in sin we were bound then love came down.

School done for the Semester!

Yahoo! School is over for the semester!.... Now what do I do with my time? haha

This semester was enjoyable. I did well in all my classes and it is kind of unbelievable that classes are done already. I am looking forward to what God has for me during the break and also into next semester.

On Sunday we are having our annual Christmas play. I am just singing in it this year but I am still looking forward to it. We have our dress rehearsal on Saturday and I am planning on taking my camera and getting some pictures and posting them here. Sunday is a busy day for me. I am teaching my Sunday School class in the morning, helping setup for the play after church, preaching nursing home in the afternoon, then the Christmas play that night. It is nice to be busy :)

For those of you that don't know, my family and I are heading out to Fairhaven for Christmas to spend time with Rachel. We are bringing along my other sister, Rebekah, so we can have the whole family together for Christmas this year. :) My parents are leaving around New Years Eve but I am staying through Volleyball Marathon there at Fairhaven. I am looking forward to seeing all of the folks at Fairhaven.

I trust everyone is doing very well, and for those of you who are in school are glad it's over for the semester :) I just wanted to make a little post and let everyone know things are going well.

The Newest Member of the Family...

Hi everyone! I have not posted in a while. I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving. I worked overnight during the Black Friday sales at Wallie World. Boy, was that crazy! :)

Well I just wanted to inform you all about a new member of the family. I know you all are going to think I am crazy by the end of this post, but you all knew I was crazy anyway :)





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Meet Agrippa....

He is my new snake :) He is a baby bally python. He is just over a foot long and loves to hide.

If you don't believe I really own a snake... here are a few more pictures lol

He is looking right at the camera, He was not happy lol

Me and my buddy

In his home... I just put in Aspen chips for him, he loves it.

Exploring

Agrippa trying to get out

I was reading my Bible in Acts a few days before I got the snake and saw the name "Agrippa" and thought it was a perfect snake name :)

Today I added the aspen shavings to his tank, originally I only had newspaper as his bedding (which is actually safe for snakes). My mom wanted to see if she could hold the snake. So I brought her upstairs while I disassembled Agrippa's house. I had her bring the camera to get these pictures.... Well, Agrippa was a bit camera shy and just before my mom took a picture he struck at the camera! lol. Needless to say she did not want to hold him after that. He actually fell out of my hands but he was ok. After I finished cleaning his house up, I went to put him back but he was not happy. He was hissing at me and was not a happy little snake. Poor guy probably did not appreciate me taking him out of his hide. I am going to let him settle for a few days

Be Jealous.

TADAAAAAAAA!!!!

11/11/11 at 11:11:11 Eastern Time :) Isn't that ONE-DERFUL?!

Mom's Blog

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you all know that my mom has set up a blog. Many of you know that back in July my mom was diagnosed with stage two cancer. She will be posting updates about treatment and such on her blog.

Here is the web address: www.barbarabeam.blogspot.com

Clay

I have recently been faced with a... difficulty, shall we say, in my life. I would not call it a "tribulation" or a "trial" because it does not compare to what many people face in life. 


This is just a little something that the Lord has shown me that can really be applied to any "difficulty" you may face in life and I just wanted to share it with you all. (Most of it was thought about at work when I have nothing else to think about)


It is amazing what God will do if you just surrender to him. The sermons that my pastor has preached lately have been EXACTLY what I needed. It almost seemed like I was going to church and "selecting" the sermon that I needed to hear that day. The Lord just laid it out for me. Specifically one of the sermons that my Pastor preached was on the omniscience of God. He preached about how God knows why we are going through whatever we are going through and he cares. It was just what I needed to hear.


Well at work I began to think about things the Lord puts us through. I preached a sermon in nursing home last Sunday about "suffering" and how to deal with it. I knew the basics and of course I know the verse "And we know that all things work together for good..." Of course we know suffering is for growth and depending on the difficulty, it helps you in that specific area of your life. But I could not help but wonder, "what else? Is there one thing that we can ALWAYS look to as we go through ANY difficulty?"


I began to think of the story in Jeremiah 18. Where the Lord talks to Jeremiah about the clay. And how the clay was "marred" in the masters in hand. He had to take the clay and remold it to the way he wanted it to come out. Suddenly it hit me. The master (the Lord) takes the clay (us) and does not give up on it! He has not given up on the piece of clay!


The Lord showed me that one thing we can always look to in times of trouble is quite a simple revelation. He isn't done with us yet! I have not done anything SO terrible or SO wicked that God just said "ya know what? It's not worth molding anymore, just forget it" No! He has not given up on me, he is going to mold me and make me what he wants me to be. I would much rather have the Lord work on me and make me more like him then just sit as a marred piece of clay. Thank you Lord for not giving up on me!


That's pretty amazing when you think about it... The God of the universe cares enough to not give up on me.
Psalm 8:4  What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? 


I know this sounded so simple, and so obvious but it was a great refresher for me. It was a blessing to me and I wanted to share it with you all.


Since I am blogging... I might as well tell what has been going on lately :)


School is going well and I am looking forward to mid-terms. I am starting a 7.5 week online 3 credit hour Civil War class... wow! it should be interesting


I still work at Wal-Mart... Mostly working outside (that is why I have had so much time to think) I have gotten some cashier shifts here lately. I would love to get into the electronics department sometime, but I feel I am were the Lord wants me at this point.


