Well, girls – it’s that time again!!  Flat Stella has been up to all kinds of things with our SEBTS family this week.  From being rescued from the jaws of a ferocious cat, to playing and playing with lots of kiddo’s…she definitely hasn’t had a boring week.

 

Let’s see where she’s been:

When Cat Blinson found Flat Stella, she was cooling herself in the shade of her mailbox.  Apparently she was trying to get a tan by laying on the sidewalk, and got a little too hot.

So, Cat rescued her and took her to play with her little nephew Augustine.  We think he likes her a little 

Flat Stella spent a good amount of time in God’s word with both Cat and Emily Guyer. 

She then went with Emily to soccer camp where she found two other SEBTS girls, Taylor & Jenny!! Flat Stella loved being at soccer camp...she loves to be around kiddos.

Speaking of kiddos…we found her with Liani’s family at the antique car show…

…and with Carrie’s family, trying to get in on a little backyard baseball game.  She was, however, a little scared of Carrie’s brother- in-law!

Flat Stella grabbed a little Mexican food with Megan’s family and helped out the wait staff at La Foresta, including SEBTS student Rachel. Flat Stella was SO thankful Megan’s dad wanted to share his food with her.  To be so thin, she gets hungry!!

Finally, Flat Stella thought it would be best to go visit the Liederbach family.  She knows that they truly love the Lord, so she thought she’d get some great ministry experience by visiting their home.  However, what she didn’t realize is that Dr. Liederbach would ask her to mow his grass.  Poor Flat Stella.  She was so excited to serve Dr. Liederbach’s family that she didn’t pay very good attention and fell right off the tractor.  Good thing Stella is flat.

When they took her inside to nurse her back to health, they clearly forgot that their ferocious feline was roaming about.  Kitty kitty decided to try and eat Stella as a snack.

Flat Stella needs a little rest this weekend.  Hopefully, she’ll get some pep right back in her step and we’ll see more of her adventures next week on the blog!  To read about Stella’s previous adventures, click here.

Happy Friday 

Where can you find SEBTS this summer? 

This Wednesday, Yiyoung Yuk, one of our lovely seminary students, is sharing her plans for the summer!  Yiyoung,  tell us where you'll be and what you'll be doing:

I love summer vacation, not just because my birthday is in August, but because it is so wonderful to have a break from school. We do not have to worry about quizzes, writing papers, and constantly checking our to-do lists. I am not a planner. I am more of an artist! Trust me, I love studying, and SEBTS has been stretching my mind, challenging my thinking, and most of all, creating deeper love for the word of God. But I desperately need a break to express God’s beauty in creative ways instead of in Turabian style!  I also want to experience His love, enjoy His nature, and enjoy His people without the burden of assignments. In this post, I will include some of my drawings. They speak my heart better than my words.

Where will I be?

I will be going to New York and New Jersey to visit my mom and sister. I am originally from Korea, but my mom and sister live in NJ. After having my little girl, Ruah, I haven't had the chance to drive all the way up to New York to visit them. I had been to NY many times before I got married, but having my baby girl changed that!  Americans say 10-hour-driving is nothing, but for Koreans, it is a very long time!!  (It takes less than seven hours to drive all the way from Seoul to the very south of Korea.) It will be an adventurous month spending time with family and friends this June. The rest of the summer, I will be here, serving in many ways.

What will I be doing? How will I serve?

God has really given me a heart for Bible storying. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bible storying, it's a process of oral and visual communication that includes a narrative presentation designed to communicate a Bible story followed by dialogue, interpretation, application, accountability, drama, song, and retelling the story.

Seventy percent of the unreached people in the world are oral learners. In our churches, we often communicate through printed literature such as tracts and lesson books. However, people can more easily embrace God’s ways when they can see, hear, smell, taste and touch the Gospel. Learning Bible storying has been an amazing journey. Over a year ago, I started a group that consists of mostly female seminary students or wives of students. Our group is international, and we meet every Thursday at 1pm for Bible storying, fellowship, worship, and coffee and dessert. Most of women in the group are moms, so their kids have become part of the group, singing along and having a blast! Last semester, through Bible storying techniques, we memorized almost the entire book of Acts. Now we are studying Bible panorama from Genesis through Revelation, finding redemptive themes in every story. If you are interested, please email me at luvu620@gmail.com.

 Also, God has given me a heart to design a curriculum for ESL learners using the Bible and Bible storying to serve immigrants or to teach English in the mission field. I am a non-native speaker myself, so I understand the frustration and struggle of learning a new language.  I also understand the passion & joy that comes from such an accomplishment.  I am in the process of writing a 1-year curriculum, with the help of other women who have the same heart, that can be used in an ESL ministry in the U.S or on the mission field. While meeting a social need, the curriculum can be a great channel to share the Gospel and build great community and fellowship.  

My husband and I are both serving as interns at Goldsboro Korean Baptist Church. The members are mostly Korean immigrants who are married to Americans soldiers. I am leading a Bible study for English-speaking members as well as spending time counseling women. We have are learning so much through this ministry opportunity. God is most definitely teaching me what it means to have the heart of a shepherd.

