I started a new blog! I've always wanted to but have never really had anything to say....or have I? Maybe I have had a lot to say but haven't found a way to say it or to whom I would say it until now. I think I'm being confusing.
ANYWAY
Let's start with the basics. My name is Bethany Risinger. I am nineteen years old and am a sophomore at East Texas Baptist University. I am studying Secondary English to hopefully teach somewhere overseas as a missionary.
Here recently, I decided to apply for the RA position in Ornelas (women's dorm) on campus and had to write my personal testimony out. I had never done it before, so its was actually a pretty cool experience! I did, however, end up writing two pages when it only gave room for a paragraph...I went a step further and just typed + printed the whole thing. Sooo....this is what I wrote.
Before I go into my personal testimony, I feel that it is important to go over the basics of what it means to be a follower of Christ. To be a Christian, it is not about just going to church weekly, it is not about doing all the “right” things, it is not about trying to be “good enough,” nor is it about a water baptism. It is, however, about an individuals transformation of their heart. There are a few points that we would need to believe in order to become a Christian. The first thing is that we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Since we have sinned, it separates up from God and that penalty is eternal death. The good news is that Jesus Christ died in our place on the cross for us and we can accept the FREE gift of salvation by submitting our lives to God’s rule and trusting in him in every aspect of our lives. The process of salvation is rather simple and once we make the decision, we know for a fact that our sins have been forgiven and we will be with Him in eternity.
Now move on to my testimony of Faith. Since a young girl, my father has always been on staff at a church wherever we lived. Therefore, I was in church every Sunday and several other days of the week as well. When I was five, my family moved to Germany (And eventually Austria) to be on the mission field with the International Mission Board. I loved living in both of these places and attending the public German-speaking schools as well. I formed many new friendships and relationship with the people there that I will never forget. Every winter, there would be a team from the United States that would come to a conference and conduct a VBS for all the missionary kids that came with their parents. It was the year that I turned eight, during one of these VBS’s, that I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord. I understood (as much as an eight year old can) of what it meant to be a Christian, but little did I know, it meant soooo much more than I could later describe. We moved back to Texas when I was eleven and it seemed that I had to start my life over again in school because I had to learn how to do American school work rather than German. Dad became employed at church as a Mission Pastor and I became very involved with the church-life again. During my middle school years, my father resigned from the church and many rumors were spread about why he departed. This caused not only hurt feeling for Dad, but for the whole family as well. Kids at school would come up and ask if my dad was gay, if he had hurt me or my brother, had an affair, etc. This ruined me! How could someone think of my daddy like that and therefore, I was mad at God for letting this happen. My family even got asked to not return to a church because they had heard and stupidly believed one of these rumors. For a time that we were looking around for a church, I did not want to go and try any new ones because I figured all of them would do the same. After about a year, Dad bought a hardware store and later became a pastor at a small country church called Faith Temple where he still is a pastor today. It was when he bought the hardware store, my sophomore year, that my mother, my brother, and I moved to a different school out in the country called Boles High School. It was there that I started to feel accepted and that God really wanted back into my life. At Boles, I started FCA which had never been an organization available before at Boles, I was Drum Major for the Marching Band for the three years that I was there, and had a huge role in the youth program at Faith Temple. I began to see that God really never left me through the tough times with the family and searching around for a new church. Although I didn’t realize it until later, God really made the relationships within my family so much closer not only to each other, but to Him as well. After the whole experience I was able to acknowledge how much I could really rely on God to get me through anything. It was because of this realization that I was able to get through Mom having breast cancer a year ago. There were many times that we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get through the journey by ourselves. I learned to trust Him through the situation with Dad and Mom and can now know that I can trust Him in every possible aspect of my life. My relationship with Christ has become so big that I know for a fact that he has me in the palm of his hands and will NEVER let me go. I know this was a super LONG testimony of Faith, but without these events that happened to me and my family, I would be nowhere close to who I am today as a Christian.
