There's more to life at Bethel than classes & seminars

Beyond the green is a place students to share the joys and hardships of being a Thresher.

  • Mudslam, AKA The Dirtiest Volleyball You Have Ever Played

    Mudslam, AKA The Dirtiest Volleyball You Have Ever Played

  • Mod Life: Finding Fun Amidst Stress

    Mod Life: Finding Fun Amidst Stress

Concert Choir Tour 2015

Concert Choir Tour 2015

The choir's annual spring break tour took them into churches of various denominations in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, where they experienced amazing hospitality from an equal variety of people.
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Bethel in bloom

Bethel in bloom

It seems like we just turned around and suddenly it's spring all over the Bethel campus.
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Spring Fling 2015

Spring Fling 2015

Above is a photo from 2015's Bubbert Awards fun. The Bubberts capped off Spring Fling week, which also included Ultimate Trivia, laser tag, Capture the Flag and Bethel Olympics. Plus an Iron Chef Cook-off with a secret ingredient...
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The end of another school year

The end of another school year

Wrapping up, finishing up and moving out, as another school year ends. Our bloggers appreciate coffee, friends, beautiful coffee, summer plans, study breaks and ... coffee.
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The Break Before the Break

This Thanksgiving break has been different than all my other years at Bethel. Instead of getting Wednesday through the weekend off, we got a whole week off starting last Saturday. At first I was a little bit skeptical about the break because I would have rather had our normal Thanksgiving Break and add the rest of those days on to Christmas break to make it longer. However, being able to have this longer break has been really nice! I’ve been able to put a lot of time into projects I need to get done that I might not have had without the extension of break while also being able to spend plenty of time with my family. 

At the beginning of break I took a day or two to just relax, then I worked hard on a take home test, being able to spend big chunks of time on it to get it done. Then I was able to take a few days off for the actual holiday. I was able to spend time with family and extended family for Thanksgiving, eat DELICIOUS food, talk about things we are thankful for, watch basketball and football, set up our Christmas tree, make Christmas goodies etc. Now, I have time to take another day to focus on homework to get the rest of it done so I can relax the last couple days of break.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you were able to remember everything you are thankful for and spend this holiday with people you are thankful for!

Thankfulness For The Little Things

Today, the theme of our chapel service was Thankfulness

One of the points that was brought up among the speakers was being thankful for the little things. This was a good reminder for me. I get so stressed with school work and the end of the semester that I forget to take time to step back and be thankful for some of the little things that I take for granted. These are things such as even being able to attend Bethel College, to get the college education, to have a laptop to write my papers on. To be thankful for my health, that I have all of the necessities and so much more. That I have such wonderful support systems in my life including my family and friends. 

Last year, I wrote a blog about what I was thankful for and so I wanted include its contents here because it is still applicable along with a few additions. As you read the reasons that am thankful, take time to think about what you are thankful for, including the smaller things you may, like me, have taken for granted.

In this season of Thanksgiving I thought it appropriate to write a blog about the things that I am thankful for about Bethel. Thus I have titled my blog “A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart” which comes from Veggie Tales and one of their songs called “The Thankfulness Song.” (If you are interested in seeing/hearing the scene with the song in it here it is!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhcI-HXicwY!

I am thankful for the tennis team and am excited to begin our spring season together.

I am thankful for the choral groups I am a part of and the tremendous music we make together.

I am thankful there are study rooms in the library available when I need a place of peace and quiet to study.

I am thankful for Mojos and their tasty drinks and delicious cinnamon rolls! (Who also have a great environment for studying).

I am thankful Bethel is such a nice campus, small enough to feel like a close-knit community.

I am thankful for my whole mod of girls: Alli Rudeen, Katelyn Melgren, Alyssa Scheuerman, Melinda Regehr, Michelle Unruh and my roomate Allie Hipp. We have such fun times together, even if it is sometimes getting on each other to study:). 

I am thankful that Bethel is close to home so I can still see my immediate and extended family often (and come home for laundry and my mom’s delicious cooking!)

I am thankful that my sister Miranda although now graduated from Bethel and married, is still in the area so we can have frequent lunches together. 

I am thankful for the professors and their dedication to their students and their availability to help on an individual basis.

I am thankful for friendships that I have built on campus along with closer relationships within my mod.

I am thankful for the beautiful scenery on campus, especially with the new landscaping they have completed thus far.

I am thankful for the “little things” that I mentioned above.

And last but definitely not least, I am thankful for simply having the opportunity to attend Bethel College. 