My Sunday School class is getting big! It is exciting. We have twin boys that are coming named Elijah and Isaiah. The Lord has really given me a burden for them lately. They both have speech impediments but both seem very smart. I was able to talk to them on Wednesday night about the gospel. One of them said they weren't a sinner and the other one said he was. I asked the one that said he was a sinner if his brother was a sinner. He, of course, said yes :). They did not get saved, but I am thankful for the opportunity to teach them in Sunday School and help with them in Master Clubs.

I hope everyone... everyone? Does anyone even read this anymore? haha. I just thought it was nice to get my thoughts on... paper? how bout on website :)

As I was saying! I hope everyone is doing well! Leave a comment if you so choose!

What Cancer really does....

Many of you, if not all of you know, that my mom was recently diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. She started chemo a month or so ago and has really had a positive attitude through the whole thing. Recently, my mom has started to lose her hair and has had to wear hats.

My youth pastor had a meeting with the men of the church that were 40 and younger... I kind of thought... what is this all about? To make a longish story short, He told us that since so many people had cancer he wanted to do something. He told us that when he saw my mom with her hat on at church, it really hit him hard. He decided that he was going to shave his head. Immediately when he told us that.... I was on board! My mom and two other people in our church are fighting cancer or have fought cancer just recently, and with my mom being one of them, I of course was willing to do it.

The main reason is to remember them in prayer. He told us to keep in mind that every time we look at ourselves in the mirror, or someone asks us about our bald head, we can pray for those with cancer in our church. We can also use it as a witnessing tool, tell folks about all the guys that did it because we care for our church family....

So here are some pictures of my bald head!!!! I am going to try to get a pic of all the guys that shaved their heads.... Pastor Ingalls, Mr. Malfi, Adam, Tyler, and I :) Maybe a group pick

Never knew I had something on top of my head haha

Take that cancer! You won't win :) God and the support of his people will! Good Game.... we win :)

Memorial Day 2011

Here in our wonderful town, Auburn NY, we have a special display of American flags in honor of our troops and in honor of the 9-11 tragedies. Just down the street from our church there is a park that has over 2,000 American flags in which honor fallen troops. It is such an amazing display! I got chills just taking pictures of it. Enjoy!

Hoopes Park in Auburn

Each flag was dedicated to a soldier

My personal favorite picture

My mom and I enjoying the park

Here is an overview video of the whole park! Enjoy!!!

My Four Year Old Birthday

As you can tell.... I was a bratty little kid :)
Enjoy! I laugh every time I watch this haha

Ah, The Joys of Spring Break

My mom treated my dad and I to some ribs tonight :)

Yummo!

I let him have some too :)

Like father like son :)

Long time no blog!

Hey guys! So it has been a looooooong time since I updated my blog. Too long. How do even update a blog when you have not touched it for 2 months? I don't even know.

Much has happened since volleyball marathon. I guess that is a good place to start. I am on spring break right now! So that means we as a college raised enough for it. duh. Individually I raised $450! Which means I get a day off of school for a Chicago Cubs game :). You can still click the donate button on the top right of the page, but you will just be donating to my school bill ;) Which I'd be ok with :)

Spring Break has gone well so far. Not too much going on. Trying to get some reading done for school but that isn't working out too well. It seems as if I am not as motivated at home as I am at school. But I will get some done. :)

I go back to school on Friday the 11th. School doesn't restart until Monday though. I go back on a train which of course should be more than fun... ha.

I am enjoying the time at home to spend some time with my parents and watch some Yankees games :). The Yankees have been doing real well since I've been home.

I miss my friends from college but I will see them in a few days :) I hope everyone is doing well. I will try to write something more often while at school.

Does anyone look at this anymore? leave a comment if you do :)

Volleyball Marathon is over!

It's not too late to donate some money though! :)

Enjoy the vlog!

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=600586

Fairhaven Baptist College: Episode 2

And We're back!
Christmas Break is over and we have returned to Fairhaven. Although Christmas break was a great time spent with my parents (and Rebekah, of course, I did not forget about you :) it is good to be back.

Classes do not begin until Monday, January 17th. All of next week our school is have what's called "Volleyball Marathon". We as students play Volleyball for 96 Hours straight, Sunday Night after church until Thursday Night before church. Of course we will not all be playing for 96 hours straight, but we will have 4 hour shifts everyday. I am looking forward to it. Lord willing I will get some school work done as well. I have lots of reading to do this semester. Speaking of volleyball marathon! If I haven't contacted you about supporting me financially for it, now is your chance to get in on the fun!!! :) Simply make sure you have a Paypal account, click the "Donate" button on the top right of your screen, and type some outrageous amount of money in the text box! :)
Haha, Just Kidding of course, but you can donate by clicking the button if you would like :)

Please be in prayer for me in the next few weeks as I search out a job. I did not have one last semester but I need to get one this semester. I have a few ideas in mind. My last resort will be Americall. I really don't want to do Americall but if I can't find a job I will need to apply for it. God has a way of working those things out so I am not too worried about it :)

Here is a little tid bit of our trip up ...

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=599099

Christmas Break is in the books!

Our Christmas break has come to a close! It sure has worn us out!

http://www.yourfilelink.com/get.php?fid=598708