“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”
Psalm 18:2
Now move on to my testimony of Faith. Since a young girl, my father has always been on staff at a church wherever we lived. Therefore, I was in church every Sunday and several other days of the week as well. When I was five, my family moved to Germany (And eventually Austria) to be on the mission field with the International Mission Board. I loved living in both of these places and attending the public German-speaking schools as well. I formed many new friendships and relationship with the people there that I will never forget. Every winter, there would be a team from the United States that would come to a conference and conduct a VBS for all the missionary kids that came with their parents. It was the year that I turned eight, during one of these VBS’s, that I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord. I understood (as much as an eight year old can) of what it meant to be a Christian, but little did I know, it meant soooo much more than I could later describe. We moved back to Texas when I was eleven and it seemed that I had to start my life over again in school because I had to learn how to do American school work rather than German. Dad became employed at church as a Mission Pastor and I became very involved with the church-life again. During my middle school years, my father resigned from the church and many rumors were spread about why he departed. This caused not only hurt feeling for Dad, but for the whole family as well. Kids at school would come up and ask if my dad was gay, if he had hurt me or my brother, had an affair, etc. This ruined me! How could someone think of my daddy like that and therefore, I was mad at God for letting this happen. My family even got asked to not return to a church because they had heard and stupidly believed one of these rumors. For a time that we were looking around for a church, I did not want to go and try any new ones because I figured all of them would do the same. After about a year, Dad bought a hardware store and later became a pastor at a small country church called Faith Temple where he still is a pastor today. It was when he bought the hardware store, my sophomore year, that my mother, my brother, and I moved to a different school out in the country called Boles High School. It was there that I started to feel accepted and that God really wanted back into my life. At Boles, I started FCA which had never been an organization available before at Boles, I was Drum Major for the Marching Band for the three years that I was there, and had a huge role in the youth program at Faith Temple. I began to see that God really never left me through the tough times with the family and searching around for a new church. Although I didn’t realize it until later, God really made the relationships within my family so much closer not only to each other, but to Him as well. After the whole experience I was able to acknowledge how much I could really rely on God to get me through anything. It was because of this realization that I was able to get through Mom having breast cancer a year ago. There were many times that we knew that we wouldn’t be able to get through the journey by ourselves. I learned to trust Him through the situation with Dad and Mom and can now know that I can trust Him in every possible aspect of my life. My relationship with Christ has become so big that I know for a fact that he has me in the palm of his hands and will NEVER let me go. I know this was a super LONG testimony of Faith, but without these events that happened to me and my family, I would be nowhere close to who I am today as a Christian.
“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”
Psalm 18:2
Interesting huh?
Not only was it a cool experience to type it all out, I realized something about my testimony that I never had before. There was a theme in it!
Trust.
Without trust, I would be nowhere.
So yes, I know I have come a long way with my relationship with God, I still have a super long ways to go. There is so much that I still want to learn and grow with. I still need to train myself to read the Bible every day and stick to ONE devotional and stick to it faithfully. Thing is, now that I am away from home, how do I have accountability to do all of that? That is the hardest thing that I have experience in college so far.
I long for a person to hold me accountable for that stuff (not my parents of a family member).....
I mean I love my family and all, I want a friend to be that person for me and I know that God will put that certain person in my life.
So I guess along with the introduction of myself, I should probably introduce my family as well. It's quite complicated however. The mom, dad, and brother stuff is normal. But then you get into my additional family members.
Along with my immediate family, my household includes my little cousin (just turned 6) that lives with us, Jay (a 47 year old with downs) that we take care of, and Madelynn (blind 2nd grader) and her mother that live in the cabin behind our house but who are at our house the majority of the time.
Needless to say, my household is always chaotic, loud, and busy....
Which brings me to Will, who is the exact opposite of chaotic, loud, and busy.
Will Hill....the boyfriend. Gosh he's such an amazing guy! He treats me like there is no one above him and I love him for that! He always makes sure I'm doing ok, gets me anything that I need, and well....just treats me like a princess!
Just as every relationship has its rough patches, we do as well. BUT I wouldn't change going through them because if we didn't, we wouldn't be where we are today.
Weird to think that we have been dating for six months already! We celebrated it last weekend by going to Shoguns in Longview. Delicious and fun!
So this week is Spring Break! I had a test this morning for Old Testament, an hour break, and then class and work. The last two hours felt like eternity!! I wanted to go home sooo bad! I left around 1pm and once I got home, the business started by only being home for 15 minutes then heading off to Ikea in Frisco. Andrew got a bookshelf and I got a heart-shaped mirror and a timer for the kitchen. I always seem to burn things when I don't set a timer. Hah. We came back home and I started to write on here and fix my font settings n stuff.
So excited to see what is to come of my new blog!!
As Dr. Coppinger would say, "Keep the Faith!"
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