Worship and the Arts Symposium

This past weekend was the Worship and the Arts Symposium. The event that I was a part of was the Saturday evening Accompany them with singing worship service. The concert choir (which I am a part of), along with the Women’s Chorus, Men’s Ensemble and many church choirs from around the area sang some pieces alone as well as also singing with the congregation in attendance.  It was a wonderful service. Not only was it fun to have John Ferguson come for the symposium to conduct us, or that I got to sing with, and at the same time listen to wonderful four part harmony, but Tom Long’s sermon also touched me. 

Tom spoke about the story of how Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead and focused on it in a way I hadn’t thought about before. What he really focused in on was the reaction of Martha when Jesus shows up four days after Lazarus dies and she says: “Lord, if you would have been here my brother would not have died.” This message along with his personal experience he shared that related back to his message was very touching. I won’t begin to try and explain the message because it wouldn’t do Tom’s presentation of his sermon justice! I do however, want to mention one thing that really hit home for me. He totally changed my perception of “time.” He said that instead of our lives running out of time, death is running out of time because we have eternity. Instead of justice running out of time, all the injustices are running out of time. Instead of all the good things running out of time, all the bad things are running out of time. I had never looked at time like that and seeing that new perspective was something very important to me.

I also heard from many people in the audience how much they enjoyed it and how special of an experience it was for them too.

It was a lot of work to put it all together, but it was a wonderful experience and I will be looking forward to attending the next one!

Don’t get the bug!

As a student who just recently came down with an Influenza/Pneumonia bug, let me tell you, it was horrible, and miserable. So in this particular blog, allow me to share some helpful hints to you, remind you of some that you may have forgotten over the winter months, and hopefully, you’ll stear clear of coming down sick. Pretty soon we will be gearing up for finals, and you don’t want to be fighting off a sickness, cramming all kinds of information into your head, and taking tests all at the same time.

1. Remember to wash your hands often. Granted, this will make your hands more rough and dry, which although, is much better than being sick. However, as a remedy for those dry hands, they have invented a wonderful thing called Body Butter. This will help keep dry skin on those hands you are washing twenty times a day more moisturized.

2. Eat healthy, especially foods rich in Vitamin C, Zinc, and Iron. This will help keep your immune system up, and more ready and able to fight that bug before it fights you.

3. Getting adequate sleep. I know this is especially hard during finals time, when you are staying up later and cramming your brain full of knowledge you swear you will never need.

4. Keeping hydrated. Drinking lots of water will help flush any toxins.

5. Try thinking positive thoughts….surprisingly this helps a lot. Negative energy will bring you down, everyone knows that. If you think sad thoughts, you become sad right? So think healthy thoughts, like “I will feel my upmost best today” (kinda cheesy I know, but hey, if it keeps the flu away, its worth the shot right?!) Cancer patients often times visualize themselves well. Even though you may not be suffering from cancer, why not apply the same thinking power to just a regular sickness that you are trying to stear clear of?

I wish all Bethel Students a healthy pre-final time! Stay well! And if you do get sick, recognize the symptoms and cut yourself some slack. And if it gets really bad….see the doctor instead of spreading your sickness to other students!

The Bethel Blood Drive

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Nolan Corne donating blood

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Madelyn Weaver and myself

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Just some of the Red Cross blood drive crew!

1258 November has been a very busy month for me! As a co-leader of Bethel SCAN (Student Community Action Network) I was in charge of the blood drive this semester. While you might think this would not be very hard, there were actually many different tasks I had to finish before the blood drive could be a success.

First, I had to make sure we had pizza for people to eat after giving blood. Pizza Hut and Papa John’s were both extremely helpful and had no problem donating pizzas for the cause. We received four pizzas, plates, and napkins from both places. Any snack items besides the pizza were supplied by the Red Cross. I was also involved in multiple meetings and phone calls with our blood drive coordinator, Geneva Land.

Madelyn Weaver and I hung posters all over Bethel’s campus. Alyssa Scheuerman, Madelyn Weaver, Kathryn Kelman, and I handed out fliers after convo one day. But, by far the biggest duty I had was to get enough blood donors to sign up. So, Shianne DeFreese and I sat outside of the cafeteria almost everyday for two weeks. As I’m sure you all noticed! A few community members also called or emailed me and joined our cause to donate blood.

