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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jeremiah Holt

Amber M

Student Testimonies

So this morning we have 2 speakers, Amber and Jeremy.

They're here to testify about how God helped them through school, because now we'll be able to read your thing with them because they are graduate.

So Amber McHeever, she is a local to the island of Guam and has become a recent Loma Linda of Dentry School graduate.

She is passionate about ministry and has the desire to bring people to Christ.

Over the past 4 years, she has served as her class's spiritual VP.

In her free time, Amber and her fiancé, Shion, enjoy serving the homeless community with parks and street ministry.

They also love spending time at the beach surfing.

Together, they plan to move to Guam to serve the island as missionaries.

Jeremy is a 2022 graduate from the Loma Linda School of Dentistry.

Over the past 4 years, he and his wife, Sarah, have been regular attendees of AdventHope.

For 3 of these 4 years, he has been 1 of the leadership team and he is currently the assistant director here at Evan Hope.

On May 1st, Jeremy and Sarah were blessed with their first child, Andrew.

My name is Amber McKeever, and I was asked to speak to you today for a couple of reasons.

But more importantly because God is faithful in keeping his promises.

I am going to be vulnerable with you this morning when I was asked to speak.

I did pray and ask God for his guidance and wisdom, but I also went on YouTube and looked up tips on public speaking.

To my surprise there was actually a lot of good content, but there was 1 piece of advice that stuck out to me the most and that was show up to give not to receive.

And so I then, I had to ask myself, what have I learned over these many years of education that is of greatest value to give?

And I found that my answer was in this promise, and it's that you cannot out give God.

So can you please bow your heads with me as we open up with a word of prayer.

Heavenly Father, Lord, I ask that your Holy Spirit work in me and through me to deliver the message today.

It is only because of you that we are here.

We praise you, Lord, and we Thank you for the many ways that you have worked in our lives.

God, hide me behind your cross so that people might praise you and you alone.

So just a little background about myself.

I am just a local girl from the island of Guam and actually my family is here from Guam.

So, oh actually I just wanted to say really quick to my family, thank you so much for all your love and support throughout all these years.

So being at Advent Hope, thank you so much.

Being at Advent Hope, I know that some of you have been missionaries in Guam or its surrounding islands, and it is because of 1 of those missionaries that I stand before you today.

You see, many years ago, a medical missionary by the name of Dr.

Joe Nozaki took time to have Bible studies with my father night after night, and often late into the night.

Despite being a busy surgeon at Guam's SDA clinic, it seemed as if Dr.

Nozaki, his age or his exhaustion did not faze him.

This 70 year old soldier of Christ knew that he was sharing the truths found in the Bible to a wandering soul, and that was worth more than anything this world can offer.

I believe that he was inspired to do this for countless years with so many because of the following reasons.

1, because he had fallen in love with Christ and he could not help but share about his goodness.

But 2, it's because he had this knowledge that sacrificing his time, effort, and resources was really no sacrifice at all, because he compared it to the eternal weight of glory found in God.

If you can turn your Bibles with me to 2nd Corinthians 4, verse 16 through 18.

And it reads, therefore do not lose heart.

Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us in eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Oh, So we fix on our eyes on what is seen, but on not what on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

We find in scripture that God often tells his people to remember and proclaim that he has all that he has done for them, this is God's chosen way to to witness to others.

In Ministry of Healing page 100 it says this, Our confession of his faithfulness is heaven's chosen agency for revealing Christ to the world.

We are to acknowledge his grace as made known through the holy men of old, but that which is will be most effectual is the testimony of our own experience.

We are witnesses for God as we reveal in ourselves the working of a power that is divine.

So with that said, this is a little bit of my story.

Growing up, I had a relatively positive upbringing in a good Christian home.

However, my personal relationship with God was 1 of indifference.

Being heavily involved in sports, I was often embarrassed to explain to my coaches and teammates why I would not be competing on Sabbath for games and events.

It was plain to see that this was the religion of my parents but not my own.

Fast forward to my college years, I moved for the first time from my tiny little island to the random state of Tennessee where I pursued a pre-dental degree.

Being a highly extroverted person, I was on cloud 9 meeting new people and going out to parties with my friends.

Life was exciting, however, I got into the wrong crowd and tried things I knew I shouldn't have.

Because of this lifestyle, I found myself on the verge of failing 1 of my first hardcore science classes, general biology.

Thus, my relationship, my personal relationship with God began as I reached out to him in prayer.

Jeremiah 29, 12 through 13 says, in those days when you pray, I will listen.

If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me.

And that I felt that to be really true for my case.

My prayers and relationship with God started from a very selfish place but praise God he still accepts us as we are.

But he also loves us enough to not leave us as we are.

During my senior year of college, I found myself having a great life, decent friends, and a nice boyfriend at the time, yet I felt completely empty inside.

It was like a huge pit was in me and there was nothing I could do to fill it.

I found myself saying, there has to be more to life.

I distinctly then remember challenging God for the first time in my life.

I prayed, okay, God, I want to know you more.

I think I should start reading the Bible, but I don't know where to begin or how to do it, so you're just gonna have to help me.

It was a passing prayer, but God heard me.

The next day at church, I cannot remember what the sermon was about, but I can clearly remember what the announcement was at the end of the service.

They said, if any of you are interested, at the back we are giving out guides on how to get through the Bible in 1 year.

At those words I got chills knowing that God had answered my prayer in a very real and specific way.

And God continued to show me more of himself from that point on.

My spiritual walk with Christ had progressively grown, but I knew that I could still be highly influenced by my peers.

You see, being a people pleaser, I often desire to fit in and be liked.

So I prayed that God would give me friends that would inspire me to draw closer to him.

And little did I know through that same friend group I would later meet my soon-to-be husband.

The first few months of dental school had been a good start.

I had made friends, I was passing all my classes, a couple barely passing, but at this point, C's truly do get degrees.

I never really, I was never really confident academically, but as for now, I was looking out for myself and I was making it happen.

With a very busy schedule, I felt like I had made just enough time for my necessities, including studying, eating, sleeping, and volleyball.

This all came to a halt when a fellow classmate by the name of Jeremy Holt tapped me on the shoulder and began to express how he wants to help bring the spiritual life back to the dental school by having class officers that were spiritually like-minded.

I thought this was a wonderful idea until he suggested that I be 1 of those class officers.

I smiled and proceeded to politely decline, but then he threw the pray about it card to me.

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Student Testimonies

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