Most importantly, if people ask me what I do, I do not hesitate to answer that I am a mom. I have a two-year-old daughter named Ruah. Her name means "breath of God or God’s inspiration" in  Hebrew. I was pregnant with Ruah while I took Hebrew I, and she was born on the day of the final exam day of Hebrew II.  The professor jokingly said that some people would do anything to avoid the test  ;)  This summer, I will spend most of my days with her! 

Looking back, it has been the grace of God that I am here, writing this. I was lost. I came to Christ in my early twenties, but I had financial difficulties and health issues. I am from a broken family. Everything seemed like obstacles. Even now, being a full time mom, a full time student, and an intern sometimes feels so overwhelming. Studying in English is challenging, and studying theology is even more difficult. But He knows my heart, and it is Jesus who carries my burden every day, who encourages me, who serves me, who teaches me to never be afraid, and challenges me to press on. He makes my heart glad and makes it sing like a bird.   

Yiyoung Yuk is married to Kitae Kim. They are both of pursuing an M.Div with Christian Ministry. They are from South Korea. Yiyoung loves to express God’s love and find His beauty in every day life through drawing and writing. They have been here for over 3 years and have a 2-year-old daughter named Ruah Spring Kim. Kitae works as event staff at the Ledford Center, and both of them are serving as interns at Goldsoboro Korean Baptist Church. They have a heart for missions.

Last Monday, we introduced our plan to showcase good summer reads every week on the blog.  Like we said in that post, summer reading seems to be one of those things that shows up on everyone’s summer to-do list.  We’ve got a great line up of folks who are sending in their favorite books for us to feature, but for this week, we thought we’d tell you ours.  Denise gave us a great start with her top three picks last week!  Here are the picks from the rest of the Women's Life Office:

From Liani (our newest member of WL!!):

not a fan. by Kyle Idleman

Liani says:  Little did I know that last June, when reading not a fan, it would cut to my core, challenge me while asking the question, “fan or follower”, and help me take my stance for Christ’s call of obedience.  It is an easy, very real, and applicable if you choose, book to read.  A word of warning, do not read if you like comfy Christianity. 

From Megan:

Megan says:  If you want to be challenged this summer, I suggest Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard.

Hinds’ Feet is a Pilgrim’s Progress type of book. “It is the story of a young woman named Much Afraid and her journey away from her Fearing family into the High Places of the Shepherd. It is an allegory of the Christian life from salvation through maturity.” I read this book on bus trips to and from work for 3 months and cried every day.

 

If you just want something fun and light hearted, Ray Blackston’s “Flabbergasted” trilogy is hilarious. How could you not enjoy a book set in South Carolina about “a single stock broker looking for love in the murky waters of the southern church singles scene”?!

From Carrie:

Carrie says:  My suggestions are coming from someone who’s not much of a reader, so it took me some time to really think of my suggestions.  I came up with my list by thinking about what books I’ve read that have made such an impact on my heart that I think back to their principles on an almost daily basis.  Here’s my list:

The Cross Centered Life by CJ Mahaney

In The Cross Centered Life, CJ Mahaney does an excellent job of walking believers through the daunting battle of winning over our minds with the truths that are ours in the cross of Christ.  He encourages in a way that only another brother who has been there can, and his passion for fellow believers to keep the big picture in mind is both evident and contagious.  An excellent and short read!!

Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret by Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor

If your prayer life is faltering or seems dull from time to time…this is a must read for you.  Hudson Taylor was a man who truly believed in prayer and the promises of God, and his biography delves into the depths and utter dependence of that faith.  After a few minutes with this book, your prayer might begin to sound a little more like, “Father, give me that kind of faith…please give me that kind of faith.”

We hope these suggestions will help boost your summer reading and offer some ideas on books that maybe you’ve never read before.  As always, leave us any of your favorite reads in the comments below!!

As you’ll recall, last Friday we introduced you to this little lady we like to call Flat Stella.

Flat Stella is going to help us showcase our SEBTS ladies and what they’re doing all summer.  If you want more information about how, click here.  We’ve had quite a few of you stop by & pick up your own Flat Stella dolls, so we’re pretty excited to see what you come up with over the coming weeks!

As for our Flat Stella…well, here’s where she’s been up to this week:

Since school is out and the Southern Baptist Convention was going on in Houston, campus was a bit of a ghost town.  So Stella tried to find students and teachers everywhere, but had no such luck.

She checked the gym…

The chapel…

She got distracted by the sweet smelling magnolias…

She even went to see Denise, our Director of Women’s Life, but her office was empty.  We told Flat Stella not to get too comfortable in that Director’s chair ;)

Our Stella finally found some friends downstairs in Ledford.

She tried to share Laura Hahn’s lunch…

…and even offered to answer phones in Financial Aid with our friend Lauren Horn.

(Flat Stella, I don’t know if answering phones is the job for you, girl.)

Thankfully, Flat Stella found her way out on the town with a few of our girls.

She clearly went to see a chick flick ;)

Remember, we want to see what you’re doing this summer, SEBTS girls.  Get your own Flat Stella here or email us for a copy.  Send your photos to womenslife@sebts.edu or submit via FB at facebook.com/sebtswomenslife or Twitter at @sebtswomenslife.

Happy Friday!