We Will Miss...

Our two years here at NTBI have gone so quickly. 

We can both safely say that these two years have been the best two years of our life. Hands down.

Nothing else can compare to two years being totally immersed in the Word of God.

Nothing else can compare to two years of God exposing need and inadequacy in our own flesh, of learning how to depend on Him and walk in the Spirit, of living in community with like-minded believers, of being encouraged and challenged by godly staff members who truly care about us, of being taught how to study Scripture, of leaving our children each morning with some of the most caring and godly women we have ever met, of meeting and speaking with countless missionaries, of hearing incredible, horrific, scary, awesome, and exciting stories about the mission field, and of being set free by the truths of Scripture in regards to salvation by grace through faith alone.

We will miss the amazing teaching of the Word that we received daily.

We will miss our classmates.

We will miss our teachers.

We will miss our regular meetings with Dalton and Lisa, our deans (not deans like a "normal" college...here, deans are more like disciplers.)

We will miss our perfect-for-our-family, three-bedroom apartment.

We will miss the playground, where the students' kids and staff kids play together in the evenings.

We will miss Sue, Kayleen, Wendy, and Tabetha (our kids' amazing teachers).

We will miss married socials.

We will miss evenings  of uplifting spiritual conversations with the Gallardos and Muellers.

We will miss Friday night pizza nights in the dining hall.

We will miss deep frying pickles with people.

We will miss being able to do our laundry in eight washers at the same time.

We will miss our intern-guy-neighbors.

We will miss Married Ladies' Chapel and Married Men's Chapel.

We will miss only having to walk down the hall to get anywhere we need to go throughout the day.

We will miss having couples over to our apartment after our kiddos go to bed.

We will miss going to other people's apartments after our kiddos go to bed.

We will miss food cart.

We will miss our fellow students giving our kids high-fives and fist-bumps in the hallways.

We will miss the worship team that Aaron was a part of.

We will miss our teachers' wives.

We will miss hearing Hae Jung's violin playing through their apartment door.

We will miss making chai and giving it to people in jars.

We will miss going to the gym and taking Ivy's friend Asa with us.

We will miss our nightly family walks around the neighborhood.

We will miss going to coffee with some pretty awesome people.

We will miss the little park that we found across Michigan Ave.

We will miss people coming to our door at all hours of the day to buy green coffee.

We will miss our church family, who have truly become like family to us.

We will miss hearing Ivy exclaim, "That where Abel born!!" every time we pass the hospital.

We will miss hearing people play sports in the gym just down from our apartment.

We will miss inviting missionary speakers up to Nathan and Rachel's apartment every chance we get.

We will miss it all. We really will.

But as we have heard several people say recently, "We came here to leave...not to stay." 

And it is true. We came here to be trained. And now it's time to leave.

We cannot possibly say thank you enough to the staff and students whom we have met here at NTBI who have taught us, cared about us, encouraged us, and prepared us for what is ahead.

(Side note and plug for NTBI...Did you know you don't have to be going into tribal missions to attend NTBI?? You can come here just to study the Word of God for two years. It is so so worth it. Anyone and everyone can and should come here!! We are SO excited that a couple whom we are very good friends with have decided to come here after visiting us several times over the past two years! Ok...end of my side note and plug.)

God has been so good to us in allowing us the opportunity to study here at NTBI. And we are leaving here with hearts that are overflowing with thankfulness and gratitude.