The day of the blood drive, some members of the Bethel football team, along with some other guys, came and helped unload the blood drive truck in the morning. There is a lot of equipment needed for a blood drive! Then, throughout the day I had volunteers coming in every hour. These volunteers included: Olivia Gehring, Javen Zellner, Alyssa Scheuerman, Katrina Regehr, Rachel Evans, Mallory Black, Jessica Ebenkamp, Aaron Topham, Lina Adame, Emily Wedel, Tana Myers, Koki Lane (who was also in charge of picture taking), Rachel Unruh, Raul Silva, Katelyn Melgren, Jared Regehr, Sarah Cunningham, and Madelyn Weaver. Michelle Unruh also picked up some supplies for the blood drive. After the blood drive was over, the Bethel tennis team came to help load all of the equipment back into the truck. Of course, I cannot forget all of the blood donors. Over all we had 68 people come to donate and of them, 57 were able to donate. This means we saved 171 lives in only four hours! Good job Bethel!

Lastly I would like to thank Ada Schmidt-Tieszen, Madelyn Weaver, and Shianne DeFreese for helping me plan the blood drive.

Stressed?

Are big projects stressing you out? Is your job or work getting to be a little too much for you to handle?

Just take a look at these….

 

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There.. feel better?

When I am stressed and need a brain break I look up cute animal pictures. Somehow cute pictures of animals always helps bring down my stress:). A lot of due dates for big projects are coming up for myself and I know for some of my friends as well. So de-stress by going to look at these adorable animals and more like them to get yourself through those due dates or those stressful parts of your job!

Good resources to find cute animal pictures:

www.attackofthecute.com

@CuteEmergency on Twitter

Or just google “cute animal pictures” 🙂

Things I’m Thankful for at Bethel

While your Facebook might be covered in your friends’ statuses giving thanks during the month of November, I thought I’d do my own version of what I’m thankful for, as a student of Bethel College. After four years here I have a lot to be thankful for, so check out my list:

1. I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend a college and especially one with as much prestige as Bethel. It’s the only private college in Kansas to be ranked on Forbes.com as one of “America’s Best Colleges,” now that’s pretty awesome!

My friend and teammate, April Harpe and I before our first game.

With my friend and teammate, April Harpe before our first game.

2. I’m thankful for the professors and staff that help make Bethel such a wonderful place. I’ve been privileged to have many that encourage me to become a better student and more importantly a better person. They’ve taught me a great deal about the world and exposed me to new ideas.

3. I’m thankful to be able to play on the basketball team and along with that be coached by some great people. I’m lucky just to have the opportunity to play a collegiate sport. My coaches  at Bethel have confidence in me and push me everyday to get better.

4. In addition to that I’m thankful for the friends I’ve made on and off the court. The ladies I play with motivate me daily and inspire me to work harder. My friends are always there for me when I need to vent, study, or take a break from the stresses of college. They help me to be more outgoing and allow me to enjoy my time here.

5.  I’m thankful to live on a beautiful campus that is also abundant in squirrels (I have an obsession with them). It is truly a gorgeous campus and one that I’m pretty proud of.

Nolan dresses as Shrek on Halloween.

Nolan dressed as Shrek on Halloween.

6.  I’m thankful to have a cafeteria that is full of friendly people and a food service director, Nolan Corne who works to make it a welcoming place (especially on Halloween). The cafeteria has improved significantly since I first came here and for that I am extremely thankful!

7. Another part of my Bethel experience has been the time spent with my host family. Ron and Carol Peters who welcome several students into their home for meals and come support our many events. They can be spotted in the stands of basketball games or crowds of music concerts, usually bearing goodies for us!

8. While I have many things to be thankful for at this college, I’m especially thankful to be a part of this wonderful community. It is supportive of the students and provides a space for lasting relationships. I’m thankful to be a student at Bethel College and that I am able to enjoy all it has to offer.

~Samantha

Fall at Bethel

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Leah and Danny

Life has become crazy on Bethel Campus! Where to start… First, I went to Camp Mennoscah for service day. This was a great trip! I went with a very diverse group: Leah Towle, who had never been to Camp Mennoscah before, Jared Regehr and Megan Siebert, my fellow staffers from this summer, and a few other great individuals with varying degrees of familiarity with Camp Mennoscah. We left Bethel at 8am and (mostly) stayed awake for the ride out. When we got to Camp Mennoscah we started working in the Bluestem house.

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The whole crew!

We scraped floors, swept floors, mopped floors, dusted furniture, cleaned bathrooms, took out recycling, and much much more. The day also included an awesome lunch and some time to check out the Ninnescah River.

