A glimpse into our (very near ) future

Yesterday, Aaron and I took a road trip up to Michigan to visit New Tribes Bible Institute (NTBI), where we will be moving this August. We will be training there for the next two years before moving up to Canada for two more years of missionary training. The type of missionary work that we are going into—developing a written language for, teaching the gospel to, translating the scriptures for, and planting a church in an unreached tribe—requires this many years of training because it is a fairly large commitment (probably 25-30 years with the tribe) and a life that is entirely and completely different than the one we are living now.

We visited NTBI about a year ago, but yesterday was the first time we have been there since we have been accepted for enrollment. The dean at the school sent us word that they knew which apartment would be ours, so we decided to go take some pictures and measurements in order to see how much of our “stuff” we can keep, and how much we need to get rid of. (As it turns out, we need to get rid of A LOT! :))

The Bible Institute is a renovated old middle school building. It has a few classrooms, an auditorium, apartments, dorms, childcare areas, a gym, a track, a cafeteria, a bookstore, and student lounges all in one building! We will have a small “apartment”—a little bigger than most college dorms.

We went with Nathan, Rachel, Kaine, Halle, and Daisy. It was a full van! Ivy and Layla stayed home with my mom (thanks again, Mom :)).

I squeezed in between Kaine and Halle. The three of us had a lot of fun together in the backseat!

Nathan drove, and Aaron claimed shotgun (like usual). Nathan enjoys making ridiculous faces while driving, apparently. You can also see a little of Rachel and Daisy, too.

Some of the apartments are getting renovated this summer. They are actually adding running water to our apartment, so I will have a kitchen sink! Yay! We still won’t have a bathroom in our apartment, but Rachel and Nathan have one, and they said I can give Ivy baths in their apartment (thanks, guys!) Here’s the door that leads into our apartment:

Walking through the door into the main room of our apartment (a combined kitchen/dining room/living room):

Here’s that same main room from the other direction:

There are then two doors from the main room that lead to the two bedrooms (SO thankful we have two bedrooms and not just one!). Here are two views of our bedroom:

And two views of Ivy’s room:

This is the view from our bedroom window. The Bible Institute is next door to a hospital:

Our first picture in our new place:

I’m not sure what he’s doing here…probably saying, “Well, that’s it.”

The “S” on the wall is marking where the stove will go. Aaron told me to pretend I was cooking something, since he said I will be spending a lot of time standing there :)

And here he is, demonstrating where our bed will be:

Kaine hanging out with us and helping us measure the rooms:

This is the hallway right outside of our apartment's door. Nathan and Rachel’s apartment is at the very far end of the hallway in this picture:

The bathrooms are just down the hall. 

I’m going to be having major flashbacks to my freshman year of college—seven years ago—using “communal” bathrooms like these!:

Just to the left of the door to our apartment is a door that leads to a bleachers-area that overlooks the gym:

On one wall in the school, there is a list of all of the unreached people groups left in the world:

There are a LOT of them, and it is kind of overwhelming to look at. But one by one, they continue to be reached!

Here is a couple of closer-up pictures of sections of the list. The name of the tribe/people group is listed, then the country, and then the number of people in that tribe/people group. Some of the tribes have only 100 or so people, while others have millions:

 

Our move to NTBI will definitely be an adjustment. We are in the process now of selling most of what we own (including our house!). But we could not be more excited about it. We definitely feel like this is the “right” next step for us, and we are willing to obey what we hear God saying. Although these upcoming changes seem pretty big now, this life is so fleeting, and we have no doubt that when we cross the threshold of death into eternity, we will look back on our lives and say, “That was nothing. That was the LEAST we could have done for the glory of our Savior.”

...And the next two years, we would LOVE it if our friends would come visit us up at NTBI! But we may have to hang out in the gym...or the hallway...or outside...as it looks like our apartment is going to be a tight fit :)