Another series of events happening in my life are the many activities of the Bethel College Concert Choir. We sang at Faith Mennonite, BCMC, and Tabor Mennonite Church within the past few months. Just yesterday we sang at the President’s Club dinner. This semester has been my first experience of being in the Bethel College Concert Choir. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to sing with all of the amazing people in the choir!

choir dress

This past week we also celebrated Halloween. The weekend before was the Halloween dance, which was quite fun! But, this past Thursday it was our turn to make Halloween fun for someone else! Bethel hosted trick-or-treat-off-the-streets. We had many young children come to our door for some goodies. We saw a wide range of costumes, from an out-house, to a sock monkey, to twin Cleopatra’s. Here is one of the Cleopatra’s with his three daughters and me. As you can see, I did not dress up as anything special. However, Katelyn Melgren did my hair in a “Princess Leia” fashion so I could almost claim I was from Star Wars.

The last project that has been keeping me busy is organizing the Bethel Blood Drive. As a co-leader of SCAN, my specific project is to run the blood drive that Bethel hosts once a semester. So, for the past two weeks, I have been sitting outside of the caf, asking people to donate blood. So far, Bethel has shown up! The blood drive is this Tuesday, November, 5th, so it is quickly approaching.

trick or treat off te s

Halloween Festivities

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This past week has been full of Halloween festivities. Last weekend was the weekend Halloween dance and costume contest in Memorial Hall.

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Prior to the dance, my mod and some additional friends went to a pumpkin patch where we did many fun things including playing in a “corn pit” (like sand just with corn kernels) and making a train down a long slide After we had our fun at the pumpkin patch we went to one of my modmates houses to carve pumpkins and have dinner. We had a wonderful time and after we were all full of good food and good conversation we headed back to Bethel so that we could get ready for the Halloween dance and costume contest!

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At the dance, this years contest in my opinion was the most creative of my Bethel career yet. We had Zipperfaced Zombies, the Disney movie Aladdin cast, a rainbow with a pot of gold (my mod + Bree), Miley Cyrus, Mario Kart characters, and many many more. The dance ended this weekend of fun.

However, the Halloween fun wasn’t over yet! On alloween day, our mod participated in “trick-or-treat off the

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street.” This is where the mods or rooms that want to participate have a pumpkin decoration outside of their door and people from the community can come to campus to trick-or-treat. Whoever has the pumpkin by there door has candy! My mod decorated our door and played Halloween music out into the courtyard for the occasion. It was so much fun to see all the kids in their costumes!

So to summarize, it was a great week full of fun and festivities, but now it is back to the books for me!

The Art of Conducting

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Adam Voth conducts in BC Chapel service
Photo by Vada Snider

This semester, I’m enrolled in the conducting class at Bethel. We began the semester simply learning the different patterns and how to cue with our opposite hand. The first major unit that we had in this class was hymn leading. We practiced new hymns each class period. The rest of the class sang parts as one person conducted. There was also a video camera that recorded each class period. This allowed us the opportunity to watch ourselves and comment on our own work. This unit ended with one final opportunity to conduct hymns. Each member of our class was able to conduct a hymn at the hymn sing during chapel. Half of the class conducted a hymn that they had been preparing for a couple of weeks. The other half of the class waited for a request, and then decided whether they could conduct the hymn. This was a good experience for our class to conduct a hymn in front of a congregation larger than our class.

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Christina and Michelle Naughton

Next, we moved onto an instrumental conducting unit. We looked at a number of movements in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Again, we were able to practice conducting in front of our classmates. This time, a few students brought their instruments to class. Our very small orchestra was made up of a saxophone, bassoon, trumpet, two cellos, and piano. We also went to a rehearsal for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra. They were also performing The Rite of Spring. We got many tips from them and from watching their conductor, Bethel graduate, Dan Hege. We also were able to go to their performance this past weekend. Along with The Rite of Spring, they played Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe: Suite No. 2, and Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, which featured twins Christina and Michelle Naughton.

Now, we are moving on to a choral conducting project. We each selected one song that we will rehearse with the class until it is ready for performance. We will get the chance to perform our pieces for an audience at the beginning of November. A conducting concert is schedule for Sunday, November 3 at 7:00 in the chapel in the Bethel College Administration Building. Come hear the hard work of BC’s Conducting Class!

The last portion of our class is focusing on Handel’s Messiah for the annual Messiah Sing that happens at the end of each fall semester in Bethel College Mennonite Church. As you can tell, we have had quite a busy semester so far, and it will continue to be busy as we head towards the end of the semester!